The guys over at Specifiedby product directory have come up with this fantastic idea where Architects and Specifiers can tweet the @socialspec Twitter account with a specific product requirement and @socialspec will in turn ask their followers for any recommendations.

This is online word of mouth at its best.

Here’s an example of how it works:

And then another response comes in…

Why should building product manufacturers stand up and take note?

TIP: If your company is not currently using Twitter for marketing, networking or listening then today might be a good idea to at least just set up a profile and follow/listen to the #socialspec Twitter stream.

So, here are my quick 3 reasons why building product manufacturers need to take note of #socialspec

1. Big brands vs Small brands – it’s a level playing field

This opens up the opportunity for smaller, lesser known brands to get in on the action by following and getting involved with the #socialspec Twitter stream. Listen out for any relevant or related requests to your offering and join the conversation. Be ready to take the conversation offline too. If you’re a small brand with a small budget then social media could be right for you and just as powerful as those full page ads in magazines (which end up in the round filing cabinet kept under desks after a week anyway).

It’s also a great way to find out who is recommending your brand or your products (using social media for listening). You don’t need a massive marketing budget to join Twitter.

TIP: If someone does recommend your brand or products, be ready to thank them.

2. A social recommendation will usually result in finding & browsing your website

Take the above example where Neil has a specific product he’s after and @econekt has come back with a recommendation, in this case CWS. Pretty sure the first thing Neil will have done is Googled the company and then viewed their website. How does it look? Is it packed full of useful technical content which adds value or is it a typical website which just focuses on how great you are?

TIP: This is where blogs containing useful, helpful technical content can help & reassure someone like Neil that you are the right company to be talking to.

3. Supply chain involvement & collaboration

As #socialspec grows in popularity I can see lots of companies (building owners, facilities management companies, manufacturers, consultancies, authorities, media, contractors, merchants) and people (architects, engineers, designers, marketers, sales, technical) at all levels getting involved (or quietly listening) in joining in the conversation as the requests come in. Who will help who? Who will recommend who?

It’s early days but this has the legs to be massive!

Socialspec has only just launched and I encourage all marketers to follow what’s happening – there are lots of people already getting involved globally who love the idea and I am sure will support it fully. Find out more here about how it work in detail: http://blog.specifiedby.com/introducing-social-specification-socialspec/

For the first time in ages, I’m pretty excited about this. Well done Darren and Craig Sewell (Cubicle Centre) for getting this started.

Feel free to leave a comment below with your views, ideas and thoughts.

I decided to talk about Google Analytics for one reason. I have noticed a massive rise in marketers interested in this area over the last 4-6 months so felt it was necessary to focus on something which is new for many marketers within the construction industry.

To kick off my presentation I asked the audience to raise their hands to two questions:

#cimcig @priteshpatel9 show of hands. “how many have google analytics installed on your site?” 100%. “How many use it?” 10%. Laughter.

— ross sturley (@rosssturley) April 17, 2013

So, below is my presentation for you to view with notes on each slide. Any questions please Tweet me or email me:

A website for any building product manufacturer should never be considered as a shop window. This is the old 1990′s way of thinking about websites, the web has moved on since then and so should you if you still use this phrase. 

Websites fall into your owned media mix and should be considered as a resource in which you keep growing and attracting a more specific audience to your website. Maybe your website is 90% geared towards architects and 10% contractors or vice versa.

Here’s a simple visual to illustrate how a website fits within your owned, paid and earned media mix:

In order to keep architects, specifiers, designers and contractors using your website (loyalty) you need to be thinking about how you can turn it into a resource as opposed to a brochure site or a shop window.

By looking at your Google Analytics you should be able to see what percentage of your total visitors visited your website once and never returned – your job as an online marketer is to reduce this number. So how do you do it?

80% of visits only came to the website once and never returned - uh oh!

1. Create a library of documents

Attract the right audience by creating the right content. Make it easy for them to access your information and ensure it’s of value. CAD drawings, BIM files, images and technical datasheets all fall into this area.

If you decide to put it all behind a registration wall or have it free to access then make sure you are measuring your activity using Google Analytics so that you can see how successful it is. Below you can see that Registrations has been set up as a goal in Google Analytics. We can now see which sources of traffic (organic search, social media, email, print advertising etc) is converting our visitors into registrations.

