Curious about how to drive sales conversion to your construction business? BCM Agency explores how you should reconsider the balance of brand and leads
The prospects for the construction industry in 2025 and beyond are looking positive! The UK Construction Industry Forecast 2025-2026 points to an 8% project-start boost in 2025, and a further 10% increase in 2026, with the hotel and leisure, education, health, and community and amenity sectors, in particular, setting the pace.
In an environment like this, it can be tempting to make hay while the sun shines by going all-out on lead generation, and whilst this is certainly a key tool in your marketing armoury, the great challenge is that lead generation often generates nothing of the sort, because it’s short on recognisability, credibility, and, therefore, trust.
And this is where the strength of your brand can be a game-changer.
Brand and conversion: a critical correlation
Studies have repeatedly shown that there is a direct correlation between brand strength and sales conversion. The stronger the brand, the more efficient your sales conversion becomes, which equals a much greater return on marketing investment, as well as improved cashflow and a healthier bottom line.
Credibility and trust are the brand watchwords here – but much of the digital business-to-business (B2B) marketing outreach we all rely on for lead gen lacks these qualities, because of the very nature of the marketing channel itself. It’s an impersonal screen, not a friendly human face with which your prospect can make an emotional connection.
And all too often, this puts a halt to the buying timeline.
But a strong brand, with a recognised name, identity, reputation, and set of values, helps to supply the trust and credibility that the digital channel naturally lacks. It doesn’t just present a prospect with an email, or a social media post, or a targeted ad – it predisposes them to believe that what they are about to engage with will have integrity, pertinence, and proven value for prospective buyers like them.
In many ways, a strong brand has become the digital equivalent of a talented account manager or salesperson. People buy people, the saying goes – but in the digital marketing world, people buy perception, and nothing influences that more strongly than brand.
Build your brand to boost your sales
Needless to say, in an industry like construction, where big-ticket items, complex projects, and long buying cycles predominate, the need to enable lead gen to land more quickly, more accurately, and more effectively is paramount.
At least seven decision-makers, often more, are typically involved in any B2B buying process, and against those odds you’re throwing good money after bad if you go out with lead gen that, because of lack of credibility and trustworthiness, falls at the first hurdle.
In short, you need to build brand to make your lead gen hit home – but where do you start?
The answer to this is partly about good old-fashioned B2B marketing principles – understanding who your customers are, where they are, how you prioritise them and why, and how you represent yourself to them (segment, target, position).
But recent research on B2B buying decisions by customer experience experts Dentsu also flags that brand awareness is now the most important strategy, with differentiation, thought leadership, and personal and emotional connection (in other words, top-of-the-funnel engagement, not lead gen) are the most vital elements in the mix.
Yet a strong brand also boosts lead gen effectiveness by gaining a reputation for communication that is timely, relevant, compelling, and better than what your competitors can offer – and that can only come from a level of insight that is so deep, it’s almost like knowing a customer’s mind.
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