The inclusion of photography into any of your content drastically improves the chances for engagement. And, when it comes to building a visual content library that resonates with architects and designers, project photography is an important asset.

In a recent blog post, Hubspot reported that content with relevant images gets 94 percent more views than content without images.

Relevance is key. Architects and designers require photography that showcases experience in specific verticals, market segments or types of buildings. If you are talking to a firm about how your products are ideal for healthcare applications, it’s important to showcase photography of specific healthcare projects.

While most product manufacturers have made an investment in product photography, we continue to hear stories about poorly executed project photography, including snapshots of buildings from cell phones, and poorly composed or overly exposed images that distract from the product offering.

For building product manufacturers, project photography can be hard to achieve if there isn’t a strong relationship with the architect, designer, contractor or owner to provide access to the project. If you can’t obtain access to the project, you can try to negotiate rates and usage rights of the architectural firm’s official photographs.

Ideally, you’ll want to commission your own project photography. We recently spoke with professional photographer John Clemmer, who has nearly three decades of experience photographing architectural and interior projects. Clemmer reminds us that details can distract from the bigger goal. “You need to understand the goal of the photograph - the style, [and] the emotional story you want to convey. With the rise of digital photography, you can retouch or eliminate a lot of the problematic elements within the image. You can take out street traffic, people, power lines and trash cans, but you can’t put in the drama if it’s not there,” he explained.

Clemmer added that a photograph is so much more than composition and lighting, or even what you see when you look through the lens. There are a variety of ways to approach the shot.

“Sometimes that’s a straightforward, detail shot,” says Clemmer. “Other times it’s about how the building or subject fits into a larger landscape or community.”

The thing to remember is the type of scene you want to render. It’s about enhancing the overall story not just capturing the elements.

Rights and usage rates should also be considered. Photographs can be used for a variety of purposes: on websites, in awards submissions, as advertising, at trade shows and as part of social media and content marketing strategies. Clemmer says it’s important to negotiate rights and usage so that you have full access to the images across various channels.

Project photography, like all visual content, is growing in importance. It connects your brand with projects that lead to additional product and specification opportunities. Project shots also go a long a way in fueling social engagement and media coverage. In addition, bloggers and design influencers frequently promote powerful photographs across platforms such as Instagram, Houzz and Pinterest.

In summary, photos are worth a thousand words, or maybe more, when it comes to engaging a visual audience. It’s important to design a process for capturing and promoting project photography. And, it’s worth the investment to hire a specialized, professional photographer to help tell your product story within the built environment.

For more information on how to create visually compelling content that leads to product specification, visit Function. For more information on John Clemmer and his work, visit John Clemmer Photography.

Later this month, we’ll be meeting with a panel of specifiers from architectural and design firms across the country. The goal of the discussion will be to learn more about how manufacturers can support the role of the specifier. We think it’s important to speak directly with specification writers to better understand the challenges they face and the information they need in order to make the best and most educated product choices for their projects.

In preparation for the panel discussion, we’re looking for input from product manufacturers. As a product manufacturer and marketer, what questions would you like us to ask the panel? As part of the process, we will record the discussion and share an executive summary of our findings on our site. We hope that the information we gather will directly benefit your marketing efforts.

Feel free to send your questions to [email protected] or call us at (404) 524-3075 ext. 111 to discuss your specification challenges in more detail. We’ll be collecting questions through the end of the day, Friday, March 18.

We look forward to presenting your questions and to sharing our findings with the industry.

We had just left a room full of architects, designers and facility managers who were discussing the evolution of higher-education design. Though several manufacturers had sponsored the conversation, none of them were included in the conversation, or at least they didn’t feel comfortable participating.

As advocates for building product manufacturers, we left the event with some gnawing questions:

• Why aren’t manufacturers included in more of these conversations?
• How can manufacturers move from the sidelines to the center of the conversation?
• How can manufacturers be better recognized for their innovations, solutions and ideas?

Building products and materials play a more important role than ever in the evolution of the built environment, yet manufacturers still struggle to be perceived as more than a supplier and for their products to be perceived as more than a commodity.

How can we change this? How can manufacturers become the go-to partners for architects, designers, builders, contractors, facility managers, owners and engineers?

Network marketing expert, Mark Yarnell, said, “A leader is someone who demonstrates what’s possible.”

That definition gives us hope. Surely, we can bring together building product manufacturers to help demonstrate what’s possible in commercial and residential buildings.

In 2015, Function launched Building Thought Leaders, a council designed for building product marketers who are interested in advancing the industry and enhancing their position within it. The goal of the council is to build and nurture opportunities and relationships between building product manufacturers, and to drive industry advancement through knowledge sharing, insights, discussions and peer-to-peer learning.

This year, we are looking to enhance the council, and to help advance the manufacturers’ role in the evolution of the built environment. We want to create a forum that empowers manufacturers to demonstrate their leadership, and inspires collaboration across all industry sectors.

Let’s make the rest of 2016 “The Year of the Manufacturer in the Built Environment.” Let’s talk about innovation, possibility and success in a more meaningful way. Let’s get personal and emotional. Let’s connect with our peers and our customers. Let’s come together to tackle challenges in every segment: multifamily, residential, senior living, healthcare, retail, higher education, government, K-12, hospitality, and corporate. Collectively, we have the power to inspire the entire building and design team with ideas and solutions that improve every space and every human being. We just have to commit to leading with our best ideas, our best products and our best solutions.

