Whether you are a new construction business or a seasoned professional looking to get to the next level of growth, identifying your target market is essential to your business development efforts.
What is a target market for construction companies? In simple terms, it’s the group of people who want to buy your products or service. However, for construction companies, there’s a lot more nuance than that.
Construction is often thought of as an old-fashioned industry. In some ways, it is — a lot of hiring is based on relationships and it can be hard to break into “the old boys club.” But the reason for that? Construction projects are a big investment and have high stakes. People want to work with people they trust. To start building trust with your target market, first you need to know exactly who they are.
Construction Target Markets and How They Search
Is your construction company a commercial construction company serving other businesses (B2B) or a residential construction company serving homeowners and prospective homeowners (B2C)? These audiences search for and find services differently and have different goals. In this article, we’ll break down construction target markets by residential versus commercial.
Residential
Home Builders
Home builders target homeowners, prospective homeowners and others associated with the home buying or building process, like realtors and architects. The price point of the homes you build, as well as the type of home you’re selling (custom, spec, prefabricated, etc) will further define your target audience in terms of age, income and values.
How they search: If a prospective homeowner already lives in an area, they may have a home builder in mind based on word of mouth and referrals from trusted sources, like a friend’s realtor. If the prospective homeowner doesn’t already have a referral they start their search for a homebuilder online. Realtors and architects don’t search for home builders online. Reaching realtors and architects is a relationship building exercise done through networking.
Remodelers
A residential remodeler’s target audience is homeowners and those in the process of buying who know they will make heavy changes to the home. The price point of the homes you build, as well as your specific remodeling services (bathrooms, additions, etc) will further define your target audience in terms of age, income and values.
How they search: Homeowners tend to trust referrals and word of mouth — their neighbor has a new stunning kitchen, so they want the name of the same person. This is why a lot of remodeling businesses can get off the ground and find profitability for a couple of years without marketing. But what do homeowners do when they don’t have a good referral? They go to Google to search for a service provider and get a couple of quotes. They want to ensure the company they hire has good reviews and that their product looks good, which they will vet via your website and social media.
Subcontractors
Any specialty service for a residential audience — like a plumber or an electrician, would be considered a subcontractor. Your target audience is split — for new home builds and extensive remodels it’s the GC assembling a team. For existing homes getting one-off projects done it’s a homeowner calling for the service directly.
How they search:
General Contractors – The businesses you work for operate largely on a relationship basis — meaning it’s a little harder to get your foot in the door. Construction companies put their reputation on the line for every job they complete, and as a sub, your work is part of that. If you do a good job, you’ll be asked back.
Homeowners – Homeowners search online. Especially in emergency situations, like a burst pipe or leaking roof, they search quickly and call around. For projects with more planning, like a new tile floor or coating on a pool deck, it’s a combination of online research & relationships that lead these folks to find a contractor.
Commercial
A Note on RFPs & Bids
Before we jump into commercial construction’s target audience, let’s introduce a key topic: Request for Proposals (RFPs) and bids. A Request for Proposal (RFP) is a document that a business or organization issues when they want to receive bids or proposals from contractors, service providers, or vendors for a specific project or service. The RFP outlines the project’s requirements, scope, and goals, and invites companies to submit detailed proposals on how they would address the project, including costs, timelines, and qualifications. It’s a formal way for businesses to evaluate multiple options and choose the best fit for their needs.
You can find RFPs posted on government and municipal sites, RFP databases like BidClerk and PlanHub, through trade associations like Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) and networking. In some cases, developers or real estate firms will send out RFPs to their network of trusted GCs they have worked with in the past. In some instances, large organizations with ample funding will also publicly release their future plans — for instance, Princeton University hosted a supplier fair to expand the pool of companies they work with.
RFPs are the norm in commercial construction projects. This is important because it is a major consideration when thinking through how your target audience finds the information they need and how your marketing can support your business growth. For example, if you know your target audience exclusively selects their contractors based on RFPs, then it doesn’t make a ton of sense to invest heavily into showing up at the top of Google for “hotel construction firm”.
