The last two day’s postings here and on the LinkedIn Construction Marketing Ideas Group relating to the initially disappointing and then rewarding response to the publication of the third issue of The Design and Construction Report have shown once again that sometimes marketers can achieve the most effective results by letting people see things which aren’t quite perfect.
Consider these responses:
Chris Malcolm wrote in a comment to Wednesday’s “11,000 to one” posting:
Have enjoyed your blog and look forward to reading your magazine this weekend. In regards to online magazines in general, I think part of the problem is that unless you are constantly on the computer, online publications have still not gained acceptance. Most people I know still get their news from newspapers, their take-out from fliers and their articles from magazines. They will read a story on line if it is offered up in front of them(MSN,Yahoo) and looks interesting. To sit down and read a magazine on their computer, to most of us, is still a bit of a foreign concept.
If one of the articles came into my e-mail from you and I felt it was pertinent, there is no doubt I would spend the 3-4 minutes reading it.
Many online publications probably claim 10,20,50,000 subscribers but probably never publish their “click-through” rate. This is a very brave admission on your part showing:
a) You truly are interested in finding better and more effective ways of marketing your publication, and
b) You understand that by appealling our sense of obligation for recieving this magazine and being “personally” asked to open it you click through rate will go up.
I would be interested to find out the numbers after this weekend.
I guess it is like all great marketing that has worked…changing the buying(nee reading) habits of the public.
That`s it for now…keep up the good work!!
Also, I had an enjoyable email exchange with Cynthia Kemper, principal of Marketekture in Denver, CO, who initially observed:
I just happened across your blog as I was reading other construction-related information and read your candid observations regarding the responses to your blog helpful, to say the least. I am a long-time strategic marketing/management consultant to the AEC industry [with an emphasis on architectural firms] and have been questioning the value of the new media in this sector for some time. When people push it as the latest and greatest new tool, I continue to ask where they have seen results. To date, no one has been able to offer an example of how Linked-in, Facebook, Tweeting, or even blogs have become of interest to principal-level architects, or even the executives within GCs. Thus, your posting was fascinating to me. I’m not convinced that you’ve done anything wrong. Perhaps it’s that this particular sector is so far behind in terms of strategy and marketing that the latest technological approaches may not yet fit current habits or mentalities.
A little on my background – I was schooled as a designer [interiors w/psychology], but after six years into it wanted to be engaged in a broader world so switched into tech. Fell into a marketing position for a small start-up firm that helped launch my career in that sector, then launched my own consulting practice in 1990. After fourteen years focused on tech start-ups and emerging companies, I had a burning desire to get back into the arena I have always loved – architecture and design. So, in 2004, I began focusing exclusively on that sector. It was then that I discovered how far behind these industries are when it comes to business development, marketing and media. And architectural firms in general, don’t really understanding a lot about practice management, human resources, communications, etc. either. Contractors tend to be a bit more savvy, perhaps because they are run like more traditional corporations.
In any event, I just wanted to share that with you. In my experience, the AEC industry is a good decade [or more] behind the average business in terms of knowledge, techniques, methodologies and understanding in these areas. Some more, some less—and the size of the firm makes a huge difference as well—but, techniques that work in consumer goods, or real estate, or financial services, or technology just don’t seem to click with most leaders in the construction and design industries.
I hope that it will change, and soon, but first people have to want to change 
.
I responded:
Thanks for your thoughtful observations.
I agree with you that the AEC industry lags behind others in virtually every aspect of marketing. The focus among practitioners is to either “rely” on repeat or referral business or chase (like lemmings) public bid work, competing in bake-off competitions where the winner is often decided long before things go public (because of those relationships the companies “rely” on.) I put “rely” in quotes because the repeat/referral clients are maintained through a passive rather than creative marketing-focused approach to building value from current and existing business relationships.
The good news is that you don’t really need to be that good at marketing to enjoy top billing within this business. The bad news, as you point out, is that we need to be prepared for quite a lag before anyone seems to notice.d
I can be patient.
Can I have permission to republish your email (with hyperlink to your site)?
Kemper responded with two additional emails. In the first she wrote:
Your thoughts are spot on, in my opinion. When I’ve worked with clients who are willing to get out of the box and try ‘new’ approaches [new to them], they thrive. Other firms attribute theses firms’ resultant success with the press, or market development as ‘luck’, but just can’t allow themselves to believe that there is more to it—or that strategic marketing practices do indeed work.
