The Best Six (6) Ways to Utilize Content Marketing, and Creative Marketing Strategies
for
All Entrepreneurs, Small Businesses, and Professionals in the
Design and Construction Industry and Associated Professional Service Industries
There has been a paradigm shift in how companies in the Design and Construction Industry market and position themselves online.
It is time to join the virtual world, the world as we know it has changed. Are you ready to go virtual? Have you laid the content marketing foundation to step up and operate in the digital space?
All Entrepreneurs, small businesses, and professionals should embrace the online revolution of 24/7/365 online website marketing for their services, widgets, and gadgets.
Your competitors have embraced the online revolution of 24/7/365 online website marketing for professional services by transforming their online presence. So - Why haven't You?
In this downloadable article, We Show You How-to:
- Utilize Positioning in Marketplace to Show off your Brand
- Get to Know Your Target Market. Your target market is your core income-generating client demographic.
- Dominate Your Competition Online.
- Bring on the Knowledge Storm, share your Thought Leadership and Demonstrate your Expertise utilizing multimedia.
- Use social media. With the best ways to maximize your presence. The Like, Follow and Share the Social Media Conundrum.
- Attraction Marketing Copywriting, Content, copy, and SEO
What common element runs through all Persuasive Marketing?
Content that Connects and Influences Actions.
Expert Tip: Covid has taught us that if you train your staff self-discipline and coach them to work at home by utilizing a regular schedule, combined with some company social time, your staff will be happier and more productive.
Use a fun activity online to create community, like company teatime or happy hour drinks online on a Friday afternoon.
What are you waiting for?
In my 35+ years career in the Design and Construction Industry, and now in Content Branding Solutions, I have only met a couple of creative natural market innovators.
Most knowledgeable architects, lawyers, and engineers do an excellent job of design, legalese, and construction and an abysmal job of marketing. First, they leave it to a proposal writer or the IT guy, then they call in their "Director of Marketing," who puts proposals together daily to coach and train them.
"I designed performing arts buildings. Consequently, like you, I pushed the envelope on every project.
I searched for firms that positioned themselves as industry experts, willing to push the envelope.
Imagine how difficult it was to find those firms when many firms failed to position themselves as the thought leaders in the marketplace?" ~ Peter Lucking
Where are the Thought Leaders in the Industry?
Architects will tell you, "structural engineers over design." Mechanical engineers who are any good do not design ductwork that looks like spaghetti. And electrical engineers...
Lawyers complain about time in court!
Designers Complain about Meetings!
The Common Element in all Professions is Communication
Embrace the Revolution
of
Online Media and Communicate your Brand Messaging with Thought Leadership
Small businesses complain about Amazon! Instead, use the marketplace for your firm's benefit.
Expert Tip: Lead from the front. Words have the power to be your 'Rain Maker' for B2B and B2C firms. Thought Leaders are bringing on a "Knowledge Storm" with customer-focused articles and white papers.
Embrace the Digital Content Marketing revolution with Thought leadership
Embrace the online revolution of 24/7/365 online website marketing for professional services.
- Show off your brand with flair as the industry-leading go-to firm utilizing the 12 Benefits of Content Marketing.
- Demonstrate and share your expertise with thought leadership services articles and white papers.
- Be genuine, consistent, and honest.
- Keep your brand Promise to all your clients, however big or small.
From engineers to architects, marketing for professional services has shifted away from traditional techniques, i.e., face-to-face networking, sponsoring events, print ads, and cold calling to 24/7/365 online attraction marketing. Marketing content that prequalifies clients before they even arrive through optimized SEO utilizing branded content marketing.
Traditional marketing strategies have their place in the marketing mix. Still, brilliant Architects, Engineers, Contractors (AEC) firms know that if they want to succeed, they must embrace digital content marketing tactics and strategies, and improve their thought leadership, to become the go-to knowledge experts in the field.
AEC firms that fail to incorporate digital marketing in their content marketing mix will disappear like the dinosaur. The competition is surging forward using creative marketing to gain a competitive advantage.
Content Branding Solutions have created a simple list to give you the competitive edge. Follow these six (6) marketing activities to stay competitive in your industry!
Six (6) Content Marketing Actions for All AEC firms
1. Positioning in Marketplace
Positioning your AEC firm in the marketplace is more complex than just a civil, structural, or mechanical consulting firm. How you position, your firm, should be driven by your business marketing strategy.
Your Master Messaging Roadmap should reflect your positioning. So, where do you start?
Clarify these Four (4) Features:
- Who you serve; the core markets income-generating areas you serve
- The value you provide; the value, benefits, services you provide.
- Your Differentiator - this is your Unique Sales Proposition (USP)
- The Stars in your Firm. The expertise your firm offers aligns with your target market's needs and is provided through your stars.
- Your brand promise; Many Architects, Engineers, and Contractors AEC firms fail to provide a promise. So, what is a Brand Promise? What must it achieve?
- It must convey a compelling value/benefit.
- It must be genuine and sincere.
