The key to getting your RIBA CPD approved quickly is getting it right the first time.

It’s that simple.

If you don’t follow RIBA’s CPD requirements sufficiently, you will have to go back and amend your materials until they fulfil those requirements. This may involve several rounds of edits until your CPD is deemed acceptable by the RIBA.

‘Getting it right the first time’ is easier said than done, though, especially if RIBA approval is new to you.

In this short guide, we share some tips to make the whole process as seamless as possible.

Live From #BrightonSEO

Despite spending most of their workday diving among analytics and spreadsheets on their laptops, SEO experts thrive in face-to-face conversations. Attending the series of conferences organised within the Brighton SEO workshop has clearly shown how much we were missing talking about topics that we are passionate about and live for.

Live From #BrightonSEO

Workshops, conferences, and lectures, for me, have always been a source of inspiration. I consider myself privileged to attend talks and discussions conducted by thought-leading experts that reflect their passion for high-quality content with every slide they present. What an excellent time to be a writer!

Sustainability. It's a word we hear a lot in construction right now. Some would say, with good reason. 

The built environment, of which the construction sector is a crucial component, currently contributes around 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions, and it is estimated that the construction sector contributes up to 11% of global carbon emissions.

So, it’s hardly surprising to see a growing desire within the industry to go green with sustainable construction…

Email marketing guru, Jay Schwedelson, is delighting attendees at Inbound again with his up-to-date insights on what's really working now and why current behaviours are creating a perfect recipe for email marketing success.

Brace yourselves for some quick-fire, data-driven facts about email marketing that you can use for your building product brand RIGHT NOW.

Here are 9 key takeaways...

It’s essential that you seek out the right information before embarking on any construction marketing campaign.

Failure to do so may result in a considerable loss in time, effort, resources and, ultimately, money.

It may be tempting to go in all gung-ho with blogging, SEO, website improvements and PPC, but taking a step back in the initial stages of any campaign will pay off ten-fold in the long run.

And asking smart marketing strategy questions is the most efficient route to smart answers.

The world is certainly not short of web design agencies. I actually Googled how many web design agencies there were in Birmingham, and without any official statistics, I began counting manually.

I got bored after 100.

The point is, as a building product business owner, you have a lot of choice; too much choice, some may argue.

So, how do you “sift through the noise” and whittle the list down to find an agency that works for you? In this post, we highlight some of the top questions to ask your web design or design and marketing agency - once you’ve shortlisted your potential candidates.

Read on…

Developing a blog for your business is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase organic traffic and build trust amongst your audience.

When adopted alongside a holistic Inbound Marketing approach, you’ll be on track to increasing your sales, reaching new markets and establishing your building product brand as a leading authority within the space.

As with any new approach, though, a certain degree of strategy and planning must take place in order to truly reap the rewards highlighted above. Cut corners and you stand to waste a lot of valuable time and resources.

In this post, we identify ten actionable steps for a successful (and rewarding) blogging campaign for your building product business. 

Read on…

Creating a consistent blogging strategy isn’t as simple as it once was.

Twenty years ago, you could blog about a specific subject and you’d stand a good chance of getting ranked on page one of Google.

Many businesses capitalised (and profited) from this approach… and then everyone started doing it.

Google became cleverer, and consequently, getting ranked became harder.

Fast forward to 2021… generating results from blogging has now become somewhat of an artform.

And it’s left many building product manufacturers questioning,

How should I blog for my building product business?!

So, in this post, we’ve got all the tips and tricks to get you started on - what should hopefully be – a successful blogging journey.

Read on…

There’s been much talk in recent months about the introduction of the Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI), which is set to roll out this summer.

Developed by the CPA’s Marketing Integrity Group (MIG), it is a response to the issues raised in Dame Judith Hackitt’s report, ‘Building A Safer Future’, and it aims to hold building product manufacturers responsible for providing clear, accurate, up-to-date, accessible and unambiguous product information.

This post aims to give you a high-level, objective overview of what the CCPI is, and what you could be doing to best prepare for it.

