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Freya Oxton-Grant

Freya Oxton-Grant

Freya is a Digital Content Marketing Consultant at Insynth Marketing Ltd. She has a passion for all things marketing and an eye for creative details.

Recent posts by Freya Oxton-Grant

11 min read

Construction Marketing Strategies for Success in 2022

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 13-Jan-2022 15:45:00

We’ve picked the latest construction marketing trends that can help your building product business reach your targets for the next 12-months.

Topics: Trends
7 min read

Website Metrics You Should Be Tracking To Measure Your Inbound Marketing Success

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 30-Jul-2021 10:53:53

How well does your website perform? How hard does it work for your building product or construction company? Do you even know how to find out?

Outstanding websites that convert architects to returning customers requires an investment, both time and money, and you need to know what your return is on that investment.

If your website was one of your sales reps, would you let them off not meeting their key performance objectives or quotas? Would you be happy to just give them a pat on the back, and say, “Just try your best!”? No… I didn’t think so.

Topics: Content Marketing Website Inbound Marketing
6 min read

Content Marketing VS PPC – Who Will Win?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 22-Jul-2021 16:10:24

Many building product businesses used paid search advertising to promote awareness of their products and services, often forking out in the thousands to fund campaigns each month.

But over the past few years, performance for paid advertising has been declining, with costs going up and results going down.

We’ve heard of businesses whose month on month cost per click and customer acquisition costs are increasing while their sales conversion rates are plummeting.

But what’s the alternative? Well, content marketing of course.

In this article, we will put content marketing and PPC head-to-head to see who really delivers when it comes to sales and revenue.

Topics: Content Marketing SEO Lead Generation
6 min read

The 3 Pillars of SEO Success That Boost Rankings

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 08-Jul-2021 18:19:48

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a key element to any digital marketing strategy. There’s no point in having a website if it isn’t optimised to drive web traffic to it.

Topics: SEO
19 min read

A Complete Guide to Sales and Marketing Alignment In Construction

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 30-Jun-2021 16:24:39

There are many reasons why Sales and Marketing teams can be misaligned. Usually, it traces back to the issue that they are under different mandates, have different goals, and are tracked using differing metrics.

There can also be tensions that arise between the two teams – “Well, I did my part!”

If these are the sort of issues in your business, you may want to continue reading as in this post we will be covering everything you need to know to diagnose, fix, and ensure sales and marketing alignment for your building product business.

Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
5 min read

What is a CPD?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 29-Jun-2021 15:24:08

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development and is the term used to describe the professional learning activities available in multiple industries to develop their learning and abilities.

Topics: CPD
4 min read

RIBA CPD Through The Eyes of The Specifier

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 21-Jun-2021 10:00:00

As a building product manufacturer, it’s useful to understand exactly what architects want out of a CPD, in order to create and provide one that meets those requirements. If your CPD is valuable, engaging and memorable, the greater chances you have of your building products being specified.

Topics: Content Marketing CPD
8 min read

10 Things You Need to Know When Considering a Construction Marketing Agency

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 09-Jun-2021 12:11:32

If you’re planning on knuckling down on your construction marketing strategy and are considering a specialist marketing agency to help you supercharge your business growth, then there are many things you might not have thought about.

Topics: Content Marketing
8 min read

10 Construction Marketing Ideas

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 01-Jun-2021 11:00:00

If you are taking the opportunity to rethink your goals and get strategies set in place for how your building product business can continue to move forward and grow, then this is the perfect article for you.

Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
6 min read

Should Sales and Marketing Be One Department?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 29-Apr-2021 15:47:44

It’s a polarising question.

Topics: Content Marketing
5 min read

Best Practice for the Marketing to Sales Handoff

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 13-Apr-2021 16:58:57

Optimising and improving your building product business’ lead management process is an important aspect towards really getting the most out of your sales and marketing activities.

Topics: Content Marketing
4 min read

How Sales and Marketing Alignment Can Benefit ABM

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 29-Mar-2021 17:07:40

Sales and marketing alignment is all about getting your sales and marketing teams on the same page, working collaboratively to achieve the same goals. When both come together and support each other’s activities, you can achieve maximum efficiency and productivity, boosting your ROI and increasing revenue.

