Lets start at the beginning.  Design and Construction Network founder Tim Klabunde called me after I sent him a free review copy of my book, Construction Marketing Ideas: Practical strategies and resources to attract and retain clients for your architectural, engineering or construction business.

Without promoting, he wrote an enthusiastic review on Amazon.com and he suggested that we host a Webinar for members of the Design and Construction Network based on the ideas in the book.

Paul Lesieur, who co-ordinates the highly effective  Rendelcrazy.com site/forum also connected with me after receiving his free review copy.  He posted an enthisastic review on Remodelcrazy.com and his own Amazon.com review.  A few days ago, he asked if I could “comp” someone to the Webinar.  The person he recommended responded enthusiastically after the event with indications of more positive business dealings.

Finally, a local contractor who had advertised with us many years ago, connected with me and asked if he could attend for free based on his previous client relationship.  It took me all of one second to throw away the rule book (advertisers are supposed to have dealt with us within the past year for the free service) and invite him to attend without charge.  Not surprisingly, he, too, is interested in developing further relationships.

Free seems to be working really well here.  I give some stuff away and get  much more in return.

But there has to be some limit to this generosity, you rightfully should be saying now.  After all, if we give everything away from free who will pay for anything.  The individuals who attended the Webinar for free certainly knew the majority were paying full price to attend. As far as I can tell, we delivered genuine value to everyone who paid the registration fee.  The late Sonny Lykos, one of my best (if alas briefest) marketing mentors, advocated that most residential contractors ditch the “Free Estimates” offer because all it does is invite price-shopping, time wasting and the giving away of your valuable services.  And there are plenty of people out there who will clear your trade show booth and your time of every bit of value, delivering absolutely nothing in return but wasted effort.

The best answer I can give to the question of Free or Fee is in two parts.

1. “Does your Free have powerful leveraging opportunities?”
2. “Is your Free based on genuine generosity or simply an excuse for marketing laziness?”

In the most recent circumstance, I write this blog and invite everyone to read it for free — along with the weekly Construction Marketing Ideas newsletter — because the time it takes and the amount of people the initiatives reach make the entire effort worthwhile.  The writing also can be leveraged and recycled.

I don’t give the book away for free to most people, however.  I sent free review copies to people I know well who could influence others and/or who have helped me out in the past.  (I also give it free to our paying advertising clients who request it, based on the principle of value added services, a fundamental client relationship and branding principle.)

I’ll certainly also speak or email briefly with anyone who connects and give them some snapshot insights into my perception of their situation.  This free advice can be truly useful:  It will be an outsider’s first impression observation and may tell you where you need to head.  Don’t worry.  I never push a “sales pitch” for any of my paid services in these conversations or emails unless in rare cases I can offer more free resources which are far greater than the selling message.

This free stuff is strategic:  It generally combines truly limited time and effort (the book is written, it costs just a few seconds to send the letter with the review copy) and it usually has powerful leveraging or payback opportunities.  It isn’t a blind and blanket invitation for abuse or brain-picking.  (The one exception is if a community or non-profit charity connects with me and seeks support.  I put away all commercial considerations and figure out how I can help.)

Free Estimates doesn’t say much other than that you don’t value your estimating time.  You want your clients to appreciate this is a real cost of business and that if they are simply looking for a price-shopping estimate they should pay a design fee (offset by a rebate if they go ahead with the work with you).  This doesn’t mean you can’t give a brief ballpark estimate to avoid time wasting all around or you can elect to provide a free estimate for smaller projects or where you have an existing, solid relationship.  But generally, you want your potential clients to connect with you for reasons other than the Free Estimate.  You need your brand, reputation, and reliability to be well-established to achieve these results.

Free works from a marketing perspective, indeed.  Just learn how to use the word and concept strategically.  You are of course free to comment and connect with me by  emailing buckshon@cnrgp.com.

Mark Buckshon is a journalist who publishes regional construction industry publications in the US and Canadian market. He is also a prolific Blogger.

