Ever heard of the saying,

‘All roads lead to Rome’?

Nothing could be truer for CPD. There are numerous ways that building product companies can provide educational value to their audience of building professionals, aside from the traditional ‘lunch and learn’ you may be accustomed to.

CPD is any activity undertaken by a professional that has improved and informed their practice.

This gives you abundant opportunities to establish yourself as a trusted adviser within your niche/area of expertise.

In this blog, we explore seven different activities – all of which could be classified as ‘CPD’.

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!

Creating a Digital CPD offering can be an effective way to engage a wider audience of decision-makers within the construction industry. Yet, this transition will require you to closely consider your tech stack.

An effective tech stack (i.e. the technologies you use to build and run a project) doesn’t just help you deliver your CPD in an easier way, it can influence the perception of your company – from how professional you’re perceived to be, to how efficient you’ll be to work with.

In this post, we highlight the essential and must-haves, to get your digital CPD off to the right start.

RIBA-approved CPDs hold significant weight within the construction/building product space. And if your aim is to increase specification and awareness amongst the architectural landscape, then a RIBA CPD is most definitely a consideration to add to your marketing mix.

Here are the facts:

• The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is home to 44,000 Chartered Architects
• Architects who are part of the RIBA must undertake 35 hours of CPD per year
• CPD points are based on self-reflection
• RIBA CPDs are worth double points

If you’re new to CPD or unsure of what direction to take with your CPD, this post covers the reasons why you should (or, indeed, shouldn’t) consider RIBA CPD as part of your strategy.

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…

Your building product website is your most important digital asset. It’s the first place people go to learn about your products or services or to find out more about your business.

Whilst other touchpoints (product directories, social media, press releases, for example) are important, your website is your home-base – your ‘digital sales rep’ working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to promote your products and offerings.

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...

Digital CPD within the building product and construction industry has grown in popularity since the start of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Providers, like RIBA CPD, have seen exponential growth in uptake as more and more specifiers seek to gain their CPD points remotely.

If you’re a building product manufacturer, you’d have undoubtedly considered the benefits of shifting your CPD to a digital format.

As with most things ‘digital’, simple, efficient and economical benefits can all be gained.

However, choosing to become a CPD provider for an authorised body such as The RIBA is another consideration entirely.

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.

Updated June 2021. To view the original post, click here. 

Many key members of your target audience will be chartered members of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

As you’ll be aware, The RIBA is a professional body for architects who are primarily based in the UK. Members of the institute will have obligations to fulfil, including allotting a set number of hours to the undertaking of CPD each year.

In this post, we take a closer look at the RIBA CPD requirements and uncover what this means for your building product business.

Read on…

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 part of our blogging series on what to expect from your construction marketing in 2021, we tackle the subject of CPD webinars and why they will remain a crucial driver in your marketing strategy for next year.

If you’ve read any of our previous posts, you will see that we’ve blogged extensively on digital CPDs, so if you want to learn more, explore your options, find out requirements, etc, click here.

Let’s dive in…

2020 has bought about significant change for all businesses, regardless of industry. One of the biggest impacts we’ve seen within the construction industry is the rise in digital.

People are starting to realise that adopting a digital approach is necessary to survive in this climate.

Whether you’ve embraced digital CPDs, adapted your sales process or spent a bit more time improving your website offering, it’s fair to say that we’ve all had to adjust.

But if you truly want to grow your online presence and increase your specifications, there’s one thing that should not be neglected… content marketing.

And one of the most crucial elements of content marketing is undoubtedly a blogging strategy.

So, if you’re thinking about blogging in 2021, here are some key mistakes to avoid.

I get it. Building products are technical. That doesn’t mean, however, that they should be dense and difficult to digest.

As an ex-teacher, I know what it’s like to convey information in a simple way. I also know how to make the most technical of subjects readable.

Over the years, I’ve learnt that no matter what industry you’re in, clear communication is central to any successful web project, and your building product blog is no exception.

