If you build a performance website, you should expect your overall website activity to be driving over 90% of your net new growth. Net new? That’s new business from companies or specifiers you’ve never dealt with. The rest will probably be coming from outbound sales activity and word-of-mouth referrals.
Leigh Simpson
Recent posts by Leigh Simpson
3 min read
Performance Websites: How Much Should You Spend?
As construction decision-makers increasingly use digital channels to search for products and services, you must elevate your construction website design. Your website is your most important sales and marketing asset and is worth investing in accordingly.
Topics: Website
3 min read
Performance Websites: Keeping Specifiers Up-to-Date
Keeping your performance website up to date is critical and time should be allocated every month to add or update new content, but what about keeping people up to date with these changes?
Topics: Website
3 min read
Performance Websites: Capturing User Feedback
When designing a performance website, gathering user feedback can help you identify potential issues and areas for improvement before the website is launched. It’s worth allocating the budget to pay independent users to spend an hour going through the website and giving you honest, objective feedback.
It’s worth doing this at least annually.
Topics: Website
3 min read
Performance Websites: The Right Website Analytics
When building your performance website, consider the analytics you need to track and analyse once the site is live. This will help ensure that the website is developed to allow for accurate tracking and analysis of key metrics.
Topics: Website
4 min read
Performance Websites: How Architects want Content Structured
For specifiers, clear and consistent technical information is essential to make informed decisions about building products and materials. Architects rely on manufacturers product data. Making sure this information is structured correctly on your website is critical.
Topics: Website
3 min read
Performance Websites: Never Too Early for SEO
When building a performance website a common mistake is leaving SEO until the end.
This often stems from working with a designer who sees their role as taking care of the visual experience and that SEO is a separate project to be taken care of by a different team post-launch. This is the wrong way to go about it.
Topics: Website
4 min read
Performance Websites: Great Design = Inspired Specifiers
“What I want to see is websites being better curated – more thought about graphically. Because there is nothing worse than having a really good technical resource that is awful to look at.” - Ged Couser, Architect Director, BDP
Topics: Website
4 min read
Performance Websites: 7 Essential Sections For Max Impact
Most people would agree that their website is a critical tool for connecting with their target audience and driving growth - not just a digital brochure. Now let's dig into the 7 sections that really make the difference.
Topics: Website
3 min read
Performance Websites: Assembling & Organising the Team
The success of a construction website design project depends on effective project management, clear objectives, adequate planning and excellent communication among team members.
How do you make sure all these things are in place? By making sure the right people are in the right roles and that those roles are clearly defined and understood across the team.
Topics: Website
3 min read
Performance Websites: 10 Tips for Choosing The Right Partner
How do you select the right partners for your construction website design and development projects?
Topics: Website
4 min read
Growth Driven Design: A Smarter Approach to Web Design
Growth Driven Design (GDD) is a website design and development approach that emphasises continuous improvement and optimisation that is is particularly effective in the built environment.
Here's how it can help you launch website projects more quickly while improving results.
Topics: Website
4 min read
4 Benefits of Integrating Your CRM & Website
Integrating your CRM with your website is a serious super power. For example, it enables you to see which pages of your website a contact has looked at, when, and how many. And that's just the beginning. But most companies aren't doing it.
Topics: Website
7 min read
6 Keys to Website Strategy in the Built Environment
Before you begin a website update or redesign, it is important to ensure that your website strategy is well-defined and aligned with your business goals.
Topics: Website
5 min read
Why Most Construction Industry Websites Fall Short
A good website is a critical asset for every business, but the unique dynamics of the construction industry make website design more complex than in other B2B sectors.
Topics: Website
4 min read
What Is a Performance Website (and Why Do I Need One?)
When a performance website kicks in, your business will feel it.
A performance website is purposely designed to be easy to find online by your target audience when they are looking for information that relates to your industry. It is packed full of useful content and is easy to navigate and understand.
But that's just the beginning...
4 min read
How to Define Your Vision & Mission Statement
A clear vision and a well-crafted mission statement are the foundation of any successful business.
In the construction industry, companies often focus on project timelines and profit margins, overlooking the importance of a broader, long-term vision.
In this blog post, we will discuss why defining a vision is important, what elements should be included, and how to produce a mission statement that supports your vision and guides your marketing strategy.
Topics: Marketing Strategy
8 min read
SEO: Your Construction Marketing Rocket Fuel
"Ready to launch your online marketing strategy sky high? SEO is your rocket fuel, get ready to ignite."
