Ep 61: End of year roundup
Welcome to the seasonal round up of the Built Environment Marketing Show.
Today’s episode features Ellie Sharpe, the Marketing and Business Development Director at Perkins+Will. Ellie had an interesting start in architecture marketing as her previous career was as a professional ballerina.
Today is my special end of year episode so you'll get:
My podcast stats in numbers
A whistle-stop tour of the key themes and discussions from my episodes this year
A look forward to what's in store for '24
And some of the Bloopers from this season.
Thanks to all my listeners and guests who have supported the show this year.
Episodes
Ep 60: From ballerina to architecture marketing with Ellie Sharpe
Ep 59: How to master LinkedIn as marketers
Ep 58: Growing and marketing your profile online with Chris Simmons
Ep 57: Top five marketing mistakes firms make, Ayo Abbas and Stephen Drew
Ep 56: Demonstrating the value of marketing with Rachel Davies, Hoare Lea, part II
Ep 55: Content, Climate and Thought leadership with Rachel Davies, Hoare Lea
Ep 54: B2B Content creation: Avoiding overwhelm and getting strategic
Ep 53: Growing an architectural firm with Andy Matthews, Andy Matthews Studio
EP 52: Boring, boring, boring: how to inject creativity into your marketing
EP 51: Property, pavilions and partnerships with Andrew Foord, JLL
Ep 50: Repurposing and making the most of content with Stacey Meadwell, Susie Lober and Ayo Abbas
Ep 49: Getting the most out of events with Nathan Spencer, Karen Willey and Ayo Abbas
Ep 48: The changing social media landscape with Ayo Abbas
Ep 47: Marketing to help make the world a better place with Tristram Carfrae, Arup
Ep 46: Brand It's Personal, Dominique Staindl, Christopher Moore & Ayo Abbas
Ep 45: A concrete approach to TikTok with Andrew Athias
Ep 44: ChatGPT and AI: A big opportunity?
Resources and links
How to tell stories to get better clients webinar - Architizer Future Fest
About the show
The Built Environment Marketing Show is a podcast for architects, engineers and marketers who want to do better marketing make sure you check out our sizable back catolgue of interviews and solo episodes if you're facing a marketing challenge.
Ways you can support this show
If you like this show don’t forget that you can help me to spread the word by:
Donate to help cover the costs for making this show
Sharing about the show on socials
Or telling a friend about the show who you think will benefit.
More podcasts.
Transcript
Ayo Abbas 00:05
Hello and welcome to the last episode of the year of The Built Environment Marketing Show hosted by me Ayo Abbas. I'm a digitally-led marketing consultant, content creator, speaker and trainer and I run my own consultancy called abbas marketing who specialises in working with built environment firms, just like yours. I set up this podcast in July of 2020, during lockdown one, to throw a spotlight on some of the best marketing that I think happens in built environment firms. And basically to share the love. One of the things I really want people to know is that you don't have to spend a fortune to get good results. When it comes to marketing. There are so many tools coming on stream. And really, it's about having good ideas and knowing how to implement and execute them really, really well. So that's one of the reasons that I really want this show to continue because a) I enjoy making it but also, I think it's really good to share best practice amongst firms. Today's episode will be a bit different than normal. I'll be looking back on the podcast in numbers, sharing some of the standout moments from my guests this year. And also some bloopers right at the end, the built environment marketing show in numbers. It's been a busy year for the show this year, I've started to do more solo episodes, to mix things up a bit, and also still continuing with interviewing guests. And I've even gone out and met a few people in person to record which has been really exciting too. So the podcast in numbers, I've released 16 episodes, there have been two and a half 1000 downloads. I've had 14 guests come on to the show. Thank you so much. I've also had a total downloads for the show over the three years of 11,500 And my top episode was the interview with Tristan Carfrae from Arup.
Ayo Abbas 01:47
I'd love to know what your favourite episode was or what guests you enjoyed listening to the most or even learnt from the most. So do get in touch with me at ayo@abbasmarketing.com and tell me what you think of the show and your ideas and topics that I should cover next year.
Ayo Abbas 02:03
2023 key themes and discussions: AI language learning models and chatGPT. 2023 has been the year of AI and the mainstreaming of LLMs where actually they've been around for a while but with the launch of ChatGPT they've really, really raised to the fore. So everyone's been talking about them. And also they impact business as well as marketing. Let's start off with a clip from Episode 44, where I talk about ChatGPT.
