The Construction Marketing Association is now conducting a national survey on marketing plans and priorities in the construction industry. Discover what budgeting techniques and other most effective marketing tactics are being implemented by your peers. In addition, CMA Chairman Neil Brown will present a case study of a complete construction brand makeover.

These survey results will be shared at our upcoming Construction Marketing Outlook 2014 Webcast on Tuesday, January 16, 2014 at 1 PM CST.

You can register for the webcast here.

The more submissions we receive, the more compelling and useful survey results will be. So please share this with out construction professionals who would be interested in taking this survey.

CLICK HERE to take the survey

It’s that time of year again! With 2013 coming to an end, it is important to begin looking ahead to marketing goals and initiatives in 2014 (hopefully you have already given it some thought).

Below are 5 construction marketing resolutions that can help your company in 2014:

1. We Won’t Ignore Local SEO

The local search war for construction and construction-related brands has been heating up and rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) are increasingly important. And research shows that 49% of local searches are conducted without a specific brand in mind (Google Places).

What are two tasks you can complete to build local SEO?

1. Location landing pages on your website
2. Build reviews

One element of your local search-ranking factor is the number and quality of reviews your business receives. Read the Importance of Online Reviews For Construction Brands for more information.

Optimize your website for local search by building location landing pages on your website. Learn more about this strategy here: Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Construction Website With Landing Pages.

2. We Will Amp Up Lead Generation

Lead generation has never been more important to marketers targeting construction decision makers, whether construction firms or building product manufacturers

All marketing should be focused on generating leads or sales:

• Build awareness with advertising, publicity, and networking
• Develop a referral program with existing customers
• Use construction lead services like Dodge, Reed, local and regionals
• Purchase customer lists and use telemarketing qualification to build or improve lists
• Conduct email campaigns to customers and prospects

With an increased digital and social focus in 2014, there are even more opportunities for capturing leads. And you can use that great content you are creating with registration pages to capture leads. Keep in mind 90% of purchases begin with a search!

Be sure to download the CMA whitepaper: Lead Generation Best Practices For Construction.

3. We Will Get Visual

As attention spans decrease, and the oversaturation of information continues, visual (and micro) content will become even more important. Infographics, videos, pictures. The popularity of sites like Instagram, Vine, or Snapchat is a clear indication of a preference shift towards visual. Visual content will dominate in 2014. Consider these statistics (Wishpond):

• 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, which is processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text
• Videos on landing pages increase average page conversion rates by 86%
• Businesses who market with infographics grow in traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t

Pictures of your machinery or tools, project pictures, infographics, company culture, tradeshows and events. There are plenty of opportunities for your construction brand to get visual.

4. We Will Optimize For Mobile

Mobile can no longer be ignored (hopefully you haven’t been). Why? 2/3 of mobile phone owners use their phone to access the Internet and check email. This number has doubled since 2009. And 21% of use mobile as their primary Internet-viewing device (Pew Internet & American Life Project).

What this means for marketers is that mobile websites and mobile-friendly emails are now a requirement, not an option.

To ensure your website is optimized, please read our blog: Mobile Website Marketing for Construction Brands.

5. We Will Get Social

Slowly but surely, engineering, architectural, and construction (AEC) companies are recognizing the importance of social media in business. Our recent survey found that approximately 97% of respondents employ social media.

Here are 6 reasons your construction business needs social media marketing:

• Social media marketing compliments, extends, and enhances your existing marketing efforts
• Social media marketing can improve search authority
• Social media can be more measurable than traditional marketing
• Social media marketing can be more cost efficient than traditional marketing
• Beyond marketing, social media can support other critical business functions such as customer service, recruitment, and more
• Social media marketing is building a huge body of evidence and case study examples

Big social media trends in 2014 include using paid advertising options, customized content, real time marketing, and more.

No 2014 Resolutions blog would be complete without some personal, self-improvement resolutions suggested in our recent newsletter: Join the Construction Marketing Association, become a Certified Construction Marketing Professional, CCMP; read the book Tools of the trade: Modern Marketing for Construction Brands; and find a job with the CMA Career Center.

Some of the biggest costs that face construction marketers today—advertising, print literature, reliance on a sales team—can be easily reduced.