Construction Marketing Ideas has been written for the North American Architectural, Engineering or Construction (AEC) business, but has much of relevance to those same companies in the UK. If you are not in this group it is still well worth a read as it contains plenty of useful ideas.

Many of his suggestions have been drawn from a few key businesses that he has got to know and all are practical. He also provides a number of useful references for further reading. The first half of the book sets out the foundations for an effective business, covering subjects such as brand, identifying strengths, customer relationships and the business plan. Then he moves on to make practical suggestions for promoting your business. For those who are not in small AEC companies, his views on the use of digital media will probably be most useful as they are based on practical experience.

Although there are a number of references to US organisations it is an easy book to read and contributes to a very small library of specialist construction marketing books.

This review is truly a wonderful surprise, because I didn’t send the reviewer a review copy — he purchased the book, like anyone else!

(The book naturally is written primarily for readers in the U.S. and Canadian market so indeed it focuses on organizations such as The Society for Marketing Professional Services which are relevant more on this side of the pond.)

You can see the current and earlier issues at the Design and Construction Report website.

If you wish to read the magazine in printed format, you may be able to use your office copier.  However, if you want the real feel and look of an actual magazine, you can also order the Design and Construction Report in printed format. We’ve uploaded the latest issue on MagCloud and will soon have the earlier issues, as well.

The new issue of Design and Construction Report is online.

Our online magazine, produced in co-operation with the Design and Construction Network, can be viewed either with page-turning software or downloaded as a PDF file for printing in your office.

The highlight of this issue is the extensive coverage of the Best Construction Blog competition sponsored by Construction Marketing Ideas.  We explore how the most successful blogs achieved their results.

The issue also includes a new Directory of Products and Services, ideal for anyone wishing to communicate with AEC professionals.

I welcome your comments about the magazine.

Thankless job, canvassing, but as I’ve posted before, I know it has a valid place in some contractors’ marketing arsenals.  In fact, it proved to be a topic that justified a near-Thanksgiving flight and day in Columbus, Ohio a couple of years ago as I researched content for the new Construction Marketing Ideas book.

Canvassing and book-writing share some things in common: a degree of perspiration and plenty of frustration coupled with some instant gratification.  The difference is that canvassing is a true immediate hit and miss exercise (and you will undoubtedly miss more than you hit).  Book writing is simply a long slog but when you are done, you start reaping seemingly easy rewards.

For example, I determined that the book could be feasible when I learned where to print it economically and, when the time came to publish, things worked exactly as promised.  Within a couple of days of setting the book up, Amazon.com had a listing and (thanks in part to information from a sample book sent by the printers), I completed some of the supplementary functions to enhance the book’s presence and visibility on the online site.

I also discovered Google Books and within minutes uploaded my book’s  content for further revenue from advertising, coupled with incredible search engine optimization opportunities unavailable to most websites.  (The actual posting of the book on Google may take several weeks, however).

Marketing for this industry, indeed, is part inspiration and part perspiration.  Sometimes you achieve flashes of insight and some marketing miracles occur without much effort but if you think you can find an easy, fast and absolutely certain way to succeed, you can dream as much as you like but you might just hope to find the answer in my book, or anyone else’s for that matter.  (Then again, I really found some great ideas in others’ books far faster than I could have any other way.)

Update on Design and Construction Report recruiting

This morning I think I solved the problem of the key testing and evaluation link in the recruiting process for The Design and Construction Report and, for that matter, our other publications.  We’ve always taken the stance that no one should be hired without working with us for a few days and proving their ability.  The challenge is that the working assignments are built on current operations, so it is hard to find a consistent and reliable testing and evaluation approach, especially when we don’t have much “current” material to evaluate.  I asked our designer to complete marketing materials for a directory listing product which I think will provide a consistent and quick test.

Three or four candidates are worthy of short-listing for this test — and once I am comfortable that all the pieces are in place, we’ll run a final group of Craigslist ads and then sequence the testing.  I think this will take about a week as we also prepare the layouts for the Spring 2010 issue.

