When researching or shopping for building products online, we’re often faced with sign-up forms: Sign up to learn more, to access downloads, to create an account that will make your shopping experience easier.

Sometimes these forms are simple: they take seconds to complete because they’re short, clear and user-friendly.

Other times, they require information that we don’t know off the top of our heads, we’re not sure exactly what certain forms are asking for, or they’re just so long that we don’t have time to complete them.

This is when we revert back to the Google homepage and look elsewhere.

People don’t like parting with their personal information at the best of times, and if your forms ask for too much too early in the buyer’s journey, your website visitors are likely to find what they’re looking for on a different website.

This leaves you with limited leads, limited customers and essentially, limited sales.

But, with short forms, your conversion rates will soar.

Let’s think carefully about what information you really need from your website visitors when they first sign up for something on your building products website.

The websites ranked at the top of Google listings are the sites that Google deems most relevant and trustworthy for search enquiries.

If your website ranks below the first few results, visitors are unlikely to click through to your page – and if you’re not on the first page of results, you can pretty much guarantee that no-one will scroll far enough to find you.

Do you know what website visitors are doing when they’re on your site?

If they’re not converting, why not?

There’s always a reason why a visitor decides not to buy your product, download your guide, or book a meeting.

With Insynth’s technology, you can track user behaviour, identify the reasons why visitors aren’t converting and make an informed judgement about how to adapt your website for the next visitor’s conversion.

Well-designed online forms convert website visitors into leads, which is why they should be core to your building product brand’s lead generation strategy.

Once a visitor provides their details, it’s important to nurture them throughout their buying process until a sale has been closed and you’ve exceeded their customer service expectations.

But you can’t close sales unless your forms are generating high-quality leads. Here are the tips and tricks you need to use form analytics to ensure that the forms on your building products website convert successfully.

So, you’re a building products manufacturer with a website that clearly displays all your construction products, but you’re just not getting specified by architects, and you’re wondering why.

Is it possible that you’re guilty of the four pet hates of architects?

It’s time to find out.

Today, Insynth met with marketing and sales executives from construction companies across the UK for a seminar hosted by CEO, Leigh Simpson, on transforming digital marketing strategy for business growth.

Sponsored by Barbour ABI, Insynth's seminar gave insights into content marketing, promotion, video, SEO and ever-evolving technology, sparking conversation amongst guests. 

Here's an overview of today's digital marketing lessons.

Recently, we to spoke a company that had tried content marketing and had given up after a couple of months.  They’d written a handful of blog posts, but once the blog posts were live, nothing happened.

They didn’t gain any leads and their traffic barely increased.  The company concluded that no-one was interested in reading their blog posts.

But questions exist around every topic.  Humans have an innate curiosity; they want to know why, and then, they want to know how.

If your blogging strategy isn’t consistent and optimised to answer your prospects’ questions, it might seem that no-one’s interested in reading your content.  But, if you blog for your construction market, there’s always ways to bring traffic to your building products website, attract leads and maximise sales.

Blogging, when done right, can work for everyone.  

Insynth explained to the company that a few unconnected blog posts aren’t enough.  To drive results, they need to treat construction blogging like growing an orchard.  Just as trees in an orchard need consistent nurturing to be healthy, blog content needs to be gradually built up to drive traffic.

Here’s how you can grow blogging as part of your construction content marketing strategy to reap the fruits of your labour.

As construction marketers, Insynth often work with building product manufacturers whose aim is for their products to be specified by architects, consultants and engineers. 

But, all too often, building product manufactures aren’t sure what architects are looking for.

They tend to ask us the same question:

‘What content should be included on our website to appeal to architects?’

Insynth have conducted research with architects to establish exactly what they are looking for on a building product manufacturer’s website.

Contrary to common misconception, your website design doesn’t need to be a glossy marketing brochure.  Architects are looking for clear, concise information that gets straight to the point. 

Architects are looking for information and inspiration.

Here are the 10 main things that architects are looking for when they land on your building products website.

Insynth are delighted to congratulate in-house Digital Content Marketer, Abby Buchan-Howard on graduating from the University of Wolverhampton with a first-class degree in Creative & Professional Writing and English.

As 3 of over 24,000 attendees from just one of 110 countries involved, Insynth travelled to the USA for the 2018 INBOUND conference: three days of keynote and breakout sessions, brimming with learning, inspiration and connection.

Hosted by HubSpot, the Inbound sessions covered everything from content tricks, to SEO techniques, to the neuroscience of engagement.

We're ready to offer the secrets uncovered at the conference for our clients. 

Below, you'll find links to our live-blogs of sessions that will help you to meet your marketing goals.

Each category of Inbound sessions brings a wealth of new, inspirational tips that are designed to help your building products company grow better.

With the rise of voice search and evolving Google algorithms, many are beginning to question whether keywords are still important in the modern world.

Since one piece of content can rank for a range of keywords, the focus is on quality, not quantity. The focus should no longer be on keywords, but on key topics.

Here's how you can keep your keyword research and SEO strategies alive in the context of modern search.