Do you have a nagging question or challenge? You probably aren’t the only one experiencing it. If you’d like us to put together a conversation around a specific segment or topic, let us know. Join the council to take part in the conversations, and email your topic ideas or segment concerns to us at [email protected].

Here are things manufacturers can learn by directly engaging dealers and distributors:

• How trends are impacting product choice
• How products stack up to the competition
• How the brand or product is viewed in a specific market
• What’s working and not working with products
• When it’s time to increase or decrease production
• Which design features resonate and which fall short

For many of our clients, the distribution channel serves as an important resource when developing new products or enhancing existing ones. Dealers and distributors can provide valuable input into color, texture, sizing and formats, features, installation and competitive differentiation.

To get the most value from your distributors, we’ve put together some key strategies that can enhance the relationship and ultimately impact sales.

Ask for feedback

Make it a part of your sales and marketing strategy to get regular feedback from the distribution channel. Ask them candidly how your products and services compare and how you can improve them.

Make the relationship a priority

Never underestimate the value of a good relationship. Spend time with your distributors and ask them how you can help them achieve their business goals. Your marketing should be tailored to the distribution channel in the same way that it should be tailored to architects and building owners. Distributors who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to go from filling orders to making product recommendations on your behalf.

Educate and Communicate

In-depth product knowledge and technical training can boost a distributor’s confidence in a product and create affinity for it. It’s much easier to sell products if you know a lot about them. Product information and training can make a big difference in how distributors promote your products. Invite them to tour your manufacturing facility or making them a part of your company-wide events. As a rule, you’ll want to communicate with them directly and train them the same way you do your company sales force.

When it comes to distributors and dealers, a little appreciation can mean the difference between persuading someone to try your product and taking an order.

If you want more information about how marketing and communications strategies can impact building product sales, contact Function or reach out directly at [email protected].

It helps to post with a specific topic or purpose in mind. A monthly social media calendar can help. We follow three steps when developing a calendar for clients:

1. Start with current events, promotions or things happening in the industry such as tradeshows and product launches.
2. Add topical information – we often use different themes for each month based on vertical markets, industry challenges or target audiences.
3. Craft each post specific to the social media channel, such as Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

The search for relevant content can be daunting. There are many topics and themes to explore, and it’s easy to find yourself spending a lot of time reading and sorting through content and ideas that don’t quite fit. It’s the overwhelming options and lack of focus that allows social media to consume so much time and energy.

Hashtags provide a useful framework. They take some of the pressure off of coming up with or narrowing down ideas. They also tie your posts to a larger conversation and topic. Here are some popular hashtags for each day of the workweek and how to use them to engage architects, designers and building professionals. We’ve also added a few hashtag suggestions of our own specifically designed to help you engage the building, design and construction audience.

Monday

#MotivationMonday – What motivates your company or brand to improve the built environment?
#Men2Follow – What industry thought leaders do you follow or what subject matter experts can you promote that are worth following? (Don’t worry ladies – we cover your expertise on Wednesdays).

Possible industry hashtags:

#MaterialsMatterMonday – A great way to tie in how material and product choices impact the built environment.
#MaintenanceEaseMonday – A hashtag for topics related to building and product maintenance.
#PerformanceMonday – Highlight one product performance attribute and why it matters.

Tuesday

#TransformationTuesday – How do your products help transform spaces and the people that inhabit them? Do you have any before and after photos?
#TipTuesday or #TuesdayTip – Think about tips you want to share with your audience such as: how to save time, stretch budgets or save energy.
#GoodNewsTuesday or #TuesdayNewsday – This is a good way to share company news but remember to relate it to your audience and how the news helps them.

Possible industry hashtags:

#TrendwatchTuesday – What are the latest trends related to your audience or product category?
#SustainableTuesday – What’s your unique sustainability story or how have your products contributed to smarter, more sustainable buildings?

Wednesday

#WisdomWednesday – Architects, designers and other building and design professionals love a good “lessons learned” story. Sometimes talking about how to avoid a product or system failure is as important as demonstrating the benefits.
#Women2Follow – What industry thought leaders do you follow or what subject matter experts can you promote that are worth following? (Don’t worry gentleman – we cover your expertise on Mondays).
#WellnessWednesday – This is the perfect hashtag to address how your products contribute to the health and wellness of building occupants.

Possible industry hashtags:

#ResilientWednesday – How do your products help buildings respond to natural and manmade disasters, disturbances and issues related to climate change?
#WasteNotWednesday – How do you conserve energy, water and resources in your manufacturing process? How do you reuse or recycle waste? Do your products help reduce waste in the built environment?

Thursday

#ThankfulThursday –Which customers, innovations, partners or employees are you thankful for and how have they helped you improve your product or the industry?
#ThrowbackThrusday – Building products have come a long way, sometimes it’s fun to demonstrate just how far we’ve evolved by looking back at where we’ve been.

Possible Industry Trends:

#ThoughtLeaderThursday – What makes you a leader? Which leaders do you follow?
#SegmentSpecificThursday – How do you help solve problems within specific segments or verticals such as healthcare, education, multifamily or other.
#CaseStudyThursday – Share your latest case studies and highlight the biggest takeaway.

Friday

#FollowFriday – Who do you follow? Who influences you and your company? Are there certain architects or designers you follow?
#FridayReads – What have you read recently that could benefit your audience? Do you have some go-to books, resources or sites that have improved your company? How have you applied what you’ve learned?

