QR (Quick Response) Code marketing involves the application of a bar code to print media (it can be fliers, magazine ads, or signage) which can be scanned by your mobile device and link the reader directly to your website for more advanced interaction.  Bluetooth Proximity Marketing sends an advertising message to your mobile device when you are near the relevant location; say you are at a particular transit station or maybe new homes site.

The article reports on some builders trying these media out.

“Mason Homes successfully employed QR technology in Barrie (Ontario) in its JUST 4U marketing campaign,” the magazine story reports.  “We integrated QR code on Mason’s print ads and on a sign mounted by the sales office.  People were able to have all the information on JUST 4U even when the sales office was closed.  By simply scanning a smartphone over the sign outside, the information is automatically saved,” the article quoted Vanessa Desloor, Social Marketing Co-ordinator for BAM Advertising and Marketing as saying.

Meanwhile the article reported that Gerry Ryan of Ryan Design used the Bluetooth Proximity Marketing by setting up a transmitter in the parking lot of a GO (transit train) station in Brampton ON that broadcasted a message about a nearby condominium development.  “Commuters were the prime audience and they got a message on their Blootooth-enabled cellphones as soon as they arrived and when they left at the end of the day,” the article reported.

“As they were leaving, we might invite them to drop in on the condo on their way home for an open house that includes refreshments and hors d’oeuvres,” the magazine quoted Ryan as saying.  “Mobile communications is the future,” Ryan told the magazine.  “Since Blackberry and the iPhone, everything is done on the phone today.  Small screen marketing is where it’s at.  If you’re not thinking small, you’re missing opportunities.”

Of course being first to market with these innovations in your area/community gives you some “wow” factor and some opportunities for additional media publicity (which certainly cannot hurt).  Will these resources, however, change the way we do things and provide measurable results and benefits for your business?  If you want to be a pioneer, go for it.

I advertise extensively.

You spend a significant amount of money each month to promote your business with paid advertising in magazines, newspapers, the Web and perhaps television and radio.  You measure the effectiveness of your media, but you aren’t worried about immediate results — single ads don’t usually work on their own; the process is cumulative.  Your marketing budget is perhaps in the 10s of thousands of dollars each month.  Media sales reps love you because you’ll try new things and not be fearful to sign ongoing advertising contracts.

I market strategically, with a real budget, but focus on relationship development and the client experience,

You might spend as much money (as a portion of your overall business revenue) on marketing as the first group of advertising-focused marketers, but the process to an outsider is more subtle:  ‘Thank you’ programs for existing clients, hired public relations and communication specialists; planned community and charitable projects and association membership and support, and investment in CRM (Client Relations Management) systems and staff training to create “wow” client experiences.

I rely on word of mouth, repeat business, and open bid competitions (in other words, I don’t really market).

You might buy the occasional ad because a salesperson calls and suggests you support a charity or existing client and you may spend a little money haphazardly here and there on marketing because you have to or are desperate.  Advertising, you think, is a waste of money, and it usually is when you spend it the way you do.  Marketing, you believe if BS — just do a good job at a fair price and you’ll have enough business.

Since my business earns 95 per cent of its revenue from advertising, you might think that I advocate that you should go to the first model.  Ironically, most of our clients are in the third:  They are haphazard and not very smart about how they spend money on marketing and advertising.  I started this blog and wrote my book to help them but few get it.  (When I communicate directly with clients offering additional support and resources — making clear I am not simply trying to sell them more advertising — the only ones who respond are generally in the first and/or second categories.  They don’t need the services/support but understand its reasoning and value.)

In fact, I think the second approach, a thoughtful, client-centred but but budgeted approach to marketing, is truly the wisest approach.  Paid advertising can certainly be part of the picture, especially if you wish to connect with consumers rather than other businesses, but other approaches to marketing focusing on extending and expanding existing client relationships asre probably much more cost-effective and can be a lot more enjoyable.  Best of all, this approach works beneath the surface of your competitors’ radar, giving you incredible control and power in developing your “stealth” and pinpoint effectiveness.  The potential clients who you really want to serve know you are the best, but others you don’t care to have any business with don’t even know you are there.

