Owen, Author at Owen Philipson

Construction writing: the importance of an objective style

June 19, 2016 by Owen Leave a Comment

What do architects, specifiers, or construction buyers need when they read your construction writing?

They just need the technical information.

They need factual technical information to do their job. This may be gathering ideas at the concept stage, designing a project, specifying the detail of a product, or in the case of contractors, breaking spec and searching for a cost-effective alternative.

As a marketer you may want to present your company’s products in the best possible light, emphasise their benefits and ensure your branding is properly represented. This type of writing is typically promotional, persuasive and in some cases aspirational. By all means, there is a place for this; it’s particularly appropriate on your home page and company ‘about us’ pages, or on exhibition display stands. But when you write about your products, always stop to put yourself in the shoes of your customer.

Su Butcher recently wrote about why hate architects hate the direct sell. Don’t we all? If a construction buyer receives pushy sales calls, it erodes trust. In the same way, if the writing on your website is pushy, it also erodes trust.

Construction specifiers demand trust in the products they specify – they need to be sure that they will perform over the long term. They also need to trust in the companies that manufacture those products. They will buy or specify from a sales rep they trust too – someone who listens and offers the type of technical information and advice that they need, when they need it. Salespeople and marketers who push their message when it isn’t wanted come across like they don’t understand the needs of the buyer, and they are the ones that won’t be trusted.

I often see writing on construction websites using overblown language to push the benefits of a product. If you are selling to architects, engineers, landscape architects, stop and think – they are educated, analytical and technical people – like most of us, they they smell exaggeration a mile off. There are many words to avoid – unique, outstanding, stunning, excellent, exceptional … I will be sharing many more thoughts on words to avoid in the construction writing tips category.

Construction writing: product descriptions

If you are unsure where to start, include some of these three simple things:

what the product is
what it does or what it is for
who uses it or what applications it is suitable for

This text comes from Broxap’s web page for their Weyburn seat:

A contemporary all welded steel seat, straight or curved, made to various lengths and special configurations. This seat is designed to complement any environment and can be supplied with armrests.

A couple of sentences like this, which state in clear terms what the product is, helps the specifier. I might take issue with the phrase ‘any environment’, but that’s a separate issue.)

Here’s an alternative from Public Spaces’ Mago Situs seat:

Maintain your individuality. This combination of bench and seat with a backrest in a single piece marks your space. Because sometimes not everything needs to be shared.

There is a balance to be struck when a product has been designed for aesthetics and form, and is intended to appeal to the designer’s creative side. However, it is my opinion that a product description shouldn’t lead with this sort of conceptual idea. “What is it made from?” is arguably the most important question. To be fair to Public Spaces, this information is clearly available on the product page. I would still advocate leading with the technical information and leaving the concept stuff for display ads, or prioritise it a bit lower down on a web page. Design, style and aesthetics are best conveyed in good photography.

Resist the temptation to use the writing to make the products seem more exciting – your audience are specifying construction products, not buying an expensive suit or their dream car. Accept the fact that construction products are boring. Specifiers need the boring details!

Be specific when listing features and benefits. If a product is ‘highly fire resistant’ – it’s better to say what standard it is tested to, and precisely how long it resists fire for. If you haven’t tested the product to BS standards, state why the material is fire resistant, rather than making a general claim. Many products are described as ‘exceptionally durable’. Why not specify their expected design life – 10 years, 20 years, or 50 years? There is a difference.

Your audience are decision makers – their role is to make the correct choice of product for the project. For the most part, this is not an aspirational choice. So basing a relationship on exaggerated, misleading or deceptive language seems to me the best way to lose all hope of ever gaining any trust, forever.

Give them what they need – the plain facts – and they will trust your brand. Moreover, it will be easier for them to do their job – it will be simpler for them to specify your products in their design.

Construction writing: making stuff interesting

June 10, 2016 by Owen Leave a Comment

At #TCMA2016 conference, Ann Handley – a writing, marketing and content expert – explained her tongue-in-cheek acronym FIWTSBS – or Find Interesting Ways To Say Boring Stuff.

In a nutshell, this concept urges you to see everything as content, and make the most of the calls to action on your website, like email opt-in forms and 404 pages. Instead of ‘sign up to our email’ brands are making things fun and more engaging, with links like ‘Get our weekly email of awesomeness!’

That’s all well and good if you are in a brand with a vibrant, quirky personality. If your brand delivers fun in its marketing emails, you should make sure people know that they are great to read. But how could this be used for construction?

