The best thing anyone can say about 2020 was that it was an education. Millions of Americans learned more about their careers, healthcare, politics and even health than they knew going into the year. For good or bad, last year gave us a lot to think about.

Now, with a new year comes a new opportunity to grow from that experience and the lessons learned will hopefully benefit us. This is very true in the construction industry where hundreds of businesses and thousands of workers were given a lesson on how quickly work can stop as well as the demand for their services and products.

While there’s not much you can do during a pandemic, there were some valuable things learned last year during the shutdown. Many contractors had to slow down their advertising because they weren’t sure when their next project was going to start.

While that’s understandable as you wanted to hang onto as much money as possible, other companies took advantage of the slow down or shut down and saw rankings on Google improve and a lower cost per lead from other marketing efforts.

A combination of promotions and hitting consumers who were thinking about renovations or new construction while they were literally sitting at home and using the time to plan the work they wanted done allowed these companies to get new business in.

Companies that sell windows and doors, roofing contractors, painters and pool installation businesses saw an increase in business or at least were able to stay busy during 2020 because they advertised and the demand for their products and services went up.

As people found themselves stuck at home they wanted to start working on their homes or making them more enjoyable. Contractors learned an important lesson on how, while there is an impact, a shut down does not mean they should shut down.

As we hopefully get back to a sense of normal in 2021, the lessons learned from last year should undoubtedly help many in the industry improve their efforts for growing their business and understand that they need to maintain a consistent flow of content to consumers in the area.