Construction Marketing Archives | Modern Marketing Partners

7 Tips to Design an Attractive Trade Show Booth for More Leads

Lindsay Brown — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 13:03:15 +0000

If you’re planning on attending a trade show, you know how important it is to have a booth that stands out from the crowd. The purpose of your booth is to attract new customers and give them a reason to approach you. That’s why creating an attractive, eye-catching design for your booth is so important. Here are seven tips for creating the perfect one.

1. Focus on the Theme

A trade show is an excellent opportunity to get your brand out there, so make sure your booth design reflects it. Use a clear, visual theme that matches your brand, and incorporate it into all aspects of the booth. For example, if you’re in the construction industry and want to attract new clients for home remodeling projects, use materials that evoke this image (like hardwood floors or stone countertops).

Or, if you are a clothing brand that uses organic fabrics, incorporate these materials into your design. You want to ensure that even if people don’t know who you are, they will still be able to tell what industry your booth is in just by looking at it.

2. Use Bright Colors

Use bright, bold colors to ensure your booth is easy to spot from a distance. Bold colors will grab people’s attention and make them curious about your booth. Once they’re closer, they can read more about what you do and learn about your brand. But people will walk right past it if your booth is too dull or blends in with the rest of the trade show floor.

3. Use Large Fonts

Use large fonts on your signage so your signs can easily read from a distance. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to understand what your booth is about at a glance. Otherwise, they may not even bother stopping to learn more.

4. Keep It Simple

Don’t try to cram too much information into your booth design. You want to communicate what you do quickly and easily, without overwhelming people with details. Use short, concise phrases and easy-to-understand visuals. And make sure there is plenty of white space in your design, so it doesn’t look cluttered.

5. Have a Call to Action

Make sure your booth has a call to action so that people know what you want them to do next. Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter? Visit your website? Follow you on social media? Give them clear instructions so that they can take the next step. Make it easy by providing a QR code or giving out business cards.

6. Use Quality Materials

When it comes to creating your booth, don’t skimp on quality. Cheap materials will make your booth look cheap. That’s not the impression you want to give potential customers. Invest in high-quality materials, like sturdy fabric banner stands or durable table covers.

7. Hire a Professional Designer

If you want your booth to stand out, hire a professional designer to create a custom design for you. They will be able to consider all the factors mentioned above and create a booth guaranteed to turn heads. And suppose you’re unsure where to start.

In that case, they can also help you plan and execute your trade show strategy. You can also hire an event management company to help with the logistics of setting up and running your booth. Click here to learn more.

Final Word

Creating an attractive booth design is essential for any business that wants to succeed at a trade show. By following these seven tips, you can be sure that your booth will stand out from the competition and attract plenty of new leads.

The post 7 Tips to Design an Attractive Trade Show Booth for More Leads appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

Local SEO for Contractors – Part 2

Lindsay Brown — Wed, 19 Sep 2018 13:56:04 +0000

Now that the construction business is established with Google, it’s important to optimize the website so that you can further improve the likelihood of coming up in local search. What follows are some important tips forlocal SEO that go beyond GMB.

Digital Marketing Tips to Improve Local SEO

Increase the company’s chances to land on the search results page! There are a number of steps that can be taken to achieve this.

NAPs are Important

Be sure to include NAP information (name, address, phone number) and other important details in an easily crawlable HTML text format. Remember that images can’t be crawled, other than the alt text, so don’t include vital NAP information in image format; be sure it’s in text format.

Carefully Place Keywords

Make sure to use local or relevant keywords in the following places:

Title tags
Meta description
H1 tags
Body copy
Anchor text
Bold and italics tags
URLs
Alt text in images

This improves the keywords’ effectiveness, improving how the page ranks.

Local Mark-Up Code

When users search for local businesses on Google Search or maps, the search results may display the Knowledge Graph card with additional details about your business if it matches the user’s query.

Here are the steps to add Local Business (LocalBusiness without a space) Schema to your website (http://schema.org/LocalBusiness):

1) Pick your LocalBusiness sub-type*

2) Gather required details: name, address, etc.