As you look to develop a budget for the 2015 year, we want to help you make the most out of your marketing efforts while reducing your costs.

Our friends at Modern Marketing Partners have been helping businesses make the most of their marketing, advertising, and trade show budgets; and we share this great advice to help you lower your marketing budget while maximizing marketing results.

1) Know Thy Customer

Marketing is expensive and mistakes can devastate a marketing budget. Avoid mistakes by getting to know your customer. Know the segments, needs, decision makers, and more by gathering and using data. House all your customer data in a database or by using marketing automation software that can be updated with ease and used for marketing.

Conduct research. One of the easiest ways to do this is by regularly surveying your customers. Surveys are incredibly inexpensive and they will give you valuable information that can be used as a foundation for guiding marketing decisions. If you have trouble getting your customers to take your surveys, provide incentives such as discounts or special offers to customers who take them.

2) Banner Ads vs. Billboards

Advertising is often the most costly part of a marketing budget. Adjust your budget to invest more into search engine optimization (SEO), and content marketing through blogging and social media.

Your website ranking can make or break your marketing efforts. Chikita, an ad network, has continuously monitored search results to find that the top result on Google sees a 32.5% click-through rate, with continuous drop-offs from there (91.5% of clicks occur on the first page).

What does this mean? Unless your website is ranked in the top few search result positions, all the advertising in the world won’t help. Having a mobile-friendly website is also critical.

3) Print Brochures are so 2003

Print may not be dead, but it could use a lifeline. Whether seeing decreasing success in direct mail or increasing costs in brochure printing, it may be time to make the move to digitize.

Actively provide PDF versions of your advertising and reduce print runs.  You can always keep brochures ready to be printed single-run, as opposed to wasting the space to store thousands of brochures.

Further, you can upload all of your PDFs to SlideShare, allowing customers to find your material more easily!

4) Build Your Brand with Publicity

A saying that you need to take to heart: Advertising and Marketing is about saying how great you are. PR is getting others to do it for you.

PR or publicity placements are free by definition, with awareness building that rivals advertising!

A few examples of how you can use PR to your advantage:

• Release Products using Free or Paid PR Wire Services
  • Free: Check out this list of Free PR Submission Sites
  • Paid: Great sites include PRWeb, BusinessWire, and PRNewswire
• Build Relationships with Reporters and Journalists
• Find Public Speaking Opportunities
• Go Guerrilla

A few good ideas for what to share:

• New Product
• New Website
• New, Significant Customer
• Whitepaper
• Partnership
• Changing a Name
• Any of these 30 Newsworthy Press Release Ideas

Make PR integral to your complete and integrated marketing communications strategy.

5) Repurpose your content

Content is king, but it doesn’t have to take up a large portion of a marketing budget. Create content that relates to and will interest your current/potential customers. Use the same content in different formats.

Blog about your projects, post about the projects on social media, create a corresponding video (time lapse videos of projects are simple and effective!), introduce to customers and prospects via email, develop surveys, host a webcast or podcast and much more.

In addition to this, creating ‘evergreen’ content will give you more mileage to your money.  What is evergreen content?

“Evergreen content is quality, useful content that is relevant to readers for a long period of time.”

The key with evergreen then is that this quality content means something to a visitor who found the post the day it was published and one who happened upon it six months later.  This means that, for the time it takes you to write one piece of content, you can reach more users.

Reducing marketing expenses for your construction firm can be simple.  Just be sure you have a plan.  This is why we welcome you to join thousands of members in one of our LinkedIn Groups:

• Society of Building Products Marketing Professionals
• Construction Marketing Association

Refurnishing concerns operate in a ruthlessly competitive marketing environment. To succeed in restoration marketing, the company must manifest a complete perception of sense and quality. As an outcome of the intense competition, an effective online marketing promotion is crucial. Once the marketing strategies are established, traffic generated by referrals will start arriving vigorously. Restoration is like marketing. The two activities are continuing endeavors.

The marketing and restoration concerns experience a continuous stream of new businesses. The universal principle is that in the absence of marketing, there is no measurable and predictable manner of constructing a client base. Referrals are generated by a healthy consumer base. Recommendations are the vital element required for developing a restoration concern. Restoration concerns may require robust marketing endeavors. Considering competitive business ambience, skillful marketing compensates for concerns vying for market share. Adept marketing is imperative.

