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.<\/p>\n
The term \u201ccontent marketing\u201d 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]<\/a><\/p>\n Last week, I had a great conversation with Ted Garrison, a\u00a0consultant 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]<\/a><\/p>\n That is right! We\u2019ve 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]<\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019s specifications,…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n This week, we officially released our first book entitled\u00a0Construction Executive\u2019s 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]<\/a><\/p>\n This is a question we discuss in our\u00a0book\u00a0that has come up a few times recently. Many companies start with a savvy, likable character that is a natural business developer. The company\u2019s brand and marketing is founder-focused. For many people (clients, prospects, employees), the brand and the founder are the\u00a0synomyous. This also happens with company presidents…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n I was talking to two different clients \u00a0that are subcontractors\u00a0today\u00a0about content on the new website we\u2019re developing for each\u00a0and 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\u2019t ignore is making sure you\u2019re listed…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n I\u2019ve 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\u2019re educating your prospective and current clients, you should have more value than your competitors. If you\u2019re not educating them, then that is probably…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n It is easy \u2013 stop going after projects you can\u2019t win! No matter how complex your Go\/No Go process is, you need to come to one of two decisions: \u201cYes, we can dominate this bid!\u201d OR \u201cNo, this one isn\u2019t for us, and we\u2019re going to pass on it.\u201d If you\u2019re a numbers person, then…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n Your client\u2019s do, and that\u2019s what really matters. Surprisingly, there are still skeptics out there on this subject, but to me it\u2019s a no-brainer: Differentiating your company makes your prospective customers\u2019 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]<\/a><\/p>\n Last week we discussed why you lose a bid during the proposal phase and it isn\u2019t about the price. This week we\u2019re discussing the presentation round. We tapped the brain of our presentation coach, the founder of Speak Simple and writer of the book\u00a0Speak Simple \u2013 Stop Presenting, Start Interpreting, Erica Olson, to give us…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n When you lose a bid, the first reason most people think of is the price. In a best value bid, you don\u2019t 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\u00a0price) to them well…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n 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\u2019s 18 years of franchising, they\u2019ve never had a legal case with their franchisees. While construction isn\u2019t the…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n We\u2019ve reviewed the websites for every construction company in ENR\u2019s Top 400 Contractors once again and here are the biggest mistakes construction companies make:\u00a0 Can\u2019t edit their website\u00a0\u2013 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\u2019re not working…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n Once you know who you are, now you need to build out your marketing toolkit starting with your logo. Logo – Your logo isn\u2019t 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\u2019s personality. When you\u2019re new to…[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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? Posted on December 11, 2014 The term \u201ccontent marketing\u201d actually describes itself; it is using content to market your company, products, or yourself. Instead[Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,321,16,17],"tags":[503,506,115,127,171,464,411,228],"class_list":["post-3430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brand-constructors","category-brand-marketing","category-content-marketing","category-web-design","category-web-marketing","tag-construction-marketing","tag-content-marketing","tag-culture","tag-differentiation","tag-low-bid","tag-market-a-new-contraction-company","tag-presentation-2","tag-proposal"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3430"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3444,"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3430\/revisions\/3444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev2.brandconstructors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why Business Books Don\u2019t Talk about Construction?<\/a><\/h2>\n
The Results are In!<\/a><\/h2>\n
Low Bid Means Your Brand is Atrocious<\/a><\/h2>\n
Construction Marketing Book<\/a><\/h2>\n
Founder Focused or Brand Focused?<\/a><\/h2>\n
Best Marketing for Subcontractors<\/a><\/h2>\n
Who is Educating Who?<\/a><\/h2>\n
Best Way to Increase Your Hit Rate!<\/a><\/h2>\n
Who Cares about Differentiation Anyway?<\/a><\/h2>\n
You Didn\u2019t Lose Your Last Bid Because of Price \u2013\u00a0Part 2: Presentation<\/a><\/h2>\n
You Didn\u2019t Lose Your Last Bid Because of Price \u2013\u00a0Part 1: Proposal<\/a><\/h2>\n
Culture Saves Legal Fees<\/a><\/h2>\n
Biggest Mistakes Construction Companies Makes On Their Websites<\/a><\/h2>\n
How to Market a New Construction Company\/Division [Part 2]<\/a><\/h2>\n