Is Your Building Material's Brand Poised to Thrive?

Every day, our lives become more intertwined in a digital world. For more than two decades, the evolution of the internet, e-commerce, mobile devices, and apps have transformed our lives – from how we receive and consume information and entertainment to how we search and buy products.

The building and construction category has certainly not been on the leading edge of this meteoric technological shift, but the COVID pandemic has catapulted the category into a much more digitally dependent environment. Working from home all day, your laptop screen has replaced your meeting conference room. Even the most technology-challenged practitioners have been forced to learn how to consume information via a Zoom call and two monitor screens vs. a face-to-face meeting with a printed document.

At BLD Marketing, we’ve been shifting our building materials clients into a digital-first environment for years, and the recent pandemic has accelerated the process. We’ve now reached the point where a building/construction brand’s success is dramatically dependent on a healthy and thriving digital marketing ecosystem.

What Exactly is a Digital Marketing Ecosystem?

In traditional terms, marketing efforts are engineered to build the prospect funnel – from generating initial brand awareness to providing a customer an opportunity to learn more and eventually believe in the brand enough to make a purchase or specification commitment.

A digital marketing ecosystem is much more than that. Think of it less as a marketing funnel or campaign, and more as a living, breathing environment where the building/construction industry interacts, learns, creates exchanges, and builds relationships.

At BLD Marketing, we define it as a digital marketplace where a brand lives and breathes. It is an interconnected environment with all the brand’s digital assets and activities, reaching and influencing target audiences in a manner that invites a target prospect – like an architect, building owner, contractor or homeowner – to take a journey with the brand. That journey enables a prospect to meet, explore, engage, and ultimately become a customer. And the whole process offers measurability to continually monitor and evaluate each element of the ecosystem, identifying the best opportunities that will generate the greatest return on additional investment.

All the Parts Matter

A well-constructed digital marketing ecosystem for a building materials manufacturer requires careful planning to create a meaningful journey. Along each step of the way, the system qualifies prospects and makes course corrections so the brand identifies and cultivates strong leads that are poised to become customers.

A well-constructed digital ecosystem:

An Investment in Time

Digital marketing ecosystems are journeys unto themselves. Many building materials brands aren’t yet fully realizing their ecosystems’ potential. It does not happen overnight. Building and maintaining a healthy ecosystem is an ongoing process. You have to start somewhere and simply iterate as you go.

You don’t think your website is where it needs to be? Create campaign landing pages while fortifying key website content to find incremental improvement. Don’t have a strong marketing automation platform? Invest first in something simple and begin to activate eMarketing. As you grow and learn, consider an upgrade. Incremental improvement matters, because it is a marathon rather than a sprint.

In today’s marketplace, every brand is defined by their own level of digital maturity. Reorganizing your brand with a digital marketing ecosystem mentality will improve your digital state and take your organization to the next level of engagement.

Time to get started.