Topics: Content Marketing
9 min read

The One Key Thing That Sales and Marketing Alignment Relies On

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 11-Mar-2021 17:04:10

If your building product business is struggling with: 

  • Not meeting your sales KPIs 
  • Suffering from low conversion rates 
  • Or not having a sales forecast that you can rely on 

Then your business is probably struggling from poor sales and marketing alignment. 

Topics: Content Marketing MarTech
5 min read

How to Create an SLA for Your Building Product Business?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 25-Feb-2021 18:30:00

A key pillar to a strong alignment between sales and marketing in any business is a Service Level Agreement (SLA). If your building product business is suffering from slow lead follow-up or disjointed marketing to sales hand-off, then an SLA is the perfect piece to introduce - to solve your misalignment dilemmas.

An SLA is an important document that builds trust and collaboration between your previously siloed sales and marketing teams. Both departments come together to work on the ideal blueprint their teams should be working from. It sets down on paper exactly what is expected from each team which helps to contribute towards more successful lead conversions.

In this article, we will discuss what a Service Level Agreement is, why it’s important, and how to implement it into your building product business.

Topics: Content Marketing
4 min read

How Lead Scoring Can Help Align Your Sales and Marketing Teams

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 10-Feb-2021 17:44:30

Aligning your sales and marketing teams is a key goal in making sure your building product business is running smoothly and efficiently. When sales and marketing are out of sync, it affects your growth, your bottom line, and your team’s morale.

When you make driving alignment between sales and marketing a key priority, you not only get everyone on the same page - working together on the same goals - but you will also experience an average growth of 20% in annual revenue, according to Aberdeen Group.

Topics: Content Marketing
4 min read

How Sales Enablement Helps With Sales and Marketing Alignment

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 26-Jan-2021 17:02:09

Both marketing and sales departments have one goal in common: helping their business grow.

Topics: Content Marketing
7 min read

10 Building Products Content Marketing Essentials For 2021

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 06-Jan-2021 16:29:42

For owners, MD's, CEO's, sales teams and marketing depts of building products businesses, learning how to grow your business better in the digital age is essential for 2021.

Within this, transforming your business through content marketing is guaranteed to help your brand stand out against your competitors. It will generate incredible ROI for your company, generating leads and improving rankings on Google.

Topics: Content Marketing
5 min read

Why Sustainability Matters In 2021 For Building Products Businesses

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 28-Dec-2020 10:30:00

As we enter 2021, and the rest of the 2020’s, this decade holds a great opportunity for the UK’s construction industry to take action towards improving sustainability in the industry.

As the mounting effects of climate change, a growing world population, and rising levels of urbanisation become more unmistakeable, the need for a sustainable future is becoming increasingly critical.

With the construction and building product industry contributing a significant share of global carbon emissions, energy consumption, and waste production, now is the time to start making smarter and more sustainable decisions, to reap the rewards in the future, and prevent permanent climate damage before it’s too late.

7 min read

7 B2B Email Marketing Predictions for 2021

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 17-Dec-2020 14:57:17

With a global pandemic, 2020 was a real kickstart for construction and building product businesses to embrace digital. One key digital channel, that was an easy replacement for face-to-face meetings, is email marketing. According to HubSpot, emails were up by 27% from pre-coronavirus levels.

With over 3.7 billion active email users worldwide, email is booming. Getting yourself in your prospect’s inbox is the first step in building a customer relationship with them, allowing you to stand out and keep top of mind against your competition.

Topics: Content Marketing
5 min read

5 Steps to Build the Perfect B2B Buyer Persona for Your Construction Company

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 11-Dec-2020 10:35:39

To identify and define your ideal buyer personas is an integral task to complete before you start any marketing activities for your building product business. The information you gather will enable you to understand thoroughly who your business should be targeting and what messaging will be most effective.

At Insynth, carrying out buyer persona research and defining them is one of the first things we do with any new client. It’s a crucial part of the process.

