5 reasons why construction companies should be blogging

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This is the first in a series of posts which aims to inspire you, the marketer for your construction company, on how you could use social media platforms and tools such as Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to connect, engage and educate your audience and enhance your brand to meet business objectives.

This post was recently updated in April 2015

Firstly, let’s get one thing straight.

Your marketing efforts should always be geared towards business objective(s), goals and targets (K.P.I’s). Why are you doing it? The last thing you want to do is step into the world of public opinions and customer conversations with a blind eye and make a complete hash of things. If you haven’t read Social Media Metrics by Jim Sterne then we suggest you do.

Jim writes that the big 3 business goals for social media are:

1) Increase revenue
2) Lower costs
3) Improve Customer Satisfaction’.

These 3 goals are all that matter in the long run and the goals/objectives which I will relate to for each channel.Read More

Why you need to register your company name on Twitter

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I was planning to do another social media analysis (similar to the Construction companies and Housebuilders analysis) this time on the UK water companies but then I come across this little wonderful example of why social media and reputation monitoring is so important in protecting your brand online. Companies whose objective it is to communicate to consumers through many channels need to be on top of the social media game and be able to monitor and act upon brand mentions in online conversations and respond to them quickly. Likely places where consumers converse is on forums, blogs, community sites and…….social sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Are you actively monitoring these places?Read More

It’s not about you

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Your web site shouldn’t be about you – it should be about your prospect and customers. The average technical and trade website visitor is only interested in what benefits them as a business – they are self-centred. So your content language should not be concentrated on “our” and “we” but instead “yours” and “you”. The age old attitude of ‘my website is a shop window for my business’ is still present today, however, the prospect looking through the window no longer wants to know about you as much as  the need to know WIFM…what’s in it for me? Providing value through your content is what makes the difference.

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Government sector lead the pack in email marketing

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A recent email marketing benchmark report published by Sign-Up.to shows that the Government sector is performing the best against 23 other sectors for open and click through rates for email campaigns during Q1 and Q2 of this year. The Government sector is currently achieving open rates of 35.60% which is a significant increase on 2009. This is due to the General Election earlier this year which, for the first time, saw various other marketing channels used alongside email. We saw many parties utilise social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube channels to attract the ‘online savvy’ audience.

The worst performing sector was the Property sector, dropping from 13.11% to 9.58% open rate in 12 months and this could be due to the current housing market climate we find ourselves in. However, we have to also look at the ‘engagement’ levels for each sector which is measured by the number of clicks to open (Click to open rate) and the Government sector is currently achieving a click to open rate of 25.51% whilst the property sector comes in at 9.23%.

The industrial and manufacturing sector does not fair to badly, with open rates of 19.88% and a click to open rate of 16.87% is around about the average reported during Q1 and Q2. However, the unsubscription rate is slightly higher than average and this could be due to irrelevant information being promoted to the recipient and also the value proposition within the email or campaign itself.

Here is the table for the Government, Industrial and Property sectors for Q1 and Q2 of 2010 of email marketing benchmark report:

email marketing 2011 report

Don’t just put your brochure content online

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Way back, when the web was new, building product suppliers could be forgiven for merely copying their brochures and putting them online. Since then expectations of your web site’s content have changed vastly, so cutting and pasting your brochure copy simply won’t do.

When someone visits your web page they expect to find the information they seek immediately. They won’t want to be taken through an introductory paragraph of self-congratulatory spin, nor enjoy a portrait of your smiling chairman. No, they want to cut to the chase, to find the product they’re seeking, to find the relevant supporting information and to make contact easily.

Here are 6 tips for writing content for your website:Read More

Social Media in the U.K. Statistics

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As social media usage grows and how people share, exchange and source information has changed, marketers are having to change the way they reach out and broadcast their content. If you are still trying to convince yourself on whether social media is a marketing channel, then Hootsuite’s 140+ social media statistics that matter to marketers in 2020 might help you make this decision.

We’ve picked out a few highlights which might help your decision making when it comes to social. One of the main challenges for construction marketers to deciphering whether your audience is actually using social media to inform purchasing.

Well, you’ll be interested to know that people are using social to “research/find products to buy” with around 28% of each age group using social networking sites for this purpose. It’s clear that social media is being used to inform purchasing decisions, and this is apparent in a B2B environment too.

motivations-to-use-social

The social path to purchase backs up these motivations…

social-path-to-purchase

It’s probably not going to be news that video is still the top format on social. 90% of internet users say they watch video online at least once a month.

video-usage

With the amount of people on social, it’s also no wonder that companies are increasing their spend on advertising, which is set to increase by 20% to $43 billion in 2020.

One of the other challenges to consider is which social networking sites are right for your company. This is where looking at the audience demographics for each social media is crucial. For instance, you might think you HAVE to be on instagram because that’s the new trend, but when you consider their demographics (predominantly 25-24 year old women) you might end up putting a whole lot of effort into creating engaging content & not get the results you want.

Consider your objectives before launching any social media, and make sure it’s definitely worth it for your company.

Find out more about social media for construction companies on our blog.

Link to Success

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If you understand the importance of links – and anyone contemplating social media marketing simply must – then you will also appreciate that creating good quality content is the key to the whole exercise. We discussed this in the last edition of My Digital Insider which looked at Social Media Marketing for construction companies. As the social media network becomes more and more part of our daily activity and the lines of communication between business and personal life become less distinct, so the opportunities for your staff to create these links increases. Which means that – as long as those engaged in link creation understand the dangers of inappropriate or poor quality links – you can share out the job. 

Here are just a few link creation ideas. You probably wouldn’t want to use them all, but this does provide a useful checklist if only to remind you that the presentation your MD gave to his chartered institute could be posted to his social networking profile or the video demonstrating the installation method of the  ‘pour and roll’ roof membrane product for a major project would look great on YouTube for prospects and customers to view.

How important is marketing to Main Contractors when it comes to product specification?

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For many construction product manufacturers, achieving product specification early on in the complex design and build process is a key sales and marketing objective. Early involvement from product manufacturers allows the education and collaboration process with Specifiers (Architects, lead engineers, designers etc), a key influencer, to become easier and to ensure the best product is specified for the job/project whilst also providing the manufacturer with the ability to better manage the process and ensure there is very little room for a change in specification.Read More

How are the Top 15 House Builders using social media?

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Yesterday, I did an analysis on the top 15 construction companies and how they utilised their social media profiles to enhance brand perception, improve customer service, educate and engage with the rest of the construction market.  This analysis follows the same format and criteria but this time focuses on the top 15 house builders within the UK. Again, I used the data produced by The Construction Index.

I analysed the Twitter profile for each house builder and checked to see if they were actually Tweeting and engaging with their followers, LinkedIn profile to see if they had a company page and had set up their own groups to build little online communities and finally Facebook to see if they were targeting and engaging with consumers who were looking to buy a new home. I also viewed their corporate websites to see if they had links to their social media profiles from their homepage, had analytics installed, incorporated a blog within their site and finally if they had an RSS or email feed available for keeping up with the latest news.Read More