Construction industry examples

I was sceptical about whether this would be appropriate in the dry and technical constuction industry. Empire Cat, an Arizona machinery dealership have a fun 404 page (the web page that is returned when you follow an out-of-date link). Although the image is fun, showing a mechanic or assembly line employee searching in boxes, the key point for me is that it’s useful – the 404 page points the user back to the core links. via socialfresh and Empire Cat

Things take a sillier turn with this Russian construction company. The animated ‘under construction’ scene is relevant to what they do, but with the oddly captivating dancing stick man and cheesy Russian pop, you could actually linger and spend some time on this page. There is only one link back to the home page though, and it isn’t very obvious. via Gizmodo and kvartirakrasivo.ru

Lets take a step back. There are a minority of construction companies and product manufacturers doing these sorts of things. Very few are even capturing opt-in email addresses to build their own list, or using 404 pages to redirect people, let alone add a bit of humour to the mix. Do you have any examples? Let me know in the comments.

Further reading on FIWTSBS (Find Interesting Ways To Say Boring Stuff), and more highlights from Ann’s keynote presentation at: Ann Handley’s Fight For Good Content vs. Good Enough Content.

Making construction industry writing interesting

Over the years I have written about some pretty boring stuff. Cast iron bollards, hardwood benches and stainless steel drainage channel covers. It became a running joke that my colleagues and I were ‘street furniture nerds’. When out and about, you’d point out elements of the urban environment, to the bemusement of your friends.

However, the audience we write for, as construction industry marketers, aren’t interesting in ‘sexed up’ content – they just want the technical information. This is a phrase I’ve heard time and again, in different forms and from different angles, over the years.

In fact, the seemingly boring aspects of a product are often the most important. Is it 304 or 316 stainless steel? The answer is vitally important if the project is the renovation of a seaside promenade.

Companies often struggle to tell a compelling story in their case studies. Here’s another example – the you are selling tens of thousands of tons of gravel, how can you make it interesting? Your quarry has an on-site technical lab, testing the stone to ensure the material is of the necessary hardness – pretty nerdy, who is going to care about that? But this lab, and the fact that vast quantities of the material are held in stock at the yard and are dispatched daily via a fleet of loyal local hauliers becomes the critical element. The contractor had the guaranteed supply they needed to complete an important road infrastructure project.

These seemingly boring details could be the difference between a multi-million pound project finishing on time and on budget, or becoming a public relations fiasco, eroding the trust of investors or local people.

So for construction, I say don’t strive to make the writing overly interesting. Focus on the boring details – these are what keep the construction industry moving, they are what specifiers need. They just want the technical information.

Content marketing videos for construction: lessons from #TCMA2016

June 4, 2016 by Owen 2 Comments

I have just attended The Content Marketing Academy 2016 conference. What have I learned that I can teach the construction industry? The inspiring international speakers I listened to included: video authority Amy Schmittauer; writer and content intellect Ann Handley; strategist Bert Van Loon; and author, social media and content expert Mark Schaefer.

Your videos will be a useful archive

Amy Schmittauer highlighted the increase in video on social media and online generally. Every video is an opportunity – with YouTube being a massive search engine, you can invest in an evergreen archive of content, and the aim should be to make it useful for people – not a sales pitch.

Don’t make adverts

Ann Handley reinforced this idea with an example of an instagram video that was ‘just a commercial’ – the stark lack of views, likes and comments was testament to the fact that people just don’t choose to watch your content unless it carries some genuine value for them.

It’s easy to get started

Amy pointed out that the processing power of your smartphone outweighs that of the computer that put men on the moon hundreds of times. It’s easier than ever to just get started making video.

The barriers to entry are low but higher barriers are put up by ourselves – fear of gear, fear of personality and fear of ROI. It’s important to get over these and just get started – you’ll soon be improving and way ahead of your competition. A bit of personality and ‘being human’ is often lacking in construction brands.

The human connection

From several of the speakers, we learned that the human connection can result in very powerful marketing. In my opinion there is an opportunity for the boldest in construction to steal a march by adopting this tactic. Playing it safe won’t get you far.

As Mark Schaefer highlighted later in the day, the opportunity is even bigger if your market sector is not already saturated with large amounts of content. Video is definitely an underused medium in construction so the chance to differentiate yourself from your competitors is massive.

Construction video ideas

How could video be used in construction? Here are a few of my quick-fire ideas:

technical tutorials on how your product is made – educate the specifiers!
how to install the product – educate the contractors!
a human story on how your product or project impacted the community – create a strong connection with the end users! (like this example from IWA Associates below)

#GardeningScotland show garden – @iwastirling with @ScotWarBlinded at @gardenscotland from iwastirling on Vimeo.