“Every breath you take, every click you make, I’ll be watching you…”

We all know the popular Sting song (albeit with added poetic licence).

Whilst many consider it to be a song about love, its undertones are far more sinister. It’s actually about an overly possessive ex-lover. Quite ironic considering it ranks in the top ten most popular wedding songs of all time…

So, how is a song about stalking relevant to a building product blog? I hear you ask…

Well, there are very few incidences when stalking is deemed to be acceptable, but when it comes to your website, perhaps you should take a leaf out of Sting’s songbook.

Read on to find out more…

The ‘news’ or ‘blog’ section is often an underused asset on many building product websites, but when its powers are harnessed, it can yield some lucrative results for your business.

In fact, one of our clients received a 58% increase in quotations as a result of blogging*. If anything, this just highlights your missed opportunities if you don’t start taking blogging – or content marketing in general – seriously.

That’s right; In a world where the majority specifiers are conducting product research online, updating your website consistently with useful content will ensure you stay on top of the search results.

So, if you’re thinking about starting blogging, or if you’ve tried before but failed to see the results, give this post a read and find out what your building product blogs should be used for.

Read on…

In the world of digital marketing, the word “blog” has been bandied around for several years now, and professionals in the field just assume that everyone knows what one is.

Whilst writing blogs has been a successful content marketing tool used by many industries, we’ve found that there are still some misconceptions amongst professionals within the building products and construction industry.

So, for my next series, I’ll be taking it back to basics. We’ll be exploring what blogs are (and what they’re not!), we’ll be looking at how to write a blog, what they look like and how you can get the most out of them.

In this post, we’ll be covering,

What is that blog thing people keep going on about?!

Read on…

Here’s a question: where does your building product brand live?

Does it live out on the road with your sales reps? Is it based on one-to-one interactions with your customers? Are your high-profile projects a reflection of your brand?

If you answered ‘yes’ to all of the above, that’s great.

But, is that enough in this day and age?

If you want to generate more leads, build up a strong identity and engage with new specifiers, then your website should be the home of your brand.

In today’s post, we look at some key things that every architect wants to see from your online offering, with key insights from Insynth's very own Head of Design, Louise Urquhart, who'll be sharing her pearls of wisdom when it comes to creating lead generating building product websites.  

Businesses within the building products and construction industry – who are dissatisfied with their website - normally fall into two categories:

1. Your website is dated and being used as a “brochure.”
2. Your website looks great (visually), but it’s attracting consumers, rather than specifiers.

In this post, I’ll be exploring what you can do to turn your website into a swiss army knife: a technical resource AND extra salesperson, helping you to gain more specifications, increased gross margins, multiple-purchase deals and better, more rewarding relationships with decision makers .

Here’s a fun fact: Millennials are described as individuals born between 1981-1996. That means that the oldest millennials will be turning forty this year!

That’s right; us young whippersnappers make up for more than a third of the global workforce, and this is set to rise to 75% by 2025.

So, what does this mean for your building product business?

It doesn’t take a mathematician to realise that a large proportion of specifiers within the construction industry will be millennials: the first generation to live alongside the digital world, sharing an affinity with technology that helps shape their lives.

There’s much to learn about the behaviours of millennials, and in this post, we’ll show you how to make those necessary changes to accommodate the new way that these young specifiers and buyers research and select their products.

Read on to find out more…

As a building products manufacturer, you’ll undoubtably be looking for ways to save time. Enter: email marketing automation. Streamlining set features on autopilot ensures that your business stays relevant and your brand stays at the front of your architects’, specifiers’ and contractors’ minds.

It’s been a couple of weeks since the Insynth team returned from our visit across the pond. The main aim of our trip was to attend Inbound 2019: an annual sales and marketing conference that brings together industry leaders to deliver high-quality, educational sessions.

As you can imagine, I learnt a lot! You can read about my top five highlights here.

I’m finally back in the UK after what has been an incredibly rewarding week in Boston, USA for Inbound 2019.