Picture a space rocket. It's awe-inspiring and full of potential, but without the right fuel, it stays grounded. In the realm of digital and inbound marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is that much-needed propellant. It's the high-octane fuel that ignites your online presence and launches it into the stratosphere.
Let’s explore the key concepts of SEO, with a few space-related puns thrown in.
Topics: SEO Marketing Strategy
3 min read
The Power of Strategy: Moving Beyond Tactics in Construction Marketing
Have you ever found yourself, or your team, drowning in the whirlpool of daily tasks, bogged down by social media campaigns, content creation, and lead generation?
You're doing everything that your marketing handbook tells you to do. And yet, something seems amiss. There's a void that these tasks aren't able to fill.
But what is it?
Topics: Marketing Strategy
10 min read
3 Sales Tips to 20x Your Win Rate
For many businesses, a common assumption is that more web traffic is needed to drive growth. Upon closer inspection, this is rarely the case.
Topics: Sales
5 min read
Sales Efficiency: 4 Tips For Building Products Manufacturers
Sales is about selling, yet we see many building product companies working with a different definition.
In some companies, salespeople spend most of their time keeping existing customers happy instead of finding new ones.
In other companies, they measure their success in terms of activity, like ‘How many people did you call this week?’ Which doesn’t focus on key sales goals and finding good fit leads.
These types of salespeople follow a simple approach:
- We have a product we want to sell
- There are customers who should buy it
- If we call on enough of them, we’ll eventually stumble upon someone who will buy our products
Simple, yes. But not very effective or efficient.
Thankfully, there’s a better way. Here are 4 ways you can make your sales team more productive…
Topics: Sales
8 min read
Stop Losing Projects To Inferior Building Products
One of the most frustrating things that can happen for a building-product manufacturer is to lose out on a big sale to inferior products.
Why does this happen? And how can you prevent it?
Topics: Sales
6 min read
How to Make Your Building Products Blog Work Hard
When used in the right way, your blog can attract more traffic, bring you leads and be an asset to your sales cycle. If your blog isn’t delivering these results or helping to drive more sales, it may need a reboot.
In truth, blog posts on most manufacturers' websites are inconsistent and lack a clear strategy. But it's not all doom and gloom, here are some ways that you can improve your blog’s performance.
10 min read
How To Do Keyword Research For Building Products Brands In 5 Simple Steps
“Keyword” is a common SEO term, but it can be misleading as to what keywords actually are and why they're so important. Matching the terms or phrases on your website with those being used by your potential users on search engines such as Google should be one of the foundation stones of your digital marketing activity and be central to all of your SEO work.
Read on for helpful tips on identifying and implementing the right keywords for your site.
4 min read
The Basic Mistake That Cost Me £1 Million
A few years ago I made a simple mistake, innocuous really, but one that would set off a chain reaction that would personally cost me over £1 million, reshape my future and drive me to succeed and be happy.
Here’s what happened.
Topics: Content Marketing
5 min read
Big Ideas And Thought Leadership
It feels like every building product business wants to be a thought leader at the moment. It may even be something you’ve included in your marketing strategy – “become THE Thought Leader in our space.”.
I often ask, “so what’s your big idea then?”, to be told about how the brand has existed for 50 years, is a market leader, has supplied prestigious projects, etc.
But this isn’t enough. It’s not your past that makes you a thought leader, it’s your vison of the future.
So, what do you need to do to become a thought leader, and is that really what you want your brand to become?
Proceed with caution….
Topics: Content Marketing
2 min read
Our Why: Marketing The Value Of Construction
It started as a debate about why I want to improve the image and value of marketing in the construction industry.
Topics: Content Marketing
7 min read
Construction Marketing Strategies: Why Inbound Works For Building Products
Post Grenfell, the attitude around specification has become more stringent and cautious, with legislators and specifiers alike demanding greater reassurance about the performance, safety and provenance from the materials that are being used in construction.
So how does this impact your construction marketing strategies and why does Inbound Marketing become the ideal method of adapting to this change?
Topics: Content Marketing SEO Website Social Media Inbound Marketing
3 min read
Be Part Of Our Upcoming Construction Marketing Blogs
We want your opinion of the marketing channels and resources you love and find most useful for promoting your building product brand.
We’re kicking off a series of blogs about building awareness amongst specifiers and installers in the building product space. Rather than just giving you a bland overview of “what the experts say”, we thought it would be great to get your thoughts too.
