3 Simple Actions Towards Effective Construction Marketing
The construction industry is a complex one with many factors influencing decision making. Whatever your role you need to be familiar with these and their implications if you are to be effective in construction marketing. Here are 3 actions you can take to understand construction markets.
Know how the industry works
To understand why things happen the way they do, you need an industry overview, understand some of the history of how the industry got to where it is today, the different sectors, the influence of government and the role of legislation.
Action: Consider our online learning, the six short modules of Construction Industry Overview provide a good foundation.
Monitor the Forecasts
Forecasts published by organisations like the CPA Experion and Hewes indicate how the different market sectors are trending. You can also get good market information from Barbour ABI and Glenigan who both publish analysis of the new projects underway, providing a fact based view of the next year or so.
Action: The latest industry forecasts have just been published, read these. A summary is provided in our monthly eNews. See our blogs for more information: Forming an informed view of the future market for construction and Why do we need forecasts?
Know the decision making unit
Decisions about construction are rarely made in isolation, with a string of influencers; Architect, Engineer, Quantity Surveyor, Main Contractor, Specialist Contractor to name a few. The use of BIM is encouraging greater collaboration. You need to understand these roles, how they work together and how they can influence decisions of importance to your business. There are numerous research reports which can help you, or consider commissioning your own research.
Action: Stay in touch with the latest research released. Our Knowledge Hub is a good starting point. Competitive Advantage also provides a number of personas to help you profile your target decision makers. Or consider completing tailored research. See our blog for more information: The 5 essential elements of an awesome research brief
In summary
While the construction industry is complex, there is a lot of support available to help you understand it.
Knowing the history of the industry provides a good foundation for understanding the construction supply chain and the Decision Making Unit.
Monitoring construction forecasts and regular reading of trade publications provides an understanding of changes in legislation and influences on product specification.
At Competitive Advantage we try to make this as easy as possible for you and have created a Knowledge Hub which provides Learning Resources, Market Understanding and News & Articles. Topics covered are our key skills of Market Research, Specification Strategy, Communication Strategy, CPD Strategy and Understanding Construction.