3) Use Local Business Schema Generator

4) Paste code into Google’s Structured Data testing tool to validate

5) Add code to website

*Define your location as a LocalBusiness type, and then use the specific Local Business sub-type if possible. For example, https://schema.org/HomeAndConstructionBusiness.

HomeAndConstructionBusiness – a LocalBusiness that provides services around homes and buildings:

Electrician
GeneralContractor
HVACBusiness
HousePainter
Locksmith
MovingCompany
Plumber

Now that you have picked the most relevant LocalBusiness sub-type, it is time to create your structured data. Here is a list of required information you will need:

URL
Business name
Address

Some other items you should consider including (but not required) if applicable is hours, telephone number, department, etc.

Now, visit this handy tool: Local Business Schema Generator. Select your business type/sub-type and enter as much information as possible.

Next, validate the output from the generator above using Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Click on the Code Snippet tab, paste your code, and then click Run Test. Review the results to ensure there are no errors before adding to your site. Typically, you will see an error if you are missing a required item.

If the code has 0 errors, it is time to add it to your site! Do you currently have your address in the footer of your website? Because the footer typically appears on every page of your site, this is a great option for adding the code. Depending on your CMS, or internal resources/capabilities, you may need a developer to help you with this step.

Once the code has been added to your site, be sure to run another test with the Structured Data Testing Tool. Instead of pasting the code, run the URL(s) where it appears on your site to make sure there are no issues once implemented. Paste your URL on the Fetch URL tab and click Run Test.

Remember Local Interests

It’s not about what you find interesting, it’s all about what your target – the locals – find compelling. Discover their interests and create content centered around that. If the local community is a major city, they’ll likely be interested in content related to skyscrapers. If it’s somewhere rural, they’d be far less interested. Give the people what they want.

Consider a Case Study

Local happy client? Share the success via case study. Interview the client and provide relevant performance analytics. Put it all together in a visually compelling format. It may also be a good idea to require readers to provide some contact information before they download; this way, you’ve earned a new lead, one that’s familiar with your previous success. You can learn more about creating case studies here.

Give Back to the Community

It can be as small as sharing local news, supporting a local organization, or talking about a local event. Your business can also go one step further by sponsoring or organizing a local event of its own. This will draw attention to the business and get local publications buzzing about the company.

Involve a Special Guest

Guest bloggers can provide some variety to the content page. Find a blogger with a decent following, involved in either your industry or one similar to yours. Request that they create some local content and widely share it. The more on local issues, the better!

GMB and On-Page SEO: The Perfect Combo

Utilizing both Google My Business and the content on your website is ideal for standing out in local search results. Local’s prevalence is increasingly growing, especially with the adoption of hands-free search, where the third most searched topic is local information.Take care of locals, and they’ll be sure to take care of you.

Read Local SEO for Contractors – Part 1 here. Read more about local SEO here.

Also, be sure to read our Construction Marketing Association guest blog, Contractor Website Best Practices.

As a leading construction marketing agency, Modern Marketing Partners can assist with your SEO needs and beyond. Through our tested approach to marketing, we help you connect with customers at every stage in the buying cycle. All this so that you can rest easy and focus on the one thing that matters most—construction.

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Local SEO for Contractors – Part 1

Lindsay Brown — Mon, 17 Sep 2018 13:19:44 +0000

As a contractor, it’s important to consider that much of the business received will be local. Accordingly, contractors benefit when their SEO strategy has a local focus. To stand out locally or regionally, it’s important to make sure all information on Google My Business is complete; then make sure to establish a local SEO strategy on the company website and beyond.

Google My Business is Key

Complete the entirety of your Google My Business profile. This allows users to learn as much as possible about the business before even clicking off of Google. It’s important to double-check this information often, because Google will often prompt users to answer questions about the business and allow them to suggest edits. This means that competitors can technically provide incorrect information about the business or a customer can be misinformed. Check the business listing often to make sure none of the information is ever incorrect.

Also, be sure to take advantage of the Business Description portion. It’s a newer feature that gives business owners an opportunity to expand on the brand’s story and to include key information.

Encourage Reviews

Encourage happy customers to review – always in an ethical way. If a project went really well, it may be a good idea to ask for an honest review. This can be done in-person or via email. Reviews can do plenty to help how your business shows up in Google’s results. It also improves the business’s credibility, as previous customers are vetting the business.