Ayo Abbas 02:35
So when you start to think about ChatGPT and AI, you can either see it as a threat and what I know right away and just put your head in the sand, and just say "it's not happening, it's rubbish, you'll always need to pay us", OR you can kind of sit there and say, What can these tools take away from me? that is mundane?, that is repetitive? and that is a baseline thing that I don't need to be doing. I mean, for me, I'm a senior level marketer have 21 years experience, there's a lot of base level stuff that a machine could actually do, and get me to where I need. And then I can focus on the strategy and the ideas and then kind of bringing things together in a kind of novel way, which is actually where I add value to my clients, and focus on those efforts, and then use my resources there. And I think that's what we've all got to do, we've got to understand, I guess where the tools can really take the strain, and where we as humans can really add value. And that is the real opportunity. That is where we can really show our value as specialists, our value as marketers, and we can kind of streamline processes and make them way more efficient. And just get better at what we do. So I personally see them as an opportunity for marketers. If you're interested in marketing tools, do check out the 12 days of Christmas download on my website, which is www.abbasmarketing.com/resources. I'll share a link in the show notes too, it's got a lot of great info about the tools that we use to run our businesses and marketing firms.
Ayo Abbas 04:02
Storytelling and content. I'm a huge fan of storytelling. And I even got to run a session on it as part of Architizer Future Fest in September. I'll share a link in the shownotes. If you want to watch the replay. There's been a huge shift towards storytelling and humanising marketing. As I shared in Episode 57.
Ayo Abbas 04:22
For me, it's about kind of storytelling. So understanding, you know, what it is about you or what it is about that visual that you're trying to communicate? And also understanding who it is for? Who's your target audience, what they need to know about it, what things What messages do you need to convey to them, and really just breaking it down in that way. And then that's what your narrative is, and you can build out your story. And I think it's just understanding that really, and then finding ways to tell that story and what the language and tone of voice that you want to use. And that will work with that audience. So it's all about that audience. How do you communicate with them in a language that they will understand? Yeah, rather than you, which is the hardest part, and now on to a master visual storyteller, and that's got to be Chris Simmons from Episode 58, talking all about what he does on Instagram.
Chris Simmons 05:12
There's still that sort of subset of architects which are, you know, it navel gazing type, you know big language and misunderstood geniuses and artists and stuff. And I think if the one thing I can do with with some of my work is to kind of get away from that idea, and just show that they're all just normal people trying to do good jobs and help things, and, you know, but there are lots of people doing good things about that, you know, there are a growing amount of architects that are a lot more open on social media. And I think that is kind of one of the kind of joys of the social media side of things is that things are shown a lot more like just being able to see behind the scenes and how things are actually put together. And a lot of the mystery is kind of taken out of it. And it's, you know, there isn't this kind of gatekeeping thing of, you can't see behind the curtain, because then we won't be able to charge you money for it. It's, it's more like we're going to share how we work and why we're special and why we're good at what we do. And you can be involved in the journey.
Ayo Abbas 06:18
And in the final clips of this section, we hear from Ellie Sharpe, Andy Matthews talking about the need to keep things real and be human.
Ellie Sharpe 06:26
People aren't necessarily looking on websites anymore, they're looking on Instagram, they want to see the real story, who the people are, what we're profiling, not just a tonne of projects. And I think that's a big shift. You know, in terms of the way if people want to work for purpose driven brands, don't they?
Andy Matthews 06:40
The human, I think is probably the key thing. I think a lot of a lot of people just cover themselves up in this very professional wrapper. And they don't actually get to that human aspects which people do actually really engage with, maybe have other channels for that. Yeah. I think two more points maybe is that just in terms of social media, I think it's not just a one way thing, you need to engage with people and talk to people. And if someone's got a heart eyes emoji on your thing, and that you can do is like it reply back with a wavey to be hands emoji. But you know what I mean, it's not, it's not just a one way thing, but you know, and comment on other people's things and, and celebrate other people's work.
Ayo Abbas 07:19
Thought Leadership and content. Thought leadership and content is a massive area where built environment firms can really stand out from the competition, and make the most of the amazing people that they employ. Let's start with Rachel Davis, from Hoare Lea from Episode 55.
Rachel Davies 07:36
We lead our marketing really with thought leadership. And we do that for a couple of reasons. The first one is actually the importance of thought leadership internally. Because you have to bring together the experts who are talking about a subject matter. And you have to get some consensus around that you have to get them to focus what you know, what are we going to go out and talk about what are the challenges in this sector or, or whatever the scenario is. And so you have to, you're already bringing that different way of thinking internally in amongst your engineers and specialists. Because we're not all just engineers here. But you know, so you're bringing their technical expertise together to discuss a bigger problem. So that's really valuable in itself.
