Here’s the hardest part about marketing to architects. You have to focus on this singular audience.

Many are afraid of missing other opportunities - “We want to speak to distributors, contractors, and clients too.”

We get it. But there's a better way to approach this.

In the built environment, technical content serves as the backbone of every new project, so understanding the sources architects turn to for this information is crucial for your marketing strategy.

Building product companies often grapple with the challenge of reaching architects at the opportune moment. But standing out amidst the competition demands more than just great products.

To reach the right audience at the right time, a marketing approach that aligns with architects' concept and design research process is essential.

Reaching architects at the right time presents a formidable challenge for construction companies seeking to promote their products and services effectively. In this digital era, the key to success lies in building meaningful connections and personalised interactions.

Before you start getting into the tactics of how to market to architects, it’s important to understand the specification process they go through, and how that fits into the project life cycle.

This enables you to convey the right messages, andprovide the right materials, at the right time. 

As a building product company, it’s important to know which channels architects prefer, so you can make sure your content shows up in the right places. 

If you’re aiming to capture an architect’s attention, this could be different to the channel you use to target other members of the construction industry.

How does an architect think?

Unless you undergo seven years of intensive training, it's hard to understand fully. 

Marketing to Architects is a challenge because of this. Their persona is complex - technical, analytical, and creative. Drawn to self-expression but restrained by regulations and limitations.

Also, architects are exacting and have high standards for their suppliers. They are constantly under time pressure, and the easier you can make their life, the better.

Understanding their point of view is crucial to marketing to them.  

Why should you read an article about marketing to architects? 

There are two potential reasons.  

1. you are a marketer for a building product company.

2. You are responsible for revenue for a building product company and are seeing a decrease in sales performance and wondering whether marketing can help.

It feels like there are two very opposing camps when it comes to using AI for content marketing in 2023. Those that are looking to embrace the latest innovation, and those that are apprehensive of what AI could mean for the world, or even for them personally.

Marketing to specifiers can be a daunting task.

Over the past decade, many marketing departments have initiated account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns.

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?

At the beginning of the year, we interviewed 7 architects in Manchester to help us understand what they think about building product websites.

There is a huge need for specification marketers. But there are not many of them out there. And not many people understand what specification marketing is and how it’s different from traditional construction marketing.

Developing a marketing strategy is crucial to the success of any business in the building products and construction industry. People often overlook marketing, placing it under the ambiguous sales or advertising bracket but you should view marketing as so much more.

Marketing is a strategic process that should drive your business development and growth.

It might seem a simple statement: in order to provide true value to your customers, you need to understand their needs. And, for that, you need to segment them. Market segmentation is not an exact science, it will depend on your building product brand, your customers, and the goals you have set yourself.

Customer segmentation can help boost conversions, reach a wider audience, and communicate more effectively with customers! For that, it is essential that all teams within your company understand how your customers are segmented, members of those departments will be able to effectively target your customers through their activity. 

Labelled by most as one of the slowest to adopt digital transformations, construction doesn't have the best relationship with digital.

However, with 9 in every 10 architects choosing to use Google as their primary and, often, only tool, to research new products and solutions, the sector is finally catching up with digital innovation.

Considering that the construction sector has often been pointed out as the strongest resistance to digitalisation, construction leaders might have felt that technological adoption was what they needed. Technology without methodology, however, can see its effectiveness hindered.

In this blog post, I will address the challenge that building product manufacturers are facing as they are asked to update their processes and current strategies, implementing modern tactics that support their new business goals. To successfully transition, the sector needs to understand not only the software being introduced but also the methodology shift that accompanies it.

Numerous marketing strategies are used in the built environment to obtain and convert leads, from content marketing, social media marketing, and even SEO. Most, if not all, decision-makers will have expectations for their strategy of choice, but the reality of these strategies may defer from whats expected of them.

This blog covers 9 construction marketing strategy expectations and how you can set yourself up for success by understanding how each strategy really works for your business.

Sustainability. It's a word we hear a lot in construction right now. Some would say, with good reason. 

The built environment, of which the construction sector is a crucial component, currently contributes around 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions, and it is estimated that the construction sector contributes up to 11% of global carbon emissions.

So, it’s hardly surprising to see a growing desire within the industry to go green with sustainable construction…

As 2022 approaches, many building product businesses are looking ahead to see how they can improve our businesses for the coming year.