Possible Industry Trends:

#FutureFriday –Imagine what the future of buildings will look like and go from there.
#PhotoFriday – Architects and designers love photos and images. Show your mood boards, up-close product shots and, more importantly, project photography.
#PhilanthropyFriday – How has your company given back? What’s the latest news related to your corporate social responsibility?

Still stuck? Let us help you develop a social media calendar that engages architects, builders, designers and other building professionals through valuable content.

We reached out to architects and specifiers to learn more about how co-branded systems and partnerships impact product selection and evaluation. Here are some of our findings:

• Solutions that combine products from different manufacturers can help pique interest, especially if the specifier has an affinity for both brands and manufacturers.
• Lesser-known manufacturers that partner with a manufacturer the firm trusts can increase the chances of getting their products specified.
• There is value in a “whole system” approach, especially if it helps with complicated transitions.
• Specifiers value the idea that manufacturers have designed solutions to work together and complement design and performance.
• The biggest concerns are related to warranties and which manufacturer is responsible if anything goes wrong. The specification of a warranty would need to take multiple manufacturers and spec sections into account, with each manufacturer taking responsibility for its product and its impact on the performance of the solution. This would need to be clearly communicated in the manufacturers’ marketing and technical information.
• There must be a clear understanding of who to contact for technical questions about each aspect of the solution.
• Architects like to design completely new solutions that support their original designs. Solutions that are pre-packaged should be marketed in such a way that they support design freedom and emphasize structural performance and ease of specification.
• Architects perceive whole system solutions as expensive. They try to duplicate the solution by replacing certain products in an effort to value engineer. For the spec writer, these solutions may be under-designed, difficult to specify and hard to warranty.

Well-thought-out partnerships can boost awareness and product demand. These partnerships should market their solution as a performance advantage and one that helps with the specification process. Marketers should continuously put themselves in the mindset of each person on the building team, including the designer, specifier, builder and owner.

Learn more about how to align your product with the specification process.

In honor of this hectic time and Halloween, we’ve put together a list of dangerous marketing temptations to avoid. Many of these tactics are common in our industry but they have chilling consequences – they scare off architects, builders, contractors and other industry professionals.

Marketing to architects, designers, contractors and building professionals shouldn’t be scary or boring. If you can keep clear of these marketing mistakes, your audiences will be in for treat and you’ll be seen as the industry leaders you’re meant to be.

1. You follow the market rather than lead it. Don’t develop products and marketing in response to what your competitors are doing—fill a unique need.
2. You let fear from the sales force dictate your plans. FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is a powerful influence. Instead of being afraid that you are missing something that others offer, create something new and different.
3. You ignore your audience’s concerns. Specifying a new product comes with a lot of risks related to service, timelines, warranties and compatibility with other products. Elevate your conversation beyond products and tackle their worries head-on.
4. Your content, including your advertising, is general rather than specific. Develop different forms of content based on specific topics, solutions and verticals. Architects think in terms of projects, they want to know if a product has been developed for healthcare facilities if that’s what they’re working on.
5. You use the same plan hoping things will change. The advertising, marketing, public relations and tradeshow plans you’ve been using aren’t magically going to reap better rewards in the future. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to tell you growth comes from change. Try something new.
6. Your visuals look like everyone else’s in the market. Dress up your content and be original. You want your marketing to standout and be remembered.
7. Your product launches are turnkey. Do you go to market the same way each time? For maximum engagement, each product needs its own strategy and enough content to sustain it long after the initial launch.

Marketing to architects, designers, contractors and building professionals shouldn’t be scary or boring. If you can keep clear of these marketing mistakes, your audiences will be in for treat and you’ll be seen as the industry leaders you’re meant to be.

We gathered some examples of how companies in other industries are engaging in thought leadership, and how they are demonstrating their expertise through content marketing. And, we noticed some common features.

The content

• doesn’t try to sell anything
• isn’t gated – it’s easy to access and share
• shows a strong point of view based on core values
• addresses a specific audience
• makes an emotional connection
• inspires people to get involved
• is usually in the form of a campaign

Nike: Find Your Greatness

This clip focuses on inspiration. It aligns the brand with greatness and people who want to be great.

Chevron: We Agree

Leadership is about getting people to agree and to rally behind a cause. Chevron takes this idea and puts it into a campaign.

Whole Foods: Healthy Eating Platform

Whole Foods wants to be the go-to leader for healthy eating, so it created its own platform to engage healthy eaters.

Xerox: Chief Optimist Magazine, partnership with Forbes

This is a great example of a successful media partnership. Xerox speaks directly with senior decision-makers in its exclusive magazine, Chief Optimist.

Domo: Customer Stories

Domo wants to be the leader in data management. It wants to transform the way people use and manage data. But, rather than explain how, Domo lets customers do it for them.

Holiday Inn + HLN: Growing America

Brand partnerships with the media can tell compelling and valuable stories. This original series follows teams of MBA students who are given a week to use their expertise to improve small businesses.

ADT Twitter Page: #WhatWouldYouProtect

Social media is a powerful place to establish thought leadership. ADT’s Twitter feed aligns the brand with a core human desire – protecting what’s most valuable.

GE: Vine and Tumblr Campaigns – #6secondscience

Vine and Tumblr are often overlooked social media platforms. GE uses these channels to share the changing world of science and technology, and urges followers to create their own 6-second entries for the viral science fair.