Ayo Abbas 08:25
And then let's head on to Episode 59, with my friend and content collaborator, Stacy Meadwell, where she shares her ways to find your expertise in your content,
Stacey Meadwell 08:37
When working in sort of marketing and communications, think of stuff that you know, that you've seen that you really liked, or maybe fails. I mean, a brilliant example of this was the, I forget her name, the Education Minister, who really messed up in a press interview, left on my left on mine. It was really recently and she left her mic on and got off and got a little bit squarey, which wasn't good. And I saw somebody I sort of saw, you know, a PR that I know, share that and just share a few thoughts on sort of the mistakes that she'd made. You know, it's about sharing your expertise, which is a bit different to sharing what your company is, is doing. So, yeah, if you've if you've observed something you've seen a bit of good marketing or you know, I mean, it depends on whether whether you want to go down the route of trashing, trashing other things other people have done and that's can be a little bit a little bit risky.
Ayo Abbas 09:42
Measurement and return on investment (ROI). Measurement is something I want to do more of next year because you know what, being able to track customer journeys back to marketing campaigns and actual real business results, is really the holy grail of marketing and it's something we've all got to be chasing. Anyway, to start with this segment, I'm going to kick off with Andrew Athias from Silvi Materials, and then head on to Tristian Carfrae from Arup, talking about how LinkedIn is helping him in his role. And Andrew is actually talking about TikTok.
Andrew Athias 10:12
My manager, and you know, the CEO and President like to look at follower numbers, because that's the only way they understand success, right. But we've grown pretty much by 1,000%, like our TikTok channel went from zero to now I think we're at like, 11,000 followers, you know, but TikTok is one of those platforms where the number of followers don't matter, because you can just go, you can still get millions of views on a video with, you know, without having millions of followers. So, you know, we've hit a couple of videos that have hit, you know, 500,000 views, a million views. And in that range, so we've, we've, we've done very well, in that sense. But same thing on Instagram, you know, we're about to cross the 10,000 follower mark, we've had videos that hit 6 million views, I think is our most successful video. So we're really growing to a point where now my manager is getting more ideas on the type of content that we want to put on different platforms. And even better, we're starting to think of hiring more help to make the content that we want to put on these platforms, we're really starting to become a media company in the way that we're thinking. Yes.
Tristram Carfrae 11:28
I don't know. Actually, Ayo, I don't know directly. I'm not very good on the metric. But it brings people like you who are interested. It brings brings sideways correspondence, I get quite a lot of LinkedIn messages from people who are interested and want to know about it more. It brings people who are interested in know about more about Arup, it brings people who want to join us. So it brings lots, lots of different domains, I wouldn't there's no killer answer, I think is what I'm trying to say. But I think what I'm hoping, and I actually I probably do believe that, you know, if most of Arup were doing similarly, it will increase our, our impact considerably, I think in a broad based way.
Ayo Abbas 12:10
Digital marketing. I love digital marketing. And I don't think many built environment firms actually do it very well, there is a lot of room for us to make more impact and boost our results, both online and offline. So in this section, we're going to cover of digital marketing. And I'll start, of course, on my favourite channel, LinkedIn, with a few thoughts from me, and also from Chris Moore from Price and Myers.
Ayo Abbas 12:35
So if I post something as Ayo rather than as Abbas marketing, it's more, it's gonna get much more traction. And I think that's where company pages and stuff on LinkedIn aren't necessarily doing the right stuff, because in some ways posted on your company page may actually be secondary, in some ways, what you might want to do is actually have different variations and encourage your people to actually be posting themselves directly, but you give them the tools to do it, and to tailor in their own way. And they take your company, because actually, you get far more reach and reach far more people. And also having their opinions helps your company page anyway. So it's kind of like looking at it in that kind of way of actually, how do you make it more valuable.
Chris Moore 13:15
We had a partner, Tim Lucas, who's an engineer who, who you may know, and really clever guy, and he he literally, he's like his first Instagram post, you don't know us, sorry, LinkedIn, he'd only use LinkedIn just to sort of keep up with what's going on. And then you put a post up about a structure that he had repurposed and put in his kids primary school as a play climbing frame and my god if it didn't get 1000s, and 1000s of likes, and I'm kind of like, that was a little bit of a bing moment. For me, it's kind of like oh crap, we gotta get, we gotta get better at this don't way.
Ayo Abbas 13:47
The digital platforms are always changing, so it can be hard to keep up. In the next couple of clips, we get some sage advice from Stephen Drew, and also from Chris Simmons, talking about how to keep up and stay up to date with their social channels.
Stephen Drew 14:00
When the algorithm changes on platforms, don't feel too emotionally attached to them for some people, like Oh, Instagrams, my baby, and I'm like, You know what, you've got to just move on. I mean, the architecture community forum was big in 2021 of the pandemic Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. Yeah. However, less people use it right now. And that's okay. But in my business, then I pivot towards the podcast, the live streams, the polls where people's going and, and it's not a loss, you've got to move with things. You can't just stay attached to Instagram, because they will change the algorithms and all that stuff. And you and also, don't just go on one platform, because you might, you know, you're putting all your eggs in one basket.
