MDi TV Episode 3 – Social Media Time Management

This episode of Whiteboard Wednesday features Pritesh and Ayaan talking about how to manage your time effectively on social media. They discuss the importance of defining business goals and objectives before developing your social media strategy and then allocating your time according to how active your audience is on the various social networks. Tools such as Google alerts makes it easier to monitor product and brand mentions, whilst Hootsuite and Tweetdeck allow you to schedule tweets thereby helping with time management. Pritesh and Ayaan also suggest a 30 minute plan of activities you can do every day to manage your social presence.  This can vary slightly for every business, depending on your objectives and your internal resources (eg size of marketing team).

If you have any questions that you would like us to answer in another MDi TV episode then please drop us a line via email or tweet us @PauleyCreative.

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Increasing the visibility of your construction product website in search engines

I was kindly asked to present at the RIBA Insight Consultancy Day for its members, mainly product manufacturers and suppliers. Over 100 delegates attended the day which saw a range of topics presented and discussed including ‘BIM take up amongst professional services’ and ‘what do Architects want from product CPD’s’ and an ever popular topic ‘Adding Social Media to your Construction Marketing Mix’ presented by Paul Wilkinson.

Finally my presentation on increasing the visibility of construction product websites in search engines and ensuring they are found by specifiers, architects, engineers and designers when they are looking for new products, services or businesses for a particular project or problem. The presentation can be viewed below. Feel free to leave any comments or questions in the comments section below.Read More

How to Create Construction Content Using Search and Google Analytics

So you have a blog. What do you write about? How do you intend to make sure that the content on your blog is relevant to your website visitors and your prospects? Online content is the most important part of any website when it comes to converting visitors into leads. If your content is valuable and usable then it is more likely that the visitor will subscribe, download, share or register in order to get more valuable content from you. If your content is poor, don’t expect visitor growth, increase in leads or conversions from your website.

I am going to share with you a simple technique which I have been using for a while now to help kick start a content strategy for construction product manufacturers to help them produce content which is relevant and useful for their prospects and customers. This technique may only apply to websites which have satisfactory levels of search optimisation applied and are already acquiring a good level of traffic from search engines. Why? Put it simply, you will be using search to drive content to drive search.

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How social media can improve your PR campaigns

The digital shift has had a big effect on the way news and information is published and consumed in the construction industry. PR professionals and marketers need to understand how this impacts the way they communicate with their audiences and the media. Social media has increased the number of available communication channels and facilitated real time conversations between companies and customers. It has given construction companies and individuals the opportunity to become publishers.Read More

How product manufacturers can make their email marketing more social

Email marketing remains one of the main communication mediums in the construction industry. Building product manufacturers use it to update their customers and prospects on new products, to promote exclusive discounts and discuss industry news. There are articles floating about saying that social media will ‘kill’ email but these forget the most important point; you need an email address to have a social media account in the first place! Email is not going away but the way it is used for marketing needs to adapt and align with the changing buying behaviour of specifiers and architects.

Social media should be seen as a partner and not as a threat to email marketing. Together they can strengthen your brand message, provide new communication channels and increase your exposure to existing and potential customers. Both email and social media aim to keep your construction products top of mind for architects and specifiers by communicating with them in a relevant and timely manner that is both testable and measurable. Social media is the new tool but does not work alone. It is part of your overall marketing mix, of which email plays a large role.

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MDi TV Episode 2 – What are landing pages and what makes a good landing page?

This week’s Whiteboard Wednesday episode of MDi TV focuses on Landing Pages for websites and campaigns. Pritesh explains what elements make up a good landing page in order to convert as much traffic into leads or opportunities. Remember, if you want us to cover any topics or you have any questions then please do let us know. Enjoy!Read More

MDi TV Episode 1 – Optimising for Non-Brand Search Terms

Welcome to the first episode of our Whiteboard Wednesday videos series on the My Digital Insider TV channel. Our aim is to provide construction marketers with short videos focusing on individual areas of the digital marketing tool box such as search optimisation, social media, website design, email marketing, campaign planning, web analytics and measurement reporting and much much more. We will also aim to cover some industry events which may be coming up and try conduct some interviews at these events with key people within the industry.

More importantly, if you have any questions regarding anything to do with digital marketing which you would like us to answer in an episode of Whiteboard Wednesday then please feel free to drop us a line by email or tweet us @PauleyCreative and we’ll aim to provide you with the right information and guidance to ensure your online marketing campaigns achieve maximum performance.

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Content writing tips for your construction products website

Writing for the web is a notably different skill to writing for print publications. It’s often a technique that is overlooked, but as your website becomes increasingly important as a business tool, it’s something that you should address if you’re keen to maintain a strong online presence and make certain you’re talking to the right audience.

To begin with you must make sure that your website is tailored to that proverbial ‘perfect potential client’ – and then that the content is correctly organised for ease of reading. Web users are spending significantly less time searching for, and viewing your website these days. It’s becoming increasingly important that you keep content easy to find, that you cover your calls to action in a clear yet striking way, and that your expertise is clear to see from just a glance at one or two pages. Knowing who you are writing for is crucial. A buyer would want short snappy copy highlighting product features and benefits, whereas an engineer may want more lengthy, detailed information and might expect to see an insightful, regularly updated blog.

Once you’ve reviewed your navigation and overall targeting, it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty.

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What type of content marketer are you?

Producing, publishing and managing content used to be associated with other industries but is now an essential part of business. Any building product manufacturer that has a website and wants to increase their online visibility needs to take content marketing seriously. One of the main reasons architects and specifiers go online is to look for product information. The internet is full of useful content so there’s alot of competition from those construction companies who have already embarked on a content marketing strategy. Quality content in combination with SEO is what will get your website to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs) for keywords associated with your products and services. Once prospects have found your site, you need to convert them into leads. Getting them to subscribe to your newsletter or enter their details to download your whitepaper is good for data capture which you can later follow up with an email lead nurturing campaign.

For all the steps outlined above you need to have quality content with which you can prove your expertise to your audience. Out-teaching your competition is how you will sustain a competitive advantage. Some companies employ content managers or copywriters who will write articles, blogposts, newsletters, whitepapers and other forms of content whilst other companies assign these tasks to current employees. Either way, effective content marketing requires a variety of skills and below is a list of 10 that I think are involved:

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Ecobuild 2012… are you ready?

If we had access to the NHS statistics on blood pressure and stress within the construction industry, there would certainly be an Everest-sized spike in the chart for January and February every year, as the industry frantically tries to prepare for the biggest event in the calendar.

Unfortunately, what so few realise is that by the time you’re packing turkey curry into your lunchbox ready for your first day back in the New Year – you’ve missed the Ecobuild bus!Read More