In difficult times, it is very easy to look at cutting back on what might be regarded as non-core expenditure. Training usually stops with marketing, with sales support also being seen as one of the budgets for reduction – this is usually a big mistake!
History shows us that those organisations that maintain or increase their marketing spend are the ones that tend to come out of the economic slowdown with a much stronger position. During the last financial crisis, it was clear that construction product manufacturers had learnt this lesson, and need to apply those learnings to the current climate.
Getting your products and systems in front of those who will specify them is a critical success factor. As an ex-colleague used to say – ‘If you don’t honk your horn, nobody knows you’re there’. In our new homeworking environment, this is no longer about printing more brochures or emailing pdfs, it is about supporting the specifiers with data that they can incorporate seamlessly into their models and specifications.
Here are five reasons why your data should be digital right now:
- Support home working
Design firms have moved quickly adapted to working from home and work on projects continues using collaborative digital environments. One effect of homeworking is the lack of access to physical media on construction products. What the specifiers really need, is access to digital data. If you don’t have this data then you have no access to those remote workers.
- Spend where the product section decisions are made
With £7bn worth of new projects started a month on NBS Chorus (increasing from £2.5bn in October), it has become the place to promote your products. Now is the time to ensure that your product information is available and up to date for those people specifying products on construction projects. Chorus puts your products in front of decision makers, whilst presenting product data alongside the specification, linking to the geometry objects in the NBS National BIM Library.
- Make it easy for the specifier
Like all businesses, the design teams are looking to deliver their projects as efficiently as possible. They do not want to have to wade through reams of paper or pdfs to find that critical information. Make it easy for specifiers to use and find your information, plus find exactly what the specifiers want. Searchable and machine readable data is the way to do this.
- Get the right formats.
The Construction Products Association (CPA) survey stated specifiers are not getting data in the format they want and need. The survey of over 500 people shows the types of format used by manufacturers to distribute their data and the formats wanted by specifiers. Unless you are sending samples, digital is the only answer!
- Get data analytics.
You will most likely be under more pressure than ever to demonstrate ROI on your marketing spend. Clearly all of the digital routes to market will see a significant uplift in usage as we all adapt to distributed working.
There is no doubt that in the current climate, a change is needed to ensure you reach the product specifiers. At NBS, we can help you to get direct access to the customers you need, at the time that they need you.
Our cloud-based platform provides a unique and unparalleled access to over 4,000 specifiers and practices, and can support you in maintaining both product awareness and getting those crucial specifications in the project.
Launching soon, NBS Source combines the best of cloud-based solutions for product manufacturers, and places data at the heart of the NBS Chorus specification platform. No other provider can place your data this way. Contact us to find out more and how we can help you deliver, not only during this period, but permanently.