Your marketing plan will be the pillar your building product business hangs on to, as it steers itself towards success. Your 2022 marketing plan will allow you and your team to keep track of your company objectives and maximise your potential.

This blog will cover the key elements to consider to deliver a solid marketing plan for 2022.

You’re looking to expand and recruit a construction marketing agency to assist with your marketing strategy, but where do you begin?

Using a digital marketing agency is essential for growing your business in the digital age and can make a world of difference. But whilst they can help boost your ROI, it is still a huge decision. You have to remember, the agency you choose soon becomes your colleagues that you could be building your brand with for years to come.

Live From #INBOUND2021

Alisa Smith opens up the talk describing her appearance and surroundings. At first, I was a bit confused, then it clicked. INCLUSIVITY!! 

Before even talking about the main topic of the seminar she had already made an effort to include those attending who could be visually impaired, absolute genius.

Let’s get into it.

81% of the construction leaders interviewed within the Construction Front Line Survey shared their expectations to enact or put in place initiatives to improve their construction businesses digitally in the following 12 months. With that 12-month deadline quickly approaching, it becomes clear that the construction industry is finally catching up with digital innovation.

Despite over half of the firms surveyed admitting that the sector has been slow adopting digital, results show that attitudes towards digitalisation within the construction industry are almost instantly rewarded, reducing their operating costs, and increasing their employee productivity. But the changes that come together with digital transformation go beyond adopting new technologies.

How well does your website perform? How hard does it work for your building product or construction company? Do you even know how to find out?

Outstanding websites that convert architects to returning customers requires an investment, both time and money, and you need to know what your return is on that investment.

If your website was one of your sales reps, would you let them off not meeting their key performance objectives or quotas? Would you be happy to just give them a pat on the back, and say, “Just try your best!”? No… I didn’t think so.

Are you still feeling disheartened about England narrowly missing out on European glory? Don’t worry, you’re not the only one.

But don’t let that get you down for too long. After all, think of the journey Gareth Southgate and the lads have been on for the last few years, taking us from international embarrassment to unity and pride.

There are significant lessons to be learned from England, so let’s talk about how a change in your construction marketing tactics can pave the way for a shift in fortunes.

There are many reasons why Sales and Marketing teams can be misaligned. Usually, it traces back to the issue that they are under different mandates, have different goals, and are tracked using differing metrics.

There can also be tensions that arise between the two teams – “Well, I did my part!”

If these are the sort of issues in your business, you may want to continue reading as in this post we will be covering everything you need to know to diagnose, fix, and ensure sales and marketing alignment for your building product business.

When designing your construction marketing strategy, we might feel tempted to describe all the reasons our building products are the best ones in the market. Putting our efforts into creating a list with the characteristics that make our services great seems sensible, but how will that make us any different from our competitors? And, most importantly, will that be enough to make a difference when a prospect is doubting between our products and those of a competitor?

If you are taking the opportunity to rethink your goals and get strategies set in place for how your building product business can continue to move forward and grow, then this is the perfect article for you.

Email marketing is a standard within the marketing section of any business, with 87% of marketers utilising the capability of email marketing to generate leads.  

Although it may seem like a complex maze of trial and error (although partly true) this isn’t always the case when it comes to email marketing.  

The only time trial and error comes into it is when you have no guidance for email marketing, apart from that, the only real experimentation that comes into it is when running AB tests on your emails before you find the winning solution.  

To find out the 4 tips for increased success in your email marketing, read on...

Conducting interviews for your building product buyer personas will provide you with far more in-depth data when compared to surveys or questionnaires.

This is because interviews will enable you to get a feel for what drives your building product target audience by getting deeper insights into their motivations and fears.

Specifiers, contractors and won/loss deals will be individuals to interview because they will provide you with insight into what your ideal customer might look like for your building product brand.

Here are top tips to conducting your buyer persona interviews, so that you can get the most out of your conversations, read on to find out more…

One of the most critical steps to creating your building product buyer personas is finding some people to speak with so you can gain deeper insights to your ideal customers and who your buyer persona might be.

That means you'll have to conduct some interviews to get to know what drives your building product target audience.

But how do you find those interviewees? Read on to find out…

With your building product brand do you fully understand your target audience of specifiers and contractors?

Have you actively spoken to those deals you’ve won/lost and understood your target audience from their viewpoint of your building product brand?

If you haven’t done this, there is one thing your building product is neglecting. Without building buyer personas you’ll have a biased view of your target audience.