Number of registrations by month

 2. Create some sort of interactive tool

Technical folk are always having to calculate things – especially when it comes to your product you should be making it easy for your audience to specify, choose or buy your product easier than your competitors. What about designers? Could you create a spatial planning tool? Design tool?

Again, measure using Google Analytics how many times this tool has been used and try and grow its usage. What you will want to measure is ‘how many people completed all the steps in order to finish using the tool and produce the end result’.

Completions of an online specification

3. Create a blog containing technical content

Start writing content and publishing it on your blog and allow for your audience to either comment or share your stuff with others. Remember – a blog is not a place for press releases or stuff about you and how many trees you’ve planted this year. A blog is a place for opinions, ideas and discussions relevant to your area/products or sector.

Here’s a post you may be interested in: 5 reasons why construction companies should be blogging.

And of course you can measure how many people sign up to receive your blog content on a monthly basis too using Google Analytics.

The number of blog sign ups should increase month on month

4. Create a weekly technical Q&A on your video channel

I’ve not seen much of this around but I think it’s got mileage. Using social media you could crowd source questions or search forums to find common questions about your products or application and produce a weekly or monthly Q&A video featuring 2 or 3 of your technical team.

Have a panel or a team of people answer questions via video

Again, you could measure how many times your video has been viewed on your website or on YouTube depending on where you decide to publish.

Measure how many times the video has been played

5. Conduct monthly webinars on specific topics and invite your audience to join

This is a great way to generate leads and also providing value to existing audience/customers. Have prospects sign up to join your webinar and give existing customers a direct link to join your webinar without making them sign up (remember, make things easy).

You could do a webinar on specification, design, standards, environmental issues or even run through a 15 minute case study.

Use webinars as a lead generation tool

Be a resource, not a shop window

So there you have it. Your website doesn’t need to be a brochure website or a shop window. Start being useful. Start turning your website into a resource and keep those visitors coming back.

Below example shows you how these particular architectural practices now use your website more than they did the previous year:

Are there any website which you would consider a great resource? One that you always go back to should you need some information or need to perform a specific task? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Image credit: http://pauldunay.com/

Word cloud containing the words from users bio’s who tweeted the #ecobuild hashtag.

List of everyone who tweeted using the #ecobuild hashtag

NOTE: The list below has been sorted by # of followers.

It’s no secret that Ecobuild 2012 delivered nearly 60,000 professionals to one place over three days. 24% were from a specifier background (architecture or design) and the majority from senior decision making roles.

From my own experience, most building product manufacturers will typically have three key drivers for exhibiting (in no particular order):

• To show off new and existing product.
• To meet existing and prospective clients.
• Because the competition are there.

The months leading up to any large exhibition are generally more about project management than marketing.  Stand designs, branded visual communications and takeaways, selecting the products, creating dazzling flat screen presentations and touchscreens, defining the stories, choosing menu’s, fashionista’ing the right shirt, tie, gillet combo, generating the buzz through email and social…

A construction marketers journey to Ecobuild is always, always, hard work and there are rarely enough hours in the day and way, way, too many expectations.  And yes, the next three days will be hard on the feet, tough on the liver too perhaps and definitely leave you completely shattered.

BUT (and it is a big BUT), getting there is still the easy bit.

Generating new business from the conversations you have over the next three days is why product manufacturers PAY to be at Ecobuild.  And how well you FOLLOW UP these conversations will determine how well Ecobuild pays you back.

An event like this deserves as much effort in the follow up program as goes into to getting to the event in the first place. The follow up is the single most important element to your success at Ecobuild no matter the size of your business.

I recently read this article ‘Are you sabotaging your business’ from top sales consultancy Rain Group which clearly and succinctly identified some of the reasons why the follow up can be such a tough ask – reasons that totally resonated with me.

Following up can be difficult, downright terrifying even, but this is where the event cannot help any further. It can help you collect a prospects details but it can’t continue the conversation for you.

