To attract prospects to your website, construction content writers should practice the art of problem-finding.  Identifying the problems your products or services solve is key to creating content that will be a magnet for web traffic. Answers to “What’s the problem?” aren’t always apparent. Uncovering how your products and services solve problems is good for both business and content.

Track pad manufacturer BLS has done a great job of identifying and solving customer problems. Track pads protect streets from the damaging effects of track-type construction vehicles. But when a customer asked BLS founder Barry Stoughton to find something that would last longer, he decided to make the pads out of polyurethane instead of rubber. Longer-lasting pads reduced the cost for contractors.

Barry followed his customer’s balance sheets to identify more problems, and then solutions.  Knowing equipment maintenance is costly, Barry soon manufactured clip-on and bolt-on track pads that could be installed faster. Other BLS track pads are designed to minimize soil compaction.  Each problem has its own audience.

Listen in on conversations about your products on social media. Participate in discussions on Forums and within LinkedIn groups to learn the language of customers. Problem-focused web content  can even lead to new applications for the product. Knowing what equipment works best in a specific construction application adds value, as does versatility.

Take a lesson from WD 40 — a brand built around more than 2,000 uses of the product. Does your website encourage questions and foster community like WD 40’s?

Here are some good ways construction marketers and content writers can find  “problem” talk for their website:

1) Create your very own contractor forum.

2) Ask customers to submit new applications for your product.

2) Conduct customer interviews among different types of customer groups such as landscapers vs. building contractors.

3) Monitor forums for questions related to your products. Start a Q&A column or blog  on your website.

4) Develop an advisory board for your product comprised of people who use the product or service regularly.

5) Solicit product usage tips from the professionals and build community around information sharing.

6) Give fans reasons to interact with you. Find a good cause to unite you.

7) Celebrate your customers. Submit photos of customers using the product to feature on the site. Reward great photos as well as interesting product applications.

You can’t solve a problem until you fully understand it. Make problem-finding research part of your process.

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