So, what are buyer personas? And how can you benefit? Read on to find out…

Do you know who your building product buyer personas are? How much do you know about your ideal customer?

Buyer personas are important and knowing about them will help your building product brand attract quality leads who you’ll be more likely to retain over time.

Read on to find out more about buyer personas for your building product brand…

“Every breath you take, every click you make, I’ll be watching you…”

We all know the popular Sting song (albeit with added poetic licence).

Whilst many consider it to be a song about love, its undertones are far more sinister. It’s actually about an overly possessive ex-lover. Quite ironic considering it ranks in the top ten most popular wedding songs of all time…

So, how is a song about stalking relevant to a building product blog? I hear you ask…

Well, there are very few incidences when stalking is deemed to be acceptable, but when it comes to your website, perhaps you should take a leaf out of Sting’s songbook.

Read on to find out more…

With content marketing costing 62% less than traditional marketing but generating 3 times as many leads, content marketing is a game changer for businesses worldwide.

But, what does this mean for your building product business, is it relevant for you?

Read on to find out more.

Businesses within the building products and construction industry – who are dissatisfied with their website - normally fall into two categories:

1. Your website is dated and being used as a “brochure.”
2. Your website looks great (visually), but it’s attracting consumers, rather than specifiers.

In this post, I’ll be exploring what you can do to turn your website into a swiss army knife: a technical resource AND extra salesperson, helping you to gain more specifications, increased gross margins, multiple-purchase deals and better, more rewarding relationships with decision makers .

Getting words down on the page is step one. Getting your work published is a different matter. Quite often, your first draft will look largely different to your final piece.

During the editing and improving phase, you’ll be using it as an opportunity to cut out any unnecessary and irrelevant points that don’t support your core ideas and refine your language to be stronger and more action orientated.

What Can You Expect From This Blog?

At this stage, you should understand what content is and how to implement a framework for content creation.

You have your blog titles and a time-frame in which to distribute them. Now, you’re tasked with actually writing the content itself. 

Let’s say you’re at the start of your journey when it comes to content creation and you’re wondering where to begin.

Most websites have a FAQ page somewhere on their website but they’re not always optimised for search engines. You may not even need a FAQ section but its become a page that is seen as important as ‘About Us’ and ‘Contact Us' pages.

David Hamill advises that if your FAQ page is answering questions that the rest of the website should answer, then you have a problem with your site content.

Some people overlook the potential and the opportunity FAQ pages offer, with many including questions that are very samey and repetitive, providing answers that come across as patronising.

Yesterday, Insynth presented on how digital marketing is changing the way that specifiers and buyer engage with building product brands, and how you should adapt your marketing plans to keep up to date with these changes.

Old fashioned traditional ways of reaching your audience such as cold calling, trade shows and brought contact lists are all suffering.

This blog summaries the struggles and challenges that building products companies face and how you can approach them. We’ve also included our presentation from the day for you to view.

Attracting over 26,000 visitors and 500 exhibitors, Futurebuild 2019 in London is a much-anticipated event for the construction industry.

Part one discovered the importance of strong storytelling, communication and how a good online presence is imperative for the building materials sector.

Insynth have been running a blog series on the upcoming SEO trends of 2019 that your construction marketing team need to embrace in order to succeed in the Google rankings.

In this final instalment, we’ll be exploring image search. This developing search method allows users to carry out organic search using there camera.

For SEO professionals in the building products sector, this is a game changer for how you’ll carry out your construction marketing strategies.

Read on to find out more…

In this 3 part series on the upcoming SEO trends that you need to know in 2019, we’re looking at the most important factors that you need to consider when applying your SEO strategy for construction marketing.

In this second instalment, we’ll be exploring how you can leverage your SEO strategy to showcase your building product’s company

Read on to find out more…

The new year is now well underway. For many SEO professionals in the construction marketing industry this is the time to start looking forward to the upcoming trends for 2019 and leverage the latest techniques to dominate in the SERPs.

It’s a well-known fact that search engines are getting more intelligent every day. If you want your building products company to achieve top rankings in 2019, you need to be ready for the latest SEO trends and developments that are coming up.

Read on to find out more…

As America is bigger, it’s only natural that they are the first to start some trends and take on new technology. An advantage to us is they can test out these trends to find out which ones work better than others.

We can then implement the successful trends into our marketing strategy. It’s equally important to be aware of what may be about to take off and get ahead of your competitors.