To get featured, all you need to do is pick the blog, or blogs, that you want to be included in, follow the link and answer a couple of questions. Leave us your website URL and Twitter/LinkedIn handle and we’ll drop a nice backlink into the blog for you and mention you in our social promotion.
We’re looking forward to you sharing your knowledge with our audience. Don’t be shy.
Topics: Content Marketing Sales Social Media
4 min read
#inbound2019 5 Things You Need to Do to Create a Category.
Building a company is hard enough, but what if there's no clear market to launch into? That's the situation Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta found himself in when he joined the company that would become Gainsight in 2013.
Topics: Events
8 min read
Ranked: UK’s Top 51 Architecture Magazines - 2019
Hey there, thanks for visiting our Architecture Media Guide.
We've updated this list for 2022.
Visit our [UPDATED] The UK’s Top 52 Architecture Magazines – 2022 by clicking here.
If not, we hope you find our 2019 list useful.
The Insynth Digital Construction Media Guide – Architecture Edition has ranked and named the UK’s top 51 architectural magazines for 2019.
Using a proprietary algorithm, Insynth has ranked over 50 titles based upon circulation, social media following, domain authority, spam scores and other factors, to produce an independent and objective picture of which titles are most likely to support SEO and PR activity.
The guide is written to assist construction marketing professionals to understand the effectiveness of their marketing communication plans, PR activity and online marketing strategies.
It’s also a valuable tool when negotiating rates.
Topics: Digital PR
4 min read
Has Google's June Core Update Hurt Your Rankings?
In an unusual move for Google, the officially announced an impending algorithm update this week. Google described it as the June 2019 core update.
The update began rolling out on the Monday 3rd June, impacting Google search ranking and listings positively and negatively across the globe.
Topics: Content Marketing SEO
6 min read
Using Dashboards To Increase Sales
With an estimated 39% of sales people missing their targets every month, any tool that you can use to help your team succeed has to be seriously considered.
One key problem that many sales teams has is getting access to key information and knowing how they are doing hour by hour, day by day.
Using ‘live’ reporting on dashboards can fix this, increasing competition amongst the sales team, improving focus and raising team morale - all leading to an increase in sales. Learn more here.
Topics: Sales MarTech
8 min read
7 Reasons Why Content Marketing Helps Building Product Sales Teams Succeed
From our conversations across the construction industry, it’s clear that building product Sales Leaders view content marketing with suspicion, feeling it could hinder their chances of getting in front of prospects and customers.
Once we explain the benefits to them and their teams of a well executed inbound marketing strategy, they soon understand the potential to help them improve lead generation and lead quality.
Making their sales team busier, more respected in their sector and getting them in front of more influential decision makers and specifiers.
Read on, to find out how we explain the key benefits to sales of inbound and content marketing.
Topics: Content Marketing Sales
6 min read
Getting Your Construction Keyword Strategy Right
To generate website traffic, you need people to find your website on Google. To appear in the results of their searches you need to understand; what they’re looking for, what phrases they’re using and what type of content would best fit their needs.
Fundamentally, a construction keyword strategy is needed in any successful building product company's content marketing plan. Let’s explore what keyword strategy is and how it complements keyword research.
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
5 min read
Marketing Tips: Automate And Humanise Your Construction Marketing
A recent report from chiefmartec.com found that there was a 27% increase in the number of marketing technology solutions available in 2018.
While the fear is that the increasing use of technology in sales and marketing will depersonalise the customer experience, the reverse is actually true if these systems and techniques are used correctly.
So, how can technology be utilised to give you more time with customers and improve their experience with your brand?
Topics: MarTech
6 min read
Construction Sales Tips: Mind The Gap - Selling With Silence
One of the first things that you’re taught in sales is that you have two ears and one mouth and to use them in that order.
However, you shouldn't use your mouth at all at crucial points in your sales conversations
Learn how silence can unlock a sales opportunity and when to use it.
Topics: Sales
5 min read
Construction Marketing Strategy: Chasing Growth - Are You Insane?
Growth. It’s compelling, alluring and addictive. It’s also tough.
It’s getting harder to generate more leads, win more customers, up-sell, cross-sell, increase market share and make more profit using the tactics that were so successful just a few short years ago.
It was Einstein who famously said, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.
So, is your reluctance to alter your approach, tactics and mindset in your quest for increased growth madness?
