Construction Content Archives

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.