- It is your firm's integrity. Fulfill the promise in all you do and how you do it; it is your word, your credibility.
Develop a content-driven marketing strategy to emphasize your firm's credibility to your target market. This attraction marketing strategy should incorporate a combination of white papers, knowledge-based articles, reports, and webinars.
Your Strategy should follow a well-thought-out content marketing cycle that keeps your clients informed with fresh content assets every month. Mixing it up occasionally with some creative marketing will help keep your brand fresh.
The Content Marketing Cycle
Content Marketing is Based on Your Customer Needs
and
is Not Self-Promoting, but Sharing Knowledge as an Industry Thought Leader.
Your content and branding should attract your clients from your sales materials, cut sheets, and leave-behinds to your website, leading with its SEF-SEO and its persuasive call-to-action (CTA).
Content marketing will drive your SEO, content creation, social media interaction, along with many other attraction marketing channel developments.
Content Marketing is Based on Your Customer Needs.
You want to differentiate you, your staff, and your company as the experts and superstars in your field, engaging qualified prospects early in their buying process when they begin their search for a team for their project. Remember that people buy people.
All Firms Need to Identify and Decide on Positioning
If your positioning is weak, it will be hard to differentiate from the competition. But, on the other hand, strong well thought out positioning will help you be the expert, and as a result, you can charge a premium for your services.
Horizontal Positioning is the Demographic or Discipline area of Expertise that Matches your Target Market's Needs.
This positioning will drive all your Content Marketing Tactics and Creative Marketing Strategies.
Horizontal Positioning
The Narrow Field Of Services - Horizontal positioning is the most straightforward approach. Build extensive expertise in a narrow field of services by offering services that highly value demographics or discipline. The advantage of horizontal positioning is you get a varied mix of clients. In addition, horizontal positioning allows you to create branded content marketing around your core income-generating client's needs.
"Thought Leadership and social selling is the art of positioning your brand in front of the market trends."
~ Cheri Lucking
Contact Us to Help You Position Your Firm
Expert Tip: Determine your niche market's area of expertise. Identify the differentiator, your income-generating core services customers, and then utilize content marketing for proven success.
As a Creative Agency Content Branding Solutions Differentiator
is
Brand IMAGINEERING Utilising Content Marketing
Vertical Positioning is the Market
If you have done your research and know your income-generating core services customers, what they want, and where they gather, you will have an easy time crafting a Master Messaging Roadmap that positions your firm in the market.
Focusing on a specific target or type of market is vertical positioning – Healthcare, Performing Arts, etc.
Most businesses utilize vertical positioning as it is easy to find prospects, buy a targeted list of qualified clients, and identify conferences and industry-specific publications to target. In addition, decision-makers and influencers in these fields move within the industry, which means building relationships with any star player or thought leader is key to success.
Brand IMAGINEERING
Brings Your Brand to Life and Attracts New Business.
Your Content Master Messaging Roadmap strategy should include both the short-term and long-term goals. It should be championed by a compelling marketing message and tactical implementation plan that has identified the best media mix and channels to make your methodology a success.
For further information, see our article: How to Create a Marketing Plan
With a content branding strategy, you should be able to:
- Own the market; Whether you are an AEC firm, small business, or consultancy, you should effectively own the market it serves in the minds of its clients.
- Develop and Market Your Thought Leadership your expertise in your customers' specific type of business
- Be The Industry Market Leader Speak passionately and competently in their language; use examples of what and how you have solved similar problems so your prospect will see as an absolute value in what you offer.
- Become the go-to in your field, as you will be able to charge higher fees that match your firms' values and client's expectations
For example, a structural engineering firm could specialize in structural systems for Lab, Research, and Science buildings or Cultural buildings, emphasizing Performing Arts can charge the highest fees.
For example, quantity surveyors and cost consultants who are the go-to in the field specializing in performing arts can charge the highest fees.
For example, only a handful of firms offer an excellent cost consultant in the Performing Arts Design industry. The best quantity surveyors charge the highest fees, but for a budget-driven public project, this is a small price to pay for both the client and the design and construction team.
Expert Tip: If You need help developing your "Master Messaging Roadmap," don't hesitate to get in touch with a professional today.
Your Website is the Hub for all Your Digital Marketing and Branded Content Marketing
Your website must be the hub of your marketing efforts; device-friendly from a mobile phone, tablet to PC, desktop. Your website is the world's window to what you do.
Does your website pass Google's mobile-friendly test? If not, you need to refresh your brand and develop a new custom website design.
Many potential clients will visit your website to decide whether to trust you with their business, so it is essential to build trust through referrals and testimonials. Being the thought leader in the industry will build trust as the knowledge leader. White papers and arrivals are critical.
Content Marketing Gets 3x More Leads than Paid Search Advertising
Source: https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics
Be the Thought Leaders in the AEC industry, have a fantastic website with great content that highlights your stars, builds trust and rapport, and value. It may be the difference between landing that great project or watching your competitor earn the industry praise.
Expert Tip: People Buy People they Know, Like, and Trust. Build rapport.