Topics: Content Marketing Sales
7 min read
How A.I Can Deliver 1st Class Customer Service Every Time
Positive customer experience is vital for referrals and maximising life time value from your customer relationships. However, one of the biggest challenges any business faces is keeping customers happy and being consistent in the way we deal with customer challenges and needs.
Unhappy customers can spread their dissatisfaction quickly with social media. But, a delighted client can be the most valued influencer in attracting new customers.
Discover how A.I. can help you improve customer experience, build your brand reputation and grow your business.
Topics: Customer Experience MarTech
5 min read
Microsoft Future Decoded Conference: Keynote Speaker Cindy Rose
Kicking off this year's Microsoft Future Decoded event in London is Cindy Rose.
Cindy is the CEO of Microsoft UK. The event takes place at the ExCel Exhibition Centre at the Victoria Docks in London. The two day event covers a range of technological topics from A.I. to using the cloud and building trust around it.
Read on to find out what Cindy's keynote speech was all about...
Topics: Content Marketing MarTech
7 min read
CIMCIG Event Review: Independence, Trust & Modern Media
Billed as a ‘Question Time’ style debate, the CIMCIG evening focused on the role that traditional UK construction media plays in an age of social and content marketing, and which, if any, media can you trust.
What did we learn? Which media channel is right for your audience? What will publishing look like in 10 years’ time? Who can be trusted in the age of ‘fake news’?
Topics: Content Marketing
7 min read
Construction Marketing 2030 - Are You Prepared?
Just as Amazon has created turmoil in high street retail, Apple disrupted the music industry and Facebook changed the way we keep in touch, new technology, most of which is becoming available now, is about to change the way we do business in Construction.
Is your business going to be the next Blockbuster – killed by an obsolete business model, or will you be the Netflix of building products, taking action now to take advantage of the disruptive potential of AI? It's time to incorporate this new technology into your construction marketing strategy.
Topics: Content Marketing
4 min read
Live @ #Inbound18 - HubSpot Product Announcements
The pace of innovation and new features in the HubSpot ecosystem is mind blowing. Since Inbound 17 there have been more changes than I can keep track of and every week there is a new feature to impress.
Learn about the big changes to the suite that were announced at the Inbound 2018 conference, and how these could help you supercharge your business growth.
Topics: Content Marketing Events MarTech Inbound Marketing
4 min read
Live @ #Inbound18 - Problem Centric Selling
Why No One Gives a Shit About You or Your Company
Bringing insights from his new book Gap Selling, Keenan, CEO of The Sales Guy talks at Inbound 2018 about why the only thing that drives sales is the creation of value.
Topics: Sales Events
4 min read
Live @ #Inbound18 - Beth Comstock Keynote
If Failure Isn’t An Option, Then Neither Is Success
Opening the first full day at Inbound 2018 is Beth Comstock, former Vice Chair of one of the world’s largest companies, GE.
Talking about how organisational change begins with the individual, ground up and how this approach strengthened GE and led to exciting developments for the business.
Topics: Content Marketing Events
1 min read
What Do you Want to Learn At Inbound 2018?
There’s a real buzz at Insynth this week.
On Monday, we’re heading off to Inbound 2018 in Boston.
Topics: Content Marketing
7 min read
Winning The Battle For Hearts And Minds, Not Just Clicks And Ranks
With new technology appearing increasingly frequently, promising to disrupt traditional methods of sales and marketing and make business success a breeze, it’s easy to be tempted to throw the baby out with the bathwater and overlook some of the main principles of growing your business.
No matter how you deliver your message and what methods you use, it’s important to remember to use technology to support your sales and construction marketing strategies, not replace them.
Topics: Content Marketing Sales Social Media
7 min read
Barcelona: How It Shaped My View Of Inbound
A last-minute decision to visit Barcelona was a wonderful surprise from my wife; we’ve been talking about it for 20 years! But with my Inbound mindset, it was more than the food, drink, architecture and culture that left an impression on me.
Here are a few of my experiences from the weekend and how my passion for Inbound was stoked again.
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
5 min read
3 EASY Tips For Managing Tradeshow Leads
One of the main challenges you can face with trade shows is managing the leads that are generated from visitors to your stand. A successful show can generate hundreds of leads, all of which need to be followed up quickly.
So learn 3 SIMPLE tips to help you process them and identify the hottest leads.
Topics: Events Inbound Marketing
4 min read
Why Digital Marketing Strategy Is Integral To Growth
Do you have a digital marketing strategy? Are your digital marketing efforts ad-hoc or aligned with broader business goals? Do you understand the return your digital marketing is delivering to your business?