Starting Points

An online recommendation initiative is a good place to start. Satisfied clients and references are significant for the restoration company. The restoration concerns depend upon competence and trust during the processes entailing restoration. There are substantial profits and costs involved in r3e4storation projects. Consequently, the clients seek assurances that the work is going to be completed by the most competent service. References are a matrix whereas the clients enable each other by detailing their experiences with restoration service companies. The referrals acquired through word of mouth are important.

Referrals may be encouraged using a website. In each of the cases where there is booking of the restoration service, the coordinators should delegate a code to the client to attain discounts. Friends and family may use the discounts by applying the code. In offering a gift with the restoration service, the service creates incentives fort the client to purchase. Research has shown that non-financial extrinsic incentives are twenty-four percent more effective in the creation of references that cash discount incentives alone.

PPC Digital Advertising

Paid search digital advertising (PPC) is one of the most efficient methods of locating the website. The clients seeking for restoration services companies are motivated buyers. These queries involve more clicks than toward the paid search digital advertising than organic website searches. Notwithstanding, the content perspective may position the website in the search results. The specific audiences are attracted by targeted marketing.

Directed marketing promotes sales initiatives requiring weeks before manifesting in web search outcomes. The time sensitive promotions are specifically given attention in paid search advertising. In the application of organic search outcomes and paid search advertising from a robust content design usually, has the consequence of constant growth in the number of clicks when applied together.

Using Symbols Reflective of Service Quality

Symbols are an amazing, overlooked implement in the online marketing communities. Colorful and impacting symbols increase the outcome of the brand, website, and strategy. Restoration services companies focus their attention on quality designing. The images applied are reflective of effective symbol design. Restoration marketing involves the efficient application of website, content, and icons. The quality application of these elements creates referrals.

Choosing a construction firm, be it a large corporation or a private residence owner, is a very important decision. It needs time, research and careful consideration from the client’s part. Therefore, construction firms need to make all relevant information available to potential customers. They need to anticipate customer questions and needs. A well-planned marketing strategy will not only help your construction firm get more customers, but it will also get you the customers you want. Here are five marketing principles your firm should keep in mind:

1. Smooth internal communication

Often times marketers stay out of touch with the rest of the team. However, this only limits what marketers can enhance, highlight and promote with potential customers. Marketers need to be kept in the loop about latest features, capabilities, team status, and more. To make sure your marketing team has full access to this information, you can add them as collaborators in your construction management software.

If you don’t have one already, you should do your research on lean options that fit your company culture and size. One example is BuildBinder. This construction information software allows small and large teams to upload and share information with internal and external collaborators.

2. Build an effective lead generation funnel

Before you start promoting your construction firm, you should think like your potential customer:

• What kind of information do I need to know about a construction firm before I hire them?
• What are the channels I will likely use to do my construction firm research?
• What are my deepest concerns?

The answers to these questions will start you off in the right direction. Build a lead generation funnel that satisfies these needs.

3. Work closely with the sales team

Your firm’s team is the front runner when it comes to contacting new business opportunities. Make sure that, as a marketer, you keep in close touch with them. Pick their brains, and ask them the following about their leads:

• What are some of the capabilities they want to find in a construction firm?
• On average, how lengthy are their projects?
• How did they find out about us?
• What kind of information format are they asking for?

4. Outsource tasks

Your company’s core product is not marketing, it’s construction. Therefore, you do not have to be a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to marketing services. If you are the only marketing resource for your construction firm, feel free to outsource tasks. Choose your marketing agency wisely, for they will be a key partner for your company’s growth.

5. Knowledge is power to the customer and to your firm

Remember, potential customers are doing their due diligence before finally deciding on hiring a construction firm. Give them the tools to answer their existing and future questions. Develop useful content and make it available for your target market. This knowledge can only be put together when your internal team is in constant communication.

Also, open your eyes and ears. Information is a two-way street. Ask your existing and potential customers what they would like to see or hear from your construction firm. Communicate this feedback to the rest of the team and fine tune your construction solutions to meet customer needs.