The challenge is the second approach is probably the hardest to execute if you don’t know what you are doing.  Advertising sales representatives and marketing consultants who work for “free” but collect their fees from media commissions or other third party-sources are unlikely to be too helpful in the broader approach.  Your competitors who practice these principals won’t exactly broadcast their secrets.  And you still must face the fact that this is not a route based on instant gratification:  You can’t simply pick up the phone, buy the adverting, and then wait for the leads and clients to emerge. It takes work and time which you will rationally justify takes you away from billable work and immediate revenue.

You can get there by reading, learning, connecting with non-competitive peers, and doing it yourself (with a clear budget).  This approach, in fact, is the wisest route if you are just starting out in business.  Or you can contract with consultants or specialized employees who will do the heavy lifting for you.  Here, you need to know enough to know who to hire/contract and who is stringing you along with BS (telling you what you want to hear, and delivering what you say you want, even though it isn’t really what you really need.)

In my business, I know only of two or three people who practice the first version of marketing effectively and perhaps a small handful who succeed at the second approach.  Most of these businesses are successful and have lasted through several recession ups and downs.  (A few in the first category have flamed out; they were pouring huge amounts into advertising and marketing but weren’t playing by the rules:  Scratch the surface, and you would find a hollow or unethical underbelly.  I recall visiting one of these big advertisers/marketers in prison, confirming from that meeting that he belonged there.)

If you are like most in the architectural, engineering and construction industry, you probably fall into the third category.  I suppose if your approach “works” nothing I suggest will cause you to rush to change.  But you can move into the second category, which I believe takes you further along the path of success than any alternative with some thought, a reasonable budget and a commitment to combine patience, persistence and measuring (metrics) to achieve results.  I show you how in my book and will describe the process in greater detail at the July 8 Webinar.  (Early-bird discount ends tomorrow.)

A few days later, the representative emailed me again.

Mark,

I enjoyed reading the post from Wed. (6/16) on your Construction Marketing Ideas blog. I think it’s a fair assessment of (Ed: name of website removed), and one shared by many first time visitors. I genuinely appreciate the feedback. It can be difficult to get an honest read when the initial audience is largely comprised of contacts with personal connections.

So, I get the impression we over-sold it a little, especially on the community pitch. It is indeed a fine line between who we know we can be and what we are at the moment. We have been successful building the brand aesthetics and have an excellent start on the content and media, but that third component of audience is only now becoming the focus of our efforts. We feel the social media functions offer a unique opportunity for firms and businesses in the AEC industry. And we are dedicated to pushing the technology and functionality to optimize the usefulness for the industry. We just need to get the industry to try it out.

While I completely understand the necessity for a full evaluation prior to making any kind of recommendation, I invite you to at least join the community and take the opportunity to test out the functionality. We could use an extra voice in our community to let us know how we can improve the tools. We even have a group focused on the development of the site – from the home page, to the KnowledgeBase, to the new community – which is open to any community member.

I’d also be happy to answer any questions you have about the team, our mission and our affiliations. If you’d like to set up a time to talk via phone, let me know.

Thanks for your time and attention.

My posting “Can you fake it until you make it” discussed the art of finessing the truth a bit to make a selling point.

Interestingly, when I read this email, I mistakenly associated it with a bad case of an “overselling” error by one of our company’s own representatives, which happened to occur the same day as the relevant posting.  Somehow, in my mind, I connected the difficult internal business  incident with his email and the “memory” of a posting on this blog, and so I responded to the person who wrote me by saying: “No, the overselling problem doesn’t apply to you, it does to me.”

Well, of course, there still is a problem here because I fell for one of the commonest marketing problems and challenges — the faulty perception where we mistakenly link one cause to another effect.  The social networking site publicity seeker’s assertion:  “So I get the impression we oversold a little” didn’t have anything to do with our own “overselling” mistake, but his use of the words resulted in me connecting the dots falsely to assume he had responded to a posting I (never actually) made discussing he dangers of overselling!  And here is the real surprise.  I only realized my erroneous conclusion when I set out to research and find the purported original posting to write this blog entry — and discovered the person writing to me was writing about the challenges of finessing the truth, not “overselling” — at least the type of overselling I experienced.