Inbound is an annual event that unites industry thought leaders in sales and digital marketing. With over 250 speakers, the Insynth team was able to learn from those most involved in reshaping the future of our industry.

And what better place to do it in? The USA: Home to the most innovative practices in sales and digital marketing.

Email marketing continues to be the most powerful way to reach your target audience—90% of emails reach the correct consumer’s inbox, and 91% of consumers check email daily.

For marketers using a people-based email strategy (a strategy where the offers, messages, and frequency of communication are tailored to subscribers), the challenge is scaling effectively without sacrificing the personalisation that makes email work so well in the first place.

Jay’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/worldata

Jay Schwedelson, President and CEO of Worldata, goes through the top do’s and don'ts for email marketing campaigns.

Whether you’re a marketer for a B2C or B2B company, email campaigns are a must to support sales and drive customer engagement. But how do you stand out with your campaigns and ensure you’re “checking all the boxes?”

Dan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dangingiss/

Dan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/dgingiss

Dan's 20-year career has consistently focused on delighting customers, spanning multiple disciplines including digital customer experience, marketing, social media and customer service. He has held leadership positions at three Fortune 300 companies – Discover, Humana and McDonald’s.

Dan is the author of the book, ‘Winning at Social Customer Care: How Top Brands Create Engaging Experiences on Social Media’, a host of the Experience This! podcast and a regular contributor to Forbes. He is a recognized thought leader:

Gabriela’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mgabrieladpereira/

Gabriela’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/DIYMFA

Contrary to popular belief, marketing is not about a snappy slogan, fancy algorithms, or complex design. As someone who must champion your company’s message, your job is to craft a story, a narrative that engages your audience.

Brand storytelling is an immersive experience between your customers and your product, and the best way to unleash this marketing superpower is through a multi-dimensional approach, combining your brand’s identity and your customer’s journey.

Margo’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/margoaaron

The email newsletter is making a comeback. Tim Ferriss, Austin Kleon, TheSkimm, and others are seeing wild success from this channel, and yet in-house marketers and agencies remain SO BAD at newsletters.

Jordan’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pritikinjordan/

Victor’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorpan/

Your words are golden on the web. The more you write around a topic, the more Google recognises you as a reputable source. Google’s algorithms dictate that your website will rank highly based on keyword usage, relevance, site design and other factors.

Google provides the highest quality, most relevant results based on the keyword(s) used by the searcher.

As a building products manufacturer who wants more traffic on your site, you need a secure content strategy that puts you in the best position to rank highly on search results.

Consistently Creating content takes time. In fact, most building products and construction companies attribute the fall in progress with content creation to lack of time.

Repurposing content allows you to extend the life and value of your content by changing it to serve a different purpose. For example, you could change a blog into a video. The message might be the same, but the channel or format through which it is consumed will be different.

To begin this post, I’d like to share some statistics that might surprise you:

Getting words down on the page is step one. Getting your work published is a different matter. Quite often, your first draft will look largely different to your final piece.

During the editing and improving phase, you’ll be using it as an opportunity to cut out any unnecessary and irrelevant points that don’t support your core ideas and refine your language to be stronger and more action orientated.

Why Does Effective Writing Matter?

Words are the currency of the web. The words that people see are what prompts a decision. An action. With that being said, your content is what will make or break a decision to buy into your brand.

You can’t (and shouldn’t be expected to) pluck ideas out of thin air. This expectation would be both unobtainable and unrealistic. That’s why you need to consider a way in which you can generate ideas that work for the benefit of you and your team.

What Can You Expect From This Blog?

At this stage, you should understand what content is and how to implement a framework for content creation.

You have your blog titles and a time-frame in which to distribute them. Now, you’re tasked with actually writing the content itself. 

Let’s say you’re at the start of your journey when it comes to content creation and you’re wondering where to begin.

Do you want your building products brand to stand out online? Do you want your company to be a household name? Read on to find out what brand awareness is and how important it is to develop effective brand awareness for your building products and materials.