One of the questions business owners often ask about online marketing is how long it will take to show results. With home improvement contractor marketing, companies traditionally relied on print media, word of mouth and bidding to get new work. Those methods took time to produce results; for example, it was rare for a contractor to see a flood of inquiries from a single print ad. Word of mouth only worked once a company has an established customer base, and you usually had to submit many bids before landing your first project. Fortunately, online marketing is very quantifiable and it’s possible to track the results effectively so in this case you can actually get an answer to the question.

How Long Will It Take?

Asking how long it will take for digital and inbound marketing to work is a lot like asking how long it will be until a customer will see your billboard. No one can say for sure, but you can make educated guesses based on reliable data for each type of exposure:

• Pay Per Click advertising on social networks and search engines can yield instant spikes in traffic and leads, but it can also be a more expensive option, so it’s best for a short-term boost.
• Social media marketing usually takes two or three months to start yielding results, if done correctly.
• Blogging and content marketing can take six to nine months to show results.
• SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, can take a year or more to get right.

Nothing happens overnight, but the good news is that unlike traditional marketing, everything you do with inbound marketing is cumulative, so what you do today, no matter how small it may seem, will work for you for years to come.

Balancing Budget with Results

As with any kind of marketing, when you use digital and online marketing strategies to grow your construction business, you will have to balance your available budget against the results you want to achieve. Initially, you will need to invest in developing your business website and getting everything set up. After that, you can focus your efforts on growing your online presence over time.

Of course, if you can afford a bigger budget, you might see progress faster, but the good news is that even with a small budget, you can get good results with online marketing.

Still the Best ROI Out There

The fact is, with any type of marketing and sales (even old-fashioned cold calling!), you’re going to need to put your brand and your products in front of prospective customers many times before you turn them into a sale. Inbound is no different in this respect. The difference is that, dollar for dollar, inbound blows all other kinds of marketing out of the water, in terms of the return on investment. Whether you start big or small, you will see results, and they will be a better value for money solution than traditional marketing methods will bring you.