90% of customers say that video helps them make buying decision and 65% say that seeing video makes them more likely to buy.

Here's how you can make brand videos with next to no cost to increase your sales in under 20 minutes, maybe under 10, and just possibly, under 5.

Scott Harrison opened the final day of the 2018 Inbound conference with his inspirational story about changing his life to bring good to others.

Scott talks about how you can change your story to change your life - and the lives of others - and this applies to business too.

Through Scott's organisation, Charity: Water, millions of lives have been saved through the provision of safe drinking water. You can save lives too.

How do you create content that sticks in your audience's minds?

How do you leave your readers with questions?

How can you tell compelling stories?

These are the questions that Nadya Khoja answers in her 2018 Inbound Conference session. With her answers, you too can create viral content.

'The hard part isn't coming up with ideas. It's picking the best ones' - Brittany Berger

Quality isn't about the number of blog posts that you publish. It's about the number of qualified leads that you can generate from compelling content.

Here's how you can remix and re-purpose content strategically to generate leads without constantly running on the hamster wheel of content creation.

'Your actions are a huge part of your story' - Lisa Gerber

Humans are wired for stories. We don't remember statistics; we remember how we felt when he heard hard-hitting, emotional stories.

But telling stories takes work, thought and time if you want to connect with your audience.

Here are the powerful techniques that you need to implement for your stories to resonate with your readers and generate leads.

'Customers are people first and buyers second.' - Patrika Alis Cheston

No matter what your product is, you're marketing to customers. Even for 'boring' products, people care about their experience with your brand.

Focus on meeting the need instead of selling the product. 

Here's how you can make sure you're always talking your customers' language.

Are you regularly blogging? Updating your social media accounts? Emailing your leads?

And are you often featured in newspapers, magazines and other media outlets?

No? There are so many uncovered methods of getting press coverage for your company. And it's all about getting credibility to gain authority in the marketplace.

But remember, 'you can't be vanilla if you want to engage with the press' - Janet Murray.

'Create content that deserves to rank' - Adam Piotrowski.

When people search online, they're looking for quick answers. 

They don't want to scroll for information.

When there isn't a featured snippet, searchers may look at the first few results. But featured snippets take up the same room as around 3 search results, so viewers are unlikely to scroll any further when one appears at the top of their page.

Featured snippets currently only appear in around 12.2% of search results, and when there is a featured snippet, only 19.6% of people will click on results beneath the snippet.

This means that there's plenty of room to win featured snippets, and when you do your website traffic will soar.

'Create journeys fuelled by an undercurrent of emotional value.'

In Karin Krisher's storytelling session at the Inbound 2018 Conference, Karin discussed the secrets of framing your company stories with emotional context.

Emotion needs to be integrated into the six main narrative elements: plot, character, theme, conflict and setting.

Here's why.

'What is the relationship between a great story and change?' - The question that Bridgit-Antoinette Evans opened her session at the 2018 Inbound conference with.

To answer this, you'll need your imagination.

Bridgit focuses on brand-building and compelling stories that resonate. She discusses how to change customer perception and create positive impact through media and communications.

53% of B2B buyers said they would prefer to gather information online and not have to talk to sales (Forrester Research, Inc). The unpleasant truth is, most people don't want to talk to you.

Gaetano DiNardi's session at the Inbound 2018 conference teaches important lessons in leveraging technology to build a modern sales process to maximise results.

Here's what you can apply from Gaetano's lead generation tips and tricks.

Think about what boredom means to you. Is it guilt about wasting time? Loss of incentive or purpose? Lack of concentration?

Neuro-scientifically speaking, some people are biologically more prone to becoming bored than others. Those who are less likely to become bored tend to have a clear purpose, mature interpersonal relationships and autonomy. But what if you're lacking these things?

Here are our key takeaways from Carmen Simon's session on The Neuroscience of Engagement at the 2018 Inbound conference.

If you’re an architect, you’ve more than likely completed an array of projects that could be shared on an architectural blog to develop authority, expand your website traffic and generate new leads.

When you combine technical, descriptive writing with a strong architectural blog design, you can build a solid online presence, improve your web rankings and reach a wider audiences to win new commissions.  This is all part of a winning construction content marketing strategy.

Having a blog or news page on your website is core to your content marketing for building products strategy.

Blogging allows you to keep your clients and prospects up to date with your construction news, building product updates and current market insights.  By providing them with educational content that builds authority, you’ll encourage them to engage with you instead of your competitors. 

Your blog helps you to build rapport with your prospects.  When you regularly update it, you’ll constantly be fresh in the minds of your readers, and they’ll be more likely to convert into leads.

In fact, B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than companies who don’t (HubSpot). 

Read on to find out how you can generate more leads by getting the most out of your construction blog or news page.

One of the core principles of construction inbound marketing is aligning your marketing and sales teams so that you can provide holistic services that close leads and delight your clients. 

When your sales and marketing teams are aligned, your brand message will be amplified and your services will be more consistent, helpful and customer-centric. 

This is why marketeers in smaller building product companies wear many hats when driving growth for their clients.  One of these hats is the sales services hat.