Are you inspired yet? To join the discussion on thought leadership in the building products industry visit Building Thought Leaders.

1. Customer Research

Research doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated to be effective. Interviews and surveys of existing or prospective customers can go a long way towards helping develop key messages and marketing tools based on audience needs.

2. Vertical Exploration

Ever wonder if your products would resonate with a specific market segment or micro-segment? Some preliminary research or exploration into a specific vertical can help you identify needs, issues, trends and the competitive landscape. The information you receive can inform product development, marketing and sales.

3. Infographics

Most building product marketers have complex, technical data that needs illustration. Processes, product declarations and lifecycle assessments can be hard to understand. A design team with in-depth industry knowledge can create an engaging infographics that resonate with audiences and show them the value of your products and services.

4. Case Studies

Case studies help demonstrate your product’s features, benefits and attributes in relation to a specific project. When a successful case study is paired with professional photography, it can help the specifier imagine how your product will perform. Consider utilizing a professional photographer and public relations team that can produce case studies primed for editorial placement, social engagement and sales presentations.

5. Subject Matter Interviews, Podcasts and Videos

A subject matter expert (SME) is someone with authority in a particular area or in-depth knowledge on a specific topic. You probably have some SMEs in your product design, engineering, sales and marketing departments. Now is a good time to extract that knowledge and package it in a format your audiences can easily access. Q+As, podcasts, videos and webinars can be leveraged across internal and external channels to drive engagement and help position your brand as a thought leader.

To ensure you are making the most of your remaining marketing budget, think of tactics and initiatives that will have long-term benefits. Case studies, podcasts, videos, infographics and research findings stretch your investment in marketing and have long shelf lives.

Our public relations (PR) team worked with a global product manufacturer to develop a webinar educating more than 125 architects about how to add value to their facades. The webinar was not for CEU credits, but purely educational with attendance driven by the merit of the topic. By the end of the webinar, six architects indicated a need for a project in progress and several more were interested in using the product for upcoming projects.

People often assume PR is strictly writing press releases on new products and many manufacturers are quick to shortchange PR budgets or question its worth in relation to specification. However, PR is the driving force for developing meaningful content that connects with the building product audience. If you think PR is limited to media relations, you are missing an opportunity.

Content development is a natural fit for PR. While both marketing and public relations play a key role in engaging audiences, PR offers some advantages when it comes to framing a story that will resonate with audiences. They way PR professionals approach a story for the media is the same way you should be approaching stories for architects, designers and other building professionals. Let’s take a quick look at the similarities and differences between the two:

Ultimately you want to integrate both marketing and PR in your content initiatives. PR needs to lead the story and develop the framework, and marketing needs to ensure it’s visually engaging and supports the brand. Get your PR team involved in content development and you will begin to see how good PR leads to specification.

About this time each year, marketing leaders begin the process of budget allocation and planning for next year. This process provides the perfect opportunity for innovation. But, most building product manufacturers do what they’ve always done: attend the same trade shows, buy the same types of ads from the same publishers and launch products exactly the same way they always have.

With the exception of a few minor adjustments in tactics, or a few “pilot” initiatives, most marketing plans in the building products industry will look the same in 2016 as they did in 2015, 2014, 2013 and, well, you get the gist.

So, the question is, how will you gain significant market share doing the same thing you’ve always done? Will you offer more incentives for the sales people? Will you work longer and harder? Will you promise to do better and hope that it translates to more products specified for more projects? As Rick Page points out with the title of his book about the complex sale, Hope is Not a Strategy.

As you plan for 2016, don’t be afraid to do something different:

Focus on vertical marketing. Stop being afraid to pigeonhole a product in one market for fear it won’t get specified in others.
Make your marketing topical. Position your products as solutions for key issues like safety, acoustics, resistance to heat flow, etc. Lead with the solution and address one issue at a time.
Create a unique marketing plan for every product. No two products should be launched the exact same way.
Embrace audience-centered content. Focus on what architects, designers and other specifiers want to hear.
Integrate your marketing and public relations teams so that they can work together seamlessly.

If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you could achieve some degree of incremental growth. But is that enough? What if a competitor does something revolutionary? What if the market changes or technology disrupts your category? What if regulations change? That’s a lot of what-ifs to ignore.

Gear your 2016 plan towards exponential growth. Let this be the year you disrupt the industry and leave your competitors wondering what happened.

Specifiers rarely change their normal course of action, even when they like a new product. It’s too risky to go with something they haven’t used before.

To get your audience to move toward your product and away from the status quo, you have to provide a compelling reason to change. You need a strong call-to-action, or CTA. At its most basic level, a CTA simply prompts the audience to take another step. Common CTAs for building product marketing include:

• Download our study
• Request a catalog
• Receive a product demo
• Contact your sales rep

These types of CTAs are great for measuring initial interest, but they aren’t enough to persuade specification. For that, you need a stronger CTA – a rallying cry or emotional hook that will appeal to your audiences’ personal values. A CTA begins to make an emotional connection when it looks something like this:

• Join the movement
• Get involved
• Do your part
• Take charge

The right campaign and the right CTA can appeal to the audiences’ higher emotions, like empathy and compassion. In this video, CertainTeed Ceilings rallies architects to the call of “Down With Decibels.” The campaign created a movement for architects to think differently about acoustic products.

Changing behavior isn’t easy but it’s much easier when you appeal to someone’s emotions. The next time you prepare to launch a product or create a campaign, remember to focus on the personal as well as the professional value.

