Best Blogs of 2014
We thought we’d celebrate the New Year with a look back at the most talked about, most read, and most memorable blogs of 2014.
What the Heck is Content Marketing, Anyway?
The term “content marketing” actually describes itself; it is using content to market your company, products, or yourself. Instead of listing your product features, company benefits, or your personal attributes, you focus on educating your prospects and clients. For example, you create a white paper on the difference between warm mix and hot mix asphalt…[Read More]
Why Business Books Don’t Talk about Construction?
Last week, I had a great conversation with Ted Garrison, a consultant that helps construction companies with strategic planning and operational efficiency. Part of our conversation included the need to get out of low bid contracts and get negotiated work from repeat clients. We also discussed how odd the construction industry is and both of us…[Read More]
The Results are In!
That is right! We’ve tabulated and reviewed the responses from our 2014 survey. We received a great response and had a diverse group of respondents ranging from smaller construction companies to the international mega construction firms. We covered important topics like social media channels and marketing tools as well as how many marketers and business…[Read More]
Low Bid Means Your Brand is Atrocious
If your construction company only goes after low-bid work, it means you have a horrible brand. Here is how I know it. To win a low bid project, you have to be willing to do the work for the least amount of work. Your reputation, quality, and brand are irrelevant. To fulfill the project’s specifications,…[Read More]
Construction Marketing Book
This week, we officially released our first book entitled Construction Executive’s Guide to Brand Marketing! We wrote the book because most construction executives do not understand marketing and therefore do not utilize marketing to grow the company. Most construction marketers and business developers do not have the tools, personnel, and budget they need to perform their…[Read More]
Founder Focused or Brand Focused?
This is a question we discuss in our book that has come up a few times recently. Many companies start with a savvy, likable character that is a natural business developer. The company’s brand and marketing is founder-focused. For many people (clients, prospects, employees), the brand and the founder are the synomyous. This also happens with company presidents…[Read More]
Best Marketing for Subcontractors
I was talking to two different clients that are subcontractors today about content on the new website we’re developing for each and a great marketing tip came up. If you are a subcontractor or your company has a division that can be a subcontractor, a basic step in marketing that you shouldn’t ignore is making sure you’re listed…[Read More]
Who is Educating Who?
I’ve always said marketing is education. You need to educate your prospects and clients why to hire you and about your value. Today I want to talk about that value. If you’re educating your prospective and current clients, you should have more value than your competitors. If you’re not educating them, then that is probably…[Read More]
Best Way to Increase Your Hit Rate!
It is easy – stop going after projects you can’t win! No matter how complex your Go/No Go process is, you need to come to one of two decisions: “Yes, we can dominate this bid!” OR “No, this one isn’t for us, and we’re going to pass on it.” If you’re a numbers person, then…[Read More]
Who Cares about Differentiation Anyway?
Your client’s do, and that’s what really matters. Surprisingly, there are still skeptics out there on this subject, but to me it’s a no-brainer: Differentiating your company makes your prospective customers’ job easier to pick you over your competitors, and it increases your chances of converting that prospect into a customer. What happens when an…[Read More]
You Didn’t Lose Your Last Bid Because of Price – Part 2: Presentation
Last week we discussed why you lose a bid during the proposal phase and it isn’t about the price. This week we’re discussing the presentation round. We tapped the brain of our presentation coach, the founder of Speak Simple and writer of the book Speak Simple – Stop Presenting, Start Interpreting, Erica Olson, to give us…[Read More]
You Didn’t Lose Your Last Bid Because of Price – Part 1: Proposal
When you lose a bid, the first reason most people think of is the price. In a best value bid, you don’t lose because you were not the lowest price. Even if the prospective client says it was because of price, it is actually because you did not explain your value (aka price) to them well…[Read More]
Culture Saves Legal Fees
I was at a Franchise Expo earlier today helping out our parent company, Design the Planet, that specializes in franchise marketing. During the event, they had a few educational sessions and a speaker said that in his company’s 18 years of franchising, they’ve never had a legal case with their franchisees. While construction isn’t the…[Read More]
Biggest Mistakes Construction Companies Makes On Their Websites
We’ve reviewed the websites for every construction company in ENR’s Top 400 Contractors once again and here are the biggest mistakes construction companies make: Can’t edit their website – today, the web is real time and if your latest news item or project is 3 years old, it makes your prospective customer think you’re not working…[Read More]
How to Market a New Construction Company/Division [Part 2]
Once you know who you are, now you need to build out your marketing toolkit starting with your logo. Logo – Your logo isn’t your brand, but it personifies your brand. Your brand is a collection of all the experiences with your company and your logo should convey your brand’s personality. When you’re new to…[Read More]