Statistics don’t lie. Here’s what the public thinks of reviews:

Ask and you shall receive. 68% of customers will leave a review when asked. This just shows how important it is to request a review; plenty of customers don’t remember to do on their own.
A whopping 97% read local reviews. All eyes are on this section of your company’s local profile.
85% of users trust a review as much as a personal recommendation. Clearly, users take these reviews very seriously.
49% of users only choose businesses with 4-stars or higher. The best way to counteract a bad review is with good reviews; this is why it’s so important to remind satisfied customers to share their experience.
30% of people judge a business on whether not they respond to reviews, so be sure to respond to all reviews, good and bad.

Get Visual

Google gives business owners the ability to upload company photos and videos. Be sure to take advantage of this. Potential customers can scroll through a gallery of your construction firm’s projects, behind-the-scenes videos, and more.

Include a Service Menu

Make clear what the business does with a Service menu. Businesses can create a list of services and even sort them into categories. If a service name is not self-explanatory, include a short description. If it makes sense to include a price, Google gives you the option to do so.

Be Sure to Take Advantage of Google Posts

Google+ may have fallen flat, but Google Posts is a pretty useful social media-like feature. Posts expire after a period of time (one week max) and they allow the owner to provide the most up-to-date information about the business. Show off the progress of your company’s latest construction project or a completed work. Provide some information, a photo or video, and a call-to-action.

Some good ideas for a post:

Feature the newest service or project. If the company is offering a new service, promote it!
Amplify company content. If your website has a blog, be sure to share new posts.
Spread the news about a promotion. If the business is offering some type of discount, be sure to tell potential customers via Google. Google even provides a specific template just for sales and promotions.
Share an upcoming event. Whether it’s in-person or online, this is a great opportunity to promote it. Be sure to provide a link to the registration page!
Celebrate the latest holiday – and let prospects know if contact hours will be limited because of them.

Text New Business

Businesses have the ability to give customers the option to text them. Enable this under the “Messaging” card of Google My Business. Because text messaging is easier than other forms of communication and can be done from a mobile device, it’s a great option for customers early in the research process.

SEO Goes Beyond Google

If your Google My Business profile is complete, it’s time to review your website to ensure that other SEO features are optimized for local search. So check out Local SEO for Contractors -Part 2 for more information, and also be sure to read our Construction Marketing Association guest blog, Contractor Website Best Practices.

The post Local SEO for Contractors – Part 1 appeared first on Modern Marketing Partners.

Inbound Marketing Case Study: Construction Marketing Association

Lindsay Brown — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 20:09:12 +0000

A great example of the power of Inbound Marketing to achieve measurable results is the launch of the Construction Marketing Association (CMA). Established in January of 2010, CMA employed a comprehensive Inbound Marketing program to build awareness, drive memberships, and launch such initiatives as the STAR Awards, professional certification, and a career center

Like all successful Inbound Marketing, a search-optimized website was foundational, coupled with extensive and relevant content. An award-winning blog and integrated social media profiles distribute content and communications. Frequent webcasts and white papers reinforce thought leadership.

The CMA inbound marketing campaign was recognized for the following awards:

Communicator 2011 Silver CMA Social
Communicator 2011 Silver CMA Blog
Hermes 2011 CMA Blog

Below is a snapshot of the website, blog, Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter profiles for the CMA:

Results from Inbound Marketing:

Growing memberships, e-commerce sales, website traffic, registrations through multiple offers, and importantly excellent search authority across a wide range of topics.

The red numbers shown on the CMA’s website below indicate various search optimization techniques and social media integrations.

Page Title (comes up in search and says: Home – The Construction Marketing Association (CMA) )
URL structure (contains keywords construction, marketing and association)
Member registration (membership program)
eNews registration (to sign up for quarterly e-newsletter)
Image ALT tags (make images indexable by search engines)
Social Profile Links

Please share this post with other looking for examples on inbound marketing strategies and quick techniques to optimize their website. You can even read our previous post on inbound marketing and go through the inbound marketing infographic.

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