When it comes to marketing new home communities, the tried and true model home is the traditional venue. However, the Las Vegas new housing market is aggressive right now, so new construction homes are being purchased practically before the lots are released. Such is the case for American West Homes’ newest community, Rainbow Crossing Luxury at Coronado Ranch in southwest Las Vegas.

Due to the demand for information that American West has been getting for their new Rainbow Crossing Luxury community, they are ditching the old sales manual when it comes to selling new homes. Unlike the majority of builders in the region, American West is using virtual tours to “sell” their homes – before the model homes and community have been completed.

Larry Canarelli, founder of American West says, “It’s a great time to buy, and home prices keep appreciating. All of our communities are selling so well. There has been such an interest in our new Rainbow Crossing Luxury homes that pre-selling from virtual tours was the best approach to help meet the demand.”

A survey by the National Association of Realtors showed that 84% of first time buyers use the internet to search for a home. And the majority of people who are searching online want to see visuals before they consider buying a home. Thus, making open houses an obsolete tactic for how real estate is marketed and sold.

In fact, according to the National Association of Realtors, most of today’s buyers will not even look at a home unless there is a virtual tour. Why? With a virtual tour, prospects can see every room of a house from the comfort of their laptop or smartphone. It gives them a sense of control; and it saves time.

Without a doubt, virtual tours have become one of the hottest marketing tools in the real estate industry. Among the marketing benefits:

• 6 million people per day take virtual tours. Yes, million. (National Association of Realtors)
• They reach prospective buyers 24 hours a day, seven days a week from any digital device. (Business.com)
• Listings with virtual tours get more views, and keep prospects on the site longer. (Realtor.com)

American West has been enjoying great success with its virtual tours, keeping up with the demand for information as well as showcasing its new models and communities. Interested prospects can “tour” these floorplans from top to bottom, despite the fact that the model hasn’t even been built yet. Which means that when these prospects actually come in to the Sales Office, they are well-versed on the homes, and more likely to buy.

For more information, contact the Sales Office at (702) 853-4586 or visit AmericanWestHomes.com

The post Virtual Tours Used to Sell American West Homes appeared first on Construction Marketing Association Blog.

Video content has taken its rightful place in construction companies’ strategic marketing conversations. It provides a powerful way to communicate your brand, share your story, and build relationships through sight, sound and motion. Experts expect this year that businesses will produce an average of one video per day. This type of content continues to grow by leaps and bounds because of it effectiveness in helping clients along their buying journey.

According to Vidyard’s 2018 Video in Business Benchmark Report, 90 percent of people say video helps them make a decision and over 60 percent say that it makes them more likely to purchase. The Report also found that product videos perform well on landing pages, websites, social media, and the top performer was videos included in emails as part of a sales conversation.

So here are four video trends you should know about. They clearly have the potential to impact the way you handle and produce video content in 2019. Take a read through and consider their importance to see if they warrant action by your company.

Make it Branded Video Content

Branded content has the ability to look and feel authentic, and has been able to avoid some of the controversy surrounding video ads. Sponsored content distributed on Facebook increased over 200% and 99% on YouTube last year. And year-over-year video content on each platform continues to increase.

Pinterest is another such platform that has actually evolved from images to videos to branded videos. We’ve already covered that this is a good platform for remodelers and contractors to visually demonstrate their work, and video offers even more freedom to capture and hold potential clients’ interests.

Pinterest also provides an autoplay enhancement to its Promoted Video platform, which construction marketers are loving. It gives them the ability to run video promotions that will automatically start the moment a person scrolls across it in their home feed. The person doesn’t even need to hit the play button. Plus, in addition to showing up in a pinner’s home feed, promoted videos will autoplay in their search results. This is in contrast to other platforms that interrupt users while they are watching a video.

Now construction companies can more easily find clients looking for their type of product or service and provide them content. They can also retarget everyone who saw their video with a follow-up campaign to really hit their message home.

Dominate with Livestreaming

The usage of live video has grown exponentially over the past few years. Companies, especially those trying to establish their brand in the marketplace, need to embrace livestreaming more in 2019. It’s becoming one of the best ways to connect and interact with current and potential customers because viewers feel it gives them a better, more authentic feel about a company.