But you don't have to be a sales guru to provide value to your prospects...

Content sharing is full of reciprocal benefits.  When you collaborate with reputable companies in the construction space, you can expand your audience, generate a stash of backlinks to improve your domain authority and increase your website traffic.

And although it may not seem obvious, you have so many collaboration and guest-blogging opportunities.  Your clients?  Guest blog for them.  Suppliers?  Share testimonials.  What about any events or campaigns that your products or services were pivotal in?  There’s a case study waiting to be written.

It’s time to begin.

Negativity can manifest in a variety of ways on social media: written abuse from trolls, emojis, seemingly light-hearted comments that are actually damaging.  All attack your building product company’s brand credibility, and all require a response.

Learn how to respond to negative comments on social media to preserve your building product company reputation while solving your customers’ problems, even when they’re not your fault.

Overcome the fear of social media with our tips for social media marketing.

But, why is this important?

Because 1 in 3 social media users prefer to use social media customer care services over telephone or email.

Because 67% of social media users seek resolutions using Facebook and Twitter.

Because nearly 70% of consumers use social media to resolve customer service issues.

And the companies who offer social media customer care get 20 – 40% more business.

Building a social media strategy for your building products company?

Use our glossary of social media terms to support your construction marketing strategy.  With our glossary, you can explore every corner of a variety of social media channels before jumping in and sharing your content with the world.

It can be difficult enough to know which social media platforms to use when marketing your building products company, let alone understand the most effective times to upload your content.

But with our simple guide, you can find out how to strategically schedule your social media posts for maximum visibility and engagement.

Think you haven’t got time to respond to your followers on social media?  Think again.

Your responses tell consumers whether they can trust your building products brand.  If you don’t respond, consumers won’t trust you, and you’ll quickly lose business to your competitors.

Responding to your prospects on social media is as important as responding to their calls and emails.  Ironically, not responding is actually a form of response.  When you don’t respond, you ignore your followers. 

You wouldn’t ignore them in the street, so why would you ignore them online?  That just doesn’t make sense, yet so many companies feel that they ‘don’t have time.’

But surely responding to a message is just basic manners?

Read on to find out how you can respond to your followers to convert them into leads.

Compared to other social media platforms, LinkedIn is more of an editorial and publishing focused channel.

As the most professional social media platform, LinkedIn is the ideal place to share construction academia and articles to stay up to date with industry topics and engage in conversation with other building product sellers and users.

Pinterest is a platform for finding and providing inspiration, particularly for potential purchasers. 

Ideal for building products companies who can showcase the practicality of their products in images and graphics, Pinterest is a highly visual platform.  If you’ve got eye-catching, original photographs of your construction materials, Pinterest is the place to upload and share them.  Remember, people are highly visual, and photos are the most effective means of remembering products.

While Pinterest isn’t one of the most widely used social media platforms, it is up there with the most popular platforms for product research.  93% of Pinterest users are active on the site for purchase research, and over two thirds of users have discovered new brands using the site.

Facebook is the most popular, widely-used social media channel.  Pretty much everyone uses it, from your boss, to your grandma.  By using Facebook to share your company’s product and service details, you can access a huge market, creating a community around your building products business.

There are 4.021 billion internet users in the world.  3.196 billion of these are social media users, and more are joining social media platforms every day.  This is where your future customers are waiting for you, so make the most of social media for your building products company.

But a building products social profile is only worthwhile if you give people a reason to follow or connect with you.

You’ll need to constantly update your social media channels with fresh content if you what to continuously reach prospects and hold their interest in your construction business.  Social media marketing requires constant upkeep and effort.

Having said that, this guide will give you all the important tips to manage your social media accounts as efficiently and easily as possible.

When blogging, you always need to be sure of why it is that you’re writing.  What is it that you want to achieve?  What’s the point of this post?  Your overarching goal?

These are some big questions.

Perhaps the best place to start is to consider why it's important to blog about construction and building products at all.

Are you researching marketing agencies and looking for a construction marketing agency to bring reality to your building product growth goals?

Now that we are 6 months into the year 2018, how well is your construction content marketing performing?  How are your content marketing campaigns coming along?  It's tragically common for advertisers and business visionaries to set far-reaching New Year's resolutions, only to see their motivation and exertion slack a couple of months later.

How many people confess that they’ve questioned whether content marketing really works?

Maybe you’ve read countless construction blogs before sitting down to write your own and are wondering whether it’s worth the effort.

It’s important to remember that while it’s easy to write, it’s not easy to write well.  Your content needs to support and impact the overall success of your business.  It needs to stand out from competition .  You don’t want to be shouting along with the rest of the chorus at the back of the stage.

So, is it worth it ?

Charlotte McCormac brings a passion for writing and a first-class degree in English to the role.

Shropshire based construction marketing specialist, Insynth, is delighted to announce the appointment of Charlotte McCormac as their new digital content marketer. Charlotte is responsible for creating exciting content for clients, as well as search engine optimisation and implementing inbound marketing strategies. Charlotte will be producing blogs, eBooks and whitepapers, as well as managing social media channels.