Marketing Strategy
Don’t blame the technology: Social media marketing requires a solid strategy
Some construction professionals still view social media as a waste of time and cannot see the benefits it can have to their business. Sure, social media takes up a significant amount of time and effort but what marketing doesn’t? How much time do you spend in meetings discussing how to raise your brand awareness, how to plan and execute the next product launch, where to place your next ad and how much of your budget will be allocated to all these different activities? Hours? Days? Even weeks?! Social media is [...]
Building strong brands: Essential for construction companies
The current economic climate is tough for many businesses in the AEC sector and seeing companies such as ROK go into administration was a real eye-opener. It is exactly in times like these that branding becomes even more important. Achieving growth and acquiring new business opportunities is increasingly challenging, especially when the industry is becoming even more competitive. In order to stand out you need to focus on your brand and remind prospects and clients why you are ‘the right man for the job.’ A strong brand is not achieved [...]
Why your Construction Website needs Targeted Landing Pages
Studies have shown that nearly 93% of all B2B buyers begin the buying process by searching on the Internet. They use specific keywords to find companies that provide the products and services that they are looking for. Since they have a specific need in mind, they do not want to spend hours searching through large amounts of jargon and useless information. Instead they want valuable facts, information, results and most importantly, why they should pick you over your competitors. What makes you stand out? What is your USP? Your website [...]
Using LinkedIn as a Relationship Marketing tool
LinkedIn boasts the largest network of professionals on the Internet, with over 70 million members from 200 countries and representing 170 industries. What makes it unique is its focus on ‘networking’ rather than ‘socialising’. This crucial point makes it a key business tool for any industry but specifically the construction industry. Where else can you get unlimited access to so many potential clients, product manufacturers, industry opinion leaders, architects, contractors, fellow marketing professionals and even your competitors? If you are still not convinced, here is a brilliant infographic, designed by [...]
What makes a blog successful?
Many of you have already started a personal or business blog, and there will be some of you who are contemplating starting a blog in the hope of driving additional traffic to your website. If you are in the ‘contemplating’ category then I suggest you probably need to start pretty soon. The content you write is visible for all on the web and particularly those who are searching to find the answers to their issues, problems and questions. Search engines love blogs too. This is because, unlike your website, the [...]
Wrapping up a busy 2010 for construction marketing
As the saying goes “Hasn’t this year just flown by?” Indeed it has and what a year it has been too. 2010 has seen the rise of social media and how construction companies, large and small, look to embrace social platforms for pushing out content and increasing networking opportunities. Interesting discussions have taken place regarding the uses of social media within the industry and whether any form of ROI can be calculated. It seems as though many companies and marketers are still trying to work out how it can be [...]
Adding value: Why is it important in the construction industry?
Brand building is important in any industry and owning strong brands means a steady drive of profit for your company. The benefit of brands over commodities is that they have the capacity to add value for customers and clients. Because the quality of products is becoming increasingly similar, you have to achieve some form of differentiation that sets you apart from competitors. What better way to do this, than build a positive, strong and memorable brand that gives customers value that they will not receive anywhere else? Brands are at [...]
The construction industry is gradually embracing digital communication strategies and tactics
Last week Pritesh and I attended the 2010 CIMCIG conference held in London. The event was full of marketing professionals and construction industry experts. It offered a great networking opportunity and the chance to meet influential people with whom we had been talking to on social media sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn. A major sign that the industry has come a long way is the fact that the #cimcig10 hashtag on Twitter was more popular that day than news about Gillian McKeith in the jungle. On average there were [...]
How do you market to existing customers and keep them coming back for more?
Often companies in the construction industry focus their marketing efforts on attracting new customers and clients, forgetting that it is actually easier to generate business from existing or past customers. It actually costs up to 5 times more to acquire a new customer than it takes to sell to an existing one. Of course lead generation and attracting new customers is important and can lead to quick profits, but this is only a short term solution. Looking after the customers you already have, building sustainable relationships and providing them with [...]
Building loyalty and reducing one night stands
I’ve spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks re-analysing clients’ web data and measuring the performance of their website(s) against their business objectives and plans set out for 2010 in preparation for 2011. Mining through the data to find the insights which will enable me to answer real business questions such as: “Is my website attracting quality traffic?” “Are visitors, and in particular Architects, engaging with my website?” “How many visitors entered my website via my key product pages?” “Is my website converting traffic into leads?”
