Every Construct Marketing client is promotion ready. How?
Mise en place is a term meaning “Put in place.” This term comes from French cooking and refers to the practice of having and keeping necessary items, ingredients, equipment, etc. in the same place – everything is ready to cook. Therefore no time or energy is wasted scrambling to find the “@#$% watermelon ball making thingy.” I do not know the French term for watermelon ball making thingy.
What can we do? What do we need to do it effectively? Are we ready?
Promotional Readiness… Mise en place…
I always ask the client, (Let’s say the date is November 1, 2020), “It’s not November 1, 2020. It’s November 1, 2021 – What are our marketing capabilities? What do we want to do? What can we do? What do we need to do it effectively? Are we ready? i.e., “Promotional Readiness”. Mise en place. On that day we start building a client’s “promotion readiness” to execute better on their objectives. Future business development cycles, to “get our name out there”, or a call to promote a new product or capability will benefit from existing marketing capabilities.
Data
Depending on what campaigns are to be deployed, assessing what the client has in terms of contact data is a good start. The existing contact data from internal company assets can be a good foundation by building on existing relationships. Its a start to reaching the people who already who your company and your people. It’s a good rock to build on – but from there, where?
Assets
Perhaps data can be better organized and utilized for marketing purposes. Is there any CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software? i.e. Salesforce, Daylight, etc. A CRM can centralize your contacts and organize them for segmentation and reach through various marketing channels, especially e-mail. This, in turn, leads to other channels. Thus, data becomes an asset.
Add some press contacts to your CRM. The editors of DFI’s Deep Foundations, ADSC’s Foundation Drilling, PDCA’s Pildriver, PileBuck, Equipment and Contracting, ENR, ENR Regionals, GI’s GeoStrata, Geo-Engineer.org, etc. etc. should all be in your database. Boom! You just amplified your “reach”. (Here’s a good article, “How to Write a Press Release, with Examples.“, from CBS News.) (The Press Release should be in your promotional toolbox but I digress – and I just came up with my next article subject!)
What is in place to convert website visitors, social media followers, into customers? What is in place to transition engaged followers, e-mail subscribers, audience reach, conversions, etc? Email sign up lists, landing pages, optimized websites all combine to build up the promotional readiness to be there when you need it.
Your biggest asset, your brand, should be mentioned here. When it’s time to promote, or rather, when you do promote, and the interested would-be customers “visit”, does your organization’s brand inspire interest, create confidence, and appear ready to deliver professionally? Get it ready, get it tight!
Relationships
Above we mentioned construction industry publications editors – add construction association leadership too. All these relationships matter when the business development push comes, and something you need to say needs to be heard. Each relationship in each of your team’s contact list matters as well. (Hence the CRM suggestion to treat them as assets, centralize, and organize them… CRM – hint, hint. Wink, wink.)
Partners… Printers, designers, photographers (internal and external), videographers (ibid), web developers and SEO specialists, social media managers, etc. will be an enormous advantage to your efforts. If your company’s marketing has a vision, they can share the vision. The value of trusted partners here is inestimable.
Stakeholders… This will all be for naught if your employees think of the above as ancillary. Communicating the importance of promotional preparedness as a company-wide priority is essential. Therefore, until it becomes a part of the company culture, it bears repeating. It is the difference between an organization that has an effective business development engine and a company that just “does some marketing.”
Data, assets, and relationships are the foundation of your organization’s marketing and ability to promote effectively. Construct your company’s promotional preparedness. Then, with your data, assets, and relationships in place, you can start to really build something.