This situation is very different than if you are serving retail markets with many (relatively) small clients, or you are a building products/technology/service provider with discrete and specific products/services which you essentially sell off the shelf to a diversity of clients.  From a marketer’s perspective, these sorts of things are much easier to measure and to develop organized marketing campaigns.

Consider, for example, the difference between an architect seeking multi-million dollar commissions for institutional projects and a local roofing contractor who installs $5,000 roofs on individual consumers’ homes.  In the former, the process from initial awareness to winning the commission will take much time, research and effort and requires many thoughtful decisions.  In the latter, you need a lead winning and tracking system fuelled through your sales processes, and you will be able to quickly and relatively effectively measure the cost-per-lead and its conversion process.

Another example:  I described in an earlier posting about David Steinberg’s AdPearance agency, which guides building products manufacturers on paid search engine marketing.  Essentially, (for a fee) his staff design keyword campaigns where paid search traffic funnels to specifically designed landing pages.  Inquiry and conversion rates can be quickly measured, campaigns tweaked, and you know within a few weeks or months your strategy’s profitability.   Then you just build on this process through testing and evaluation.

I’m quite confident this approach would work in some form or another for most contractors and service providers doing work on scale.  But I had my doubts about its practicality for general contractors, architects and engineers.  Steinberg agreed.  In an email to me he wrote:

In regards to GC’s and professional services, it is a little bit different of a strategy we undertake.  Some of what we demonstrated is applicable for case studies and lead generation (ie, environmental building) but generally,  “General Contractors” as a search term is not going to generate a lot of real business.

The strategy for these people is really a multi-pronged approach with some limited SEM, SEO, email marketing, blogging, developing yourself as a resource with active attention paid to analytics and what is and is not working.  A simple and effective tool for these types of businesses has been a drip email campaigning with a well-integrated CRM.  Most of these companies are pretty backwards on this whole process.  We provide the drip-emailing service, SEO, and blogging but have yet to dabble with the CRM integration.  I think that ultimately, we should head in that direction.  What have you seen for CRM’s in the industry?

So, Steinberg ends his observations with a question for which I don’t have an entirely satisfactory answer.  CRM for AEC businesses itself is problematic — systems are built and designed that don’t really work because of failure in implementation.   They can be part of integrated project-management/accounting systems, for which fees are not a minor matter.

A web search into this topic has resulted in the discovery of a UK software vendor Inon, offering a package called “Client Value Management” (CVM) for AEC businesses/practices.  I can’t endorse them, or their solution, because the only thing I’ve seen so far is their promotional website.

The research continues.

David Steinberg

Steinberg described how when he was in the lumber business in the mid part of the last decade, visiting architects and pitching his products one by one in face-to-face meetings, he discovered the power of Google keyword advertising.  Initially, this advertising produced incredible results.  But, he acknowledges, if he tried the same thing today he would be disappointed.  The cost per click has risen astronomically and (worse) the resistance to clicking and converting from Internet advertising has greatly increased.  In other words, without a focused marketing strategy and lots of testing, you can easily spend thousands of dollars on your advertising and end up with nothing but bad losses to show for your experience.

The right approach, he says, is to select your keywords carefully and then draw them to a specific site/landing page which is geared to the message you wish to connect to the people who respond to those specific keywords.  You cannot be generic and soft here, you need to be specific.  So if you are selling a variety of widgets, make sure that you pick the widget carefully and then send the potential customer to the widget page which has the correct call to action.  Then, measure the results — carefully.

The good news is that the sample size and speed of measurement with Internet advertising is much lower than conventional advertising.  Steinberg says you will know if your campaign is on the right track if you receive, say 100 clicks and if these are turning into profitable conversions, probably within a couple of weeks.  Sooner than later, you will discover a profitable campaign:  That is, one that generates enough inquiries which convert correctly by either requests for further information online or by phone to actual sales, that you know that you have a viable strategy.  Then you test alternatives against the base strategy — you can run the tests simultaneously with your primary campaign — until you get something better.  Direct calls to action seem to work well, as do videos, but these advantages may vary depending on the circumstances.

