When construction marketing is easy, it is effective

One of the biggest paradoxes of business development and marketing is that effort doesn't really correlate with reward, but if you don't put effort into the process (and accept that success can take a LONG time) you won't achieve much in the way of reward.

Gulp.  When you read this sort of posting, you might think that the right thing to do is wrap it up, buy a few lottery tickets and hope for the best.

That isn't exactly what I am seeking to communicate here.

Let's phrase it a bit differently.  You've probably heard the phrase that it is better to work smart than hard, but it is even wiser to work smart and hard.  "Hard" work might be grinding out dozens of responses to RFPs, whether or not you have solid relationships with the clients, "Smart," might be focusing your energies and bidding only work where you can be profitable and have a reasonable chance of success.  "Hard and smart" is taking the long-range view, focusing on activities you enjoy, and working through these enjoyable activities to build satisfying relationships with the people who count and can put you on the inside track for successful bids or RFPs.

In other words, allowing for the fact that it takes time to achieve success, doing things you enjoy but which put you in contact with potential and current clients is smart marketing.  Yeah, that means if you like golfing, it is okay to spend lots of time on the course -- if you enjoy writing, well, blogs are pretty effective (over time) and if you like sports, spending some time with teams and groups interested in both the sport and your business area will probably get you to where you want to go.

The ideal venue for these relationships is often relevant client-focused associations.  Spend time there, and you'll make things happen.

These ideas won't generate instant construction marketing success.   They are smart, however, and don't need to be too hard to implement.