Training as marketing

Ann Handley later told how ‘training as marketing’ is a powerful concept and I believe this is a perfect fit for the construction industry. Construction product manufacturers aim at a highly qualified, technical audience but architects (or other specifiers) are generalists, not specialists. They often have to research products and learn more about them, in order to do their job of designing a safe and effective building.

Become a teacher in your area, and the technical audience will thank you for it. Using video for this type of content can bring your product to life – make it like an online CPD not a sales pitch.

How ebooks are perfect for construction marketing

May 29, 2016 by Owen 1 Comment

Do you ever find these sorts of enquiries coming in to your business? Those that are time consuming to convert, or where people say your price is too high after they receive a proposal. They may be residential customers, who are not a priority for your company. Or the site they are working on, or the application, might not be suitable for your product.

Creating a detailed ebook can help to solve these problems.
There are two main ways they work for you:

1) to attract people in, so that when they contact you, they are very warm leads
2) to prequalify enquiries, and make the sales process easier and more effective

1) attracting people

Ebooks, when written properly, are an attractive, helful resource for your audience. A good construction marketing ebook should explain the challenges that your specifier or buyer needs to overcome – the information should not solely be centred around your product, but should provide well-researched, useful, actionable advice on many of your ideal customer’s related topics and challenges.

Your prospects download the ebook themselves, after browsing your website or noticing a call to action somewhere else – on your social media channels, for example.

(As the quality and value of your ebook is high, it’s fair to ask for the person’s email address in return for downloading it. This is a great way to add to your opt-in email list.)

Clients will be self-selecting – after reading your material, they’ll know if the products or services are right for them. They’ll already know about your products or services in depth, and may be much closer to making a buying decision, or be in a position to specify. If they contact you after reading, they’ll be a very warm lead – you are creating better quality enquiries and ensuring that the right type of people contact you.

2) prequalifying

Alternatively you can send the ebook to people who email or call you, to pre-qualify your enquiries. This approach is known as ‘assignment selling’ – you give people an assignment to do before taking the enquiry further.

The ebook can be used to explain and answer the common questions the people pose. Do you find a lot of time is spent explaining the same things? Or are there a common set of potential problems that people want to be reassured about? You can answer these once, in depth, and quickly send the information to people before following up for a further meeting. (In addition to, or instead of using ebooks, you can use blog posts, podcasts and videos for assignment selling.)

In construction marketing, ebooks can shorten your sales cycle, reducing the time spent answering questions about your products or services – issues like sitework and preparation, compatibility, methods of installation, potential problems, options and how these affect price. It is worthwhile addressing how your product/service compares to alternatives – if your product is not right for the designer’s application, better to uncover that early. Or, if you aren’t the cheapest manufacturer in your sector, you want to avoid wasting time on people whose primary requirement is price. If the prospect can’t afford you, but want the product/service, they may come back in a year or two when working on a project that does have the budget to accommodate your product. A good ebook is not just a thinly-veiled list of the features and benefits of your products – that’s your brochure!

For example, one of your USPs might be that you can produce products in grade 316 stainless steel, finished so that they are resilient in salty, coastal environments. You could prepare an ebook outlining the broader design considerations for an exposed scheme – including how other materials that you don’t specialise in are affected, such as woods; concrete, render and natural stone. If you aim at landscape architects, you could even look at what types of planting will be resilient in the areas that your product is often specified for.

This is one of the key principles in content marketing – producing content that your audience actively wants to consume because it is helpful to them and doesn’t only push your sales message.

Construction marketing ebooks – examples and further reading

Best practice example: AC Architects introduction to self build
SIG Design Technology: Green Roof guides (informative article with downloads at the bottom)
The Sales Lion on Assignment Selling
Pauley Creative on white papers
Hubspot on eBooks vs white papers
Hubspot free eBook templates

Social media for the construction industry

April 27, 2016 by Owen Leave a Comment

How can social media be used to create value for your construction industry business? Social media is accessible – it’s easy to create an account and start posting updates, to broaden your network and strengthen relationships. But getting it right can be difficult.

Don’t broadcast

It has been said that using social media to put out information solely about your company or business is like walking into a pub, scattering business cards in front of people, and leaving.
A broadcast-only approach to social media won’t be effective – don’t be the person that turns up on social media doing all the wrong things.

Social media is social

In my experience, the best value on social media comes when a discussion develops.
Having genuine conversations with real people on social media is the most useful activity, and is where it will to broaden and strengthen your network.

This takes time and effort. Arguably the really valuable connections are made one person at a time. You can get Twitter followers and Facebook likes, but on their own these are relatively weak relationships. In order to turn these weak connections into strong ones you need to be sociable and take the time to get to know people.