They confirmed our suspicions: they don’t often try new products, but instead specify what they already know. There are several reasons for their reluctance:

1. Architects are accountable for billable hours, which limit the time they have to familiarize themselves with new products, view product demonstrations or meet with manufacturing representatives.
2. The search for alternative products can be difficult and time consuming. Even when architects have information about a new product, it’s very difficult to determine how it’s different or better than what they already use.
3. They can’t afford any surprises when it comes to delivery, customer service, installation or other factors.

Even if your product intrigues an architect, it can take a while for them to specify it. They have to trust the product, the brand and the delivery channels before suggesting it for a project.

Here are some ways marketers can begin building trust:

• Use testimonials from other architects. Put the testimonials on your site, send them in an email, do a video or podcast – use whatever channels are available to deliver the message. Make sure each testimonial covers specific ways your product or company solved a challenge. Address topics like responsiveness, flexibility, timeliness and service.
• Incorporate inspiring visuals from real projects into your marketing. Show how your products were part of a bigger solution and a successful project.
• Take a “how to” educational approach with your marketing. Position your company as experts on current trends or problems. For example, “How to Reduce Solar Heat Gain in Mixed Use Buildings,” is a stronger message than “We provide energy efficient window solutions.”

Think beyond the CEU. If you can’t get into the firm to do a CEU, demonstrate your knowledge in other ways. Participate in industry panel discussions. Create podcasts with two to 10 minutes of meaningful content that can be absorbed quickly while commuting, running errands or going about daily routines.

Above all, keep educating and inspiring architects, and eventually, you can earn their trust and their business.

The Thought Leadership Council serves two purposes. First, to create a network of marketing leaders from the building products industry who are dedicated to the exchange of ideas, information, and insights in order to become trusted experts in their fields. Second, to provide a forum for these experts to inspire innovation and endorse the perception that the building products industry is on the cutting edge of technology and advancements.

Membership Includes:

• Peer-to-peer round-table discussions
• Quarterly networking meetings and discussions on how to become a thought leader
• Educational information, industry data and trend information from our conversations with architects, designers, contractors, engineers and other audiences
• Monthly marketing insights

For more information visit Building Thought Leaders.

About Us: Function: is a consultative agency that specializes in connecting building product manufacturers to architects, builders, designers and contractors through marketing, advertising, content and public relations.

We look forward to your participation.

The Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to Thought Leadership by LinkedIn Marketing Solutions outlines three types of thought leadership:

• Industry thought leadership
• Product thought leadership
• Organization thought leadership

We’ve taken a look at these three paths as they relate to marketing building products.

Industry Thought Leadership

Industry thought leaders demonstrate expertise on trends, news and events that shape the marketplace. This type of leadership allows you to share your original ideas and thoughts about developments impacting commercial and residential design and construction. For instance, you might want to demonstrate expertise in collaborative workspaces, multi-family housing or urban redevelopment.

Product Thought Leadership

In order to elevate traditional product marketing to thought leadership marketing, you’ll want to focus on innovation and how your products transform the built environment and its occupants. It’s not just about differentiating your products from competitors – it’s about demonstrating the knowledge and experience behind that differentiation and how it can change the way people interact with their surroundings. Product thought leaders typically focus on:

How their products impact the health, happiness and well being of occupants.
How their products are disrupting and changing the way people think about a product category, and how they should perform.

Organizational Thought Leadership

Marketing your company’s vision, mission, passion, dedication and uniqueness can also precipitate thought leadership. Architects, designers and building professionals want to know they are working with companies that support a culture of innovation.

Thought leadership marketing may seem difficult to master, but your expertise will come through if you focus on the following concepts:

What makes you different or unique.
How your products transform expectations and disrupt the status quo.
Your unique perspective and how are you using it improve the industry.
What drives your company aside from profit.
How you are enhancing the human experience as it relates to the built environment.

The advice being offered may not be very helpful for those in our industry. Most of it is something that’s been pulled out of a general B2B (business-to-business) marketing approach. It hasn’t been filtered or tailored for the building products industry.

Building product marketers need an interpreter and advisor, someone who can take the latest and greatest marketing strategies and tactics, filter them by audience and vertical, and apply them in a way that influences specification. Below are a few common roadblocks for marketers who are “going it alone.”

1. Certain marketing activities aren’t getting done or done in time.
2. Your team has limited experience or expertise in certain areas such as: content, thought leadership, research or editorial engagement.
3. You can’t produce or manage the type of content or tools that your audience or sales force needs.
4. Your marketing looks the same as it always has and may even resemble your competition.
5. You are confused about how to balance creativity and technical information (i.e. product declarations) to enhance your brand.
6. You don’t know how to implement public relations, social media or content to move the needle.
7. You want to be considered the go-to brand but don’t have the brand awareness you need.
8. Your marketing team comes from sales, engineering, product development, customer service or other non-marketing background.
9. You want to be more strategic and need a bigger picture.
10. You want to reach new verticals.
11. Your marketing team complains of having too much to do, and not enough time to do it.
12. Your marketing team spends more time traveling than they do creating.
13. Your marketing team is in more than one meeting a week.

If any of these sound familiar, it may be a sign to look for a strategic marketing partner that understands how to influence your audience and can strategize and execute on your behalf.

So how do you maintain the connection that you started and reach other architects you may have missed?

