Alex Miles
CPDs have been a great way to market your building products to architects and specifiers and provide professionals with career development.
However, with the drastic changes to the industry due to the Grenfell tragedy and the rise and continuation of Covid, we have all had to adapt rapidly to continue meeting the expectation of specifiers.
This blog talks about 5 top tips for a great CPD to help you kick start your CPD adaptation.
TIP 1 - Create a good CPD presentation
A good presentation is the first step to creating an effective CPD, if you want to make it engaging and informative for your audience.
Consider taking on a modular learning approach and splitting your presentation into bite-size chunks to prevent your audience from getting overwhelmed with the amount of information retained over your session. You could even spit each section with a small Q&A allowing specifiers to get out their questions at the time rather than scrambling to come back to the topic later.
When your presentation is complete consider re-purposing your content in the form of a video or social media posts to upload to your company channels. This will expand the life of the overall CPD as well as provide free advice and technical support to your audience.
TIP 2 - Educate first sell second
Too many people see CPDs as a showcase and sell their products to specifiers, but it must be highlighted that CPD is NOT a sales pitch. Many people see CPD as a learning opportunity. They want to be educated by your product rather than being hit with sales straight away.
The best way to conduct your CPD is to be helpful and transparent with your product and defer from showing bias. The specification will come from building trust between yourself, your product, and your audience.
TIP 3 - Always Add a fresh perspective
The aim is to provide something new and intriguing. When creating your CPD, you don’t want to keep talking about the same topic areas repeatedly, and it will become a bit monotonous to your audience. If specifiers can find all the information about your product on Google, then your CPD will just be wasted.
It would be a good idea at this stage to communicate with your internal teams. Sales, customer services, and even your existing clients can bring up any pain points and problems they want solutions for. The key is always to try and understand your audience, so internal feedback from your teams is crucial.
TIP 4 - Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone
If you decide to record a digital CPD, it can be a bit nerve-wracking or awkward if you’re not used to talking to a camera. However, one of the positives is that you can re-record as many times as you need to!
It’s always suitable to schedule a few practices runs beforehand to help you relax and make you more aware of what you will be talking about. If you are not confident in yourself, specifiers won’t be confident in your product.
Whilst you don’t necessarily have to convert so quickly into video CPD, it is best to look at all your options to adapt for the future. With Specifier’s expectations changing be prepared to experiment with different types of CPD formats and the content you produce. If not, your business will struggle to get products specified and in the industry.
TIP 5 - Make sure you have an effective strategy for following up leads
One of the main challenges with digital CPD is the loss of networking opportunities which is highly anticipated at face-to-face events. Nevertheless, this should not stop you from acquiring those all-important leads to go through your marketing funnel.
Suppose you plan on uploading your CPD video to your business’s website. In that case, it should be considered a gated asset, only allowing individuals to access your content via a form or subscription. It would only be fair for viewers to provide some form of data (such as an email address or name) for some high-value content. This will guarantee a steady stream of qualified leads to add to your marketing funnel.
Conclusion
Nowadays, no one wants to be forcefully sold products; people would much rather make those decisions based on extensive and reliable research. Your information will help create a trusted relationship with your audience, which you can maintain during the buyer’s journey.
By following these tips you should be on the right track to getting your products specified and providing professionals with their trust.
About Insynth
At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.
We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.
As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, Sales Automation, SEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.