Where Do You Begin? You Begin with Your Website Content, Copy, and Graphics
Your website is your 24/7/365 opportunity to present a strong online presence! Your presence should portray your AEC firm as the knowledge resource of expertise that your core market audiences are searching for, positioning you as the thought leaders and experts in your field.
Your website should sell your firm's talents, skills, knowledge, experience, interwoven with solutions to your targeted audience's problems.
Signs that Your Website May Need a Content Branding Refresh:
- Is your site mobile-friendly? Check here: https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
- Thought Leadership: Do your website and blog articles convey informative, knowledgeable, client-focused content?
- Is your website easy to read on a mobile device and quickly scanned for content?
- Does your website effectively present your firm's portfolio of work, team, and unique sales proposition USP?
- Does your site attract those who you serve? The core markets income-generating areas you serve
- The value you provide. The value and benefit your services provide
- The expertise your firm offers that aligns with the needs of your target market
- Is your brand promise fulfilled?
- Have you posted a thought leadership white paper, or blog post, within the last 60 days?
- Does the content establish your firm as an expert before your prospects contact you?
If you answer "No" to even one of these questions, you may have a website content problem that you should plan to address:
Your firm's attraction marketing website content branding, copy, SEO, so it is working 24/7/365 as your General Sales Manager and prospecting machine, providing your team with qualified leads day in day out.
For further information, see our article: Nine (9) SEO Solutions to Improve Your Online Rankings!
4. Bring on the Knowledge Storm
Be the Thought Leader in the industry, bring on the knowledge storm with white papers and informative knowledge articles. Informative articles will boost leads, improve your SEO and help create conversions; Thought Leadership articles are a great way to promote your industry expertise as the go-to firm.
Do not "sell," but lead through Thought Leadership and Knowledge.
The content branding on your website, including the blog, represents and is the ambassador of your firm. Your targeted customers will judge your copy and writing skills along with the content. If your site reads like a pdf, Webware brochure, you will lose customers.
Outsource Your Content to Experts in Your Market Niche
Remember to promote your staff as experts as people buy people they trust. In addition, promoting your team as experts will promote the teamwork and knowledge of the firm.
Start with Your Content Creation
“SEO Content is the Engine of Your Business.” - Cheri Lucking
Begin with answering the questions your customers ask, address their concerns.
Make Sure your Article Posts are:
- Persuasive, clearly written with attraction marketing copy that is knowledgeable and informative
- Fun to read and easy to understand. Do not use too many abbreviations and industry-specific vernacular words
- Post articles regularly; if your content is interesting, your prospects will want more
- Solve the industry questions on the minds of your targeted prospects
- Professionally edited; The second set of eyes is essential. Our editors are Design and Construction Industry experts
- Indexed and Cross-referenced and includes citations and sources
- Proofread; Proofreading is the final check that the content of the article for the post is ready to be published
- SEO'd with powerful meta descriptions and meta keywords
Great persuasive content builds brand exposure, promotes your services, and creates new business opportunities.
The following responses come from a recent survey conducted by Marketing Charts (Hubspot, 2020)
"Which digital marketing channel is perceived as most effective?"
The various survey findings revealed a pattern in the top channels working today?
They all involve COPYWRITING.
Content Branding Solutions content strategists recommend a combination of Email, Website, SEO, and Social Media – LinkedIn specifically, to give you the best possible professional results.
The Design and Construction Industry and its clients are visual and budget-driven. So, share your success and knowledge across multiple media outlets where your clients gather with backlinks to your thought leadership articles that are SEO'd to attract your target client to you.
Where Should You Start?
- Professionally written SEO content that is well-edited is an asset that works 24/7/365! Why? Because it demonstrates your thought leadership, engages your prospects, and lays the foundation for your marketing, business, and sales success.
- Social media is a perfect place to showcase your company's thought leadership articles by leaders of your firm and share content on Linkedin Pulse to attract clients to you.
- Push your industry insights and specialized knowledge to potential clients and some other industry peers. Remember, your peers compete with you.
- Be the authority on social media channels and increase interest in your company.
Be careful of which social media outlet you use. Don't get burnt again.
6. Content
When great content converts, over 56% of potential clients have already made up their minds and converted before they speak to your local Business developer or contact your Marketing and Sales team.
Content-driven positioning that demonstrates and establishes your firm as experts in the field positions you in the market for success. This content-driven approach to attraction marketing incorporates blogs Thought leadership articles, webinars, and a content strategy that makes your firm's website the definitive source of expertise for your targeted core audience to convert them to clients.
Make sure you use a Design and Construction expert niche writer to convey your message clearly.
Conclusion
So, what are the best-proven Marketing Strategies for the AEC Industry? This article is just the beginning to help you develop some structure.
The recommendations we listed, beginning with Positioning in Marketplace to the Social Media Conundrum, are necessary actions for success.
Now what? Do you create all this by yourself or begin a partnership with a professional marketing company whose expertise is the Design and Construction industry, like us?
