Starting a new construction marketing role is always daunting, particularly when you’ve had no previous experience in the area and therefore have limited knowledge on what it’s all about. In fact, most fresh-faced marketers, whether in the construction industry or not, don’t have a clue what they’re actually getting themselves into…
In my previous post I discussed a few tips on the right people to follow, what tools to use and which blogs to read.
So in this post I’ll be sharing a few more key insights with you; tips which should save you unnecessary stress, confusion and wasted time doing the wrong thing.
All in all they’ll help to give you a head start in your construction-marketing role and a much-needed confidence boost when approaching unfamiliar territory for the first time…
1. Everyone is not your audience
Golden rule here: your customer can’t be everyone.
And although this sounds obvious enough, when you become engrossed in content-writing day in day out, you’ll be surprised how easy it is to fall into the trap of forgetting who it is specifically you’re marketing to.
You’re so focused on making it sound appealing and exciting that you lose track of exactly who needs to find it appealing.
And the longer the post, the easier I used to get sidetracked by this, letting my own opinions guide the writing style rather than theirs.
When switching to writing mode you need to come second and your target audience needs to come first.
To overcome this problem, I set up my own target persona, placing this next to my desk in full view when writing each piece of content:
– What is it that they want to know?
– What exactly are they searching for?
– What problems do they need solving?
– How will you provide them with answers?
And most importantly – why are you writing it for them? If it doesn’t answer any of the above, then stop what you’re doing and move on to something else.
The only way you’ll develop a strong online presence is by creating specific, relatable content focusing on that one person within the construction industry that matters the most, whether this is an architect, contractor, engineer, etc.
2. Data is not meaningful on its own
So you’ll soon get used to reporting on a regular basis to either a client or another department within the company. This report will use graphs and analytical data to demonstrate the progression of your marketing tactics; perhaps focusing on a specific campaign or reporting on traffic trends.
Over a given time period, these reports should help to reflect changes in customer behaviour and most importantly, will allow you to pinpoint what’s working and what isn’t.
But to achieve this outcome, you need to understand the true meaning behind those figures in the first place so that you’re fully prepared for the questions you may get asked by the client or another team member.
What does that figure mean for us?
Where do we go with this?
Is that normal?
Why has that grown this month?
Before you know it you’re working up a sweat trying to answer a question that you hadn’t really given much thought to previously.
The problem isn’t your web report; you’ve just got so caught up in the statistics and beautifully constructed graphs that you’ve failed to delve deeper into the meaning behind it.
So incase any analytical knowledge was never your strong point before, get to know it now.
Because this is exactly what performance-based marketing is all about; generating outcomes from measurable data.
3. There is never a single, straightforward answer
In marketing, there is no simple answer that can be considered to be unambiguously right.
One of the biggest adjustments for me was learning that marketing lends itself to open questions; there is never a simple tickbox answer and it requires constant development.
And for someone like me who likes to see problems resolved by the end of the working day (to the point where it’s borderline obsessive), this was quite a struggle.
While marketing is about finding a long-term solution, you need to be focusing on short-term steps in order to achieve this:
– What needs solving now?
– What should we be prepared for?
– What’s the next step?
– What’s the long-term outcome?
It’s less about immediate results and more about testing the water; trialing new approaches and reviewing them on a regular basis until you get to where you need to be.
Which is why getting to grips with point 2 is so crucial: identifying trends that can be tested, modified and improved upon from your data, analyzing information that you can work with and pull out key insights from.
Remember that marketing evolves continuously, and with this so do the answers to problems you initially thought were just over the horizon.
4. Learn what works best for you
With the latest tools, apps, social platforms and email databases being thrown at you left, right and centre on a daily basis, it becomes difficult to reign in on what’s actually needed.
A creative mind can easily interpret these opportunities as ‘let’s use as much as possible to be the most tech-savvy marketer out there’.
And while there’s no harm in testing the odd trend or social networking site that you think may be applicable to you or your client, there’s no point in trying to implement as many tools as possible.
This technique will lead to disconnection and confusion. Rather than resulting in the latest ‘tech-savvy marketer’; this will result in generating a system that is both unproductive and inefficient.
The sad truth is you simply can’t use everything and be everywhere at once. Just because there are endless possibilities out there, this doesn’t mean that they’ll all work for you and your client.
5. You are not born a good marketer
No one was born a good marketer. It takes time, a whole load of mistakes and bundles of patience to become confident in your decision-making.
So don’t beat yourself up about it!
Soak up as much information as you can, listen to others with great experience, join webinar sessions, and read lots of recommended books and blog articles. I’m currently reading ‘Epic Content Marketing’ by Joe Pulizzi and will then be reading ‘Oversubscribed’ by Daniel Priestley. The more you can digest from the offset, the more you’ll be able to apply what you’ve read to your own current marketing situation.
Luckily for us, marketing transcends year on year, meaning that there are and always will be multiple opportunities for us to jump on board and experience the interchangeable journey along with everyone else!
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