In recent years, everything has gone online and ‘on-demand’, adding to the pressure to join the digital race; new websites, social media, email marketing, CRM systems. Most businesses now see digital channels as the mainstay of their marketing strategy.
But, in this rush to get online, is strategy being left behind?
Topics: Content Marketing
6 min read
Construction Marketing Tips: A Beginner's Guide To Writing A Blog Post
Is blogging part of your construction marketing strategy? How useful Is blogging for generating leads? How do you write a good blog post and how long does it take?
If you’re not using your blog yet, then you should be. Various studies show that businesses that regularly blog get 3.5 times more website traffic and 4.5 times more leads than those that don’t (HubSpot 2015).
With 96% of B2B buyers wanting insightful content from industry thought leaders (Demand Gen Report 2016), there is an appetite for your views and opinions on your sector and specialist knowledge.
Topics: Content Marketing
5 min read
Why Micromanagement Is The Best Strategy For Sales
One of the biggest challenges of sales management is figuring out how involved you need to be with your team. Too much and you can be accused of interfering and getting in the way. Too light a touch and activity can start to stray away from your carefully constructed sales strategy.
So how do you get the right balance, and where should you and your team focus your time and energy to make the biggest improvements to your sales performance?
Topics: Sales
7 min read
Your Easy Formula For Sales Success
If you want to hit your sales targets this month, this quarter, this year and beyond, you will need to consistently produce the right results.
The problem is that many business owners and entrepreneurs can find it difficult to understand their sales pipeline and know where to focus their efforts and resources to really build the sales engine that will produce repeatable results week after week, month after month.
This simple formula for sales success will show you where to focus your efforts and help you grow your business with more consistency and a scientific approach to performance improvement.
Topics: Sales
9 min read
17 Signs Your Construction Inbound Marketing Strategy Is Working!
In one of our recent blog posts, we discussed how long it takes for content marketing to work. Blogging frequency and quality were the key topics, but it led to questions about more subtle signs that things are starting to work.
So, here’s a quick list of the sort of signals that you should be on the lookout for when starting out on your construction inbound marketing journey (we'd love you to add your own ideas in the comments at the end of the post).
Topics: Content Marketing Sales Inbound Marketing
5 min read
How Long Does Content Marketing Take To Work?
A common question that we get when discussing inbound marketing with potential construction clients is "how long does content marketing take to work?".
There are a number of factors at play, but we'll give you some insight into how long it takes and when you can start to see results.
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
4 min read
Construction Marketing Tips: When Should You Update Buyer Personas?
Developing buyer personas for the decision-makers and influencers in your target market should be one of the first tasks that you carry out when developing your construction marketing strategy.
Unfortunately, the research and effort that goes into creating your buyer personas will go to waste if the document is not kept up-to-date and constantly evolving. So, how often should they be updated?
Topics: Content Marketing
5 min read
Who's The Best Person To Write Your Content?
Content Marketing is starting to become more commonplace in the marketing strategies of building product manufacturers and construction companies. The businesses that really grasp the nettle and execute great content will soon become the thought leaders in their fields and grow their market share.
One big challenge that everyone kicking off their content marketing strategy faces is, who is going to write all of this content? Producing 2 – 3 blog posts every week plus white papers, webinars and eBooks takes time and skill. And, let’s face it, not everyone enjoys writing. So how do you tackle this problem?
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
11 min read
How To Develop A Construction Marketing Strategy
Developing a marketing strategy for your construction or building products business can seem like a daunting task. While it’s not a 5-minute job, it doesn’t need to be a huge burden for you to create your new marketing plan.
Without one though, your time, effort and money can easily be misdirected and even wasted, negatively impacting your ROI and personal success.
A well-researched and crafted strategy document will add real clarity and focus to all of your marketing, and sales, activity, improving your brand, market share, product offering and profitability.
By following a systematic process, you will be able to quickly establish where you are currently, where the opportunities are and how to realise them. Here are a few pointers, describing how we approach construction marketing strategy with our clients.
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
14 min read
15 SIMPLE Construction Marketing Strategy Hacks To Boost Sales
What's interesting in our regular website reviews and health checks is that most businesses have already got most of the ingredients for success in place, they’re either poorly aligned, under-resourced or missing something crucial i.e. a construction marketing plan.
