Henry Jones
Ever found yourself wondering what your building products business should be blogging about? Have you established a content strategy but you’re struggling to turn it into action? Have you been asked to write about a topic but you’re not confident that Architects and Specifiers will want to read what you have to say?
This is a position that is common for any construction marketer, the curse of the blank page can result in us writing without a clear purpose. A lack of purpose will result in fluffy blogs that won’t rank highly for the keywords that you want to win, which in turn, will harm your SEO efforts. Your blogs need to cover a range of topics, across the various stages of the buyer’s journey and answer the questions that your prospects are searching for.
From my experiences working with a range of clients in the construction industry, having conversations with Architects and Specifiers and a significant amount of research, I’ve come up with a list of 7 key themes that Architects and Specifiers require the answers to.
Use these key themes alongside your list of keywords and your content strategy to quickly create a limitless amount of blog titles to improve your SEO. The hardest part will be choosing which blog to write first!
1. Cost Insights
This isn’t about giving away your secrets or creating a flat price rate that you’re honour bound to fulfil. You have an opportunity to dispel the frustration of specifiers and designers by explaining how pricing works for your products and services.
You should be addressing the variables that create the costs. Explain why your products and services cost what they do, and give detail on the materials, expertise, uniqueness, etc. Provide advice and insight into how to keep costs down by making certain design choices. Or explain why they shouldn’t be skimping on price as it will reduce product quality.
If you’re concerned that this gives away your competitive edge when it comes to pricing then remember that competitors likely know your prices or at least a ballpark, so it isn’t the secret you think it is. If you know their pricing or where they sit in the market then, they’ll surely know the same information about you. This isn’t about winning on the pennies and pounds, it’s about removing the doubt specifiers might have when looking for pricing to build trust.
2. Product/Service Quality
Position yourself as an expert in your industry by sharing your knowledge of the various solutions that are available in the wider market: including the pros, cons and suitability of each. We have an appetite for content that offers up rankings of almost anything. It taps into our competitive nature and compels us to find out what the best in class is.
“What is the best…” is a common question that people crave an answer to. In their research, they will find out what every business says about their own products and services. But if you’re bold enough to talk impartially about all the solutions available, yours and your competitors, then specifiers and designers will respect your honesty and trust you. This is a great way to begin the dialogue with a potential new customer.
Carefully consider whether to include yourself or not in this ranking system. You may lose credibility if you’re consistently awarding yourself best in class.
3. Social Proof
Hearing someone sing their own praises can be very grating.
So why is it that businesses are always happy to exclaim their own superiority? Decision-makers don’t want to hear it from you, they want to see it. They want to see it in customer reviews, see it in case studies and see it in the buildings that they visit in their everyday lives.
Good, honest transparency coming from a 3rd party is dramatically more convincing than self-promotion. Leverage your positive reviews and case studies to bring in more work. Your past customers will use the same phrasing as your future customers, so share their experiences of working with you. You’ll be relating directly to the challenges they face using the word that they use. Doing that will make them think, “wow, these people really get me”.
4. Competitive Positioning
Specifiers will be considering multiple products or solutions so don’t be afraid to talk about the alternatives to your products. During their research phase, they’ll be looking for valuable insights and unbiased opinions. If you’re able to present them with this then you’ll already be building trust. Don’t ignore the problems that they’re facing and don’t be naïve to the requirements of specifiers in their research phase.
They will be doing their research thoroughly and finding out the answers to the questions they have.
Wouldn’t you rather they came from you and not the competition? Allow them to make their own decisions but make sure they have all the information. Explain why certain products are better suited to certain applications. Educate them openly and honestly, and you’ll find the leads you generate will be a lot better fit for your business if you put all the cards on the table.
5. Customer Challenges
Specifiers must weigh up the risks of switching to a new product or service every time they go to market. Even if they’re not fully happy with the products and services they currently use - the fear of the unknown weighs heavily on their decision.
Often they will try and find problems with what you offer so they’re not surprised later down the line or they’re already aware of some of its limitations.
What you want to do is address this head-on.
State the perceived problems up front but be honest about why they exist, then present the solutions to those problems. You’ll be able to whittle down your leads to the best-fit ones because you’re openly stating who your products are for and what they were made to do.
6. Compatibility
Building products very often have to function as part of a wider system. Architects and Specifiers will be looking for products that interface seamlessly with one another. Don’t assume that they know that your product X is compatible with product/system Y.
Instead, tell them clearly that it does or doesn’t.
On any given project they’ll have a range of problems they're trying to solve. If you’re able to demonstrate how your products can work as part of a wider system then you’ll be giving them fewer headaches and more reasons to specify your products.
7. Compliance
Ensuring compliance is achieved to the highest standard is paramount to safety and integrity in the construction industry. Specifiers can’t be an expert in everything themselves, but you can be the specialist who teaches them the exact regulations they need to abide by.
This is a fantastic opportunity to share your wealth of knowledge in your subject area. This could be around wider compliance or the specific testing that your products undergo to pass the regulations. Architects and Specifiers will both be looking for products that mitigate risks and hold up to any safety requirements that are needed.
You can’t afford to hide this information. Make it easily accessible, quick to digest, and take the complexity out of the technical information.
7 Themes Of Content Marketing In The Construction Industry
Having a repeatable process that guides us but still allows room for creativity means we can consistently blog for SEO in the construction industry without lacking inspiration. A core principle of Inbound Marketing is to always answer the questions that your customers, past, present and future, require the answers to. They’ll likely turn to Google to find these answers, so by using these 7 key themes you have a starting point for your SEO and content marketing that will get you ranking. Combine this with an intelligent keyword strategy and you have a recipe for success.
Thought of an 8th theme you’d add to this list? Let me know!