Becoming a digital marketer within the construction Industry

It's been 7 months now since I joined Competitive Advantage as a digital marketing apprentice. I’m often asked ‘why did you decide to leave college? Why become an apprentice?’ and the simplest answer was I wanted to experience the real world, work with people whom are both industry experts and able to provide guidance and support.

In September 2015, I secured a placement with Competitive Advantage Consultancy Limited, who specialise in conducting Market Research, within the Construction Industry – I was their new Digital Marketing Apprentice! I have since spent my time reviewing SEO for the company website, writing blogs, recording YouTube videos and maintaining social media accounts to name a few; I’ve loved every moment of it!

How the construction industry is generating leads via social media

Recently I attended a CIMCIG seminar ‘Engage with your customers’. Speakers included Chris Ashworth, Anna Hern, John Hibbitt, Catherine Town, Tim Miller and Will Green whom all shared their digital marketing knowledge. The seminar gave me a real understanding of how digital marketing tools can be used to a company’s advantage.

I particularly enjoyed hearing case studies about how the construction industry is generating leads with social media. Prior to my apprenticeship, I had only ever acknowledged social media platforms as places to socialise and communicate with friends and family.

As part of my apprenticeship training I recently attended a ‘Digital Marketing Masterclass’. On this, I learnt about the many different social media platforms. Facebook is the most commonly used social media platform for business with Twitter and Pinterest following. Facebook is favoured for its ability to refine searches with great detail including age, nationality, gender or interests.

Yet Facebook, within construction is the least frequently used platform, with only 9% of construction professionals using it for work. At the CIMCIG seminar ‘Engage with your customers’ I learnt that LinkedIn is the most used social network for construction professionals. With those aged 36yr - 55yr more active on social media. These figures were quoted by Chris Ashworth, referencing the Construction Media Index.

I also learnt, with the ability to track and monitor IP addresses, companies are now empowered to gain in-depth understanding of the online activity of their customers.

@SuButcher: #CIMCIG 'All the changes marketers make should be to know their customer better and make sure they have a single conversation'

Marketers can monitor the customer journey across social media, website, email etc. This is powerful. This information can be used to inform strategy and importantly demonstrate R.O.I. Marketers now have the tools to clearly demonstrate their worth and show how they are influencing business growth. As Will Green said in his presentation “It is not what is going to change for marketers, it is what marketers are going to change”.

Future developments in digital marketing

Going forward the marketer will have even more analytics available. With Will Green saying predictive analytics will progressively be used. And with this comes the need for future proof teams, with marketers also needing to be data scientists.

‏@EEPaul:  Future roles: heads of marketing automation, data scientists, ecommerce marketing specialists #cimcig

It is an exciting time for marketers, with digital technologies giving greater knowledge. I look forward to seeing how marketing advances, as I advance in my career from being an apprentice to a qualified digital marketer.

If you would like to take a look at the presentations from the latest CIMCIG seminar, you can find them here:

http://sigs.cim.co.uk/media/2507/6-the-road-ahead-for-b2b-marketers.pdf

http://sigs.cim.co.uk/media/2508/5the-website-a-communications-hub.pdf

http://sigs.cim.co.uk/media/2509/1-integrated-communications.pdf

http://sigs.cim.co.uk/media/2510/2-advertising-and-pr.pdf

http://sigs.cim.co.uk/media/2511/4-seo-metrics.pdf

 

Emily Johnson, Digital Marketing Apprentice, Competitive Advantage Consultancy Ltd.

 

Further information:

• Find out about the many benefits of apprenticeship
• National Apprenticeship Week 14 – 16 March
• Find out more about CIMCIG

We would love to hear your story about marketing apprenticeships in construction.