So then, here are my 16 top tips to make Ecobuild pay for itself after the event (assuming you’ve answered the question ‘Why are we here?’ in the first place):

1. Be sure the sales and marketing team have been briefed on a failsafe prospect management process (inc. how to fill out a sales lead form) for the conversations they will have on the stand.
2. Make sure everyone on the stand is briefed on any new products or at least knows who and where the technical chaps are at any given time.
3. Decide how and who will collect the leads at the end of each day.
4. Decide on the follow up process and break the job into smaller actionable parts.
5. Whatever your phone approach, try and relax, remember no-one will die as a result of you calling. The worst that can happen is you get a ‘no thanks’.
6. Remember no-one likes to be sold to. Be helpful first.
7. Make a pledge to follow up all conversations, even the ones that are likely to not lead directly to a sale. Use these conversations as opportunities to build a helpful reputation.
8. Call the hottest leads first, preferably in the first two or three days after the event (perhaps not on the weekend though).
9. Get yourself into the right frame of mind. Don’t let your head talk you out of it. Your sales lead forms should give you the reason for the call.
10. Enjoy having conversations (even if you are being rejected out of hand).
11. If there is nothing doing with a contact, take the ‘No thanks’ as a result and move on to the next one. If nothing else you’ve made an unaware, aware and done what you said you were going to do.
12. Don’t be needy, if your approach is honest you’ll only be asking if you can help and where’s the harm in that?
13. Have a fall back. If your prospect is not ready right now, what can you do for them that might keep you front of mind for when they are?
14. Ask if they’d like to be put on your ‘product innovation email distribution list’ for example if you have one.
15. Always ask before adding your prospects to your lead nurturing program. Never assume they want to be emailed, phoned, DM’d.
16. Remember, only ever follow up with relevant and useful information, anything less is not helpful.

Have a great Ecobuild 2013, I look forward to meeting some of you there and checking out the feast of product innovation that will no doubt greet us all when we get there.

We’ve had lots of conversations with clients and prospects over the past 12 months and many are in the ‘wait and see’ boat and then there are some who are doing the hard work now to maybe reap the rewards later on when everyone will be playing catchup. Following on from our infographic on BIM Survey 2012 I thought it’d be good to get a quick low down on what manufacturers need to know about BIM and where to get started.

PC – If there was one message to manufacturers with respect to their BIM strategy what would it be?

SJH – The simple single message is to focus on the quality of your content – the rest will follow.

If you get the content correct, the objects will be used again and again on BIM projects. However this clear single message can be split into three key points:

1. The property set information should represent the attributes of the real-world product.
   This should be standardised against international IFC and COBie property sets and then worked up to a full set of properties based on a generic national library such as nationalBIMlibrary.com. What the industry needs is standards and consistency – it needs this between generic objects and those provided by manufacturers – and also between objects provided by different manufacturers. Compare how consumers can use a website such as RightMove.com to quickly find and compare houses – this is only possible through agreeing a standardised information structure. Construction must do the same.
2. The objects should be provided in multiple software vendor formats. It is true that our web analysis at NBS shows that Autodesk Revit is the current market leader. But providing objects in only one format will allow penetration of only half of the potential market (see the chart below). A manufacturer would consider it unthinkable nowadays to provide a website that only worked in Microsoft Internet Explorer on a PC. They would demand that it also worked in Google Chrome, Apple Safari etc… Exactly the same principle applies when it comes to investing in BIM.
3. Link your objects to other important sources of information. An object will not contain all the data a construction professional needs – so remember to link to CPD material, catalogues, NBS specification clauses and your installation and maintenance manuals.

Fig 1 - Download statistics 01/12/12 to 31/01/13 from nationalBIMlibrary.com

PC – What is the best way for a manufacturer to promote their objects?

SJH – Clearly promoting objects on a manufacturer’s own website is essential. But in addition to this manufacturers will also want to be on leading digital content delivery websites like nationalBIMlibrary.com, RIBAProductSelector.com and also alongside specification clauses within NBS. The more savvy manufacturers will syndicate the content from a central source to ensure that if their objects get updated then they get updated automatically in all locations.

A secondary method of promotion is through knowledge based marketing. A suggested approach here would be to invest in training for a member of your team who already has good technical knowledge; they can then speak about the benefits of using the objects through CPD, at events and in web articles. There is a real thirst for learning around BIM in the industry currently and there are real opportunities for the manufacturers who invest in BIM to show market leadership.

PC – Are there any manufacturers that BIM doesn’t work for?

SJH - Well-structured digital information is needed for all manufacturer products.  This information is needed whether a manufacturer produces entire systems (ceilings, partitions or roofing), individual products (furniture, sanitaryware or boilers) or details (wall ties or fasteners).

Well structured-digital information for an insulation product

It is true that certain products may not often be modelled in 3D (eg. paint, wall paper or mortar) – but BIM does not necessarily have to mean “3D”. Specification property sets in a tool like NBS Create can be linked to the 3D model so that rich information can be intelligently linked to quantities taken off space models.