All that's needed is to shift a few elements around, refine a few areas and fill in some missing elements. Couple this with a firm commitment to digital and you have a winning combination. So, what are the critical pieces of a marketing plan and how should you bring them together?
Addressing this can make a huge difference to website traffic, conversion, lead generation and ultimately sales. Follow this 15 part guide, full of simple tips and hacks, to pull your online construction marketing strategy together.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
7 min read
Construction Marketing Tips: Buyer Profiles And Buyer Personas
Understanding who your perfect customers are is a vital part of your construction marketing strategy, but one that is often skimmed over or missed altogether.
If you intend to tailor and segment your content and message to your different audiences, profiles and personas will be very useful. So, what’s the difference between a buyer profile and a buyer persona?
Topics: Inbound Marketing
6 min read
Construction Marketing Strategy: Does Your Brand Matter Anymore?
As the way that building professionals research products and services changes, it is only right to consider the relevance of brand building in your construction marketing strategy.
So, why do why brands exist, what is their role in the decision-making process and what will be their future value as they come under increased pressure from search, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital marketing?
Topics: Content Marketing SEO
7 min read
Construction Marketing Tips: A Beginner's Guide To Link Building
In most building products businesses, link building is misunderstood, seen as a dark art or handed over to their SEO company to handle. Effective construction marketing will have link building and outreach as an important element of the marketing plan.
With over 40% of the revenue of building companies coming from purely organic traffic, having a website that maintains a robust search ranking is key! Having a strong and growing foundation of authoritative, good-quality links to your site is the juice that high ranking websites are made of, they give you the kind of authority that Google loves and brings you referral traffic.
It’s not a difficult as you may think, so find out how to build your backlinks and improve your organic rankings.
Topics: SEO
7 min read
How To Turn Your Building Products Website Into A Sales Lead Machine
The main observation from the vast majority of our site audits is that most building product websites are only designed to be an online catalogue or a brochure website.
Building product manufacturers are missing a golden opportunity to turn their websites into sales lead generation engines which provide their sales teams with regular high quality enquiries.
Topics: Content Marketing SEO Website Inbound Marketing
7 min read
Marketing vs. Sales: The Big Differences and How They Work Together
Business guru and well-known provocateur, Tom Peters once addressed a crowd of over 400 sales and marketing executives saying: “I hate sports analogies. They’re just a bunch of male macho…” Yet, in the world of sales and marketing, sports analogies are de rigueur and tossed around like a rugby ball during at Twickenham.
To properly understand the difference between sales and marketing, however, another analogy seems more suitable: that of musical theatre. Salespeople are the performers in a West End musical, whereas marketing folks are the set designers, producers, and choreographers.
Topics: Content Marketing Sales Inbound Marketing
4 min read
How Millennials Are Changing Specification & Purchasing
Our regular website audits and reviews are consistently highlighting missed opportunities and common shortcomings of building product websites.
The way that specifiers and buyers search and select products is evolving quickly and construction marketing professionals need to adapt or risk losing market share and sales to smarter operators.
Topics: Content Marketing Sales Inbound Marketing
5 min read
What Is A Building Product Directory?
Updated For 2022, we've provided the latest domain ratings for the Building Product Directory and highlighted the differences between listings and product directories
A building product directory is an online resource for building specifiers. Used by the likes of architects and engineers to research and select building materials, it helps streamline the process when specifying for current or future construction projects.
Topics: Digital PR
6 min read
Are Online Building Product Directories Worth Paying For?
With marketing budgets constantly under pressure, it can be difficult to know where to allocate your budget, especially where the return on investment (ROI) can be difficult to prove.
Online Building Product Directories and Trade Directories offer more than just a link to your business but can be tricky to measure, so what should you be thinking about when considering directories as part of your communications plan?
Topics: Content Marketing Digital PR
5 min read
5 Takeaways From The Marketing Technology Expo 2018
The Marketing Technology Expo has just wrapped up for 2018. So, what were the key takeaways for construction marketers? How can the latest technology be used to improve engagement, generate leads and increase sales for forward-thinking and innovative building product manufacturers?
Topics: MarTech Inbound Marketing
4 min read
Lazy Marketing is Killing Trade Shows
I recently returned from a major trade show. I felt both angry with the disappointing effort from the majority of exhibitors, but also excited that there was hope that there would be a future for trade shows if exhibitors employed inbound marketing tactics.
This is why.