In this post, you will learn how to take the most technical of subjects, and present it in a simple, ‘plain-English’ way.

Let’s dive in.

A couple of weeks back, I addressed the content marketing strategy that is…blogging.

I explored three reasons why blogging might not be generating the results you want for your building products company. You can read that very article here.

In today’s post, I’ll be offering three more reasons why your blogging might not be generating those leads.

Let’s dive right in…

Blogging advocates will tell you that writing blogs will significantly increase traffic to your website. Blogging advocates will also tell you that some of that traffic may even convert into leads.

As a blogging advocate myself, I agree with the above statements…

…However, I understand it’s going to take a little bit more explaining to convince some of you blogging pessimists out there that blogging isn’t anything more than a painful waste of time.

For those of you that have tried blogging for your building products company and failed to see results, this post is for you.

In fact, if you’ve never blogged before but thinking about trying it, I’m sure this post will appeal to you, too.

Here are 3 reasons why blogging isn’t generating leads for your building products business.

...For your building products brand

Blogs… do I need them? What is their function? Can they increase my specifications? I don’t get it…

According to HubSpot, marketers who prioritise blogging efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI.

But, when we speak to MDs and Sales professionals, we often get asked... why should we blog?

There are a lot of misconceptions around blogging, and when done incorrectly, they can, frankly, be a waste of time, producing very little in the way of tangible results.

So, in this post, we aim to uncover:

• The purpose of a blog post
• What they are (and most importantly, what they’re not)
• Whether you should consider them
• How you can get the most out of them

Read on to find out more…

Does your construction business need to increase its online visibility? Want to achieve more sales leads? Need a re-brand?

If you’ve been asking any (or all) of the above questions, chances are you’ve considered outsourcing a digital marketing agency.

But, with so many agencies to choose from, it’s not a decision that should be taken lightly, particularly in such uncertain times.

So, before making the decision to outsource, it’s crucial that you lay the foundations for a successful partnership… and this means asking yourself and your team some key questions before embarking on the decision-making process.

Read on to find out more…

Construction Marketing Investment has shifted away from traditional outlets like exhibitions, trade advertising, PR and cold calling. But the skill sets of internal teams lag behind. For some, the time and resources needed to train internal people on how to master digital marketing must-haves like SEO and email marketing don't exist. As a result business like your look to outsource the responsibility.

However, it is not one-size-fits-all. Agencies come in all shapes and sizes, with different specialities and talents. But there are core values and skill sets that make some better than others. Here are the top 3 considerations if you’re looking to outsource your building product business’ marketing.

Aligning your sales and marketing strategy has never been more appropriate, particularly in such testing times. As we see more and more businesses within building products and constriction investing in marketing, we’ve put together a series of articles to help you make the best choice for your business, if you're considering outsourcing.

According to a post by beanstalk, businesses typically spend anywhere between 5-20% of their annual revenue on sales and marketing. That’s a significant investment for any business, particularly if you’re just ‘testing the waters’ of digital marketing.

In this post, I’ve identified 5 steps to agency success, to ensure you choose the right one for your business.

Engaging your prospects with email marketing is a great way to build relationships, stay relevant and communicate important thoughts and insights on the things that matter to them.

And when you consider that over 269 billion emails sent and received on a daily basis, it’s definitely something you should consider investing in for your building products and construction company.

However, it’s not just a case of drafting some copy and hitting ‘send’. In fact, a successful email marketing campaign will encompass a variety of tried and tested techniques.

But, today, we will be exploring the one thing that all-too-often gets neglected during your email marketing campaign:

Your landing page.

Led by Chief Executive Officer at Stratabeat Inc, Tom Shapiro, we explore why so many B2B blog posts just aren’t performing – and what you can do to maximise your blog’s potential.

You can connect with Tom via Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomshapiro/

To celebrate the release of our latest eBook, The Construction Marketer’s Guide to Email Marketing, I’m sharing some top email stats from this year…

…To prove exactly why email is one of the most effective marketing channels.