What platform?

There are so many – Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, even Snapchat. It’s best to use a small number of platforms effectively rather than try to be on them all.

Be where your audience is. What social networks are your clients on? If you don’t know, ask them!

Which one you should use should also be determined by your content strategy. What content will you be using to create value for your audience? The platform you use is part of your content strategy.

These are big questions that require research and a well thought-through plan.

How to create value for your audience

If you only push your sales message on social media, you’ll turn people away. You need to share content that is of value to your audience, so they will actively want to follow, click through, download, sign up, or subscribe. The content could be your own or someone else’s.

In a construction industry context, valuable content could be:

‘how to design’ or ‘how to specify’ guidance articles
technical advice on your products (but don’t make it a sales pitch)
inspirational design examples
commentary on new architecture, interiors or external schemes
expert commentary on legislation or standards
or even something light hearted and entertaining, depending on the platform!

Have clear goals in mind

To ensure your social media efforts are effective, it is wise to have clear objectives in mind.

Is it simply brand awareness you are after? This can be an indistinct goal and is very hard to measure. But in the beginning, it is the initial result you’ll get.
To be seen as a technical expert for architects
To be seen as a company that can solve design challenges
As a company with beautifully designed products
To be a first point of call for customer service
Community outreach and corporate social responsibility.
Gathering sales leads – only aim for this further down the line

How to grow your network

Start by following people you know – are your existing contacts or customers on the platform? Sending an email to your list asking if you can follow them is likely to garner more reaction than asking them to follow you.

Your staff may well already be using a social media platform and discussing their work
If your staff are already enthusiastic on social media, can this give you a leg up?
Your staff can be your best brand advocates and ambassadors
They may be leading the way already, or they may need training
They can share your updates to their networks and be the ‘real person’ face of your company

Social media construction: paid advertising?

Most social media services, like Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, are maturing. As businesses, they need to make money, and if you want to reach your audience, they are increasingly pay-to-play platforms.

If you are thinking of advertising, it is worth getting an experienced consultant to help. To get good value for money a patient approach – be willing to test and re-test your ads until they start to generate the results you want.

Content marketing for construction

April 5, 2016 by Owen 1 Comment

What is content marketing?

It’s about building an audience that knows, likes and trusts you. It is said that 80% of the buying decision is made offline, before a customer gets in touch with you. The objective is to publish hepful, valuable, free content that is targeted to your audience’s needs, so that. As a result, you can become a trusted expert in your sector.

Content Marketing is an approach, and a communication philosophy, that is ideally suited to the construction industry.

Helping and educating

Content marketing is about creating content that focuses on your audience first, and addresses their needs by being genuinely helpful.
Become a teacher in your sector, educate them and answer their questions. Over time this boost your reputation in the industry and will generate better quality enquiries for you.

Learn more about content marketing for the construction industry from my other posts on this topic.

Case Studies for the Construction industry

April 5, 2016 by Owen Leave a Comment

Well-written case studies are one of the most effective marketing tools in the construction sector. How can you create a compelling story around how your product has been used in a real-world example? This can attract more readers than product promotions and PR-type news items. Why is this?

Proven use
For most construction products, an architect or specifier will take on risk when specifying a product they have not used before. They look for reassurance that a product has been proven to work successfully in schemes elsewhere.

CPD
Even if someone isn’t specifying your product at that moment in time, an interesting, detailed case study holds professional interest for many construction professionals. There is an element of CPD in reading how a product was used to solve a particular problem. You can teach people about a project more broadly, rather than just your involvement in it.

The story
An interesting story is pleasant to read! In addition to CPD, people enjoy reading a well-told story. Big consumer brands are using storytelling to create deep connections with their customers – there is no reason why this technique can’t be used in construction.

Bespoke capabilities
Construction product manufacturers often have very specialist skills. The ability to engineer bespoke products to meet specific requirements can be difficult to promote without blowing your own trumpet too loudly. Showing specific examples of these skills, rather than telling people about them is an effective way to demonstrate your expertise.

The soft sell
Showing your products and services in the context of a case studies ‘sell without selling’.

Content for Construction Products

April 5, 2016 by Owen Leave a Comment

What is the best way to write about your construction products? Are you aiming at architects, landscape architects, engineers or interior designers?

Buyers and specifiers in the construction industry say “we just want the technical information”, time and again.

This audience needs clear, concise accurate technical information, that is easy to read and is written in an authoritative tone of voice.

Now of course, you want to convey the features, benefits and unique selling points of your product but on the other hand, your audience don’t want the hard sell. If you exaggerate the benefits or fill your writing with promotional language, at best, you will make it harder for people to select your product for their project. At worst, you’ll turn them away completely.