In any case, I find that having a higher level of experience and expertise can be problematic as it can be intimidating to those who are looking for an easy, inexpensive solution. Why hire someone with a solid, seasoned track record when you can hire a marketing major right out of school?, is how it goes. Fortunately, there are a handful of clients out there who do truly ‘get’ it and are benefiting as a result. But, there is a reason why the architectural profession is starting to lose its status and place in the world and I believe it’s related to our discussion here.
So much opportunity….
In regards to your request, I’m more than happy to have you publish my email to you, but you will have some difficulty linking it to my site as I don’t have a website yet! This may sound a bit unusual in this day, but because I work strictly by referral I have not yet seen a huge need for that level of advertisement. I will get to it eventually, but…. perhaps I’m shy!
I do publish a newsletter for my clients, of sorts [well, it’s more of a commentary actually], but unfortunately you can’t refer anyone to it due to the fact that I don’t have a way for you to link to it! People can ‘subscribe’, however, by just sending me a request via email. I will merely add them to the broadcast list. There is currently no charge.
It would be interesting to discuss my reservations about ‘putting my life and philosophies out there’ with you sometime. I actually prefer more of a stealth approach, but that has its downsides too.
In any event, I did attach a couple of issues for your review.
(She provided samples of some excellently written and presented newsletters.)
In a second email, Kemper observed:
By the way, Mark, if you feel that the second graf in my message to you is necessary to include [it may not be], I would love the opportunity to rewrite it for public consumption. I had intended that only for you, so you could understand a bit about my background, but I underplayed my experience to a great degree – i.e.: my first coast-to-coast press tour was with Microsoft, so I was trained in PR/media relations with the best; I was the international business columnist for The Denver Post, have published more than 50 feature stories in a variety of local, regional, national and international publications, etc.
Didn’t want to sound like I was promoting myself to you, because I wasn’t, but if my background is going to be posted for all to read I’d like to have the chance to add a few sentences .
Thanks for understanding!
Cynthia
Several comments in the LinkedIn Construction Marketing Ideas group are also worth reading but I will let you discover these yourself by either checking into or joining the group because, after all, I’m hoping that more readers here participate. You can find some additional information about the group here. If you haven’t already requested a connection with me on LinkedIn I welcome your inquiry so I can join the group members with more than “500+”first degree connections within the system.
When we read these comments, what can we learn?
Cynthia Kemper, for example, (on the surface) is succeeding despite breaking the rules that I advocate in my Construction Marketing Ideas book. She says she doesn’t advertise publicly at all — she doesn’t even have a website (her email domain links to an advertising-based website outside her control from her domain name registrar, I think). Her decision not to givie priority to Internet-related marketing probably makes sense, based on her perceptions about the decision-making values of her current and potential clients.
Chris Malcolm, meanwhile, reminds us that when we humanize ourselves and explore the story beneath the story, we often achieve the marketing results we are seeking. I think it is important that people want to do business with other people, not impersonal and canned bureaucratic organizations which hide behind walls labeled “systems”, “rules” and “procedures”. (Of course you absolutely need systems, rules and procedures to be successful in business — you just need to design these so they don’t appear to be force-fed on your current and potential clients.)
As an example of successful marketing in practice, Daniel Smith who initially joined this company in response to a LinkedIn posting long before the service became common (we were both early adaptors), wondered if he should attend a press event for a community housing project when the builder had declined previously to do business with us. I suggested he should attend if only to connect and build relationships.
He succeeded. I would like to publish the internal email here but it reports on work-in-progress and I think it is rarely wise to announce specific things prematurely.
The key to all marketing, in my opinion is to set the stage for the relationships built on trust and mutual respect: Then current and potential clients (because of your branding success) are more likely to want to do business with you, resist switching to the competition and — most importantly — you can command a reasonable price for your services. Whether you use online resources or stealth approaches, however, in the end, the quality of your work and the value you deliver to your clients will be more important than any marketing priority, gimmick, or technique.
P.S. If you wish to have a sneak preview of sections of my Construction Marketing Ideas book, you can visit Google Books and browse through the pages here.