If you feel that your construction business’ email marketing strategy is under-utilised (or even under-valued) then these stats might be just what your organisation needs to step up their email marketing game.

Read on to find out more!

Over the past few weeks, we’ve blogged extensively about the digitisation of your CPD sessions.

In this guide, we aim to tie everything together, outlining:

• What digital CPDs are and why you should consider one
• Effective formats for digital CPDs
• CPD webinars
• How to make a CPD
• What to talk about
• How to get accredited

And some handy tips along the way.

Read on!

Are you thinking of hosting a CPD in webinar format?

Webinars offer a wide range of benefits that the modern construction product business can - and should - be taking advantage of.

Today we’ll be giving you a step-by-step guide on how you can effectively host your CPD webinar, as well as some key considerations to help you along the way.

When it comes to RIBA CPD submission, there are several factors that are mandatory in order to gain approval.

In this post, we’ll aim to give an overview on what those essential elements are. This will be useful for anyone who is thinking of digitising their current CPD or creating a new one from scratch.

Don’t forget to head over to our CPD services page, where we talk you through our step-by-step CPD creation strategy to help you get approved with ease.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has been a successful route to market for Building Product Manufactures and has become a vital part of architects’ and design professionals’ career development.

The rise in remote working, however, has prompted us all to think a little differently about how we deliver CPD to a wider audience, since face-to-face interactions are not viable right now.

Digitising your Building Product CPD means that you can deliver helpful content, whilst enabling professionals to access it from the comfort of their own home.

However, it’s not just a case of creating a PowerPoint and talking about the benefits of your products. Creating engaging, educational value is what will set you apart from everyone else.

Read on to find out more.

This is the first question that anyone asks when considering delivering a new CPD session, followed by:

Can I deliver true value?

Will people be interested in what I have to say?

You then may have practicality concerns such as:

Do I have the time?

Is it worth it?

Before you know it, you’ve talked yourself out of delivering a CPD altogether.

Establishing the right topic is the first step in achieving a meaningful, educational CPD.

This post aims to provide some useful tips on how you can decide on an appropriate topic, and hopefully, steer your thoughts of negativity into something that you and your team will benefit from.

Read on!

Maybe you’ve decided to digitise your building product CPD; or maybe you want to create a fresh, new CPD from scratch.

Whatever your aims, you need to ensure that your end-result helps to develop your relationships, establishes thought leadership, and perhaps even leads to specification.

To increase your chances of the above happening, there are some key rules you can follow.

Read on to find out more.

It’s widely known that, for architects and design professionals, CPD is a vital part of career development. Many professional institutes (such as RIBA CIOB, RICS, RTPI, CIAT, ICE, IStructE) now require members to undertake a minimum number of CPD hours each year.

As more companies within construction and building products consider digitising their CPDs to reach a wider audience, many are tasked with the conundrum,

I’ve never digitised my CPD before.

Similarly, those who are new to the world of CPDs may be wondering where, even, to start.

If this is the case for you, our recent series on digital CPDs for your building product/construction company may help you.

Today, we’ll be exploring some essential ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ worth considering for anyone looking to digitise their building product CPD.

Read on to find out more…

As more and more companies within building products and construction embrace technology as a new way of working, digital CPDs are becoming a key consideration for many.

If you’re new to CPDs, or if you’re more accustomed to the traditional, face-to-face style of CPD, this blog sets out to explore how to make your CPD digital, reaching out to a wider audience and increasing your chances of specification.

Before we begin, I should outline that gaining CPD accreditation isn’t mandatory. You can still create a CPD without accreditation. You can still deliver value without accreditation. You can still increase specification without accreditation. CPD doesn't have to come from, be accredited by, or approved by the RIBA, for example, to count.

However, many organisations across all industry sectors decide to gain accreditation for various training courses. This is mainly because it is a recognised approach to learning and almost a ‘seal of approval’ for anyone looking to help educate people on new trends, initiatives or practices.  