The best strategy is to tailor specific content and communication plans to the architects’ interests. Architects want and need your product information, but they want it to be delivered in a way that resonates with their objectives. The information should be concise, visual and inspirational.

Here are three ways to boost your engagement with architects and begin your post-show follow-up.

1. Share professional photography via meetings, email blasts, website pages and social media. The photography should capture the spirit and inspiration of the project and highlight how your products contributed to the overall effect and project goals. Architects want to see your products as part of a final project.
2. Create communication plans for your upcoming product launches to target editorial coverage in print and online trade publications that cater to architects. Supplement the product information with related posts and announcements on social media. And, to be concise and keep your audience’s attention, focus on no more than three attributes that set your product apart.
3. Rethink your CEUs and presentations. The Lunch and Learn is still a great tool for face-to-face meetings, but you should also consider sharing content through distance learning, MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) and other methods that allow the audience to participate remotely.

Architects and designers want to see and touch your products but they also want to know what makes them different. Don’t underestimate the power of inspiration as you plan your next engagement.

This change has opened up a few more opportunities for building product marketers to join the discussion.

Our June manufacturers’ roundtable will explore how to create and market CEUs for architects and designers. This peer-to-peer conversation will bring together non-competing manufacturers for an open discussion about content, strategy, delivery and promotion of CEUs. Dana Castle, Managing Partner of Function, will moderate the discussion. Sessions are limited to eight manufacturers.

What: an event designed to share, discuss and explore what makes a successful CEU for the A&D community.

When: Tuesday, June 23, 2015, 3 PM EST.

How to Participate: Email [email protected] by 5 PM EST on Tuesday, June 16, using the subject line: A&D CEU discussion. Participation is based on first response.

For those unable to join the discussion, we’ll share insights and information from the conversation on Content that Builds.

Native advertising is a fast-growing subset of content marketing. For the purposes of introduction and exploration, think of it as advertising (usually digital) that looks and acts like content.

A native ad is carefully constructed to engage audiences without disrupting the content experience. The ad is delivered within the stream of editorial content provided by the publisher so that it feels organic to the experience. It’s not a separate piece of engagement like a traditional banner ad.

Publishers have embraced the potential of native advertising as a way to boost revenues and provide helpful and related information to their audiences. Mainstream publications including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Huffington Post and Forbes are actively promoting native content. Forbes has even added native advertising to its cover.

Publishers are getting really creative with their sponsored content programs. They’ve hired dedicated editorial teams to ensure the integration of paid-for content doesn’t disrupt their brand or audience expectations. We’ve found the publications in our industry very receptive to exploring native advertising when it supports their own editorial standards and mission.

Native ads offer increasing benefits for advertisers. A study conducted by IPG Media Lab and Sharethrough found that native ads are more visually engaging than banner ads. Participants looked at native ads 52% more frequently than banner ads. The study also found that native ads had better click-through rates. Radius, the marketing intelligence platform, ran its own paid advertising test and discovered the power of the LinkedIn sponsor post, which is a form of native advertising. Fifty-nine percent of the leads that were generated from the test came from the LinkedIn sponsor post compared to zero percent from a LinkedIn display ad.

Native advertising can take many forms. Here are a few native advertising ideas for building product marketers:

1. Sponsored social media posts through LinkedIn, promoted Tweets on Twitter and promoted pins on Pinterest.
2. Print and digital advertorials.
3. Content recommendations where publishers recommend your products or resources within their content or search results.
4. Product placements and integration. Imagine watching a television renovation show with your product in the background or integrated into the project.

It’s interesting to play with different types of advertising and to stretch your marketing efforts beyond print advertising. Increasingly, digital and social media make it easier to provide compelling content in the form of video, audio, images, illustrations, games or other experiences. Native advertising will continue to evolve and define itself but for now, keep these goals and standards in mind.

Goals and Standards

• Find the right publisher to help tell your story. Make sure the publisher aligns with your brand values and that you are following their lead on editorial standards and transparency.
• Incorporate rich media including video and audio when possible.
• Create engaging, clickable headlines.
• Discuss metrics and how the publisher will share leads and inquiries.
• Add value to the overall story. Your content should offer helpful information and/or support or demonstrate something that’s integral to message.

We know that content marketing is a challenge for anyone trying to market products to architects, designers, builders and facility professionals. That’s why we’ve created a series of opportunities for non-competing manufacturers to come together and have an open discussion about content strategy, specifically the challenges and opportunities related to creating, distributing and promoting content in our industry.

Each session will include five to seven manufacturers and will be moderated by Dana Castle, managing partner of Function.

Two of the discussions will take place during AIA in Atlanta. For those unable to attend the AIA sessions, we will be adding online sessions this summer.

What:

An event designed to bring together non-competing manufacturers to share and discuss what’s relevant and challenging in content marketing.

When: Choose your session

AIA Atlanta Sessions:

Friday, May 15, 2015, 3 PM – 4 PM

Saturday, May 16, 2015, 11 AM – 12 PM

Online Sessions:

Thursday, June 25, 2015, 10 AM – 11 AM

Tuesday, July 28, 2015, 10 AM – 11 AM

How to Participate:

For the AIA sessions, please contact us by Monday, May 4 at 12 PM EST.

For the summer sessions, please contact us by Friday, May 22 at 5 PM EST.

We will select participants based on first responses and non-competitive interests.

To reserve a spot at your preferred session, email [email protected] and indicate which date you’re interested in.