Google is always looking for good content. It wants to give the user the best experience and puts the best content at the top.

Content that’s easy to read is useful to the reader. It’s more likely to be on page one of Google and has a higher chance of being found online.

One of the best ways to do this is to write content for a wide audience.

Read on to find out more…

Are you a storyteller or an opera singer?

This might seem like a strange question but stick with us.

Here are Insynth, we’ve been learning about content writing, and how working in the style of either an opera singer or a storyteller can impact on the reader’s perception of you.  

Keep reading to find out more…

The websites ranked at the top of Google listings are the sites that Google deems most relevant and trustworthy for search enquiries.

If your website ranks below the first few results, visitors are unlikely to click through to your page – and if you’re not on the first page of results, you can pretty much guarantee that no-one will scroll far enough to find you.

In construction marketing, visual images can make a substantial difference to the impact that your content has one your readers.

So, you’re a building products manufacturer with a website that clearly displays all your construction products, but you’re just not getting specified by architects, and you’re wondering why.

Is it possible that you’re guilty of the four pet hates of architects?

It’s time to find out.

Contour Heating, a heating solutions manufacturer based in the West Midlands, has been working with Insynth to boost their Google rankings and site visibility and to produce content that helps them to stand out from the crowd in the HVAC community.

After less than one year of working with us here at Insynth, Contour Heating now hold multiple number one spots on Google rankings and have the highest site visibility over all their main competitors!

Impressive right? Read on to find out more!

As 3 of over 24,000 attendees from just one of 110 countries involved, Insynth travelled to the USA for the 2018 INBOUND conference: three days of keynote and breakout sessions, brimming with learning, inspiration and connection.

Hosted by HubSpot, the Inbound sessions covered everything from content tricks, to SEO techniques, to the neuroscience of engagement.

We're ready to offer the secrets uncovered at the conference for our clients. 

Below, you'll find links to our live-blogs of sessions that will help you to meet your marketing goals.

Each category of Inbound sessions brings a wealth of new, inspirational tips that are designed to help your building products company grow better.

Scott Harrison opened the final day of the 2018 Inbound conference with his inspirational story about changing his life to bring good to others.

Scott talks about how you can change your story to change your life - and the lives of others - and this applies to business too.

Through Scott's organisation, Charity: Water, millions of lives have been saved through the provision of safe drinking water. You can save lives too.

Hosted by Colin Gray, Conquering Consistent Tools & Tactics, was an Inbound 2018 session about learning to use podcasting as part of a wider digital marketing campaign and how to apply the tools learned throughout to the product of amazing content for everybody to consume.

Hosted by Marcus Sheridan at the Inbound 2018 conference, Contagious Content was all about how to understand your buyers and to ensure that your content is answering the questions that they need answering in order to get them to come on board with your brand. 

The aim of the talk was to takeaway the ideas and steps needed to move your content marketing process forward so that the sales AND marketing needle starts to shift for your company. 

Are you regularly blogging? Updating your social media accounts? Emailing your leads?

And are you often featured in newspapers, magazines and other media outlets?

No? There are so many uncovered methods of getting press coverage for your company. And it's all about getting credibility to gain authority in the marketplace.

But remember, 'you can't be vanilla if you want to engage with the press' - Janet Murray.

Hosted by Nathan Rawlins at Inbound 2018, Lessons Learned In Viral Marketing focused on giving insights into the highs and lows that come with viral marketing. Rawlins, who has experienced the force of viral marketing from both of these sides, hosted the talk  at Inbound to share his insights. 

Shonda Rhimes, writer of the hit TV series Grey's Anatomy, opens Thursday at Inbound 2018 with her keynote speech on performance, writing and her career. 

Rhimes's company; Shonda Land is now teaming up with Netflix to exclusively produce content for that platform. Her talk about Inbound is focused on her career and time on set of Grey's Anatomy and how the production process have influenced her work moving forwards

The pace of innovation and new features in the HubSpot ecosystem is mind blowing.  Since Inbound 17 there have been more changes than I can keep track of and every week there is a new feature to impress.

Learn about the big changes to the suite that were announced at the Inbound 2018 conference, and how these could help you supercharge your business growth.

Opening this afternoon's keynote at Inbound 2018, HubSpot's Brian Halligan kicked off with a discussion about applying a flywheel to your business for accelerated growth.

HubSpot's flywheel moves from an attract phase, into an engage phase, into a delight phase in order to convert website traffic into free users, then into customers, and finally into promoters.

