9 mistakes marketers should avoid when interviewing architects, engineers and construction pros for thought leadership content

March 10, 2022

So you read our guide on improving your subject-matter-expert interviewing skills and now you think you’re ready to rock your next thought leadership interview. If you follow our advice, you probably are. But even though you know what you should do, you also need to know what you should not do to get the best, juiciest, most innovative ideas and quotes from the architect, engineer or construction pro you’re speaking with.

A good interviewer knows how to get their subject talking without getting in their way. But there’s a lot more to being a good interviewer than just being a good listener. Do you think Oprah showed up to the vineyard to interview Meghan and Harry empty-handed? 

The answer is no: the queen of interviews definitely spent hours with her team arming herself with background information and a hefty list of questions designed to pull out those jaw-dropping soundbites that plastered headlines for weeks afterward.

I can’t teach you to be Oprah, but I can help you optimize your interviewing strategy by avoiding these nine mistakes.

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How to build a following on your law firm’s LinkedIn company page (part 2 of 2)

February 8, 2022
How to build a following on your law firm’s LinkedIn company page (part 2 of 2)

This is the second installment in a two-part series focused on improving engagement for company pages on LinkedIn. Click here to read the first part of the series.

By now, you’ve got a solid understanding of LinkedIn’s picky algorithm and you’re laying the groundwork for a robust employee advocacy plan. But if you want to become a true LinkedIn master, you need to understand how to optimize your content on the platform.

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How to build a following on your law firm’s LinkedIn company page (part 1 of 2)

January 6, 2022
How to build a following on your law firm’s LinkedIn company page (part 1 of 2)

The importance of a strong presence on LinkedIn for law firms can’t be understated. Almost anyone who has a job, is looking for a job, needs to hire someone for a job or is going to school to qualify for a job, is on LinkedIn. The career-oriented social media network boasts more than 774 million members, with over 57 million companies and thousands of job opportunities on every continent — including Antarctica

While LinkedIn is a great place for hiring and job-searching, it’s also a gold mine for law firms and lawyers who are looking to establish themselves as thought leaders and build their brands. According to SalesIntel, LinkedIn is responsible for 80% of all business-to-business (B2B) leads from social media. 

However, organically building a following via a LinkedIn company page isn’t easy. It’s much easier via personal pages, as people want to connect with people, not companies. 

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The importance of email service providers (ESPs): Why you should never send mass emails with Outlook or Gmail

July 8, 2021
The importance of email service providers (ESPs): Why you should never send mass emails with Outlook or Gmail

Email marketing is the most profitable marketing channel, garnering an ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. However, if you try to start a mass marketing email campaign through your Gmail or Outlook account, you’re going to be hampered by send limits and you could even end up having your personal email or your entire organization’s domain blacklisted (more on that in a moment).

So how do firms manage to conduct email marketing campaigns that send hundreds or thousands of emails and still hang on to their online reputation? Email marketing services or email service providers (ESPs) are third-party services that handle mass marketing email sends. ESPs take a number of measures to ensure they remain whitelisted and retain agreements with internet service providers (ISPs) that allow them to send emails in bulk. 

You might be asking yourself, “Why do I need to pay extra to send emails when that’s what I do all day, every day? Why not just send each marketing email individually from my individual email address?”

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Who does what in the newsroom? A guide to media roles

July 13, 2020

Who does what in the newsroom? A guide to media roles

Pitching to the right person at a media outlet can make the difference between having your company make the front page or helplessly watching it slip through the cracks of someone’s inbox. Even small newsrooms exchange thousands of emails every day, and a fraction of the staff is tasked with screening and collecting stories to go to broadcast, print or online. 

You must stand out and connect with the gatekeepers to enjoy the benefits of media coverage.

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A Q&A with Cosential: The CRM made especially for AEC

March 30, 2017

 A Q&A with Cosential: The CRM made especially for AEC

Our team recently had the pleasure of mingling with movers and shakers in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry at the SMPS SunBuilt conference, an annual regional event for AEC marketing and business development professionals.

One of those people was Bobby Hollis, VP of Marketing for Cosential, a CRM and proposal tool for AEC firms. We wanted to pick Bobby’s brain about what the industry-specific CRM means for AEC lead-generation efforts. Luckily, he agreed (without us pinning him down).

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How to get the most bang for your content buck [infographic]

March 16, 2017

When you put blood, sweat and tears (ok, maybe just a lot of strategy, hours and money) into a top-quality piece of thought-leadership content, it deserves a longer shelf life than one round of LinkedIn promotion and a slot in your website “resources” section. Whether you’re an architecture, engineering or construction (AEC) firm or a law firm, long-form content offers like e-books can cost thousands of precious marketing dollars to produce and design, so you need to squeeze out every lead-generation opportunity you can. Top companies know that repurposing content is the smart thing to do — here’s how:

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9 ways AEC firms are missing the mark with content marketing

March 9, 2017

9 ways AEC firms are missing the mark with content marketing

Content marketing isn’t going away anytime soon, especially in B2B markets that have a  lengthy procurement process (*cough cough* AEC).

A recent survey by HubSpot showed the number-one challenge for B2B marketers (with 65 percent of respondents) is generating traffic and leads. That’s because only good content marketing can help. In fact, the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProf’s collaborative research report found that in 2016, 85 percent of companies who reported better content marketing over the last year upped their content creation while 72 percent attributed success to strategy development. There’s hope for you, too.

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Why AEC firms need content marketing [infographic]

February 28, 2017

In the world of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), getting leads isn’t as simple as an a flashy sign near the checkout register. If you’re in the AEC industry, you know better than anyone that B2B clients take their good ol’ time making a hiring hüpfburg mit rutsche kaufen decision — that’s because it’s a big deal. Because buyers these days take their time searching information and educating themselves before talking to your business development team, content marketing is more crucial than ever.

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Robo-content: What humans face in a world run by machines

January 17, 2017

Robo-content: What humans face in a world run by machines

Reputation Ink’s exclusive interview with Carmen Simon, Ph.D. of Memzy

 

They help us find love online, arrive at our destinations without asking strangers, self-diagnose medical symptoms and find the next round of Netflix shows to binge-watch. They are algorithms.

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