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Four Tips for AEC Firms to Get Started on Content Marketing

Posted on by Taylor Kennedy

ContentAs in other industries, the world of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) is relying more and more on online/digital means to prospect for new clients. You can’t expect your business development staff to only attend conferences and networking events to build your company’s brand and get invited to respond to RFPs.

This is where content marketing can help, as it’s a tool used to gain the trust of potential clients, have them understand your firm’s areas of expertise and move them down your sales funnel. According to Jump Factor, AEC firms that generate more than 50 percent of their leads online grow on average at least 250-500 percent faster than their competitors.

Following are four tips for AEC firms to get started on content marketing:

1. Provide value. Is your content useful to your target audience? It’s okay to give away your advice for free. The content should help solve your prospective clients’ problems and is worthy of your their time. For example, what are ways that a municipality can acquire grant funding for its projects? How can a utility company save time and money by using the latest GIS software? Remember, quality over quantity.

2. Define success. How will you measure your content marketing efforts? Besides new leads and clients, look at metrics such as views, shares, etc. You should strive to improve those numbers over time. Use tools like Google Analytics to generate the data that indicates how your content marketing is performing. In addition, create sign up (lead generation) forms to help track sales conversions.

3. Change it up. Don’t just write standard blog articles. Content marketing comes in different forms, such as whitepapers, infographics, videos and listicles. Keep it fresh for your audiences, who many range from developers to city engineers. Experiment with different lengths and different authors, too.

4. Make time. You have to fully commit to making the time for content marketing to have any success. Allot 1-2 hours to brainstorm and create a monthly editorial calendar. Ask your subject matter experts to spare one hour each month to help you produce content. Expect about four hours to research, write and edit one piece of content a week.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Revelation PR, Advertising & Social Media offers architecture, engineering and construction companies services related to advertising, public relations, email marketing, tradeshow marketing, content marketing, public involvement and social media management. Please contact Brian Lee, brian [at] experiencerevelation.com or 608-622-7767.

It doesn’t matter what United does

Posted on by Brian Lee

United_AirlinesAs I’ve been reading the mass media and PR trade journal articles on the recent United Airlines fiasco, I’ve noticed a consistent theme: people have critiqued how United and its CEO have responded–and I agree, it’s been pitiful–but what’s missing from these stories is that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what United does.

In other words, a company like United can treat its employees and passengers however it wants, it can completely whiff in responding to crises and it can continue to offer horrible service, but subsequently, it will still remain in business. That’s because United, American, Delta and Southwest are essentially an oligopoly of U.S. air travel. Consumers have few options, and these airlines know it.

It’s no surprise that consumer complaints against the airlines increases each year. Still, airlines can make flying even worse than it already is–for example, reduce seat sizes by half, charge for water and ban carry-on bags–but as soon as they dangle a special discount on a flight, consumers always will grudgingly come back.

Think about other industries, such as cable providers and cellular providers. They, too have large amounts of complaints, but with little competition, there’s no incentive for these companies to have a customer-centric focus (despite what they say publicly).

And that’s exactly why United won’t suffer any long-term damage.

Update: April 17

The New York Times published an op-ed that mimics my points, stating “an industry that is not naturally competitive … (became) an unregulated cartel. This restored profitability, but at awful costs both to customer convenience and to economic efficiency as well.”