Frankly, misunderstandings like this are both good and bad from a marketing perspective.   Sometimes you want people to make a faulty association (with something good, reputable, or popular) and clearly you don’t want to be associated with anything bad (crime, scamminess, spamming) and often these mistaken associations occur even though you don’t seek out to deliberately or even subtly mislead anyone.  As an example, in some of our communities, our independent publications are mistakenly associated with “official” construction association publications.  We never represent ourselves falsely.  We put a small association logo within our publication as we are allowed to (and encouraged) by the associations to show our memberships, but nothing inside the publication suggests anything more.  But some people think we are THE association publication, and I suspect, in some cases, they choose to do business with us because of this faulty assumption.  (In other cases, we actually publish official association publications or special supplements in co-operation with the relevant associations and, in these cases, of course, we let everyone know the link.)

Now, what about the assertions and hopes for some attention from the person representing the new website seeking to create a social networking environment within the AEC community.  I looked at his site again last night, and it seemed quite well designed, but I didn’t rush to log in or “join the community” This is simply because it requires more effort and identity-sharing than I’m prepared to do right now as our deadline approaches.  In any case, at the time I was reviewing his site, I thought  though the “overselling” he referred to related to something that happened which had nothing to do with his email!

Are there ways he could have received more or faster attention to achieve his media publicity goals?  (I suppose he has my attention now, but equally, now I’m committed NOT to publicize the site right away to cover my own embarrassment.  In any case, I rarely name any other organization publicly unless I can share clearly positive news.)  Possibly.  But I’m not sure any of these options really made any more sense than the direct approach.

• He could have connected through someone I trust and already respect.  This would involve reading my book and previous weblog postings and then dropping a line to that person/organization seeking an introduction.  Best of all, (and most effective) would be making that request through one of our paying clients.

• He could have arranged to advertise here in some way or another.  Sponsored weblinks here are only $12.00 a month, for example, and you can cancel anytime.  The time and effort for me to set up the weblink would “force” me to look at the site in question.  Then, if it has intrinsic merit, I probably would be happy to plug it.  (I realize there is a supposed Chinese wall between editorial integrity and paid advertising — but in the business-to-business and blogging world, the lines are much more blurred, and sometimes a little “dash” goes a long way.

• He could have created some buzz by connecting and participating in some of the existing communities and forums I belong to or even lead (such as the LinkedIn Construction Marketing Ideas group.)  Of course, he needs to be careful not to be cheesy or violate the forum guideline rules for advertising and self-promotion, especially since his organization hopes to sell advertising in its social networking group.

All of these ideas of course don’t overcome the fact that he represents a commercial business which is hoping to make money from advertising and sponsorship — and in some ways, that makes him a potential competitor to me.  I don’t really worry too much about that in deciding who or what to write about here:  after all this is a Construction Marketing Ideas blog but equally I tend to be more cautious in promoting/publicizing organizations seeking attention to sell their own wares than to truly serve the community without expectation of return.

I’ll get to the site/community the person wrote about eventually (maybe sooner than later) but leave with one parting observation.  I looked for a real physical address on the website and an explanation of the organization’s corporate organization/ownership, and couldn’t find it.  This is a yellow flag to me.  Is someone putting on airs where the smoke is greater than the substance? Maybe, indeed, there is some overselling here and I should just wait a while until the site really proves itself some other way.  But then we have the chicken-and-egg story that plagues marketers and start-ups all the time.  How do you successfully launch something new?  This is a topic for the next posting.

Well, frankly, I respect talent and ability and know that in many cases others can do the work quite well and I can learn from them.

First, check out Peter Krupin’s directcontactpr.com website and blog for some really useful resources on getting free publicity for your business.