PC – What would your message be to those without a large budget?

SJH – It’s possible to get involved with BIM just using a spreadsheet. A manufacturer can look at the published NBS property sets on nationalBIMlibrary.com – combine these with IFC and COBie and generate a spreadsheet containing information representing the physical products. This spreadsheet can be placed on the manufacturers website.

This would allow designers to build their own versions of the manufacturer product to use in their BIMs.

However, many would argue that this job should not be passed to the customer. In a digital world the need for glossy catalogues is being replaced by a need for technically rich digital information delivered over the web.  It may be prudent to look each year at what percentage of a marketing budget goes into traditional hard copy literature and what percentage goes into digital information each year. Times change and BIM objects are manufacturers product catalogues of the future.

PC – What should a manufacturer interested in learning more do?

SJH – In terms of free online information there is an enormous amount at the following websites. The UK Government BIM Task Group is delivering against a very clear strategy. At NBS we have colleagues of mine who are experts that are on the BIM Technology Alliance supporting Government, the BSI 555 BIM Standards Committee and also buildingSMART UK. So I’d strongly recommend reading through the freely available information on the sites below:

• UK Government BIM Task Group – BIMTaskGroup.org
• NBS BIM area – theNBS.com/BIM
• National BIM Library – nationalBIMlibrary.com

For face-to-face expert consultation with NBS/RIBA Insight please either ring 0845 200 1056 or email info@riba-insight.com.

If you have any questions for Stephen then please leave a comment below or you can tweet Stephen directly via Twitter.

If I thought about it too hard I’m fairly sure this is something I can be guilty of and in more aspects of my life than I care to mention.

From a marketing procurement point of view however, there is something about the way the construction industry buys marketing services and the way some agencies sell their services that has an ever-decreasing-circles feel about it.

We were recently involved in an agency selection process where, during the initial intro meeting, the prospective client spent much of the time explaining how badly the incumbent was performing.

Alarm bells rang – this behavior is often indicative of how any new relationship is likely to go – but I’m not in the habit of getting up and walking out so we continued the conversation.

We asked various questions about how and why the service had gone awry and what the prospects expectations were and what they are now. People, quality and cost were the common issues.

Further investigation revealed that the prospect didn’t have a clear annual marketing budget to work with nor did they have any clear marketing goals or methods for measurement or reporting.

There was clearly nothing for the incumbent agency to get excited about, no way of knowing whether their work was making any difference. There was, in my mind, little wonder the relationship had gone stale.

I understood perfectly well why the relationship had broken down. But more importantly I understood how any relationship going forward was likely to go the same way.

Now I realise this is an extreme case, and that the agency/client relationship is a complicated one and not one that I can hope to provide all the answers to.

The one thing I do know is that for a fruitful relationship there must be a good fit. A good fit between the clients’ business needs and the expectations of what the agency can deliver.

To my mind an agency, large or small, is only as good as the information, feedback and objectives they get from client they are working for.

And likewise, a client is only as happy as the expectations placed upon them by the agency – if you can’t deliver the earth don’t try and sell it!

So all I would ask is for some honesty in the approach from both sides.

If you’re a production based agency ie. an agency with more doers than thinkers then be clear in the parameters of your service from the outset.

And similarly, if you’re requirement is for an agency to follow instruction don’t be frustrated when that agency isn’t too great on providing mind-blowing recommendations for strategic direction.

The way to buy marketing services is changing. The one-agency-fits-all approach is suffocating slowly on the boardroom floor.

A ‘full service’ marketing agency is a bold statement in this day and age. And as client marketers become ever more savvy, it’s not a claim that is likely to instill a great deal of confidence – unless of course you are indeed shit hot in all areas.

Just as main contractors buy in specialist contractors with specific specialisms to fulfill specific roles, so product manufacturers ought to be looking into their marketing supply chain across the whole marketing spectrum.

Your graphic designer is not realistically going to be a convincing SEO specialist, and your web developer is unlikely to be a well-versed PR – and there aren’t many exceptions.

So, in view of this rant here are my top 4 tips for getting the right fit between specialist agencies and clients

1.Understand what it is that you need, not what you want.

Before you bring in the agencies, work out what it is you are trying to achieve.

2.Have realistic expectations.