Social media platforms like Faceback have really cemented the importance of live video. According to their numbers, one in every five shared Facebook video is live, and is now watched three times longer than normal video. The engagement factor is what should be so appealing  — viewers hang around longer to hear more of your story.

Go Mobile

Mobile content is on the rise. Along with it, mobile optimized videos. Many platforms are finally moving their video space into the mobile arena, which was once dominated by desktops and laptops — and thus, only horizontal video layouts. Snapchat started the trend of vertical video advertising and it is really taking off. According to buffer research, square video outperformed landscape video in views and engagement, plus costs less to engage someone on Facebook and Instagram. So even if you’re starting out your video creation efforts, remember the video format can play a significant role in how many people watch it, how long they watch it for and its overall success.

Include it with Email

Email marketing continues to provide construction services with a relevant tool to reach clients with important messaging. But, just like social and other marketing tactics today, companies need to find additional techniques to keep recipients engaged with their efforts. Interactive content in emails, like videos, has been shown to convert 70% of the time compared to 36% for passive content. Videos encourage potential clients to experience an aspect of a company in a different and impactful way, which can lead to better conversion metrics for the email campaign.

Video sounds good doesn’t it? Now you may just need some ideas about what to video. Here are a few to get you started:

• Before and after project details – great for Pinterest
• Demolition day – great for livestreaming
• New product or service vlog – good for your website
• Events or exciting announcements
• Drone or security camera footage – Facebook and Instagram worthy, especially if it’s funny
• Client testimonials
• Jobsite safety tips

There are good opportunities for videos every day. Remember to incorporate them into your storytelling brand efforts throughout 2019.

The post Incorporate These 4 Video Trends into Your 2019 Marketing Efforts appeared first on Construction Marketing Association Blog.

Trade shows offer construction companies a unique way to connect with their target audiences for a little face-to-face time. There’s really nothing like it today. Businesses of any size get to experience exposure to a large number of potential customers with the ability to interact with them personally.

For larger brand manufacturers trade shows are often a staple component in their overall marketing strategy mix. They are also often one of their marketing’s biggest line items. With average exhibit space costs anywhere from $2,000 to $20,000 per event, booth displays going from $3,500 to $15,000, shipping, marketing materials, promotions & giveaways, staffing, and travel expenses – your investment is clearly significant.

Remember though, trade shows can attract thousands of prospects and customers. Let’s not forget they also attract channel partners, editors, influencers, prospective employees and other valuable contacts. Furthermore, they provide you with the opportunity to gain and share knowledge about improved ways of building and doing business through attendee educational sessions, hands-on demonstrations, and networking events.

Companies Need Tradeshow Guidance

So while trade shows are undoubtedly valuable, companies still struggle to deliver ROI. According to a Regalix B2B Event Marketing Survey Report, 40 percent of marketers state a lack of conversion-optimized event marketing strategies is their biggest hurdle. Many companies haven’t quite figured out how to maximize their presence to garner the best results for their businesses.

Customer engagement will be at its highest when attendees and company representatives have some time to begin communicating and building relationships.

For construction companies this means having several key trade show pieces in place, including preshow communication tactics, a well-designed display space that grabs attendees’ attention, great customer interaction inside the booth, an effective drawing or contest and marketing collateral, proper post show follow-up and measurement metrics. If you do these things well, you’ll leave a lasting impression that can produce results months down the road and year-over-year.

Tradeshow Investments Worth Making

A strategic approach construction companies can take involves implementing multi-channel event marketing for your preshow and post-show communication. Getting your message out digitally will improve your reach to prospects and potential attendees and help convert them to customers after the event. Here are three tactics that will help you produce solid leads from your next tradeshow.

Create impactful messaging

Preshow – To drive booth traffic and engagement, craft creative calls to action that can be used in emails, a microsite, blog posts, tweets, and all your communications about the event. Describe how your construction products and services can help prospective customers and the value they’ll receive by visiting your booth.

Post-show – Emails are a great tool for follow-ups and the first one should be sent with 24-48 hours of the event. Be sure to include a call to action that is laser focused because if you try to promote too many things it may confusing for the prospect. Personalize your follow-up emails and include the name of the representative that spoke with him or her at the event.

