The upheaval of lockdown boosted digital usage among tradespeople and construction professionals, revealing the need to develop high-quality, engaging content within an “inbound marketing” approach. Faced with “information overload”, how about (re)defining your foundations? Tradespeople, specifiers: what do they expect from a brand like yours? A fundamental line of questioning for developing high value-added content that is genuinely useful to your customers. To help you get there, here are 4 tips to follow.
The principle of “inbound marketing” applies to the construction industry too. By creating value-added content, you develop brand preference by demonstrating your expertise of the market.
Tip no. 1: stop talking about yourself!
Performance, efficiency, time savings: no doubt your solution is the most relevant on the market! Yet the discourse of construction brands is all too often centred on the technical qualities of their products: highly technical messages that are, in the end, neither very readable nor very engaging!
If the “customer relationship” is cited as the number one criterion when choosing a product (Le Moniteur Négoce, 2019), shouldn't we now be moving from the “marketing promise” to “proof from the field”? White papers, guides, testimonials, case studies, web series: position yourself as an expert brand by talking about those who specify or use your solutions, and showcase them in a constructive, modern and engaging way!
The Gedibois “constructive solutions” catalogue helps professionals work better by highlighting technical data, installation advice, a site guide and sales arguments.
Tip no. 2: make the pros' daily lives easier
As an expert brand, it is essential to rise above the fray by giving your customers and prospects your perspective on the market's hot topics. Beyond your solutions, strengthen your position as a specialist by responding to their current concerns and expectations.
How can you help them work better? Specify better? The objective is clear: enabling, genuinely useful content that builds their skills and makes the job a success! Have you thought about producing a “renovation guide” for tradespeople? Checklists and sales arguments? Themed content (RE2020, energy-saving certificates, indoor air quality and so on) to support specifiers, such as a white paper, a blog or a magazine? The range of possibilities is wide!
The Isophonic initiative by Isover Saint-Gobain made acoustic insulation accessible and easy to understand for professionals and consumers alike.
Tip no. 3: act for the long term
Your content must sit within a broader brand strategy, within an inbound marketing approach — a technique much loved by B2B marketers, which consists of “giving before receiving”, or indeed “talking about yourself without talking about yourself!”. The guarantee of impactful, differentiating communication and a coherent brand message.
This requires a long-term vision and long-term action, so that your customers and prospects no longer see you as a mere product supplier, but as a partner who supports them and makes their daily work tangibly easier. Building bonds to build brand preference: now there is a sound premise for a content strategy in the construction world!
Tip no. 4: plan ahead and diversify your formats
Delivering the right message to the right audience, in the right place, at the right time takes constant attention to your audiences' habits and expectations. It is time to think “outside the box” and support them with content in distinctive formats.
Web series, in-depth articles, expert interviews, white papers, case studies, selection guides, social media… multiply your communications and formats to showcase your expertise!
While digital is very much part of the picture, this content must be carried across all 360°: right through to the building site, the point of sale or the engineering consultancy! Even though content strategies have become commonplace with the digital boom, it is very much within an omnichannel, phygital customer journey that you need to think! Hence the need to develop an editorial line and an editorial calendar.
Videos, webinars, a white paper, social media, in-depth articles, expert testimonials… the multiplicity of content formats deployed by Hilti enabled the brand to support its customers through the introduction of a new standard.
So, ready to redefine the foundations of your construction content strategy? For that, a communication agency specialising in building and construction could prove a serious asset! To get in touch with one of our account directors in 3 clicks, simply click here.