Posts Categorized: Construction Marketing

What is BES 6001, do your building products meet the grade and more importantly are you telling your customers?

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BES 6001 is part of the governments drive to ensure a building product manufacturers’ sustainability claims are proven and that their materials have been resourced responsibly.

The standard describes a framework for the organisational governance, supply chain management and environmental and social aspects that must be addressed in order to ensure the responsible sourcing of construction products.

In reality certification for BES 6001 ensures a manufacturers credibility is safe guarded thus providing the reassurance specifiers, contractors and building owners rely on when meeting the governments requirements for sustainable development.Read More

Do journalists use social media to research their stories?

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It’s the question on everybody’s lips at the moment – do journalists use social media to research their stories? Are you missing a trick if you’re not engaging with key editorial contacts on Twitter? Which channels should you focus on developing?

Certainly within the PR industry there is significant rumination going on at the moment – PR professionals are desperately trying to anticipate the platforms that journalists might be trialling, hoping to stay one step ahead so that they are ready and waiting should a journalist come looking for them, and yet still trying to cover all bases by email broadcasting news in the more traditional way.

I met a PR professional at an event a few weeks ago who confidently told me “Journalists always prefer me to tweet them now (rather than phone or email) – I never email anybody any more”. But how true really is this? Can we rely on our audience using Twitter alone to source their news stories, or do we need to try and spread our efforts between maintaining social media alongside more traditional communication methods?Read More

Good Things Get Done By Construction Companies Doing Good

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Why marketing your construction business CSR programs through social media platforms is good for business.

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Image courtesy of Fourfront Group – commercial interior specialists

Let’s not split hairs here, the majority of CSR programs are a good thing. Besides the business agenda, at the very least some ‘social or sustainable’ good is being done. However, is it really still acceptable to invest time and energy in planning and running Corporate Social Responsibility [CSR] programs if the only ‘promotional’ outcome is a flimsy report?Read More

5 ways to build your brand online in the construction industry

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The construction industry is a very competitive marketplace and the main way companies can stand out from the crowd is by building, and maintaining, a strong brand. Branding builds a unique personality for your business that cannot be copied or imitated, thereby attracting a defined type of customer. Brands are more than just logos and positioning statements but instead, brands symbolise what people think and feel about a business. This emotional connection, along with your brand reputation, is what helps in buyers’ decision making process. It might drive an architect or specifier to specify your product instead of a competitors.

An important element of successful brands is consistency. This builds customer trust and perceived value because buyers know exactly what to expect from your product or service before they buy it. Companies have to ensure that these expectations are achieved, or even better, exceeded.

Tell your brand storyRead More

MDi TV – Ecobuild 2012 Round Up

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As the sun sets on Ecobuild for yet another year we can only now take a look at some of the good uses of digital marketing and new technologies we spotted during our visit to the 3 day show. It was good to see an increase in the number of stands displaying some sort of online social element be it Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and testing new ways of getting people online or interacting through the use of QR Codes whilst at the show. We also noticed an increase in the number of exhibitors using iPads and mobile devices on stands which I can only assume was either a tactic to keep people on the stand or be able to show visitors the other ranges of products which were not on display. We did spot a dozen or so stands with QR codes but only a few codes we scanned led to a mobile friendly website which still backs up my theory that marketers are still only thinking about the first hurdle, not the next which what the website will look like on a mobile device and whether or not the viewer will be able to perform the actions you want them to take.Read More

[Survey] Understanding the ‘value’ of effective marketing within the construction industry

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The UK construction industry consists of over 300,000 firms employing around 2 million people in a range of roles. The sector contributed 8.3% of the nation’s GDP (BIS, 2011). CIMCIG, the Chartered Institute of Marketing Construction Industry Group is working with researchers at Leeds Metropolitan University to explore the perceptions of marketing and to understand the ‘value’ of effective marketing within the construction industry.Read More

What type of Architect are you marketing to? Part 3 of 3

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Over the previous two days I’ve introduced you to two types of Architects you could be marketing to. Firstly there is John, the traditionalist, whose preferred communication method is phone and print. Then yesterday you met Geoff, the transitionalist, who uses a ‘mash-up’ of communication channels to obtain information about your company and products and is slowly moving towards a fully paperless office and managing to get online a little more than he did 5 years ago. How will you market to these personas? Do you even know what type of Architects you are marketing to?

Let’s meet our final character.

The Transformationalist: Joanne

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What type of Architect are you marketing to? Part 1 of 3

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It’s a good question huh? Do you really know what type of Architect or Specifier you are marketing to and how they consume information? I recently read a fantastic blog post written by a marketing and business consultant a few weeks back. He works with printed catalogue mail order companies to help them increase sales and profits in a slow dying sector (dying to online by the way), but most importantly, understanding the changing landscape into how specifiers specify and what type of information they require. This then got me thinking about the types of Architects building product marketers are marketing to. So in this case, how Architects and Specifiers source, consume information and refer business your way. How effective is your marketing strategy at targeting the right Architect in the right way? Are you marketing by channel or type of customer? Is the business adapting to the various types of customers you may have?Read More

Infographic: Results of the national BIM survey 2012

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To introduce our latest infographic, we have asked Martin Brown, an improvement advocate and consultant for the built environment at Fairsnape, to give us a bit of an overview on BIM and how he sees it working within the built environment. Many of our readers might already know of Martin, but for those who don’t, he is a co-founder of be2camp, tweets as @fairsnape and blogs at fairsnape.wordpress.com. Martin is also a Constructing Excellence Collaborative Working Champion and regular contributor to the Guardian Sustainability Business, Built Environment Hub.

What is BIM?

There are many definitions of BIM, but unfortunately many are wrapped in technical, project management or design terminology. We can understand and describe BIM as “the total and virtual modelling of all aspects of a project prior to construction, during construction and in use.” A BIM would typically model all data relating to, for eg, design scenarios, costings, build ability and clash detection, scheduling and procurement, sustainability impact, life cycle and facilities management factors as well as in use predictions. Championed by the Government, milestones are set for achieving increasingly mature levels of BIM. The first being level 2 by 2016.

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