For anyone considering getting their building product CPD accredited, this blog sets out to explain the process, the positives, and the considerations.

Continuing our topic on digital CPDs for the construction industry, today we share some quick (and hopefully useful) tips for anyone thinking about creating a new CPD or improving their current learning experience.

If you’ve read any of our previous posts on this subject, you’ll know that we’re keen advocates for CPDs.

Inbound marketing is all about educating and helping your prospects, and CPDs – when done effectively – can do the same.

Let’s get into some useful tips…

Many companies within the building products and construction industry are implementing CPDs as part of their core marketing approach. Why? CPDs serve a multitude of purposes.

Chartered members of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) are obliged to undertake thirty-five hours of CPD a year. This equates to around 45 minutes per week. Of these thirty-five hours, twenty of them should be based on the ten topics of the RIBA CPD Core Curriculum.

So, what does this mean for building product manufacturers?

Regardless of your profession, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a great way to enhance your personal proficiency, whilst keeping up to date with the latest technologies and trends within your industry.

For those operating in the architectural and design space, CPDs play a pivotal role within each professional’s career requirements.

Winning more building product specifications is not something that can be answered in one sentence, or even one blog post. It’s a complicated process involving a multitude of skills and techniques that encapsulate a deep knowledge and understanding.

Today, we’re focusing at the start of the journey: Your audience.

We often refer to your audience as ‘Buyer Personas’, and understanding your BPs is crucial to winning more building product specifications.

The proportion of construction workers furloughed has fallen below 25 per cent, according to research from Build UK this week, highlighting a slow return to normality within the industry.

As construction sites begin this long and challenging process, this blog aims to give your building products company some useful tips to help reach out to your audience. Right now, communication is key if you want to gain specification with those decision-makers in the industry. Read on to find out more.

If we can take anything from the past few months, it’s how reliant we have become on technology. For most of us, working from home has prompted us to discover new and interesting ways of working.

How many of you have discovered the ‘virtual background’ on Zoom?

Remote working aside, however, we have noticed that many organisations within building products and construction are turning to technology as a way of running certain business operations more efficiently.

With trade shows being cancelled and sales reps not out on the road, our online presence has had to step up – turning our website into an ‘extra salesperson’ in many ways.  

Building a technology stack can be a daunting task – particularly with so many options out there. This blog hopes to give you some advice on how you can get the most out of your tech stack, and which tried and tested tools work best.

Read on to find out more.

Let’s rewind to January 2020. The year was laid out before us, new strategies were in place, new products were going to be launched and big projects were due to begin.

And then the unexpected happened. Out of nowhere, a global pandemic altered every aspect of our personal and professional lives. Projects were put on hold, jobs lost, and businesses forced to adapt to this ‘new normal’.

It’s been several weeks now - and for most - the initial shock has settled. In some cases, we’re even seeing glimpses of what life used to be like. However, we’re all aware that it’ll take a long time before we get back to the pre-Covid life that we all took for granted.

With that in mind, this blog aims to give some actionable ways for you to pivot your content strategy in order to adapt to these unusual times.

It’s a sad fact that Covid-19 has brought about an abrupt halt to people’s livelihoods. Individuals are being furloughed-and in some cases-even losing their jobs.

With that in mind, the construction marketer needs to be aware that people just aren’t as contactable as they once were, and this means that you may have to adjust your strategy in order to reach out to the right people.

From an email marketing perspective, those who have sadly lost their jobs will have inevitably had their email accounts switched off, meaning that your email campaigns will not achieve the level of engagement you’re aiming for, causing your bounce rate to soar. 

We want to avoid this at every possible opportunity as a consistently high bounce rate will cause you to get penalised by your service provider-affecting your ability to send future campaigns. And of course, you want people to actually read your emails.

This blog sets out to give you some useful tips and tricks to reduce your email bounce rate, ensuring the right people read your emails.

