Why the thirty-page plan dies in a drawer
Long marketing plans are written to look thorough. They describe the market, list every channel, and give nobody a task. Six weeks later a job runs over, the plan is not open on anyone’s screen, and the marketing goes back to whatever the director remembers to do on a Sunday night.
A plan earns its place by making the decisions you would otherwise dodge. Which work will you decline? Which task can wait until next month? Who answers the enquiry while you are on a roof in Ashgrove? A matrix of channels settles none of that.
Start with the building programme. How many starts do you need, when do they have to begin, and what kind of work are they. Everything else works backwards from that gap. Fill the page in for one quarter and keep the action list monthly, because starts move.
The one-page construction company marketing plan, in seven fields
Paste these seven fields into a document. Give each a few lines and keep the whole thing to one page. Research, quotes and website briefs live somewhere else. This page is the working agreement about what the business does next.
- Target work. We want [project type] in [suburbs], at [budget range], starting [window]. We will decline or refer [poor-fit work]. We need to fill [number] starts.
- The client decision. Before they call, an owner needs to understand [the one thing]. Our best evidence is [project, process page or named review]. The action we want is [the specific enquiry].
- Three routes. Referrers will [action]. Search will [action]. Past clients and project activity will [action]. All three end at [one page]. Delete any route nobody can maintain.
- This month. [Name] delivers [thing] by [date]. [Name] delivers [thing] by [date]. [Name] answers every enquiry within [a response time you can hold].
- Budget. One-off work up to $[amount]. Ongoing up to $[amount] a month. Advertising $[amount]. Our own time [hours]. Every quote states whether GST is included.
- Scorecard. Spend and hours. Enquiries you would want to build. How many of those reached the next stage. Log the date and source of every enquiry in a register.
- Review. On [date], [names] check what shipped and what came in. Keep [activity] if [evidence]. Stop it if [evidence]. Agree next month’s two priorities before anyone leaves the room.
A worked example: a Brisbane renovation builder
Take a two-person builder chasing two substantial renovations in Brisbane’s inner west, for starts next autumn. The enquiries arriving are bathroom repairs and owners wanting a price off a floor plan. Their problem is explanation rather than volume: nobody understands what has to happen before a real price exists.
Target work: substantial renovations in Bardon, Ashgrove and Paddington, from around $400k, starting March to June, with two starts to fill. Bathroom-only jobs get referred to a trusted trade. The client decision: owners need to understand the pre-construction assessment before they ask for a construction price. The evidence: the Bardon renovation finished last year, properly credited photographs and a plain process page. The action: an enquiry that describes the existing house, the work they want and whatever drawings exist.
The budget is $2,000 for one round of page improvements, plus four hours of the director’s time supplying information and approving copy. That is a ceiling to get quotes against. If nothing fits, narrow the scope to the renovation service page and the enquiry rather than cutting the photography or the review.
- Referrers: the director calls two design contacts about the scope and the autumn starts, then sends them the rewritten renovation page.
- Search: the website editor rewrites that page, links it to the Bardon project and tidies up the Google Business Profile.
- Project activity: the office manager publishes the approved photographs with a short account of the structural problem the team solved.
- Dates: brief in week one, page live in week three, every enquiry logged as it arrives.
Three routes is a planning limit, not a shopping list
Three is the number of things a small builder can run properly at once, not a requirement to buy three services. A new company might work entirely off introductions and a decent website. An established one often has plenty of referrals and no search visibility at all. Pick the routes that fill your gap and leave the rest alone.
For every proposed activity, finish this sentence: we are doing this because suitable clients currently cannot. If the answer is “work out how we price”, fix the process page. If it is “find examples of our renovation work”, fix the projects. If it is “find us at all”, that is a search or advertising job. Match the action to what you have evidence of, not to what a supplier is selling this month.
Whatever the three routes are, the website and the enquiry sit underneath all of them. An owner introduced by an architect still reads the site before calling. Flascon pairs a plain eight-step process page with a four-step feasibility enquiry, so the explaining and the qualifying happen in the same visit.
The monthly review, and the three numbers
Half an hour, the same day each month. Start with what actually shipped. If the renovation page never got approved, do not sit there judging its results. Fix the approval.
Then read the month’s enquiries out loud, including the bad ones. “Wrong budget” can mean your budget information is missing from the site, your advertising is too broad, or the director wants different work from the work the plan describes. Each of those has a different fix, so read the enquiries before you choose one.
Then the three numbers. What you spent, in money and hours. How many enquiries you would want to build. How many of those reached the next real stage, whether that is a paid assessment or a meeting with drawings on the table. Define “would want to build” in advance using the target-work field, or the number will mean whatever you need it to mean that month. Finish by keeping, changing or stopping each activity and naming two priorities for the next one.
Frequently asked questions
What should a construction company marketing plan include? Target work and the starts you need, the one thing a client must understand before calling, three routes to reach them, named monthly actions with dates, a budget ceiling, and the numbers you will review. Keep it to a page. Campaign briefs and research belong behind it, not on it.
How do I set a marketing budget for a building company? Decide what needs fixing, get scoped quotes for that specific work, and set a ceiling the business can carry for two quarters. Split one-off costs, ongoing fees, advertising and your own hours. Building turnover is mostly pass-through cost, so a percentage of revenue tells you nothing useful.
How often should I update the plan? Review the actions and enquiries monthly, and revisit the direction each quarter or whenever capacity, services or the pipeline change. Do not rewrite the strategy because one week was quiet, and do not sit on an obvious problem for eight weeks because the review is not due.
Where to start this month
- Copy the seven fields into one document and name the quarter at the top.
- Fill in the target work from your building programme and the last twenty enquiries.
- Choose two actions only, put a name and a date on each, and get quotes if money is involved.
- Start the enquiry register and write down what counts as an enquiry you would want to build.
- Book the review in the calendar and give the page to everyone who answers the phone.