Growth Hacking is a discipline that seeks, with the least possible expense and effort, to quickly and noticeably increase the volume of sales, income or impacts of a company.

Born among startups, this practice seeks to achieve more with less, which means that it will look for those small actions whose execution report the greatest impact. This means that all types of industries, including construction, experience great growth.

The Growth Hacker is an analytical and creative profile that applies disruptive techniques. It is not guided by established growth systems; on the contrary, it is always in continuous experimentation and search, having a global vision of the business and analyzing where it would be more optimal to act in order to grow.

We can establish that the Growth Hacker differs from the traditional Marketer because, while it focuses on sales, the growth hacker focuses on business growth, whether through sales, product, or general strategy.

The value proposition in the construction sector is central and necessary, so in reality the key is knowing how to recognize the opportunities of the industry and a good marketing strategy.

How can we apply the practice of growth hacking in a construction company?

It all starts with setting growth goals. These objectives - and this is very important - must be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and temporary; They are what are called smart goals (SMART) and should be based on what is that part of the marketing that we want to improve.

Not enough customers coming to us? Do clients come to us but then we can´t get them to sign? Taking into account that construction is a non-recurring industry - since each client will buy from us once in his life - the two problems just mentioned are usually the most common. A SMART goal that we could set would be the following:

"In the next 2 months we want to increase by 20% the number of clients who sign a construction contract after sending them the budget and we will measure it through signed contracts."

Once we have established the growth objectives, we will identify the possible drivers. These are those methods by which we will try to achieve the goal set with the least possible effort.

Key drivers in the construction sector are brand recognition, differentiation in the value proposition, the power of the brand message, the character of the company, the communication language, the web, examples of completed work, references and regulatory compliance.

• Which of these drivers is the most efficient to increase the reach of potential users?
• Are we a recognized brand in the sector? 
• Do we have an updated and attractive website? 
• Do we turn out to be a close brand for customers? 
• Do we show our best in the best possible way? 
• Do we offer a true value proposition beyond the mere act of building? (We can offer comfort, modernity, family, luxury, ecology ...).

There is also another possibility, and that is that we are really a business that has a lot to offer, with a very good brand, differential value proposition, success stories and many possibilities, but that, however, we are not reaching our potential customers. Are we well positioned in the search engine? Is our SEO strategy correct? Are our ads attractive? Do we choose the appropriate means and channels to make ourselves known?

When we have selected the drivers that we believe will bring us the greatest growth, we reach the experimentation phase. The experiments are those tactics with which we will put this driver to the test.

If, for example, we choose to achieve greater brand recognition that shows our differentiation, we should think about how we can increase that recognition.

In this case, there are two key tactics: We can opt for a mass media technique where we prioritize reach or, on the contrary, we can opt for a sectorization technique where we prioritize quality. Do we prefer to make ourselves known in such a way that the masses, when they think of a construction company, automatically think of us as a reference company or, on the contrary, do we prefer to target those people who tend to be more in contact with the industry (such as renovation companies that hire third parties)?

Once we start an experiment, we must monitor it through metrics and KPIs and then analyze the results. 

• Have the searches of our company increased in the search engine? 
• Do we have more entries on our website?

Last but not least, we will record the experiments carried out, their results and the lessons learned. Said registration is not a mere formality, but it will help us in the future to see what works and what does not, thus allowing us greater efficiency.