If you don’t know exactly what you want (ie the reason for marketing) but know what you need (ie. business goal) then you’re in a good place. Try benchmarking where you are now in relation to the goal – this will give you a realistic idea of where you could get to with your budget.

3.Have conversations – not interviews.

Try not to waste time slagging off other suppliers whatever the reasons for your disappointment. Focus on the business need going forward and how you would like the relationship to be.

4.Be honest at each stage and as early as possible.

If you don’t understand the service ask better questions, please don’t fall into the trap of buying the same service in a different pair of jeans.

One of the things which has interested me over the last 12 months is whether or not the interest levels in the Green Deal is growing (are people googling ‘green deal’) as awareness increases (or not as we found out recently) or if it’s flatlined throughout the last 12 months.

Using data from Google Trends we see this for searches related to ‘Green Deal’ on Google:

The letters on the graph represent news headlines and you can see which major news stories increased interest levels on Google.

Moving on to Wikipedia. No doubt those who do want to find out more will have read of the content on the Green Deal Wikipedia page. So here is what the data looks like for the Wikipedia pageviews over the last 90 days.

It’s clear that interest levels are rising on the internet. The more publicity the Green Deal gets the more the interest will build.

As I found out today that only 5 households have signed up for the deal so far it is clear that there is still a lot of work to do. I personally don’t think PR on it’s own will help change behaviours, help communicate the complex financial structure and quality provided by each company involved.

No more Green Deal domains left……or is there?

One of the things I’ve noticed is the sheer volume of Green Deal websites which have been set up by companies and anonymous people.

As a homeowner, when I’m researching about the scheme, every time I visit a website the one key question which I keep asking myself is “Do trust this website?”

Here are a few examples of websites which are quite visible on Google for various Green Deal searches:

http://www.greendealcentral.com - Set up by a company called Property and Training Solutions Ltd but they don’t have their own website. So who are they?

http://greendeal.net/ - A website that claims it’s an easy way to find solar & heat pumps but offers a host of other info about the Green Deal. Who are they?

http://www.easy-greendeal.com/ - This website belongs to a company called Easy MCS. Notice how similar the websites look?

http://www.greendeal-dorset.org.uk/ - Getting local, but again, this website can’t answer the question “who are you?”

http://www.greendealmanager.co.uk - Again “Who are you?”

http://www.greendeal-helpline.co.uk/ - Again “Who are you?”

From an internet perspective, I think there’s lots of things which could be done by various companies involved in the scheme, building trust is probably the biggest one for me.

Building trust also involves using Social Media channels, one which I have not yet seen being used to help the public.

Good luck to Freud who have won the PR contract to promote the Green Deal.

What I like to do for clients is to show them which specific Architects and Contractors they have increased awareness, engagement or even goals (registrations, downloads, sign ups, enquiries etc) by using Google Analytics:

Here’s what it looks like (examples):

Marketing campaign to promote our website and CAD/BIM drawings to Kier Group:

Note: I am showing you two dates, same period year before to really get a good idea if a campaign has worked and had an impact.

So you’ve managed to get 580% more visitors to the website from Kier than you did same time previous year. Now you can segment this data and see how many downloaded CAD details or BIM details.

Well done!!

Marketing campaign aimed at Local Authorities to promote a regional seminar:

Now we have this data, we can go onto see if these visitors went onto register for the events and what pages of the website or blog they viewed.

SEO campaign to generate traffic for more bridge repair projects:

Note: Above image shows the company/org and the keyword used as a secondary dimension within the Google Analytics report.

Brand awareness campaign aimed at Architects:

So your 12 month marketing campaign to generate awareness amongst a set audience such as commercial architects has drove traffic and now you can drill deeper to find out how many converted into sign ups, registrations, downloads or enquiries.

And then the bad….

You can also use Google Analytics to tell you which Architects or Consultancies considered your website useful previously that no longer do today. You could look to try and reignite some relationships are Arup in the example below:

What can you do above the above with this particular organistion? It could be any organisation. Could you create some content aimed at them? Create a resource area?

Integration is key to successful marketing

Of course, but to get the most out of direct marketing you also have to think about multi-channels and integration How does your audience move through various stages of the specification process and then convert into an enquiry via the website?

The below image shows you the path one visitor took over a period of time before they submitted an enquiry via the website, starting off with a direct visit (brochure, recommendation, business card) through to SEO then email and then brand recognition and familiarity:

Powerful stuff no?