In this blog, we will give you 5 important steps to help you with the process of building out your buyer persona.

Topics: Content Marketing
4 min read

What Does Successful Sales and Marketing Alignment Look Like?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 04-Dec-2020 10:48:46

When sales and marketing teams are misaligned, it can be detrimental for business growth and lead conversion. However, according to a LinkedIn report, 96% of sales and marketing professionals admit that they struggle with alignment.

Businesses that have siloed sales and marketing teams are missing out, as 85% of sales and marketing leaders say alignment is the largest opportunity to improve performance and grow businesses today.

In your construction business you should strive towards making sure your sales and marketing activities are aligned. This includes working together on one strategy, having aligned goals, being clear on buyer personas, and collaborating throughout the buyer’s journey.

5 min read

5 Steps to Sales and Marketing Alignment

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 13-Nov-2020 11:04:58

Sales and marketing alignment could potentially be the most important thing that needs to happen to your building product business. The data supporting how massively it can elevate your business’s sales and revenue speaks for itself.

  • Sales and marketing alignment can trigger a 32% boost in year on year revenue growth,
  • It can lead to over 200% growth in revenue attributed to marketing, and
  • It can boost your sales win rates by 38% (Marketo)

When your sales and marketing teams align, your two most important departments can optimise their process as a whole. This means your entire marketing and sales funnel is working collaboratively, reducing costs and increasing business growth.

Topics: Content Marketing Sales
6 min read

5 Red Flags That Mean Your Sales and Marketing Aren’t Aligned

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 06-Nov-2020 11:20:42

Are your sales and marketing teams aligned? You might not be realising it but if your sales and marketing is not aligned, you are leaving money on the table. Really?! Yes!

Sales and marketing alignment powers your business to achieve its growth objectives through increased sales and shorter buying cycles.

In businesses where sales and marketing are aligned, marketing efforts are shown to contribute over 50% of the forecasted pipeline, up a massive amount from the shocking 5% in unaligned businesses.

4 min read

What is Sales and Marketing Alignment & Why is it Important for Construction Businesses?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 30-Oct-2020 11:32:16

Sales and marketing alignment is more important than you might first consider. When sales and marketing teams are misaligned, it can be detrimental for business growth and lead conversion.

Topics: Sales
6 min read

5 Top Tips for Building Backlinks and Boosting Rankings

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 23-Oct-2020 09:20:10

In 2020, with Google’s algorithm seemingly always changing, you might be struggling to know where to start with boosting your search engine rankings. However, one of the keyways to increase the visibility of your construction or building product’s online presence is through improving your website’s authority.

Google’s original algorithm described by Google’s founders in a 1998 academic paper was based on evaluating the importance of web pages based on the number and quality of websites linking to them.

Search engines today rely on the same signal as it highlights how reliable and trusted a source is an answer for a searcher’s query. Backlinks are like votes in a popularity contest.

The more backlinks you have the higher your domain authority (DA) will be. The higher the DA, the more opportunity you have for Google to recognise you are a standout website and increase your space in rankings.

Topics: SEO
2 min read

Marketing Automation Statistics You Won't Believe [INFOGRAPHIC]

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 15-Oct-2020 12:50:37

Marketing automation is all about speeding up time-consuming marketing activities through streamlining their process, alleviating the level of human input needed to complete these series of tasks.

This means, with marketing automation, you can set up marketing activities to run on autopilot, saving you time and money! You can start the conversation with your customers through automated campaigns, but then move it to high-quality one-to-one conversations with your prospects, when it counts.

Marketing automation allows you to effortlessly engage your specifier, stay top of mind, and deliver customer service through chatbots that automatically answers any queries your customer has about your product or business.

Marketing automation provides a way for you to deliver consistent, quality interactions with specifiers throughout their entire buyer’s journey. 

Take a look at the infographic below to see the incredible results you can achieve through implementing marketing automation into your construction marketing strategy.

Topics: MarTech
14 min read

Beginner's Guide to Marketing Automation for Construction Companies

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 09-Oct-2020 11:12:28

Marketing automation, like any other kind of automated technology, exists to speed up time-consuming activities through streamlining their process, alleviating the level of human input needed to complete any series of tasks.