Also, if are in northern New York, you may wish to attend  one of SMPS Member Liz Kupcha’s live seminars held in the late summer and Fall at a variety of universities and community colleges.

Getting the Word Out on Your Firm & Accomplishments – Even though some publications are closing their doors, there is still a need for a firm to generate some type of press coverage. In this session, attendees will learn about creating an effective press list, which means of publicity will give a firm more bang for its buck and developing an effective social media program.

Finally, a heads up (more tomorrow) about my next Webinar on July 8, in co-operation with The Design and Construction Network.  The topic: Construction Marketing Ideas correlates with my book: Construction Marketing Ideas:  Practical Strategies and resources to attract and retain profitable clients for your architectural, engineering and construction business.

The book has received several enthusiastic reviews.  See this posting by Ford Harding, for example.

Delve into Jaffa's story and you'll appreciate Gaza's complexity more. My brothers were there a few days ago.

You would have to be senseless (literally and figuratively) not to notice the main news stories in the U.S. and internationally right now.  Various groups are seeking to “break the blockade” of Gaza while oil pours out of a  man-made hole in the Gulf of Mexico.  Within the noise of the propaganda and public relations machinery, individuals and communities respond both predictability and within surprising frameworks.  People take their “preconceived notions” (a phrase I learned from bewildered white Rhodesians in 1978-80) to spin their stories both sincerely and cynically.  Most of us, either directly involved or distant from the actual issues, only have an inkling of what is going on, and even fewer seek to delve deeply and objectively enough into the underlying history and relationships to understand a semblance of the truth.

So goes the story for your own business and the people you hope will do business with you.  You need to crack many barriers to get deep enough into the process to reach the magic “click” of insight and understanding and even hope to change the perceptions of the marketplace towards your business, its relationships and its brand (how others — especially potential and current clients — perceive you and whether that perception matches your own understanding.)

Today, for example, my two brothers are about to discover the Old City of Jerusalem.  If you’ve ever been there, you can appreciate that this part of the universe is both an amazing tourist trap and wildly complex piece of geography and history as Muslims, Jews, Christians and Armenians all claim a portion of the land and all have their own special relationship with it.  More interestingly, things are designed to minimize unpleasant interfaces — Jews wishing to pray at the Wailing Wall should not need to encounter the Muslims heading to the Al As-qua mosque.  Occasionally, however things get tense when bulldozers or perhaps even tourists take a wrong turn.

I’m something of a narrow but deep thinker.  That is, within areas or topics that interest me, I can quickly become an expert.  Ive certainly read more books and had more first-hand experience about construction marketing and with geopolitical issues than most  When I have the fortune to meet with someone who actually knows more about these specialized topics than I do, I can tune my journalistic ear quickly and gain understandings that take me further than most.  (We can add an understanding of Internet fraud and crime to the list — including my latest fight which resulted in a wonderfully blunt yet invisible face-off with a U.S. war vet with a really warped perception of how to make money fast on the Web. I won.)

These skills and traits ultimately led to my career in construction industry publishing and marketing.  And they cause me sometimes to shake my head in frustration about industry practices and perceptions and the sloppy — often incompetent — approach that many architects, engineers, contractors and suppliers have towards media relations and marketing.

Unless you are building stuff in the Mid-East or provide construction products and services for the Gulf Coast, you probably aren’t directly affected by the major news stories today — and some motivational gurus suggest you should simply turn the “news” off to avoid distractions and unnecessary frustration.  But you can look at these issues as opportunities to understand how conflict and communication operate on the world stage and how you can determine where, if you dare, to reach beyond conventional expectations and take a media/marketing risk.  Or how your life (and the perceptions of others to you) can be changed by a few minutes of ill-thought conversation in front of a video camera.

You can learn more if you wish at my Webinar on Wednesday, June 9.

The last time around, the webinar video froze just as we were about to start, so I rescheduled in co-operation with the patient clients who hoped to attend the first webinar.