Develop an event microsite

Preshow – Create relevant content for an event you will be exhibiting at in the future to increase brand awareness and promote attendance. The microsite should include all the essentials about the trade show, booth location and promotions. Target copy to your audience and include calls to action that will get potential attendees to interact with your brand.

Post-show – Thank all the attendees who visited your booth and include a picture of your booth to help them remember you. Also present a gated offer for prospects to receive an industry white paper, demo or estimate to help you qualify your leads, plus determine the hottest ones.

Generate buzz with event-related social posts

Preshow – Utilize social platforms to talk about what you will be featuring at the event. Write blog posts on topics about event sessions, speakers, breakout sessions, etc. Consider using LinkedIn to promote posts as sponsored content to garner more interest in visiting your booth. Also, post to Facebook and Twitter to reach different audiences and emphasize event promotions.

During and Post-show – Share some fun photos from your booth or a quick video highlighting the event on Instagram and Snapchat. They may even have a filter to help you identify the event. Write a follow-up blog about a education session or interesting information you learned that others in the construction industry will find useful.

These tactics are all about spreading the word in advance of the event, during the event and for keeping in touch after the event. You’ll generate an active and receptive audience before the show that in turn can increase high-quality interactions during the event. Timely, impactful post-show communication will help create lasting relationships with prospects and engage them with your brand until they become customers. Multi-channel event marketing provides a solid strategy to help construction companies produce a positive ROI from their tradeshow efforts in 2019.

The post Key Construction Tradeshow Tactics for Delivering ROI appeared first on Construction Marketing Association Blog.

For small to mid-size businesses the hiring process is often ongoing throughout the year. Marketers need to step in and help companies realize the value of social networking platforms to help with their constant state of recruiting. Social media can provide construction businesses with an authentic and meaningful way to reach job seekers.

Today, it’s simply not enough to post job openings on Indeed, Monster, and Construction Jobs. While they might provide your business with loads of resumes, the candidates may often be unqualified for a lack of truly understanding the position and its requirements. Online job boards may be helpful, but there are also other valuable ways to recruit through social media.

Social Media Recruiting Power

LinkedIn is a great place to start. To begin the process, try these three tips from recruiters:

1. Post your job openings or advertise them on LinkedIn. The nice thing about LinkedIn is it combines open positions, candidate searches, and referrals into a high-powered network that can deliver results for a range of jobs.
2. Actively do your own searching. You’ll do this by inputting keywords relevant to the positions you’re trying to fill. Next, cross-reference the position’s requirements with the qualifications listed in the candidate’s profile.
3. Make sure your company’s profile is keyword relevant as well. Job seekers are doing the same thing you are – using keywords searches to find companies. Then, prospective employees look at the company profile to determine if it’s a place they think they may like to work.

Try Video Content

For many builder and remodeling firms a visual presentation often sells the clients. This can be true in recruiting as well. If your company is utilizing Instagram and YouTube, consider creating video content to attract interested job seekers to your openings. You can even invite current employees to co-create videos, photos and other content to show what projects your company works on and what it’s like to work at your company.

Social media offers companies a way to recruit people where they spend the majority of their time and it increases a company’s brand awareness too. Sharing photos and videos of your employees living your company values can be highly effective in today’s labor market.

Strategic Onboarding Importance

Now, given the time, commitment, and resources you’ve put into finding the right employees, it makes sense to put that same kind of energy into your company’s onboarding efforts. In many respects, the first 90 days of their employment can make all the difference in their careers at your company.

Accepting an offer for employment is a big deal for the candidate and you. So when new hires begin work, it’s important – right from the start. They want to fit in, understand their responsibilities, learn the ropes and identify with the company’s values and goals.

So getting the onboarding process right is critical. This is especially true because 20% of employee turnover happens within the first 90 days of employment. And finding a replacement is at least 30% of first-year earnings for each position-holder, according to recent U.S. Department of Labor statistics.

Build Early Engagement

Construction companies need to believe in the value of transitioning to a strategic onboarding process and move away from the checklist approach about paperwork, computers, and workspaces. If you’re willing to change your approach, you’ll be helping new hires connect to the company and their coworkers, understand their purpose and value and build engagement from day one.