We all know that words are the currency of the web. The more SEO-driven content you have, the better chances you will have at ranking highly in search. If you’ve read any of our previous posts, this message will come as no surprise.

What’s different, however, is this ‘new normal’ that we’ve all been forced to adopt. Working from home is giving us more time to reflect, and it’s even allowing us to catch up on the things that we’ve let slip in recent months.

And for many, this means addressing your content strategy.

The purpose of this blog is to give you some practical guidance that you can implement now, in order to prepare for the post-covid future.

If you attended our webinar a couple of weeks back, you’ll have learnt that email marketing is more crucial than ever during these unprecedented times, and the data-which we will be sharing-certainly backs this up.

We’ve seen some great results from companies within building products and construction who have used this as an opportunity to focus on two key areas:

• Growing their contacts database and;
• Reaching out to their current database

The purpose of this blog is to give you some useful tips and tricks (that are backed up by data) to ensure that you stay on top of your email marketing game during Covid-19.

Read on to find out more…

Many of us will be using this time away from the office to focus on improving our practice-and what better way to do this than with a great book?

As an avid reader myself, it’s not the reading that’s the hard part; it’s actually finding the right book to read in the first place. There are so many texts out there; trying to pin-point the ones that will resonate is half the battle.

This blog aims to take the hard work out of looking. Whether you’re a Business Owner, Managing Director, Sales Professional, Marketer or even Student, these books are the very best in self and business development.

So let’s dive in…

We’re three months into 2020, and all of a sudden, this unusual state of isolation and distancing has become the ‘new normal’.

People’s individual priorities have changed, and businesses are being forced to adapt to the negative economic impact that will result from your customers and clients changing their habits for the foreseeable future.

Any 2020 plans and initiatives that you’ve put in place will undoubtedly be called into question, so it’s worth re-visiting your SEO strategy in this rapidly changing environment.

In this blog, we aim to outline both short and long term SEO considerations as part of your building products company’s larger response to COVID-19. Understanding how you can adapt areas of your SEO strategy will be crucial in order to plan effectively against the impact of this virus.

Almost every business in building product and construction has been planning for the inevitable impact that COVID19 will have on our industry. It's unexpected, and sadly for most, unplanned for. In these uncertain times, a strong sales and marketing strategy is your closest defence to ensure that you come out of this the other side. 

But, how does a strong sales and marketing strategy look like for building products and construction?

With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to spread, you’d be forgiven for thinking, how will this affect my building products and construction business?

We’re unsure on how long it’ll last and the true extent of its severity, but one thing’s for certain: it will have a lasting impact on the industry.

And we’re not only talking about the distance it’s placed between us and our prospects. COVID-19 has forced us all to think about new approaches to how we work and the steps we should take to protect ourselves and our business.

No doubt, most of the articles you’ve read on coronavirus will have all been doom and gloom and ‘panic stations.’ Here, our intention is clear:

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to hear some words of wisdom from some of the big players in the world of construction.

The event: The NBS Construction Product Leader’s Summit.

It was a great opportunity to network and learn from the experts on all things affecting the construction industry today.

Last week, I attended the Construction Product Leader’s Summit: an event hosted by the NBS, which set out to highlight the importance of adopting a digital approach to construction.

We were lucky enough to listen to the words of Dame Judith Hackitt. Dame Judith has been instrumental in the much-needed improvement of current building regulations, through her recent implementation of the new Building Safety Regulator.

This post aims to highlight the key takeaways from Hackitt’s talk, and how Insynth applies these principles within our digital marketing approach.

Have you ever wondered why content marketing works so well for some construction/building products companies, whilst failing miserably for others?

You might be one of those companies who has hired a team of exceptional writers yet aren’t seeing the ROI that you needed or expected.

With January out of the way and our construction marketing strategy in place, we imagine that your sights are firmly set on how you will promote and network your building products company to drive growth and success in the new year.

