PR for house builders is becoming increasingly popular as the building sector grows. However the difficulty is finding the right public relations agency to use, as there are thousands in the UK.
We always advise talking to public relations agencies that have done PR for house builders in the past and worked in the construction sector. If the agency has experience in marketing for construction companies, then they are likely tone suited to your needs.
Public relations is all about communicating news, information that your target audience needs to know about.
PR for builders is a very affordable marketing tool, and one that brings many benefits.
If your building firm is quiet, then we do advise you talking to a few public relations companies that have experience in doing work in the housing sector. There are specialist PR agencies that have experience in providing marketing for builders and have links to the FMB.
The PR companies job is hunting down newsworthy stories, this is what will get you noticed in this ever growing market place.
Back in 2007 the construction industry was hit severely with the economic crisis; work dried up and many companies closed.
Now the building industry is in full flow even though COVID has brought other industries down.
We have put together some marketing strategy tips for house builders that may help in addition to PR support.
Public relations for builders can bring many benefits, but direct and indirect. Here are a few key benefits that PR for builders can bring:
Another fringe benefit that PR brings your building company is the trust you gain from the search engines. If the search engines see regular press releases on websites like Google News or even the mainstream media, they will attribute trust to your website.
Back in 2003 there were more people in the UK than ever before. The housing industry has hit a saturation point. Brown field spaces are now being used, and also green areas have been earmarked for house building.
During the boom years, many new companies were started up by freelance builders; however as the decline has worsened, many have had to close and go back to full time work.
As of 2018, more houses were being built than ever before.
As of 2024 there is still a housing crisis, as huge numbers of illegal immigrants are entering and staying in the UK due to the ‘small boats’ crisis
For this reason plus a growing amount of legal immigration, builders are busier than ever.
Despite the house building decline in 2007, mainly down to lack of capital funding and also government cut backs, there were still new builds going up all around the UK. Local media support is needed to counteract this dip.
The competition for cheap housing is therefore on, and companies are competing more so now than they did in the past.
The need for local media is something of importance for any property company; getting good media coverage should ensure a steady rise in brand awareness.
Being seen is all part of the PR message, if customers are seeing your name, they are more likely to offer you the construction contract, rather than one of your competitors. PR for house builders can help any house builder of any size. Leading house builders such as Bovis use public relations, it can work for all house builders.
All public relations agencies are very different, different sizes, different backgrounds, and all are privately owned marketing companies. As such PR prices will vary and so it is worth comparing.
With PR, you do not get what you pay for. The most expensive PR company in the UK does not make them the best.
Building sector experience is important in the media; knowing the right contacts in the right media channels is important. This also effects lead time, from the start of the campaign to getting a campaign running and getting results, should be much shorter if the agency already has established sector contacts.
PR for house builders really needs to be handled by industry experienced agencies, and comparing quotes is important. Not to find the cheapest PR company, that is not how marketing works, but to get a feel for the costs involved.
Due to the decline then boom in the construction sector there has been fewer building projects around to tender on. The need therefore is to become more aggressive in your marketing and lead generation. Agencies offering public relations support cover all on-line publicity as well as off-line in industry publications.
Online PR is a great tool that can be used; mainly because once a media article is on the web, it will remain there. Magazines and the articles they contain may be read once and then tossed; however on-line an article will always remain, offering a continual link to your website.