However, there are some smaller commercial projects—what we like to call ‘bridge jobs’—where an RFP isn’t used, and the target audience turns to Google to search. These are people who don’t do construction regularly, so they aren’t familiar with the RFP process. These include small business owners, such as a local business owner in need of an office remodel or tenant improvements.
General Contractors
As a commercial general contractor there are two main attributes that will help define your target audience: the size of the projects you work on and whether it is a public or private project.
Large Private Projects
If you work on larger private projects (think multi-million dollar ground-up hotel construction) your target audience is the project owner(s) at the development group or company funding the project. The title of your target audience will vary depending on the structure of the development group, but this is often a Project, Construction or Development Manager / Director.
How they search: Large private projects are almost exclusively done through RFPs / bidding processes.
Small Private Projects
If you work on smaller private projects (think office remodels for a small local company or tenant improvements) your target audience is the small business owner.
How they search: Small business owners rely on referrals from other business owners and trusted advisors, but they also go to Google to search.
Large Public Projects
If you work on larger public projects (think million dollar wastewater plant expansions) your target audience is the facility operator and their engineer or architect.
How they search: Large public projects are almost exclusively done through RFPs / bidding processes.
Small Public Projects
If you work on small public projects (think ongoing maintenance at a wastewater plant) your target audience is the facility operator.
How they search: Because the process of vetting and hiring contractors as a public entity can be more daunting than in private, public facilities often have long-term contracts with their GCs for ongoing maintenance. This means relationship building and networking are big. Facility operators frequently reach out to their network of engineering and architectural consultants to see who other clients use.
Subcontractors
If you are a commercial subcontractor, your target audience is the general contractor, construction manager, or project owner. You can find solicitations for subcontractors on RFP databases, but you also need relationships with GCs to know about bidding processes where GCs bid the entire project with a team of subs.
How they search:
GCs tend to rely on the subs they have worked with before with good results, or they send out RFPs to hire subcontractors. Again, it’s less of a search and more of a relationship-building exercise to build a network of GCs and get in the know for new solicitations and jobs.
For smaller jobs that might not go the RFP route, relationships are even more vital to your success. If a GC doesn’t need to collect bids, they can hire the contractors and vendors they’ve had good experiences with.
Suppliers
This last refers not only to construction firms, but also any suppliers involved in the construction process — like a supplier of foam insulation or a manufacturer of epoxy coatings. This target audience encompasses multiple roles within a project:
- General contractors who are in charge of scheduling and placing orders
- Specifiers, like architects, engineers, or designers responsible for choosing a specific part or finish
- Facility operators that are involved and accountable for the day-to-day success of the property or machinery
How they search: Sometimes these folks know exactly what they are looking for, like a lighting designer specifying a specific light fixture for its ability to be properly aimed and adjusted. Other times, contractors or operators are searching for a material or item that meets a budget, timeline, or other feature. This would lead them to search online or refer to similar projects.
How to Visualize and Reach Your Ideal Customer
If you are thinking about your target audience in broad strokes, it might seem overwhelming to get in front of them. That’s why it’s important to narrow down exactly who you want to do business with.
Here at Nover, we start every project with an Ideal Customer Profile, or ICP. This begins with an exercise where you visualize your perfect customer — who was a joy to work with? Was it because this customer was hands-off and trusted you to do your job? Because profit margins were healthier than typical jobs? Because their new build challenged you creatively?
Thinking through those questions and who you preferred to work with can help you determine who you want to work with moving forward. Then, your marketing efforts can be tailored to that segment, helping to build a funnel of prospects that meet your ideal criteria.
As your business matures, you can use technology not only to target and bring these folks into your website, but also to automate their customer journey based on specific actions — helping your business development effort become more efficient at scale
Learn more about working together to reach your target audience and the next level of growth for your business.