With marketing automation, you can set up marketing activities to run on autopilot, while also being able to analyse their effectiveness over time through analytics.

By taking a customer-centric approach to using marketing automation, you can start the conversation with your customers through automated campaigns, but then move it to high-quality one-to-one conversations with your prospects, when it counts.

Topics: MarTech
5 min read

Marketing Automation: Best Practices for Construction Businesses

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 01-Oct-2020 11:14:21

Small to medium sized construction companies are the ideal user of marketing automation systems. Smaller teams have little time to be focussing on marketing campaigns while also struggling with keeping on track of sales follow up and lead nurturing.

By implementing a marketing automation system into your construction business, your team can streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks and workflows all while increasing your efficiency and growing your sales.

Topics: Content Marketing MarTech
4 min read

Live @ Inbound2020 Using Your Website to Grow Your Business

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 23-Sep-2020 17:16:07

In the latest session recap from INBOUND2020 I took notes on Luke Summerfield’s webinar about ‘Using your website to grow your business.’ Luke is a member of the HubSpot Product team as well as the founder of Growth Driven Design.

In this session he highlighted how the world of web-design is shifting, as is business’ use of their website.

Luke started by saying that website software used to be distributed on CD Roms but today we are in the era of SaaS. The technology, processes and culture of how we build a website is evolving and is giving us an opportunity to make our websites reflect your customers and help grow your business.

Topics: Website
5 min read

LIVE@INBOUND2020 'But Our Business is Different!' B2B Insight for Traditional Thinkers

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 23-Sep-2020 15:15:55

When you’re are talking to a digital marketing agency, you might feel like the things they suggest are not relevant, because your business is different. But here at Insynth, we believe the world is changing. That is why we are a digital marketing agency specifically for the building product and construction industry.

At Inbound 2020 the session with Ryan Burkett, a strategist with 20 years in business consulting and strategic marketing, caught my eye as he focussed on how we as agencies can get B2B businesses onboard with moving the traditional industries, like manufacturing, into the digital era. He gave scenarios and insights into how we can propel marketing and sales forward in these traditional-thinking organisations and this is why I am writing this blog to pass them onto you.

Ryan had some amazing insights into how such businesses can evolve and progress using digital marketing to complement their already successful traditional techniques and get in front of the competition.

8 min read

LIVE@INBOUND2020 10 Scientific Secrets That Make Your Content Impossible to Ignore

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 22-Sep-2020 15:03:05

The 22-23rd September 2020 mark this year’s Inbound Conference (#INBOUND2020), the massive 2 day conference that gathers business professionals from almost every industry, which has gone virtual this year in the light of the Coronavirus pandemic. Inbound 2020 is set to be an immersive, interactive digital experience uniting forward-focused professionals with industry thought leaders to cover everything marketing, sales and customer experience.

As part of our participation in the event, we want to bring you the best of the offering there through blogs and our social media. Stay tuned for more blogs like this. But now, let’s begin on the 10 Scientific Secrets That Make Your Content Impossible to Ignore, as delivered by Nancy Harhut.

Topics: Content Marketing
5 min read

Marketing Automation: Your New Technical Sales Rep?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 17-Sep-2020 17:22:37

In a year where businesses are struggling more than ever, and redundancies and furloughs are being made left right and centre, hiring a new sales rep for your building products business doesn’t sound like the best idea.

However, with technology such as marketing and sales automation, you can hire a robot sales rep who will be working for you, growing your business around the clock, and without even the need for a new desk!

In a time of massive industry change, isn’t  it time to move away from those old-fashioned spreadsheets and the hassle of manually tracking your leads?

Read on further to see how marketing automation can be your new technical sales rep.

Topics: MarTech
4 min read

What is the Future of Marketing Automation for Construction Businesses?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 10-Sep-2020 16:10:07

Marketing automation can be amazingly helpful and valuable for small to medium-sized businesses. Take a look at these statistics:

But what is the future of the technology? How will it be improving as marketing practices develop, and how will this assist construction businesses like yours?