How do you implement a strategic approach? Training experts offer five essentials tactics to get your onbaording process beyond just an administrative checklist:

• Assess your current orientation process. What is its duration? Be mindful of your brand – is it leveraged throughout the process? Gather communication pieces and determine alignment with company goals.
• Create a strategic approach. Outline an onboarding program that supports a continuous journey for new hires, helping them to understand the business strategy of their areas and the company, delivering job scope and performance expectations and setting them upon the road to becoming highly engaged employees.
• Develop an onboarding portal. If your organization has the resources, creating an information-filled new hire portal helps employees have a constant resource for company learning.
• Provide a mentor. Partner new hires with your best employees. These employees are champions of your brand and can mentor new talent, help answer questions, and model the attitude and behaviors your company is striving for.
• Build a business case. A strategic onboarding program requires the right resources. Determine and present the number of new hires per year and the cost of quick turnovers along with the cost-savings on having engaged, productive employees.

The post Social + Strategy = Fresh Ways to Find and Engage New Hires appeared first on Construction Marketing Association Blog.

Quality content has the potential to help B2B marketers cost-effectively drive ROI. The key to pulling this off requires a commitment to providing content that puts your audience’s needs first. And it must happen at every point in the selling cycle. It’s also going to take some time and patience.

A recent survey by Clutch Research finds that 88 percent of B2B audiences read business content online at least once weekly to stay informed, research companies and make purchasing decisions. This means construction companies who understand how to interact with B2B audiences can take advantage of multiple opportunities to engage potential customers as every stage of the client lifecycle.

According to the Clutch Report and Google, almost 90 percent of B2B audiences begin their purchasing process through search. Forrester data demonstrates that approximately three quarters of B2B buyers conduct a search and handle research online prior to making an offline purchase. Companies need informative content that demonstrates their expertise and services to attract B2B buyers during their initial search. 

So strong SEO is first and foremost. Without prominent visibility in search engines, companies serving B2B audiences may not garner awareness for their products and services, which is often phase one of the process, and also run the risk of losing leads to competitors who are.

Content Leads to Expert-based Referral

Now here’s a fun fact to keep in mind as well. Research on referrals has found that over 80% of firms receive referrals from someone who wasn’t a client. It seems a business can grow the trust of a visitor by demonstrating their expertise based on thought leadership, social media, white papers, etc. And based on those experiences the visitor becomes a referrer for your company.

While SEO is highly important, you also can see that it is not the only way clients may find you. They may be an expertise-based referral. This is great of course, but also requires that your organization is producing quality content to make this happen.

Specifically, construction companies need to develop targeted content that nurtures potential customers throughout the cycle from lead to loyalist. Taking a look at the cycle, there are four key phases that marketers need to understand and create content to engage with interested audiences as they make their way toward purchasing your products or services – again and again.

Here’s a look at the Content Clients Consider in each Phase of the Sales Cycle:

The Awareness Stage includes clients interested in staying informed about industry trends or how to approach a business challenge. They’re looking to see the value your company offers them. You want to start establishing your brand and building a level of trust.

Awareness Content: blogs, social media content, original white papers, website pages

During the Interest Stage you have a warm lead. You may need to further nurture this lead through email to keep them engaged in the cycle. You’re also looking to gauge their intent and that can come from having a conversation with them. Content can help deliver needed contact information.

Interest/Intent Stage Content: Webinars, live chats, gated lead magnets or ebooks, and personalized offers

Decision Stage requires action on behalf of your B2B buyer. You needed to have provided them the right information, gained their trust, and answered their questions, thus far and then you have everything aligned to make the sale. 

Decision Stage Content: Testimonials, reviews or product demo videos and case studies that solve a similar issue they’re experiencing

The final phase is the Loyalty Stage and requires construction businesses to create content that provides lasting value to their clients so they remain loyal. After you have congratulated yourself for attaining a client, now look to maintain contact with them and extend the relationship for increased longevity and profitability. You want a repeat client.

Loyalty Stage Content: Perhaps a case study with them, emails with updates and new product information, or a thank you offer

Companies need a diverse content portfolio to meet the range of needs of their B2B audiences. The right digital content can position a construction company for success in every phase of the client lifecycle conversion process. With quality content you are also better serving your clients and creating value while building lifelong trust.

The post Content for Every Stage in the Client Lifecycle appeared first on Construction Marketing Association Blog.