Marketing notes for built environment firms
For the people who run and market built environment businesses. Written in your language, not marketing's.
Marketing writing for the people who run and market in the built environment businesses. Plain language, named examples, no guff. Most marketing advice for this sector is written by agencies selling agency services, or by people who've never sat through a tender debrief. This is the other kind.
The 3.3% trap
The CPA says construction output will fall 3.3% this year. That average hides a market splitting hard by sector, and treating it as one number is how firms cut marketing at exactly the wrong moment.
What a fractional marketing director actually does
Most mid-sized B2B businesses don't have a marketing problem. They have a marketing leadership problem. Here's what a fractional marketing director does about it.
AI won't win your work. But it's already in the room.
Your buyers are already using AI to judge your AEC firm. Here's where to start with it safely, where it fails, and the mistake that quietly costs work.
The relationship has a shelf life
Relationships still win the work. But the person who knew you has moved on, their firm's been acquired, and the new buyer looked you up before you knew they existed. What holds the pipeline up now?
Busy doing marketing, or actually winning work?
Website refresh, a stand at the show, someone posting on LinkedIn. Plenty of activity. But could you say what it's all for, which work it's meant to win, or whether last year's version worked? That's the line between a plan and a strategy.
Best sellers need support too
In most AEC firms the people who win the work are the same people who do it. That's the right model. The mistake is handing them the whole job - the materials, the meetings, the follow-up - and then wondering why your most expensive people are stretched thin and good relationships keep going cold.