Your idea might be a publicity strategy, a referral-gathering technique, something you’ve found works on your website, a canvassing or telemarketing methodology, a great advertisement or something totally different.  It might be your idea or someone else’s (if it is a borrowed idea, please let us know the source).

I’ll compile the finalists into a special ballot and invite your vote — again in a brief 10-day competition.  All finalists will receive a free copy of my new Construction Marketing Ideas book and some additional free publicity and hyperlinks.  The winner of course will be a hero.

You can suggest your idea in this simple form which will be Tweeted to the CMIBlog Twitter space.

In 500 words or less, share your best construction marketing idea.  You could have learned it from the Construction Marketing Ideas blog, another consultant or author, an Internet forum  or your own experience.

We’ll describe the finalist ideas in the Construction Marketing Ideas blog/newsletter on April 13, and invite votes for the Best Construction Marketing Idea.  The finalist with the most votes will be recognized after voting closes at 5:00 p.m. on April 20.

All finalists will receive a free copy of the new Construction Marketing Ideas book.

This video provides some history, perspective, and observations about how we decided to start publishing The Design and Construction Report, the electronic publication which will report on the results of the Best Construction Blogs and Forums Competition (you can vote for your favorites until Feb. 28.)

You can participate in this (and other) publications, in three ways.

1. Editorially: Clearly, if you had entered your blog and/or forum in the competition by the deadline (Dec. 31) and you are successful, you will receive free publicity. You can also figure out the interests of the editor and readers and suggest story ideas which serve the interests of readers more than your own business. The challenge with editorial publicity is that the editor, not you, decides what is important and what to use. If you are skilled at media relations and/or know how to hire the right experts to guide you, this is the most effective route to publicity in our publication, or any other media, for that matter.

2. Sponsored feature (supplier sponsorship): This model works if your business is large and well enough established that your suppliers will help in the costs.  You provide the references and your suppliers will pay for supporting advertising.  This model of publicity is associated with co-op marketing principals.  As a rule, your business (or project) needs to have annual sales volume of at least $3 million for this model to work.

3.  You sponsor the feature. The fee is $1,500 (but we may be able to reduce it somewhat with some supplier support — see 2 above).  This will give you a professionally-written, three or four page feature, written to highlight your business in the best possible manner.  You can embed video and hyperlinks into your feature.  We’ll provide you  printed copies for your own marketing.  Most importantly, we’ll give you individualized consulting so you can parlay your feature into publicity in other media to help your business grow even more.  This is a wise investment if your business is generating at least $250,000 annually or you have sufficient start-up capitalization to justify it.

If you are interested in any of these options, please feel free to call me at 888-432-3555 ext 224 or email buckshon@cnrgp.com.

Our designer has devised five cover variations, and you can vote on which one you prefer.  Just click on your favorite image, and you’ll be directed to a survey form where you will be able to confirm your choice and if you wish, learn about the results.

You can also request while voting three free chapters by email, or (with a small deposit) preorder the book and receive a significant discount.

But you don’t need to identify yourself or purchase anything to vote for your favorite cover.

Here they are:

Choice A

Choice B

Choice C

Choice D

Choice E

For more information about the book, and to order either free sample chapters or pre-order the entire book, you can go to this link.

The Design and Construction Report

The next issue of the Design and Construction Report is scheduled for August, 2009.

For more information, email Mark Buckshon at buckshon@cnrgp.com or Chase at chase@cnrgp.com.  You can also phone 888-432-3555 ext 224.

We’re learning about both blog formats now, with this initial use of WordPress on our own server.  The advantages:  It is flexible and under our direct control.  The disadvantage:  The learning curve to implement it, and the less elegant structure for updating and maintaining the blog.

However, these disadvantages may primarily be from inexperience.

If you have opinions on this topic, please feel free to comment or email buckshon@cnrgp.com