The above quote summarizes the key finding from the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs survey of B2B marketers in 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends – North America.

If you advertise, you most likely have a documented plan for your ad placements, which identifies your audience, the type of ads you’re placing and what you want to promote. Now think about your content marketing – do you have a similar plan?

Like advertising, content marketing requires in-depth strategy and planning; it’s not something that can be done by generalists or people unfamiliar with how your audiences think and buy. Effective content marketing starts with a comprehensive understanding of your audiences, how to engage them and where they go for information.

For building product marketers, creating a documented content marketing strategy can be overwhelming. You have to think in terms of short-term and long-term goals and activities. Are there trade shows, industry events or product launches that will require increased attention while you are managing other priorities? And, how will you find time to remain active and engaged with social media content? It’s easy to get discouraged, but once you have a content strategy in place it begins to feel more manageable.

To help you get started with an in-house content calendar, we created a template specific to building product marketers. The calendar is designed to help you organize and plan a variety of content, such as blogs, social media posts and more. It will also help you devise a plan to address the needs of your audiences. For a copy of this calendar, email your name and the name of your company to [email protected] with the subject line: Content Calendar.

Content marketing can be a drain on your resources or it can be an effective engagement tool, once you have a written plan in place.

You might think that showing up with innovative products, a great booth design, informed salespeople and the best giveaway would be enough. But even with the best plan, the most attractive exhibition space and the best products, you may still have difficulty breaking through the noise – and trade shows are particularly noisy places. The competition for attention is steep.

Take NeoCon for example. There are more than 700 exhibitors, five floors, 100 CEU opportunities and thousands of cool new products for attendees to see. Even with the most strategic plan, that’s a lot to absorb in three days. With so much competition, you need to extend your reach beyond the event, beyond your exhibition and beyond the timeframe of the show.

A strategic public relations effort can help extend awareness. For building product manufacturers, media coverage can also boost credibility. A full 78% of architects and building product specifiers consider third-party claims the most trusted source for product information, while 67% consider manufacturers’ claims the least trusted source.

10 Public Relations Tips to Maximize Trade Show Engagement

1. Secure a list of media contacts from show organizers and begin outreach early. Give them a preview of what to expect and pique their interest as early as possible.
2. Utilize the PR room at the show and work with the press during the event. Be available when they need you and make sure you have enough press kits on hand. Provide digital, lightweight, easy-to-use press kits. And don’t forget to publish your social media tags.
3. Provide media training for your spokespeople and senior leadership. Put them through the paces with mock questions and answers. Don’t forget to prep them for on-camera as well as print interviews.
4. Pitch story ideas that go beyond product information. Think about how the product will be a game-changer for architects, designers and end users. Make an emotional connection with the product by talking about how it improves occupants’ experience and interaction with their surroundings.
5. Ask for appointments and secure interviews. Make sure your product design team is available to meet with key media and that you stay on schedule. Don’t make the media wait.
6. Create a stand-alone site, virtual product guide or exhibition guide and send the link early. Make sure there are plenty of photographs and that information is downloadable and is easy to access.
7. Hold a live or digital event for media to review your products and stories before the show officially opens.
8. Don’t forget the inspiration. Share the key ideas behind your product, collection or solution.
9. Take advantage of any promotional or community opportunities available through show organizers or media covering the event. Interact with media on their social sites and join the community conversation.
10. Think beyond your products and your brand. Let the media know that your team is available during and after to help with stories about the event itself including reactions to trends, traffic, show results, etc.

Durability and Maintenance

“Products have to be easy to maintain and withstand the abuses that come from mixed-use traffic and tenant living,” Hertlein said. Maintenance drives up costs for the building and cuts into profits. Products that are known for their durability and ease of maintenance have an advantage in the specification process.

Acoustics

Sound transfer and absorption are major concerns. “While budgets prevent the design of a fully soundproofed environment, architects are still looking for ways to limit the disruption from sounds such as hallway chatter or slamming doors. Quiet closures, rubber seals and materials that absorb make a difference.”

Occupant Health

Daylight views, indoor air quality and other factors can contribute to the health and happiness of tenants. “Buildings with tall ceilings and bigger widows that let in light make us feel better,” Hertlein explained. Think about how products can support high ceilings or daylight, along with better IAQ (indoor air quality) and ventilation.

To make your product launch more successful, you need to think of the rollout as a multi-phased process, which includes the following:

1. Clear messaging for each target market, including the inspiration behind the product and why it matters
2. Emotional connections based on how the product changes, improves and enhances occupants and workers within the built environment
3. Strong differentiators between your product and other options
4. Targeted media channels and an editorial plan
5. Social media and public relations plans, including calendars
6. Advertising and visual content to enhance the product’s impact
7. A plan to introduce the product with sales and distribution channels

Function: has developed a product development service for building product manufacturers that includes a detailed launch strategy.

