Online Success: 5 Building Product Brands Leading the Way

Most building product companies know they need a smart online strategy in order to beat out the competition in today’s increasingly digital world. But marketing and selling building materials are much different than other industries. You may find it hard to not only visualize your dream digital strategy but also to figure out what steps you need to take in order to execute your plan.
 

To help you get started, we’ve rounded up five manufacturers who are winning online, each focusing on very different areas of content. Get inspired to take action and build your company’s own online presence in a way that feels unique and authentic while truly engaging your target audience throughout the sales funnel.
 

1. Build Online Communities

Community building is a must-have for manufacturers, whether your target audience consists of professionals or homeowners. Creating an online presence that interacts with both consumers and other brands increases your company’s transparency. It also builds trust with potential customers who are looking for third-party validation that your products and customer service are top-notch.

Additionally, the construction and building materials industries are experiencing unique challenges because of both labor shortages and supply chain issues. When your community is engaged and knows where to find the latest updates from you, you can better control expectations in case of delays or availability changes. 

2. Effectively Target Architects

Architects rely on online research to discover new brands and products. In fact, Venveo’s 2022 Building Products Customer Guide reveals that architects spend some of the most time conducting online research compared to other customer groups in the survey. Packing your online content in a way that appeals to architects vastly improves your chances of getting your products specified.

Successfully marketing to architects involves loading up your website and product pages with every detail they could possibly want, such as downloadable AutoCAD, Revit and Sketchup files, interactive visualization tools and easy sample request forms.

3. Create a Strong Social Media Experience

Building material companies that are on social media are setting themselves up for long-term success. A solid social media strategy allows your brand to actively participate in online conversations that are already happening. And for metric-loving companies, there are plenty of ways to measure the impact of your strategy, like audience engagement, brand awareness and conversions. 

With a proactive interaction plan, you can quickly answer people’s questions and even control the narrative of how your brand or industry is viewed. Social media also gives you access to more data and offers a better idea of who your target audience is and what types of problems you can help them solve.

4. Appear in Google’s Top Results for Educational Content

A common goal for any building materials company’s marketing strategy is to appear in the top search results for your product vertical. But it’s also important to rank well for educational content related to your product. This includes things like installation tips, pros and cons and other topics your target audience may search in order to learn more about projects involving your product.

5. Launch a Successful Paid Ad Campaign

The average internet user spends nearly seven hours online each day. So it makes sense that investing in online ads could have a big impact in both lead generation and sales. In the building materials industry, the majority of both pros and homeowners search online to find products they need for upcoming projects.

Our recent survey of builders revealed that 65% search online to find new products, which outperformed every other source, including trade shows and sales reps. Using Google Ads, Facebook Ads and other paid marketing campaigns could greatly increase your visibility and conversions.

Plastpro Doors has loads of information and specs on its website, plus an active online following. Their Facebook account has nearly 3,500 followers and their Instagram account has over 1,400 followers. But the amount of engagement is pretty incredible, too.

Check out this Instagram post promoting a new blog article — it received over 200 likes in less than one week.
 

And even though the company is on multiple social media channels, they’re not wasting time by reinventing the wheel. They use the same content on both platforms to appeal to a broader range of audience members who may prefer one social media network over another.

The same post about exterior doors also appeared on Plastpro’s Facebook page. And, as no surprise, it generated 244 likes, four comments and 11 shares. All of those interactions lead to better visibility on even more followers’ feeds.

In addition to a strong presence on traditional social media platforms, Plastpro also has comprehensive Houzz and Pinterest accounts. The company’s Houzz profile is complete with projects, customer reviews, credentials and idea books. Anyone searching for more information on Plastpro’s products can easily read about other customers’ experiences and see real-life applications.

Their Pinterest page also serves as a community hub for inspiration and idea boards, with tons of scrollable content and links to blogs and product pages. All of these touchpoints make it easy for followers to engage with the Plastpro brand, find answers and get validation from existing customers.

Prosoco offers a range of building material products related to construction chemicals, including masonry cleaning, water repellents and finished concrete floors. Their goal is described simply and powerfully: to make buildings look better and last longer. Not only is Prosoco’s messaging on point, they’ve also created a bevy of information, resources and educational opportunities designed specifically for architects.

They’re also a registered provider with the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education Systems and offer free continuing education courses. 
 

In addition to on-demand online courses, architects can also schedule free webinars and online training programs with local field representatives. By offering so much value to architects, Prosoco is successfully building relationships that encourage architects to also use the company’s products.

Prosoco also spotlights architects’ projects and posts other helpful content across social media channels, including Instagram and LinkedIn.

Here’s a great example of reposting user-generated content on Instagram that shows the product in action by a customer who is in that key architect demographic.

Delgado Stone creates unique, successful content across platforms, including Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. They have a huge following on TikTok in particular, with videos showing raw granite rocks being split in huge machines. And their reach is exceptional, with over 48,000 followers and almost 523,000 likes.

One of their best-performing videos even has over one million views. The content? The Delgado team splitting a granite rock by hand.

As a building materials company on Facebook and other platforms, Delgado also posts customer projects for extra inspiration.

From the Forest is a sustainable hardwood flooring and molding company that has a robust library of educational blog posts. They rank well for relevant search terms like sustainable hardwood flooring and underlayment for hardwood floors. And it’s no secret why — in addition to robust landing pages, From the Forest also maintains an active library of blog posts.

They publish multiple new blog posts each month, which keeps adding to their crawlable content and demonstrates to Google and other search engines that the website is an active source of information.

From the Forest also has a range of YouTube videos that focuses on product spotlights and installation guides. How-to content is hugely popular for both homeowners and professionals and can be a huge differentiator between your brand and the competition. Action-oriented videos like the ones made by From the Forest offer assurance that a project using those materials will be a manageable one. 

Sunday is a lawn care product company that creates killer ad campaigns across social media channels. Their branding is consistent across their ads and their messaging is succinct and informative at the same time. Here’s a Facebook ad with just seven words on the image that completely explains what Sunday offers.

Here’s another version that focuses on Sunday’s subscription plan rather than shopping for individual products online:

Performing A/B testing can help your brand choose the best way to focus your ads. And as Sunday demonstrates so well, you can tweak campaigns to each have a slightly different focus. This is especially helpful for manufacturers who may tailor to both homeowners and professionals. You can easily distinguish your audiences to receive the relevant ads in their social media feeds.

Are you ready to turn your online presence into a powerful sales tool? We can help you create and implement social media strategy, curate educational content, interact with your target consumer and more to grow your brand awareness and drive sales. Click here to learn more about how we will help your business establish and maintain a strong online presence.