Throughout 2020, the UK is playing host to a variety of trade shows aimed at those in the construction and AEC industry, and Insynth has compiled a list of the shows not to be missed.

Read on to find out more.

There are a ton of companies in the building products and construction industry who spend countless hours and thousands of pounds producing content and developing webpages that go unnoticed by Google.

You may hire an expert copywriter who writes beautifully but has little knowledge of your target audience.

You may spend thousands on a web developer who’s an amazing visual designer but knows very little about SEO.

And what are you left with? A website that acts as a product brochure (I’m aware that I’ve used this term several times).

This post will provide you with the tricks and hacks that’ll ensure you structure your blogs in a way that gets you noticed by Google, giving you the biggest slice of the pie.

There’s nothing more frustrating than your website not showing up on Google when you type in a particular keyword.

You spend so much time improving your website’s content; you’ve got an attractive website; you’re promoting your brand in the best light.

Yet, when you’re sat there, ready to rake in all the traffic…

Nothing happens. No increase. No ROI.

For construction marketers who are new to digital marketing, this can be disheartening. Fear not, however. There could be one of five reasons why you’re not finding your building products website on Google. This post aims to identify them.

Want to make your construction content marketing stand out in 2020?

You’ve come to the right place.

As we enter into the new decade, we need to understand that the times are changing. So, before I break into a clichéd Bob Dylan quote, I’m going to share some key tips to make your construction marketing content stand out, increase specifications and win you the projects you deserve.

There are so many opportunities to make your building products and construction website a content-rich beacon of information.

Our industry is full of content opportunities. Whether it’s BIM objects, technical specifications or product information, there's a lot of accessible information for our audience of architects, contractors and designers.

But, in the building products and construction industry, there’s an overlooked and neglected facet of content…

And it’s blogging.

A series of keyword-rich blogs can have the ability to drive substantial traffic to your website, increasing specification potential and placing you ahead of your competition.

You planned too much for 2019. There were specifications you didn’t get, money you didn’t make and goals you didn’t accomplish. Sound familiar?

In many cases, we find that this is largely down to a lack of strategy and focus.

So, why not kick-start 2020 with a new source of inspiration that creates focus and alignment for your team.

As an inbound marketing agency that specialises in the building products and construction industry, one of our main aims is to educate our audience. Part of the ‘education’ process involves producing high-quality, free resources aimed at up-skilling your front-facing teams.

The resources that we’ve produced this year will be shared in this post.

In the world of digital marketing, email is one of the oldest marketing channels, with the first email being sent way back in 1971. Since its primitive beginnings, email has evolved, with worldwide usage set to reach 3 billion by 2020.

This powerful tool shows no sign of slowing down, and with over 43 thousand architects and 2 million contractors currently in the UK, this guide will ensure that you’re leveraging every opportunity within your email marketing efforts.

Continuing with our series on construction marketing strategy, this post sets out to assess the current state of marketing within the building products and construction industry, and what you can do to ensure a successful and prosperous 2020… and beyond.

You’ll find many posts out there that talk about marketing in 2020, and you’ll no doubt be bombarded with buzzwords like KYC, Digital Marketing Transformation and insights-driven marketing.

These words all have their place in the marketing sphere, but they don’t necessarily resonate with the challenges that the building products and construction industry face. So, we’ll set out to assess the current state of marketing within your industry, allowing you to progress further and smash your goals.  

In this post, we’ll aim to cover all aspects of content marketing for construction and how it can prove to be a profitable, results-driven tactic-not to be ignored in today’s digital world.

For this post, I picked the brain of our CEO, Leigh Simpson, who shared his extensive knowledge and thirty-years' experience of helping businesses grow in the building products and construction sector. 

A lot of companies tend to underestimate (or wrongly estimate) their investment figures in order to achieve their goals. But, through a systematic, data-driven approach, you’ll be able to calculate realistic and achievable targets, allowing you to invest the correct capital in the correct places.

So, where do we start?