Here's how you can use a flywheel to fast-track sales success for your company.

53% of B2B buyers said they would prefer to gather information online and not have to talk to sales (Forrester Research, Inc). The unpleasant truth is, most people don't want to talk to you.

Gaetano DiNardi's session at the Inbound 2018 conference teaches important lessons in leveraging technology to build a modern sales process to maximise results.

Here's what you can apply from Gaetano's lead generation tips and tricks.

Every September, Boston Massachusetts becomes the staging area for one of the largest sales and marketing events centred on inbound marketing.

Inbound is about bringing together experts in content and inbound marketing from all over the world and getting them to share their knowledge and expertise with the thousands of attendees to this growing annual event.

Next week, Insynth will be attending alongside the 22,000 others set to land at Inbound. They will be attending talks with sales and marketing experts and learning more about the latest in the world of Inbound.

Keep reading to find out more about Insynth’s upcoming Inbound adventure…

You’ve written a piece of content about your building products. You’ve proofread it for technical accuracy, you’ve added alt-tags to your images and optimised the piece for SEO. You press ‘publish’.

Job done, right?

Wrong!

Just because a blog post or web page is now out there for the world to see doesn’t mean that you never have to look at it again. In ever-shifting industries, such as construction where products, protocols and building regulations are often being updated, content can quickly be out of date.

Read on to find out how you can avoid falling into this trap and why reviewing your historical content regularly is so important.

Digital content marketing is an ever-changing industry that, when utilised properly, can be hugely beneficial to those embracing it. 

In the construction industry, a setting that is still taking its earliest steps towards bringing together the building products culture and the digital marketing mindset, there is a risk that marketers can get carried away, jump in head first without first understanding the full scale of a digital marketing task thinking that they understand it all.

The result is this; The Dunning-Kruger Effect.

Let’s look at how The Dunning-Kruger Effect can infect a Digital Marketing workplace.

You've heard the phrase "a picture tells a thousand words". Did you know that images in your website can improve your SEO? 

By loading your images with the right words in the alt-text, titles, file names, while considering a range of other factors, your images won't just say a thousand words, they will help grow you website traffic and increase your chances of having great rankings on Google. 

Read on to find out how images can be a great addition to your SEO and construction marketing campaigns.

Insynth prides itself on having a team of talented content writers working alongside clients to produce amazing results for their companies.

This week, Insynth is delighted to congratulate Digital Content Marketer, Charlotte McCormac on graduating with first-class honours in her English degree from Birmingham City University.

A last-minute decision to visit Barcelona was a wonderful surprise from my wife; we’ve been talking about it for 20 years!  But with my Inbound mindset, it was more than the food, drink, architecture and culture that left an impression on me.

Here are a few of my experiences from the weekend and how my passion for Inbound was stoked again.

One of the main challenges you can face with trade shows is managing the leads that are generated from visitors to your stand.  A successful show can generate hundreds of leads, all of which need to be followed up quickly.

So learn 3 SIMPLE tips to help you process them and identify the hottest leads.

Charlotte McCormac brings a passion for writing and a first-class degree in English to the role.

Shropshire based construction marketing specialist, Insynth, is delighted to announce the appointment of Charlotte McCormac as their new digital content marketer. Charlotte is responsible for creating exciting content for clients, as well as search engine optimisation and implementing inbound marketing strategies. Charlotte will be producing blogs, eBooks and whitepapers, as well as managing social media channels. 

In one of our recent blog posts, we discussed how long it takes for content marketing to work.  Blogging frequency and quality were the key topics, but it led to questions about more subtle signs that things are starting to work.

So, here’s a quick list of the sort of signals that you should be on the lookout for when starting out on your construction inbound marketing journey (we'd love you to add your own ideas in the comments at the end of the post).

A common question that we get when discussing inbound marketing with potential construction clients is "how long does content marketing take to work?".

There are a number of factors at play, but we'll give you some insight into how long it takes and when you can start to see results.

I recently returned from a major trade show.  I felt both angry with the disappointing effort from the majority of exhibitors, but also excited that there was hope that there would be a future for trade shows if exhibitors employed inbound marketing tactics.

This is why.

Impress your boss and your colleagues by getting 'position 0' on Google and winning the race for prestigious featured snippets in Google.

Here is a 6-step guide to how Insynth replaced the Construction Marketing Association on a prized snippet in just 10 days.