I won’t promote this event widely — it is mainly intended to deliver the services we had promised originally, but have set things up so you can request to attend if you are interested.  Admission is free for anyone who has advertised in any of our publications in the past year and half-price if you have purchased my book, Construction Marketing Ideas: Practical strategies and resources to attract and retain clients for your architectural, engineering or construction business.  If you invest the $79.00 registration fee, you will receive a free copy of the book.

The service includes one hour of free individual phone consulting after the webinar because, frankly, no one can devise truly effective public relations and media strategies without truly understanding your own business, market and priorities.

Jack Benny

For example, take the “free stuff” arguments described yesterday.  The Reciprocity Principle suggests that generosity results in rewards; give  a little free and gain a lot in return.  Surely, then, some free estimates or preliminary design services “should” help you find new business and attract good-will.  But the evidence observed from consultants such as Michael Stone in Profitable Sales: A Contractor’s Guide is that most contractors gain little from this sort of generosity:  They spin their wheels for price shoppers and idea-stealers and fail to gain enough commitment to justify the effort and time involved.

Sometimes we simply get it wrong.  Conditioned to act the way others behave (another standard of marketing, following the crowd) we do what our competitors do, or what we think is the norm, only to find the efforts are generally wasted.  Take the conventional “ground breaking” news release where a bunch of people stand in front of ceremonial shovels for a grip-and-grin shot.  Yawn.  (But in the real world of new media, these boring shots are actually quite relevant — just make sure everyone you really want to connect with is in the picture, and then publish it in your news release, website, and convince your local publisher to post it as well:  People love to see their name in print.)

But maybe we are right and the other perspective is incorrect.  In my book on construction marketing, I advocate that you consider using supplier-paid co-op advertising, because it is free or nearly free.  However, Adams Hudson debunks that myth in his book:  Contractor Marketing Secrets Your Competition Doesn’t Want You to Know.  He points out that if you use the co-op materials as your primary advertising message, you will be building your supplier’s brand, not your own.

Then last night I turned on the “TV” (my computer) and for an hour watched an old Jack Benny show on a small UHF television station in the Texas Hill Country (where I met the late Walt Hailey in 1995 and learned some of the marketing principles that guide my business today).  As I laughed at some wildly old comedy — the early 60s video portrayed a “prison” in 1985 — the commercial break cut to a local heating contractor who relied on co-op marketing material.  I’m sure the HVAC contractor didn’t expect his ad would “reach” a publisher in Ottawa, Canada.

Is your head spinning now?  Can you even begin to figure out what to do, and what not?  Then, lets get scientific and see if we can find some answers.  But here again, you will discover that physics is something like marketing.  It is, or it isn’t, or it is both, and the truth may depend on where you actually stand.  So, taken in total, we are right, wrong, both or none, and you can believe what you want but if you believe too much you will either become a religious zealot or perhaps head off the deep end.

Seriously, of course, the secret to success is to apply the cumulative knowledge from a variety of places, experiment, test, find a standard that is effective, then consistently and routinely test it against alternatives — always ready for the quantum shift which could change all the rules.  Great stuff lives on, though.  Jack Benny is still funny 50 years later.

And in this free blog I’ve promoted two books  from completely different consultants.  What about my own advice?  Should it be free, or should you buy (sorry, invest in) my book: Construction Marketing Ideas: Practical strategies and resources to attract and retain clients for your architectural, engineering or construction business?

Bobby Darnell, for example, observed in an email:

I have to agree with Vivian…you give away too much!

My degree is a BBA in Finance and one of my investment professors said that ‘Advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.’

I believe you are sitting on top of a marketing revenue goldmine but just need to maybe reconsider how you promote yourself.  Without ANY advertising, except for links on my blog, I sell a program called ‘Building New Business’ levels I, II and III.  I have made over $20,000 in ‘passive’ revenue from this and my entire program is only 65 pages long.  The reason I put ‘passive’ in quotes is that it is an interactive business development solution, meaning, I am on the phone with the client, working with them through the first part of the program.  (The reason for it being ‘interactive’ is (1) I don’t want to just sell a ‘home-study’ course that people will buy and inundate them with stuff so they never complete it and get too busy to return it for their money back.  I want my clients to see results.  The second reason is (2) There is so much that I convey over the phone that prevents them from just copying and giving it away to their friends.