Steinberg’s business of course collects management fees charged monthly for the account management service.  Clearly, this can be a lucrative business because his staff can apply concepts for one business to another — and even excluding direct competitors, there are many different AEC service and supply businesses.  He can of course use free media like me to draw traffic to his site, but he can also practice what he preaches, with selected advertising placements drawing potential clients to the regular Webinars and then, through a conversion process, to actual clients of his service.  He shares my opinion that the AEC industry is certainly not leading the pack in marketing practices and technologies — this gives a real advantage to anyone who keeps apace of trends in other industries and applies them here.

While this model is valid, it works primarily for businesses with the resources for significant cash paid advertising budgets.  Smaller businesses with plenty of self-discipline (and cheap web designers) probably can implement AdPearance  strategy with 80 per cent effectiveness on a do-it-yourself basis.  (Another option, if your budgets are low, is to bite the bullet, use Steinberg’s services for a few months, and then move on — of course in those few months with his company your results may be so impressive that you would be nuts to stop using the service!)

The management fees of several hundred dollars a month (before you place any AdWords or other paid advertising) would blow the budgets of most of the smaller readers of this blog, and i’m not sure how well the model would work for professional firms and others who must work with extremely long lead times on very large projects.  But Steinberg isn’t targeting these markets.  Steinberg doesn’t discount the potential advantages of Search Engine Optimization strategies (SEO), but he rightfully points out that these take time and probably work best in conjunction and after you get your paid keyword strategies in place.

(I note that in the last year I saw a similar data-driven agency type of agency service promoting itself as an alternative to the Yellow Pages.  I won’t name the business here because of my policy not to describe by name any business negatively.  Unfortunately, clients within Internet forums I monitor who initially expressed enthusiasm for this business’s concept — similar to AdPearance — ultimately were disappointed by that business’s service and value. They felt they were pouring money into a black hole.  I obviously haven’t used AdPearance’s services myself but sense you are on much safer ground here in part because the company is quite up-front about its fees and target markets, and I’m confident wouldn’t just take your money and run.)

Steinberg also shows how you can build a great systematized conversion strategy into your processes.  Set up a regular Webinar, then drive traffic through paid keyword advertising, social media, SEO, and other resources.  Because the Webinar is at a set time, your staff is not strained and you can give it your fullest attention.  Then measure the conversion rates and success.  It is a good model for a variety of services.

Tonight, for example, I read a fascinating thread on contractortalk.com from Tim Garrison, an engineer seeking guidance from other forum members on how to market and promote his book on Green Framing.  Not surprisingly this posting caught my attention as within a few days I’ll be sending the image files for the new Construction Marketing Ideas book to the printer.  Despite all my years of experience in writing and marketing, I’ve never produced a book nor attempted to sell one before.

Other posters in response to Garrison’s thread suggested that he had under-priced his book and that the best approach to marketing it may be to make sample free chapters available by PDF.  I’m planning that strategy and, in a few weeks once I know I can deliver the book in a timely manner, readers who have requested the free chapters will receive them.  (As well, the readers who have purchased the book and made the $5.00 deposit will of course receive their hard copies.)

I won’t comment about Garrison’s website and blog — others are probably more capable than me — but these observations in one of his blog postings caught my eye.

It seems that every marketing tip these days includes a screaming imperative for some sort of Internet-based social media. It’s so boggling I’m not even sure I said that right.

Rule number 1 in all business is you survive only if you sell things. Goods or services, it doesn’t matter; money only flows in when the register goes cha-ching. I found out a long time ago that selling is impossible without marketing. In the old days it was easy, you paid for ads. Nowadays you’d better be computer and internet savvy or you’re sunk. Right?

If you believe marketing experts, that’s right. My experience, however, bears a different conclusion.

Fearful that I might miss a sales opportunity, I’ve thrown myself into Internet marketing with a zeal reminiscent of a dog pack at a kill. I built a website. Actually, I’m on my fourth or fifth (I’ve lost count), and actually I didn’t build them, I paid others to. The words “paid others” is a wretched recurring theme in this whole worldwide web business.