Topics: MarTech
4 min read

How Marketing Automation Can Improve Your Specifiers' Customer Experience

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 04-Sep-2020 11:17:17

As a building product or construction business, you know that the buying cycle for the industry is long and complex, and that maintaining a one-to-one relationship with prospects and existing customers at each point is quite a difficult task.

That’s where marketing automation comes in. It doesn’t just help put your marketing activities on autopilot, but it helps you keep on top of building and maintaining that customer relationship, especially when customer experience is all that matters in the decision to buy or not to buy.

Investing in marketing automation, is also an investment in improving your specifier’s customer experience.

Topics: MarTech
7 min read

5 Ways Marketing Automation Saves Time and Money

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 26-Aug-2020 09:15:33

Marketing automation is all about streamlining your marketing processes in order to save you time. But what’s better is it can also save you money. This makes the system incredible for your team, as well as your customers, and provides exceptional ROI.

The time you save can be reallocated to prioritise and execute other elements of your marketing activities.

Marketing automation is where software and strategy combine to create a better marketing system for you and your construction business’ customers.

Topics: MarTech
5 min read

Construction Marketing: What's the Difference Between CRM And Marketing Automation?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 19-Aug-2020 09:32:22

Both Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and marketing automation software help businesses achieve their marketing goals through applying technology to streamline, integrate and manage marketing processes.

However, there are key differences in the two tools, and it's important to understand these before you invest in one or the other.

In this blog I will explore the key differences between CRM and marketing automation and explain how they can help your construction or building products company.

Topics: MarTech
5 min read

How to Automate Your Email Marketing for Your Construction Business?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 12-Aug-2020 09:32:18

Email is the traditional digital marketing format, and it’s still extremely effective. If your email is good enough, you get a decent chance to put yourself in front of your ideal customer and get them to hear your message.

Email marketing is one of the key components of marketing automation and can really be a game changer for your construction business’ marketing.

Especially in an industry where your target customer can range from an architect to contractor, segmenting your email campaigns and having them being run automatically, can improve your productivity fourfold.

Segmenting your email campaigns is shown to achieve a much higher open rate, because people recognise the email is relevant and interesting for them to open and read.

Topics: MarTech
7 min read

Top Tips for Automating Your Construction Business' Customer Service

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 05-Aug-2020 17:17:00

As part of the marketing automation blog series, today I will be digging deeper into the world of customer service automation (CSA).

Automating your customer service gives businesses the ability to provide a great customer experience at the exact moment they need help and advice.

This can be the difference between a happy and dissatisfied customer.

It can also be the difference between accessing a potential hot lead and a competitor swooping in before you.

Another amazing benefit of CSA is the fact that because it takes the burden off your sales or service team to answer time-consuming queries, they consequently have more time for the high-quality one-to-one interactions that important, sales-ready leads need.

Topics: MarTech
6 min read

5 Ways to Automate Your Construction Business' Lead Generation

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 28-Jul-2020 15:09:06

Wouldn’t it be great if technology could take up some of the strain and become your next technical sales rep? Well with marketing automation, it can!

Topics: Content Marketing MarTech
9 min read

What is the Greatest Marketing Automation Tool for Your Construction Company?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 21-Jul-2020 17:14:01

According to research carried out by Darren Lester at SpecifiedBy, 98% of specifiers prefer to carry out product research online.

Considering that so many decision-makers within the building products and construction industry are using the internet to help aid their specification process, it's crucial that companies take advantage of the delights of automation.

Automation has the ability to become 'your extra sales-person' so read on to find out what platforms are available to you.

Topics: Content Marketing MarTech
5 min read

What is Marketing Automation: How Does it Work, and Do I Need it?

By Freya Oxton-Grant on 17-Jul-2020 11:03:12

In our modern, technological era, more and more activities and services are being automated either as a way to reduce human labour or to streamline processes.

Marketing is no different – anything digital can be automated.

Automating your marketing processes can save your business time and money whilst improving ROI and customer experience.

Topics: Content Marketing MarTech