Ainhoa Rodriguez-Muguruza
Producing a successful blogging strategy is not easy, and the truth is, blogging about the construction sector does not make it any simpler!
As a swiftly changing industry, building product brands often feel that time is slipping through their hands and decide to drop marketing activities, such as blogging, which is key to their marketing efforts' success.
In this blog, I have answered two of the most common questions that we get asked regularly regarding the value of blogging for building product manufacturers and how to start blogging.
I have also made a list of the 10 most compelling construction marketing blogs currently active. You can skip to the list by clicking here.
Why Is Blogging Relevant For Building Product Manufacturers
Powered by the inbound methodology, blogging is a non-negotiable within the marketing strategies that we recommend to your clients. Whilst inbound encourages content creation, it is crucial to know where to post that content for maximum impact. Most people tend to only post content consistently on social media, but that is not always the right choice…
Unlike posting on social media, blogging consistently will improve your online visibility through SEO. But there are other benefits that building product manufacturers can experience when starting to publish content on their blogs.
Blogging Develops Authority
Building product manufacturers often forget that they are experts in their field and, more importantly, they know more than anyone about their products and solutions. If you blog consistently about the sector you specialise in, your content will naturally be specific, sophisticated, and coherent, positioning you as a trusted advisor.
It is, of course, key that your content is the result of in-depth research, genuine interest, technical knowledge, and practical experience. Making sure that you tick all those boxes and that your content is trustworthy will strengthen your authority and get you recognised by your peers and the industry!
Blogging Allows You to Tell Your Story
Technical accuracy should not come, to the detriment of spontaneity, naturality, and human touch! While facts and figures do matter, specifiers will also be looking out for stories. It is important that the professionals looking at your building products and solutions can resonate with your story and that they can see the why, how, and what of your brand.
These questions are, in fact, the base principles of the Golden Circle framework, first postulated by Simon Sinek in the book Start With Why. Sinek encourages marketers to fill their blogs with strong, persuasive stories that make you stand out in the crowd and help you be seen as an original and unforgettable brand.
Blogging Helps You Add Value
So, as you can see, blogging involves a careful balance where you combine both genuine stories and technical expertise. Yet, there is an additional element to consider in the equation. Your content should also add value, tell something different that educates the sector! When deciding on what to write about, a safe bet is to start answering common questions that you get asked recurrently.
In his best-selling book They Ask, You Answer, Marcus Sheridan encourages professionals to adopt the simple and yet highly effective mentality of answering clients’ questions on your blog. This might involve, for instance, publishing a blog on ‘What windows are best for listed buildings?’ with keyword-rich content and sharing your expert knowledge on the matter!
5 Blogging Tips From A Construction Marketing Expert
But… I know what you might be thinking. It should be easy, doesn’t it? But, truth is, creating a consistent blogging strategy is not as simple. Our Head Writer Richard Newsome asked himself the same question and came up with five key elements that he deemed essential to get anyone started on a successful blogging journey.
#1 Start With Your Keywords
Before you even start typing, you will need to have a reality check. You might have a myriad of ideas regarding what you want to write about, but it is important that those ideas align with what Google wants to hear from you. For that, carrying out keyword research is a basic part of any building product manufacturer’s blogging strategy.
#2 Choose A Topic
Once identified, your keywords will allow you to choose targeted and effective topics. A common mistake is thinking that one single topic would be enough! While your blog posts should be based around one topic at a time, you should aim to stager your content on different topics, aiming for at least twelve blog titles for each topic.
#3 Stay Consistent
Unsurprisingly, the activities surrounding successful blogging take up quite a fair bit of time. Just for you to have an idea, each blog post can take you anytime between three and five hours! So, if you are thinking about blogging in-house, you should be ready to appoint someone to do it. Ideally, you’ll be blogging once or twice a week to achieve results!
#4 Review Your Copy
Technical, educative, inspiring… Your content does, indeed, need to tick quite a few boxes! That, however, should not keep you from writing clearly. Content on building products can quickly become technical and, for a copywriter to be able to distil technical information without losing its value, a professional is often required.
#5 Keep Your Mind Goal In Mind
All throughout your blogging strategy, you should keep a clear goal in mind: answering questions and, ultimately, solving problems. It is easy for your content to become company-centric, always speaking about you, or ad-hoc for-SEO purposes, stuffing keywords for the sake of keywords. Each blog post should always have specifiers in mind.
10 Must-Read Construction Marketing Blogs
Trends in the construction industry are swiftly changing, and it is important to keep up. If you are leading the marketing strategy of your building product brand, it is key that you stay informed by consistently reading about the industry and its development.
In order to make this as easy as possible, I have gathered the most compelling blogs reporting on marketing for construction businesses.
#1 Insynth Blog
With over 25K visits throughout 2021, the Insynth blog has been positioned as a leading content channel for construction marketers. Understood within the team as a tool for self-development and improvement, the content on the blog touches on a wide range of topics, from CPD to PR, and an even wider range of formats, with content being offered in audio, text, and video format. This has made the Insynth blog one of the most versatile construction marketing and sales blogs in the world.
#2 Evenbound
Evenbound is an American full-service digital marketing agency based in Grand Haven, Michigan, that combines different marketing methodologies to create tailored marketing strategies for their clients in the construction, manufacturing, and industrial sectors. With an aery look and compelling posts, their content gathers important and resourceful tips to grow your building product business!
#3 Hook Agency
Also based in America, more accurately, in Minneapolis, Hook Agency is specialises in marketing for contractors! Aware of the role Google plays nowadays for the success of contractors, their methodology focuses on SEO, web design, and paid advertisement management. Their blog is full of examples of how to achieve greater growth with targeted, specialised, and properly curated content.
#4 ManoByte
Based in Michigan, ManoByte is a digital growth agency specialising in the sector of materials manufacturing. Through their content, they aim to guide those manufacturing companies that might have felt disoriented due to the recent changes modern buying has undergone. Their posts gather topics ranging from sales enablement to customer-centric website design.
#5 Epiphany Studio
Epiphany is a female-owned marketing and brand consultancy headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, with the clear focused of getting their customers specifiers. Their close contact with architects and specifiers allows them to create content that relates with that audience and speak in a language that construction professionals feel their own.
#6 CIB
Active since 1985, CIB is one of the longest-standing integrated construction marketing consultancy agencies in the UK focused exclusively on the built environment. Their experience working with building product manufacturers, contractors, architects, and consultants has allowed them to gather a great amount of knowledge that they consistently share on their blog.
#7 Builder Funnel
Based in Colorado Springs, Builder Funnel is a versatile agency offering sales and marketing services to home builders and design-build re-modellers. Their content underlines the role of content in the success of a company’s marketing strategy. The blog posts touch on topics including website development, email marketing, social media marketing, SEO, and lead nurturing.
#8 Redmallard
With an innovative take on the construction sector, this California-based marketing agency encourages construction companies to bring their stories to life with creative and story-driven content. Red Mallard has succeeded at understanding the need for companies to transmit their expertise through careful narratives that better resonate with their audience.
#9 Whizard Strategy
Based in Colorado, Whizard Strategy is a marketing agency focusing on optimising the way building materials companies market their products and services. In their blog, they highlight the need for construction professionals to look at the role of technology beyond project management and they invite the sector to adopt innovative methodologies, such as inbound, to boost their growth.
#10 Let’s Build
Focused on both marketing and operations for construction projects, this computer software company produces sophisticated content so professionals with the sector can have a complete picture of the situation of the industry. Since it is based in Europe, LetsBuild reports on international data, helping construction marketers around the world stay informed.
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.