When blogs came into vogue I shot onto that bandwagon and got myself one. Wasn’t sure why. Heck, I wasn’t even sure what a blog was, but the experts shouted that I needed one, so by-golly, I paid others to set mine up.

Right after that people started inviting me to join them at LinkedIn. And Facebook. And Twitter. And MerchantCircle. Marketing experts howled that I must join! Fearing the next great gold rush might pass me by, I flailed about setting up accounts and accepting invitations. A few of the people who invited me I actually knew.

I could go on, there’s more. Especially the “paid others” parts. But what’s interesting is that sales of my software and books have been absolutely immune to all of these gyrations. I’ve tracked sales through each Smoking Hot Internet Marketing Revelation and can report with certainty that they don’t work worth a hoot. At least not for me.

Garrison has a point but of course I’ve seen many examples of contractors who advertise effectively, get results, and understand the marketing basics.  They tend to respond most actively to the ideas and advice in these pages.  The contractors who need the most advice about marketing, alas, don’t seem to want to listen.

This is normal behaviour, of course.  Why do most people follow in the path of their parents, community, and values they acquired from their childhood?  Change is difficult.  We rarely venture out of our comfort zone and usually want to return to the safe place as soon as we can.  A great engineer will generally think like a great engineer rather than a great marketer.  Great consultants, meanwhile, know how to make their clients feel they are getting real value from their expert advice even though they (wink wink nudge nudge) know that most of the money the best clients spend will be wasted as the clients will rarely really implement the consultant’s advice unless the ideas already are in line with the clients’ existing assumptions and values.

I will throw you a lifeline, however, if you know things aren’t working well and you know you need to change your model but are not sure how.  My advice is to correlate your desired changes to your strengths and your values and then connect with others to make the changes happen.  In other words, listen to yourself while you listen to the experts.  Then, perhaps, change will happen because you will actually enjoy the process and won’t be fighting against your values.

For example, Darren Salyer at Total Home Remodeling in Wentzville, MO, reported on remodelcrazy.com’s marketing forum (accessible only to signed up members):

I’ve been doing FB ads since Dec. 12th, to date I’ve spent 125 dollars.
I’ve gotten 84 clicks to my fan page, and 65 clicks to my website.
I’ve bid 3 jobs:
61,865 basement.
17,870 basement
4900 kitchen spruce up.
All three were bid last week and all three look good although I don’t have a signed contract yet.
All three were very accept able as being a quality lead. On my shoulders now to get them off the fence and choose me.

In further postings within the thread, he reports that the early leads  have converted to profitable business.

But I haven’t seen this level of success replicated elsewhere.  Other psoters say they have seen no measurable results.

Darren may be doing something special with his Facebook fan page (Facebook.com/asktotalhome) which, for some reason, I cannot see on my computer, but others have no problem visiting.  You can visit his landing page by visiting the link above.  He has a solid site but nothing terribly spectactular comes to mind in viewing it.  (The restriction on viewing his fan page may relate to controls Darren is able to put on his site — you can specify, for example, that only visitors from within the U.S. can see the page, and I’m based in Canada.)

Of course Darren is doing several other things right.  Consider the other elements of his posting:

• Went to my first meeting with a local networking group last night. First meeting for the group and there were over 30 people there.
• I have 50000 postcards going out in direct mail to targeted demographics for what I like to do, 5 times over the next 10 months.
• Radius marketing set up for 50 homes around contracted jobs.
• Still working on wraps for my van and trailer, as well as jobsite signs.
• Still working on a website redesign.Looking at more of a blog style, with improved SEO.
• As soon as the weather breaks, new monument sign in front of the shop.
• An open house for past customers, vendors and prospects.

Really, nothing here that we all shouldn’t be doing.
I’ve resolved to be a marketing company that remodels this year.

Overall, this is an impressive package.  Note that most elements within it don’t cost much, results can be measured quickly, and none of them are surprises — information on how to do the same thing is relatively easy to find, either within the forums/sites, general Internet searching, or previous Construction Marketing Ideas blog postings.

In essense, while individual aspects of his campaign may or may not work, the total cost will be well within most smaller business’s budgets, and thus success is likely.

