The latest issue of the Construction Marketing Ideas newsletter should reach a few thousand readers this morning. I write blog entries every day, and in a few weeks, will publish my first book: Construction Marketing Ideas: Practical Strategies and Resources to Attract and Retain Clients for your Architectural, Engineering or Construction Business.
Why all this writing?
The motivation relates to marketing principals; writing can be one of the most effective methods of building your reputation and brand, especially if you provide a professional or technical service. As readers grow to know and trust you, they are more inclined to do business with you. Writing leads to other communication, including speaking engagements, enhanced Internet presence (search engines like lots of original material) and confidence.
Of course, it helps (for me) that I’ve been a writer and journalist all my adult life — this stuff comes naturally to me and I enjoy it. One basic rule of success in any endeavor is to work at things you enjoy, which you do exceptionally well.
So, if you aren’t a writer at heart, should you write?
The answer is probably “yes” if your budget is high enough to afford a ghost writer or support person to help out — but you can keep the costs for these services low by working with journalism students or even online sources such as elance.com. Systematic and planned writing and blogging will certainly be less expensive than much conventional paid advertising. Note that you cannot simply delegate the writing to your “ghost” and forget about it. Your thoughts need to come through and be expressed in the communications — you really need to be involved in the process to achieve success.
P.S. You can help out with the voting for the cover of the new Construction Marketing Ideas book — the survey will only take a second to complete. Some readers have told me they have been unable to vote online because the survey software thinks they’ve voted before, perhaps for another Construction Marketing Ideas survey. If that happens, you can simply email me at buckshon@cnrgp.com with your vote A to E. Thanks!