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
2 min read
We're Hiring! Content Creator Needed
Content Creator Role - Shifnal, Shropshire (£25k + benefits)
We’re looking for a talented content creator who can scale our marketing efforts and grow the audience of Insynth and our clients. This role requires exceptional writing skills, a creative mindset, and a results-driven attitude.
1 min read
Insynth Media Grader Report Featured In Dezeen
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
8 min read
How Short-Term Targets Help You Achieve Long-Term Goals
I was recently walking on the Cornish Coastal Path; it's a beautiful, windswept trail with plenty of challenging climbs and descents. On one particularly steep ascent, I remembered a tip I read many moons ago in a mountain biking magazine.
The tip was about tackling long arduous climbs: it described how if you only focus on the top, your mind will begin to doubt that you can get there, and you are more likely to fail. However, if you look just a few yards ahead, far enough to avoid any obstacles, you will grind out the climb almost without fail.
The trick is to focus on the task ahead, only occasionally glancing up to make sure that you are on track to achieve your ultimate goal. I applied this trick and tackled every climb comfortably.
The experience brought to mind how setting short-term goals can be the perfect way to crush longer-term targets, and this is why.
Topics: Content Marketing Sales
5 min read
3 Easy Tips To Boost Your PR In The Construction Media
Getting your product news, case studies or opinion pieces published in reputable trade titles and industry blogs is a great way of publicising your brand, creating awareness, authority and trust.
Topics: Content Marketing
3 min read
[Updated] Top 10 UK Architectural Titles For Promoting Your Content
If you are marketing to architects and producing content to engage with them, what is the best media to use to reach them? If you want to improve your website rankings with high quality backlinks, which websites are going to give you the best 'backlink juice'?
Insynth has produced a comprehensive study of all of the main UK architectural titles and ranked them in terms of backlink authority, social reach and circulation, both online and offline.
Topics: Digital PR
6 min read
Increase Your Building Product Sales With Content Marketing
How would it improve your sales figures if your website was a beneficial and enjoyable experience for your customers and specifiers? What if your content made people want to not only specify and buy your product but actually come back to your site time after time?
A well designed and executed Content Marketing strategy can deliver increased traffic, improved search ranking and more sales leads, specifications and orders from your website. But it can't do any of that if you're unsure what it is or how to do it.
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
6 min read
Construction Marketing Tips: Choosing Great Photos To Improve Lead Quality
I was helping a friend a few days ago. We were looking at his website and he was telling me that he was getting some really unusual enquires. He has his own powder coating business and loves to win contracts for coating in high volume, but he was getting calls about powder coating motorbike frames.
We took a good look at his website and upon finding the likely cause, it reminded me of a very similar situation a few years ago.
(Check the end of the blog to find out why he was getting bike frame enquiries!)
Topics: Content Marketing SEO Website
3 min read
GDPR For Construction Marketing
Our podcast on the upcoming GDPR regulations features Rob Andrews of Andrews Ritson Solicitors. Rob attempts to cut through the scary headlines about massive fines and red tape and offers common sense advice on what Construction Marketing professionals need to be aware of to ensure that they don't fall foul of the new guidelines.
Topics: Content Marketing
7 min read
Construction Marketing Tips: How To Get Featured Snippets On Google
Impress your boss and your colleagues by getting 'position 0' on Google and winning the race for prestigious featured snippets in Google.
Here is a 6-step guide to how Insynth replaced the Construction Marketing Association on a prized snippet in just 10 days.
Topics: Content Marketing SEO Inbound Marketing
4 min read
CITB Predicts 150,000 New Jobs Over Next 5 Years
A new forecast from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) revealed today that over 150,000 construction jobs are set to be created over the next five years despite Brexit uncertainty and Carillion’s collapse.
Key predictions include;
- Infrastructure and housing are likely to be the best performing sectors
- Carpenters, process managers and professional staff will all in be in short supply
- The Commercial sector could be hit hard by Brexit nervousness
Topics: Content Marketing
5 min read
Should You Discuss Price On Your Building Products Website?
A conversation we always have with our clients when discussing their content marketing strategy is, "are you open about price on your website?".
Most of the time we get an uncomfortable response, something like;
- "No, we don't want our competitors to find out how much we charge"
- "We prefer to talk to our customer face to face about price", or
- "Until we know exactly what customer wants, we can't give them a price"
Now, that's all well and good, but let's look at those arguments one-by-one and challenge the thinking behind them. Then we will tell you why talking about price on your website can drive efficiency, increase conversion rates, win you new business and should be a key element of your construction marketing strategy.