Anyway, we have talked about this some in the past and I would be happy to chat with you some more.  You are an inspiration to me, the reason I began blogging and I believe you just need to think about maybe tilting your head a bit, looking at your business model a little differently and charge more!!

You can also read the comment from Cassandra Pollack:

I received your email 2 days ago, and it piqued my interest. I am planning on bringing up your webinar at our Friday sales meeting. Perhaps other people are interested, but they need to consider it, or need to talk to someone else to get the approval to spend the $. Or, it’s on their to-do list for “sometime before June 1.”

After writing the posting, I reached out for some marketing support and received confirmation that the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) will publicize the event in upcoming newsletters and member communications.

In my limited experience in co-ordinating Webinars for Bill Caswell, we have noticed that about half of the people register ahead of the event and half sign up on the day of the actual Webinar.  This makes sense because most of us don’t want to tie up or commit our resources/time when we know that something might happen at the last minute to derail our plans — and conversely on the day of the event, we may know we have a true block of time available to spend on the project.

Bobby Darnell’s points about fees and individualization touch close to the project’s concept.  The real value of the event for participants will be our one-on-one conversation  to develop a basic media plan and system.   This will be immediately useful.

Years ago, I learned the value of intelligent perseverance for what is really important in life.  Thoughtful effort and “carrying on” is not the same as blindly repeating mistakes hoping somehow things will work out in the end. With media publicity and consulting, you need some luck and inspiration to succeed.  But if you do enough of the right things, in the correct manner, you will likely ultimately hit a marketing home run.

I know of  many stories in this business where architects, engineers and contractors pay $300 or $500 or even $1,000 in publications because of a sales representative’s call.  We sell thousands of dollars of advertising that way each month.  Obviously, I’m happy for this business and we do everything we can to deliver value.  Simply put, we guarantee the effectiveness of our service:  If the ads don’t “work” the advertiser can connect with us for free resources and support to achieve the desired results — that is why I started this blog in the first place close to four years ago.

Few of our advertisers, of course, take advantage of this service which I suppose is good for my sanity and time management.

Last night, just before bed, Vivian gave me a look and said:  “Why are you giving all this stuff away for free?  Your services are worth far more than that?”

In a rare moment of marital stress and discord, I raised my voice and said:  “Just tell me how I’m going to get anyone to pay.”  Here I am, effectively offering a Webinar with one-on-one support for the price of two books (or one, if you are already one of the approximately several dozen people who have so far purchased Construction Marketing Ideas: Practical strategies and resources to attract and retain clients for your architectural, engineering or construction business.)

So far, I admit, I have no orders.  Not even a hint of interest.  In other words, I have what seems to be a marketing flop.  (It’s okay.  While this is stressful at home and to my ego, I haven’t exactly spent $100,000 promoting the event.)

However, maybe you can help me with your thoughts, comments and suggestions.  If you could spend (okay, again, invest) $80 or less and learn how you can get positive stories about your business in local media which could charge you far more than that for a single ineffective ad, why won’t you?

Of course, I may have committed a form of marketing suicide by writing this post.  We all know the human nature story that few of us like to be the first or only ones — we wait for validation from others before saying “yes” and I’ve just given you the perfect reason to say “no”.  Here, I’m experiencing the problem that many of you experience when business seems to dry up and the cone of silence descends.

Nevertheless, I welcome your feedback.  You can use the blog’s comment functions (and be anonymous if you wish) or email me a note to buckshon@cnrgp.com.

Here is  a link to the Webinar/book offer.

P.S.  If you comment below or email me and you can really help me solve this problem, the Webinar and book will be free.  (Just don’t tell my wife.)

You can ask for it as well either by emailing publicity@cnrgp.com or visiting the relevant Publicity Resources page on this website (or clicking on the image here.)