How big is your market? Are you accessing a reasonable chunk of it? Is there room for development? These are all common questions that companies within the building products and construction industry often ask themselves.  

And there’s good reason for this. Last year, the construction products manufacturing sector consisted of 23,884 companies in the UK. With a market of this size, there’s a lot of competition.  

Now of course, your market share will vary depending on your sector within the construction and building products industry, and this is where TAM comes in.  

TAM stands for Total Accessible Market and is a key strategy in determining market size and your potential for growth.  

Trying to decipher the myriad of interactions involved in the specification process can feel daunting but, the truth is, it only takes one contractor to be attracted to your product for them to you. It is as simple as that! The actual key to the specification process comes with the question of what makes specifiers choose you.

Email newsletters are one of the best ways to stay on top of your architects, contractors and specifiers’ minds.

However, getting it right requires thought and strategy. Follow some of these top tips that we apply to our clients to make sure that their newsletters are relevant and read-worthy.

Active email accounts are expected to hit 5.6 billion by the end of 2019, so it’s no wonder that email continues to stand out as the number one sales and marketing resource.

Considering its popularity, I’m sure architects, contractors and specifiers are experiencing a fair bit of noise in their inboxes, too. Therefore, the need to stand out is imperative.

So, how do we stand out?

For starters, avoid making the following mistakes which are sure-fire ways to ensure your emails end up in the spam folder.

I’m sure there have been times where you’ve thought, ‘social media or email marketing: which is better for my building products brand?’

Rather than arguing over which one is better, let’s look at how we can integrate email marketing and social media for a better customer experience.

Digital marketing is most successful when you adopt a holistic view as it helps you to build a brand image.

And we can’t stress enough the importance of presence. Being present in as many places as possible will ensure that your journey to success is easier, and you’ll be at the front of your architects and specifiers’ minds.

As with every aspect of digital marketing, you need a process for tracking and measuring important metrics, and this is most definitely the case for your email marketing. After all, email continues to be one of the most important and effective marketing tactics.

We’ll aim to cover some of the key email metrics you should consider measuring. Bear in mind, however, that you’ll be measuring different metrics based on your individual goals.

And, of course, your goals will vary with your building products company over time.

Take note, because your sales team, managers and directors will want figures, return and results.

Do you want to supercharge your email marketing strategy? If so, you need to understand the different kinds of email that you could (and should) be sending.

So let’s uncover the different types of email, and how they can work for your building products and construction brand.

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.

Getting positive email results firstly requires you to look at your email list. A new email marketing campaign won’t be effective if you haven’t built a list of recipients to get your messages, or you haven’t grown the existing list you currently have.

By creating an audience with an email list, you will have the opportunity to nurture and develop your prospects in a way that keeps them interested and engaged with your content.

After all, they’ve signed up for your emails. This means that they’ve expressed that first level of interest and are seeking your help for a solution. This makes selling what you’re offering a lot easier down the line.

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:

Kelsey’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelseymeyer1/

Kelsey’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kelsey_M_Meyer

One of the biggest concerns most marketers have today regarding their content marketing efforts is ensuring they're creating revenue for their company.

It can be difficult to identify the methods and forms of content that are actually turning a profit, or what you should be doing with your content to make sure you're meeting your revenue goal.

Kelsey Raymond, Co-founder and CEO of Influence & Co. shares her thoughts on the right strategy, the correct method for tracking revenue, and a tried-and-true process.

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.

Colleagues want facts and figures. They want measurable and profitable results.

What evidence do you have that your content marketing efforts are successful? This information  will allow you to see if the content you’ve invested so much time on producing is actually working, and most importantly, whether it’s driving sales.

The Importance Of Content Promotion

Content promotion refers to the distribution of content through a variety of media channels. These include social media networks, blogs, emails, and live events, to name a few.

A common viewpoint shared by many is the notion that you should create less and promote more. We understand the weight of this argument. What’s the point, for example, in organising a birthday party without promoting it? No one would turn up.

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.