Topics: Content Marketing Website Sales Inbound Marketing
8 min read
Construction Marketing Strategy: How To Select A CRM System
In 2018, at the heart of every strong construction marketing strategy should be a sophisticated CRM system which manages the sales funnel, automates marketing campaigns, records customer engagement, provides clear insights into campaign success and tracks ROI. Ultimately a system that makes it easier to win more orders and grow your business.
CRM is a rapidly changing space, driven by cutting-edge technology, some serious brains and major investment. The choice of CRM systems can be overwhelming. Considering that there are over 200 platforms, choosing the right system for your business may not be straightforward.
In fact, many offerings are now far more than just a CRM, they are fully formed growth stacks, encompassing CRM, sales automation, sophisticated marketing capabilities and reporting, all in one place.
So, let’s look at some of the key questions that you should be asking yourself to identify your needs, and then you can match these against the capabilities of platforms you are considering.
Topics: Content Marketing MarTech Inbound Marketing
5 min read
Using Your Blog To Build Your Building Products Brand
Too often, content marketing is perceived as simply publishing lots of project case studies and product news on your website and social media channels and expecting it to improve your brand image and increase your reputation and authority.
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
9 min read
5 Tips for Growing Building Products Sales in 2018
Is Your 2018 Sales And Marketing Approach Working?
Will you be trying the same sales and marketing tactics and strategies this year as you did in 2017? How successful was last year for you? Would you like 2018 to be better? Adapting your approach to the way your market is specifying and purchasing is critical if you want to beat your targets.
The way that people buy and specify today has changed. Your potential specifiers and customers will seek solutions to their problems on the internet and social media and reach out and engage with the businesses that they best trust to help overcome their challenges. Research suggests that over 80% of the buying process is now conducted online.
To tap into this new dynamic requires a different approach centred around content marketing, social media, search engine optimisation, and website design to engage with your potential customers fully and deliver qualified leads to your sales team.
Here are five great tips to help you get started
Topics: Sales
10 min read
How To Get Your Building Products Website To Sell
Your website should be your best salesperson, generating leads, helping customers, working 24/7, consistent, always on-message, technically proficient and measurable.
Often, building product companies view their website and digital marketing activities as independent marketing communications activities instead of joining the dots and seeing the big picture - how they can work together in a systematic way to drive leads and, ultimately, sales.
With ever-improving technology and software, it can be hard for you to keep up with what websites can do these days and how sales and marketing automation can improve customer service, increase conversion rates and shorten sales cycles.
Topics: Website
5 min read
Latest Trends for Construction Marketing in 2018
With the end of the year on the horizon and countless marketing plans are being finished off, ready for budget approval. You may want to check whether you are taking advantage of the latest trends for construction marketing to leverage your marketing ROI and cost-effectively increase web traffic, leads and sales.
Here are some of the latest developments and technologies that could make all the difference to your business in 2018.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
7 min read
How To Build Trust To Overcome Buyer Fear
Overcoming buyer fear is critical to converting leads into sales. A key component in eliminating the fear of dealing with you is to build trust. So how do you build trust with your potential customers when they may never have bought from you before?
Topics: Inbound Marketing
7 min read
9 Blogging Tips For Writing A Great Post - And Getting It Read!
Your blog should be one of your company’s most valuable sales and marketing assets, and blogging is a cornerstone of Inbound Marketing.
Topics: Content Marketing Inbound Marketing
4 min read
Is Inbound Marketing Dangerous For Your Business?
If you could unlock more sales leads of better quality with a proven change to your marketing approach, would you want to find out more? If you thought that your fiercest competitor was going to beat you to it and get those leads instead of you, would you be more compelled to act?
Topics: Inbound Marketing
5 min read
Why Is Booking Sales Meetings Getting Harder?
Are you finding it harder to book a sales appointment?
Booking sales meetings used to be the key to sales success. Now it is almost impossible to fill your diary. What is happening, and how can you change things?
Topics: Content Marketing Sales
5 min read
Top 5 Highlights From Inbound 2017
Here is a quick rundown of my highlights of the week at my very first Inbound 2017. If this is anything to go by, it will be the first of many trips to Boston.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
5 min read
Why Inbound is way more than just marketing
I'm a dyed in the wool marketer with a love of numbers, tech, and sales!! After recently exiting my start-up, I have been immersing myself in the latest marketing phenomena – Inbound Marketing, and for the first time, I feel like I belong.
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