To summarize, a sales representative representing an alternative to the Yellow Pages, which promotes the marketing of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising across several platforms, started contributing to the group some months ago, with insightful suggestions on how to effectively use PPC methodologies in place of the traditional Yellow Pages marketing model.

This initiative achieved some success — a few group members, impressed with the sales representative’s knowledge and willingness to put forward voluntary and useful information, decided to give her business a try.  They signed up for advertising campaigns.

Then, alas, things went wrong.  The campaigns for at least two of the group members didn’t go well, and (possibly because of illness, or spamblock problems, or maybe a combination of both)  one of the members found poor communications and dissatisfying results. The rep, he complained in a posting, simply wasn’t returning calls or addressing the issues.

Other members then joined the fray, contributing rather negative published reports about where the sales representative works.  Eventually, the rep joined the discussion, outlined her side of the story, but then said she would have nothing further to do with the group and signed off.

One member, not a part of the original debate, observed that the members complaining about the PPC advertising service may simply not have a realistic expectation about how to structure and manage their advertising campaigns.  He wrote:

Let me preface by stating I have no side…..no side. What I have learned about advertising, people who sell it, and people who buy it all carry different levels of expectation. As a consumer, we hate being bothered by the YP guy, the (name removed, ed.), or the newspaper adman. We hate spending money on things we cannot touch, see, use, or consume. Advertising is abstract. There is no real value at time of purchase. There is also no guarantee. It is a part of doing business. Will the addition of a $40,000 dump truck save you money on roll-offs? Maybe it will….until the guys rip the tranny out of it or forget to change the oil, check the antifreeze, or run it into a building. Maybe a bad example, but it is a calculated risk we would make as a businessman to decrease cost or increase productivity, thus creating more profits. Whether it is BS or not, I have ALWAYS heard PPC reps tell us that we have to have a commitment of at least 3-4 months for whatever reason. Either they make their living in four month client relationships or there is some truth to this and how it integrates you into ‘googel world’. I don’t know the answer to that. What I do know is this…advertising does not guarantee you sales, it only guarantees you increased exposure. Some are better at it than others and I would even go as far as to say ‘right place, right time, comes into play to a certain extent. Every advertising campaign will not work. I’m finishing up a $3,000 mistake on a billboard I thought would be a steal at $250 per month. In eight months, I have received three calls. Two were on a Sunday from people pissed off leaving church because they thought I was Satanic for the message I had in my ad copy and the other was from a guy who was asking me questions about how much it was, who was the company, etc.

This  contributor, in my opinion, gets to the core of the issue.  Most contractors simply don’t understand or appreciate how to use or measure advertising effectively.  In fact, they simply don’t measure their marketing at all, flying by a sort of seat-of-your-pants approach, relying passively (too often) on referrals and existing clients for repeat business, without understanding the primary value of an effective advertising campaign — the ability to control and manage your lead flow.  When you get it right, you can dial up or down your advertising volume depending on your leads requirements.  These successful contractors, seeing business decline in a recession, simply allocate a significant but controllable increase in their marketing budget, generate the necessary leads, and stay in business.  But of course they know how much their leads cost ahead of time, and which advertising generally works and is effective.

I certainly see this in my own business, where we find most of our clients don’t really appreciate how to use advertising effectively.

Unfortunately for the sales representative who initially built good will within the group, then lost it, there are other aspects to the story

Her decision to leave the group and walk away from the negativity to her service only leaves it exactly where it is — in a deep hole of distrust.  If you go public, if you reach out in social media (or any media, for that matter) and build expectations, only to find people complain when they aren’t met, you can take two courses of action.  You can work to rebuild the trust, or you can throw in the towel.  You then have done something worse than never showing up at all — you have left your brand in disarray and disrespect.

(I realize the problem here in part  is the sales employee cannot control her entire organization, but there is something to be said for persisting and staying around even when the going gets rough.  Once you weather the storm, assuming you can truly address the problems and complaints raised, you will remain a worthy member of the group, and your trust level within the community will be incredible.  And so will your brand and success.)