1. Technology has helped us live smaller. Housing used to be built to accommodate large televisions, now it’s all about flat, small and mobile. Manufacturers should think about products that support smaller interiors.
2. Dual functionality or multi-functional products are on the rise. We can expect to see more products that serve multiple purposes for the tenant.
3. With multifamily, it’s all about density on the lot. How many units can we fit on a lot. In markets like Atlanta, you still have to think about cars. There’s still a high cost to digging down. We need solutions for density that are quick, efficient and affordable.
4. Adaptive reuse will continue to grow. We want to use what already exists rather than build something new. Products that fit those buildings will be in demand.
5. We’ll see a rise in demand for townhomes. A townhouse offers a compromise between apartment living and single-family living. Boomers and empty nesters want low maintenance and a sense of community but don’t want to give up privacy.
6. New Urbanism will continue to drive development. People will continue to look for urban centers and housing that’s close to transportation or allows them to bike and walk. Tenants want to walk out of their buildings and have access to restaurants, recreation, culture and shopping.
7. High-tech solutions that control features such as temperature, light and security are still too expensive for multifamily projects. These types of products may be fading from favor.

Takeaway Number One: There are so many product choices.

How he finds products:

To navigate the growing number of product choices, Hertlein relies on publications and sites that curate product information, such as Dwell and Houzz. He also talks to his peers. If he sees an interesting or inspiring project, he’ll take a look at the product list and make a note of those that stand out. If he sees a product over and over, it enters his consciousness. He also uses Google to find products, but the results of that can be mind numbing.

Marketing Takeaways:

1. Promote the projects that use your products. Find out who has specified your products and get the project photographed professionally. Then, put on your public relations hat and help distribute that story.
2. Invest in search engine optimization to ensure your products are found, but don’t stop there. Find ways to differentiate your products and align them with what your audience needs.

Takeaway Number Two: Products are like supporting characters.

How products relate to the project:

Hertlein described building products like supporting characters in a movie. He explained that he can’t cast those supporting roles until he knows more about the story and defines what it’s about. Is it a modern, traditional or adaptive reuse story? There are lots of decisions to be made before he starts deciding on products. For instance, if it’s an adaptive reuse building, how big a role will windows play? Will they be a primary feature? Should the windows match the exterior or contrast with it?

Marketing Takeaways:

Think about how your products support specific types of projects. Align your products with the tone, style, feel and era of the story being told.
Don’t be afraid to tell a story with your products or brand. Make an emotional connection and do everything you can with the role you have. As any actor knows, “There are no small parts, only small actors.”

Meanwhile, it may be time to take a closer look at your website and review how well it serves your audience.

How specifiers use your website:

• Architects and designers list manufacturers’ websites as the leading resource for product information.
• Contractors say manufacturers’ websites influence product selection more than other forms of communication.
• For all specifiers, manufacturers’ websites are the primary resource for detailed product and specification information.

It’s a good idea to review your site periodically to make sure product information is accessible and easy to search. You will also want to consider how easy the information is to navigate on a mobile device.

Three content trends to keep top of mind

1. Content should be targeted and personal
2. Content marketers should use professional writers
3. Content marketing should focus on distribution

Targeted, personal content should be your mantra. Content needs to be tailored to each vertical market. It should align with specific buyer needs, priorities, problems and desires.

Finding a good writer and/or finding the time to write are industry-wide problems. Hiring an editor and writer helps you tell a more compelling story that connects with your audiences. One reminder, though: not all writers come equipped with the skills, knowledge and experience needed to think like a specifier.

Focusing on how you distribute content helps break through the noise and reach a larger audience. Start with your internal channels. Distribute content directly to your sales force and to your opted-in list. Distribute over the channels you control including newsletters, social media and email. From there, you can reach out to media and other communities that cover the industry.

Yet, in 2015 we still encounter a lot of marketing that ignores the principles of content marketing. So what exactly are the principles that drive content marketing and how can you apply them?

We’ll start with a definition. The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as:

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

Take a closer look at the definition: Content should be valuable, relevant and consistent. Content should attract and retain a clearly defined audience. It should drive profitable customer action.

In his article What is Content Marketing for Forbes Joshua Steimle wrote, “You can tell if a piece of content is the sort that could be part of a content marketing campaign if people seek it out, if people want to consume it, rather than avoid it.”

So how does this apply to building products? Let’s take a type of marketing that is rarely considered content: the trade publication ad. You may wonder, is an ad really content? Yes. It’s visual content and it should be developed and distributed by the same principles used for other forms of content. It should be valuable; it should be relevant; it should be consistent.

In the building products industry, ads should definitely be treated like content. Many specifiers rely heavily on publications not only for inspiration but also for product information. They are coming to the publication seeking information and they are likely to engage with both the editorial content and the ad, if the ad follows the principles of value, relevancy and consistency.

So how do you that?

Here are some ideas:

1. To create value for your audience, start by helping them. There are so many products out there to choose from and most of them look the same. It’s overwhelming. Focus on what makes your product or solution different and why that matters. Make an emotional connection that can be used to drive the spec.
2. To be relevant, share a project where the product has been used or incorporate a testimonial from someone who has used it. Visually help them imagine your product in their projects. If it’s a new product, tout the innovation, why it was needed in the industry. You can also play up the inspiration for the product and connect with their quest for inspiration.
3. Consistency often gets overlooked but it is the key to relationship building. Content should have a continuum. Don’t rely on one-off campaigns; execute your content consistently across all channels, expand the opportunities. You can’t place one ad, in one publication, one time and expect it to connect. And you can’t have a great ad that drives them to a totally unrelated website. Buyers need and want a consistent story that continues to enter their consciousness.

Content marketing that’s geared towards the customer is the same thing as marketing. Successful, customer-focused marketing is a mindset that allows you to create content whether it’s a microsite, webpage, press release, infographic, video, webinar or brochure with the customer in mind. It’s time to shift away from your product story and start to tell their story.