What the buying decision often comes down to is whether the materials, dimensions and other technical features meet there requirement. To make these decisions, they need detailed technical information.

Find the balance between technical information and promotion – reading more of my posts on product content and my writing tips.

Happy 30th Birthday ChrisP

December 21, 2010 by Owen Leave a Comment

Today is the 30th birthday of my brother Chris, and as he has been a bit of a cycling inspiration to me, I thought I would mark this with a blog post.

I’ve previously featured him in a post about mountain biking in the jungles of Borneo, and climbing unscaled peaks in Afghanistan – this boy is a world traveller and adventurer.

Here he is back in 1995, racing his mountain bike at Innerliethen I believe. We both started mountain biking around the same time, him on a Raleigh Lizard and me on an Edinburgh Contour 100. Although I was three years older he was generally as good as me, and quickly overtook. I raced a couple of times at Bonaly, Edinburgh up the steep climb there and round a reservoir, and bombed badly. Chris took to it much better though.

He developed his bike obsession in his early years, baffling me by dismantling the bearings in his Giant on the kitchen floor. He then progressed to a Kona Lava Dome, modifying it the forks, groupset, bars, just about everything. This remained his bike for many years.

Later in life, living on a tidy Swiss academic salary he got a road bike, and not to be outdone, I followed suit. I have since caught the roadie bug bigtime and this is probably the only area in which I have outdone my wee brother, in cycling terms. Happy Birthday Brother!

First ascent of Koh-I-Beefy, 5410m, Afghan Hindu Kush 2009

December 3, 2009 by Owen Leave a Comment

“Sandwiched between troubled Northern Pakistan and the Tajik Pamirs is an awesome 200km chain of unclimbed glaciated peaks reaching up to 7500m — the Afghan Hindu Kush. A team of five British/New Zealand guys (including a glaciologist, conservation biologists, a grassland ecologist and a BBC researcher) headed deep into this remote mountain range, their aim to climb a new 6000m+ mountain in the completely unexplored Qala I Hurst valley of the Wakhan corridor but also to collect crucial data on glacial temperature fluxes to contribute to ongoing work on glacial recession and more immediately crucial (for the population) – snowmelt water resources in the region.

A trekking trip last year to the ruggedly beautiful Wakhan corridor in NE Afghanistan, together with a deep belief in the importance of well-managed tourism for remote and desperately poor mountain communities in the region – spurred me into organizing a return climbing expedition this summer.

Our objective, the Qala-I-Hurst Valley, is one of the many high altitude valleys dominated by jagged peaks in the Afghan Hindu Kush – the valley itself had only been visited once before by climbers and all peaks remained unclimbed.

The North ridge of Koh-I-Beefy, 5410m (in memory of Jamie ‘Beefy’ Fiddes) was climbed third time lucky – previous attempts were thwarted by heavy snowfall and ‘Dal’ induced sickness! The route would rate as around Alpine Grade AD+/D-, pitches of ice at Scottish IV, and easy rock to UIAA II. Descent was by snow bollards and Abakalovs. Route length 600m.

Fantastically stable weather, great rock and ice, countless unclimbed peaks, together with the incredible hospitality of local Wakhi people make this a very special region to climb/hike in. This is one of the last unexplored mountaineering destinations that our shrinking world has to offer – and a true adventure!

This hidden mountain kingdom is a world away from the troubles of ‘mainland’ Afghanistan both geographically and culturally. While not an obvious travel destination in the current political climate – a trip to the Wakhan is certainly not a crazy idea. Challenge your perceptions of Afghanistan and check out – http://www.mountainunity.org/ or come see us at the Kendal Mountain festival 19 – 22nd Nov for a chat.

We will be heading back out there next year with the aim of climbing the stunning granite and ice clad pyramid of the 6500m Baba Tangi and further supporting the return of expeditions to this magical part of the world.

A big thank you to our fantastic local guide Gorg Ali, David James at Mountain Unity and Rab for the gear they supplied; all three helped make this expedition a great success. We were especially impressed with Rab’s ‘grass root’ support for our small expedition – increasingly rare in world of outdoor gear manufacturers.

Rab Kit used:
Rab Bivi tents (bomb proof, small footprint or mountain pitches, pitch in a flash, snow collecting/pee hole out back) Vapour-rise tops/bottoms (lived in them), Photon Hoody (super cosy for its weight, great hood), Neutrino down (super cosy and light – kept us toasty when things got a bit crappy) all awesome bits of kit which contributed to making the climb successful.”
http://www.rab.uk.com

Expedition leader Joel Fiddes