Chris Simmons 14:41
You see a lot of architectural content on Instagram, which is nice pictures of nice buildings and that's great. And I think that would have worked a while ago on Instagram for me, you know, back in the days when we were all impressed by a still image but putting a couple of still images into a video, I don't think is quite going to crack it these days, even if you put into one of these cool tunes that all the kids are using.
Ayo Abbas 15:08
Then on to Andrew Athias from Silvi Materials, he shared how he's concrete firm blew up on TikTok.
Andrew Athias 15:15
I see the same mistake all the time where it's like some head of sales person. Yeah, yeah, some head of salesperson who has no idea how to actually make video, or edit a video to try to make content, right, because they don't have the eye for it, I give them credit for trying but like, if you want to have a good mechanic, you need to hire a mechanic. Right? If you want to have a good driver, you need to hire a good driver. If you want to drive good on Tiktok need to hire someone who's good at Tiktok. Alright, it's no different. You know, you don't want me driving the trucks. So let me just say that right? So definitely. Right. So you want to make sure you're putting the right people, you know, into these positions,
Ayo Abbas 15:59
Event networking, and BD. Events and in person marketing and business development, definitely, we're back in 2023. I did an episode with Nathan Spencer and Karen Willie about events and business development, which was jam packed for tips. So let's get started with a tip from Nathan and Karen.
Nathan Spencer 16:19
I suppose a lot of it is that pre planned activity. So working with those to make sure that we're putting X, Y and Z in a room with you, without being pre it's a little bit more difficult to then do it at the event, if you've prepared and know what you're doing. And we've already set up those meetings or set up the content that's required, it's a little bit easier. But then certainly I will be bringing down both a diverse group of individuals to the to the conference. That means that from our side, in particular, those people are always attracted to different things, and the outcomes will be much better and much stronger.
Karen Willey 16:54
You need to ditch the pitch, you need to be yourself, you need to have fun. And you need to talk to people and make some genuine connections. And I think that's really, really that's some of the things that we always talk about, you're not, you're not there to sell, you're there to start to build relationships, business to business essentially, is now I think that's the terminology, people to people. And actually what you're trying to do is move relationships on and create new ones and cement ones that you've maybe had for a long time. And that's the way to think about business development. Yes, there will be opportunities that will come out of those relationships, but focus on the relationship that you want with that person, if you're enjoying yourself with someone and you get along with them. And you know what, just go with the flow, because that will stand you in so much better stead in the future.
Ayo Abbas 17:39
And I'll leave the final words in this section to Andy Matthews from Episode 53.
Andy Matthews 17:43
I think there's so many awkward events, I think not understanding what networking is when you start out is quite, quite interesting. You kind of always look for the clients, but actually, it's just about talking to people. And yeah, it's quite hard to track that return. But you just more people you talk to you and the more people you engage with, the better it is. But yeah, the cold, the cold conversations are the hardest.
Ayo Abbas 18:05
And finally, as it's COP this month, I thought I would leave the closing comment to Tristan Caffrey from Arup in Episode 47.
Tristram Carfrae 18:14
If we want to really pursue sustainable development and help make the world a better place, then you have to engage with everybody around you, you have to get everybody on board the bus, if you like. And therefore you have to be positively influential talking about it, you know, selling your message and getting getting collective agreement and buying.
Ayo Abbas 18:33
So what's happening to the show in 2024? Well, in 2024, I've got more in person interviews lined up, I've already got a deep dive into AI set up for the end of January and I'll be travelling up to leeds to go to UKREIF again, so there's lots to look forward to. In terms of my business about marketing, I'll be doing more speaking and training for built environment firms. So if that's of interest to you do drop me a line. And I'll also be delivering more digitally led marketing campaigns to drive real business results in again get in touch if you want to talk about that. So just leads me to say thanks so much to all of my guests, all of my listeners and my VA Erin buck and my editor James Eddie, you helped me put all of this together and the show will be back at the end of January early February See you then and have a great Christmas.
Ayo Abbas 19:25
Was it easier being like because you're in property week like you know people want to speak to you
Stacey Meadwell 19:31
Estate Gazette I would say rather than rather than property week
Ayo Abbas 19:38
Ayo Abbas market...Mark..marketing consultant...marketing consultant or feel free to drop me an email at Ayo@abass...bus and how to break out of the boring and mix things up a bit.
Stacey Meadwell 19:53
And you said and and now I've got to say and and it sounds a bit weird. Oh for gods sake!! there is an and there, and an and there, but it's too it's too many hands in a row, sounds weird, sorry. I'm editing, I'm editing. Okay, one more time. We've got it
Ayo Abbas 20:17
Thanks so much for listening to the built environment marketing show. Don't forget to check out the show notes which will have useful links and resources connected to this episode. You can find that on abassmarketing.com. And of course if you liked the show, please do share it with others on social as it helps more people to find us. See you soon.
