Writing creative content for your construction website really pays. In fact, it can be just as effective as paid advertising, says Green Building Store’s Chayley Collis.
Content is an incredibly powerful tool for construction businesses. Telling compelling stories about how you deliver projects and apply your expertise can help you connect with thousands of potential new customers.
If you still need convincing, Chayley Collis’ story should do the trick. She’s Communications Manager for Green Building Store, a company which provides building solutions that help tackle climate change.
The online content that Chayley shares with the world – such as project case studies, blogs and newsletters – brings a significant amount of new traffic to the site, generates new business leads and raises the company’s profile to new heights.
As Good as Paid Advertising
“Our blog in particular, which we write every month, brings a lot of traffic,” said Chayley. “It’s commensurate with any online advertising, which means the content we generate is as good as paid advertising.”
Chayley’s background is in journalism so generating engaging content is in her blood. But the success of Green Building Store’s content strategy is as much about good timing as good content.
“In 2009, the whole of our company went in the direction of Passivhaus and really embraced it,” said Chayley. “We were the first company to bring the products into the UK. It felt very exciting and new – and it was also around the time that blogging was getting popular. So we decided to write our own blog about a project that we were working on then, which became the Denby Dale Passivhaus.”
The Zeitgeist Was Just Right
“I approached BUILDING magazine and, by great good luck, they took up the blog on their website (as ‘The Passivhaus Diaries’). The zeitgeist was just right.”
“Over nine months, we did a blog every two weeks and that gave us the bug for it. It had a big impact on the company. It really helped put us on the map and raised our profile.”
The Green Building Store blog has grown and grown – and fits into a wider content strategy that delivers consistently good results in terms of traffic, new leads and that all important Google ranking.
Social Media Activity
“We do a blog once a month, which is written by one of our directors. This also ties into an emailed newsletter that we do and other activity on social media,” said Chayley. “We’ve got into a pattern with it and our construction blogs are one of the most important things to do marketing-wise.
“We do downloads as well, such as technical briefing papers. Several thousand people have already downloaded them, so it does measurably get people interested in the company.
“We do advertise, but the blog sparks interest and we get a lot of leads from it. We’ve found it really worth doing.”
One of the biggest challenges for businesses generating regular content is keeping their community engaged. So what advice does Chayley have?
“We try to make our content understandable,” she said. “While it can be very technical text, we always make sure it is something that a lay person could also understand – not just a building professional.
Pioneering Projects
“We’re lucky in the fact that the projects we’ve been involved in have been pioneering and challenging so that people are interested in reading about what we do. It’s knowledge based – and there’s always something new to say.”
Chayley is enthusiastic about the incredible power of content marketing for construction companies.
“Writing about our construction projects and sharing that on our website and via social media has brought a new audience to us,” she said. “And it keeps bringing new people to us. It’s how people hear about the company and then gradually get to know about us.
“The key to good content is you need to create a reason for someone to come to you – and make it interesting.”
Chayley’s Tips For Writing Captivating Construction Content:
- Put lots of diagrams and details in, infographics are also great. Don’t be vague – include lots of details.
- Make it easy to read – brevity is really important.
- Your title is something you should think about. Describe what you’re doing, because that’s what gets picked up on social media.
- Make it human. Bring out the personality of whoever’s writing it, not just the technical details.
- Remember that whatever your business does, there’s a lot of knowledge in it. You just need to unlock it. That’s what your audience is looking for.
