Ep 43: End of the year marketing roundup and look to '23

MarketingBuilt environmentEngineering
Written By Ayo Abbas
 
 

In this episode, I share:

  • the marketing trends I think we should be paying attention to in '23 

  • share some of the best clips and advice from my interviews in 2022

  • talk about what's next for this show in 23.

  • the funniest blooper from all the interviews this year

 

About the show

The Built Environment Marketing Show is a podcast for architects, engineers, marketers and anyone interested in all things built environment and marketing related. The show is hosted by marketing consultant Ayo Abbas from Abbas Marketing.  The consultancy bridges the gap between business strategy and tactical marketing for engineers and architects.

 

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Transcript.

Ayo Abbas 00:05

Hello, and welcome to the latest episode of The Built Environment Marketing Show. And I am still your host Ayo Abbas from Abbas Marketing. It's snowing outside, and we're hurtling towards the end of the year. So this is my final reflection on '22, looking to 23 episode, and also showing some of my best bits. So we're gonna start off looking at the podcasting numbers, then some of the trends that I think are coming out marketing wise that we should all be keeping an eye on in 23. And also then I'll just highlight some of my favourite clips from the episodes this year. And then finally, I'll probably finish on the ultimate blooper that I did in episode 31 with Julia Nicholls and Dominique Staindl. So kicking things off, here we go, similar to Spotify Unwrapped, but more comprehensive, as I will include stats from Apple, and Buzzsprout, who host my podcast. So podcast in numbers. I published 14 new episodes this year, totally new ones, totally new interviews or me talking. So yeah, there's a lot of content out there this year, and a lot of new topics and a lot of great new people who I get to meet as well. So that was a lot of fun to do. And there was 1500 downloads this year, which is great. So if you want to keep sharing the podcast, downloading, listening, sharing, and it was always appreciated, because it'd be lovely to hit 2000 next year, that's for sure. And my most popular place for people to listen was Apple podcasts, still, Apple tend to dominate the podcast charts anyway, in terms of where people listen. So, that's not surprising. And in terms of my listens, actually, then it's Buzzsprout because that's who hosts the podcast, which is the place which features the players on my website, and then Spotify. The top episode for me was the interview with Julia and Dominique Staindl, which had 172 downloads. And then it was followed by the interview that I did with Chris Moore. And then finally, it was followed by the interview that I did, looking at tone of voice with Juliette, Simon and Darren. So those are my top three episodes for the year. And now moving on. Predictions. So what do I think's gonna happen in 23? Where is my crystal ball? AI, stroke, machine learning, or stroke, all of that stuff? Well, to me, I guess in a marketing context, we're talking about things like chatbots, we're also talking about tools that write content, there is loads and loads and loads happening in this space. And also, even in design space in terms of AI and machine learning. I know I've got a few proptech clients who are working in this field and it's fascinating. Anyway, in a marketing context, I have to say that there are more and more tools coming out like Jasper.ai, things like that new ChatGPT, which everyone is talking about on LinkedIn at the moment. So there's a lot going on in terms of these tools that make it easier to write content, develop content, and push out that marketing Evergreen basic stuff that we need. I can't say that those, it's as good as hiring someb ody, of course, but actually, they do quite, some of them are now quite getting quite good and to do a good level, base level job for you. So it's definitely worth tracking AI in terms of marketing. And I guess the newer tools that are coming out and the existing tools that are actually improving what they're doing. So, I definitely want to track for 22 / 23 even. My next kind of prediction is the rise of martech, marketing technology, I think it's here to stay. And we've all got to kind of understand the tools and how to get the most out of them, and how they can support us as marketers. At the moment, I'm actually doing a 12 days of martech on LinkedIn, with Simon Marshall, where we are both sharing some of the tools that we use to get our marketing done for ourselves and also for our agencies. That's a topic and a theme that isn't going away. So next year, I will be doing some more lives around marketing technology. And I guess how we can harness it as marketers to work better and more efficiently. I mean, those are the watchwords of the day, dare I say? So yeah, the rise of martech. That's definitely one prediction that I think is gonna keep on going. The next thing I was talking about is actually repurposing and that whole thing about content distribution. I mean, there are actually firms now that you have full time roles will be able to repurpose and distribute content. And I think this is a trend that is going to keep growing and growing. Because to be honest, it takes a long time to make a good piece of content. And once you have made it, how do you maximise it? How do you get the most value out of it? How do you make sure that your target audience see it could be little things whereby you've got your top 150 clients in LinkedIn, potentially for ads and they're already there. And actually what you do is you make sure that you boost that post to those 150 target accounts. So it's things like that just leverage leveraging what you do and being smart and making sure that your content gets into the hands of the people that you want it to. So I think that's something that will be definitely more prominent next year. I also think there is a rise in terms of the importance of your own owned channels. So I think it's those types of channels that aren't, I guess, in the hands of someone else, someone else. I mean, if you look at social media, what's happening at Twitter at the moment of Elon Musk, you know, you are sitting there going, actually, I have no control over these social media platforms, they're free to play, which means that I'm in the hands of somebody else. So I think channels that you can actually own or you own the data, and you actually own, I guess, what you put out and how you communicate with people, and who is likely to see it, they're going to rise in importance. So for me, it's things like emails, and websites, so pay more attention to those stock items that are yours to own. And that you can actually kind of push out in the way that you want. I think something we still can't ignore, of course, is going to be sustainability, climate change, as the impacts of what's going on around here get more and more severe, we all have to kind of understand how we factor that into our actual marketing, and how we listen and how we perform as marketers, and the role that we play in terms of, you know, purpose, and growth and all those types of thorny issues that we actually can actually have a huge influence on. So those are my kind of key predictions and trends for '23 lets see if they do pan out. And now let's go over to episodes and look at some of my favourites from the past year. I can't select everything. So this is a bit of a snapshot. So thanks to everybody who came onto the show, and everybody who listened as well, because it's really appreciated, I know that you all give up your time. And it's really lovely that you actually want to come on the show, and also that people actually want to listen, just lovely. So the season for me kicked off with a threee part marketing models mini series, I guess it was my way of saying to people that you don't have to always employ somebody in house, or necessarily work with an agency that's going to charge you £10k per month, even though people do. And I wanted to showcase that there are other ways of getting your marketing done, and some of the more innovative ways of doing so. So I kicked off this season, looking at groups and online programmes with Nikita Morell, and Sara Kolata. Here's a clip from Sara talking about the architecture industry not necessarily being ready for us,

Sara Kolata 07:33

I find that the architecture industry is not quite ready to adapt into these particular methods of digital transformation. And I find that it takes a huge level of education around what I'm doing and the products that it provides to convince architects that this is a good idea. And I think that that really shows to like speaks to the fact that we're very traditional industry. And we are very stuck in our old ways. And historically with like, actually, for us marketing was even illegal. We're not supposed to be doing marketing for architecture practices. And I think that a lot of people are like, Oh, why you know, what's really the benefit here of this, but the benefit is tremendous. And I think that it really solves the problems of many architects which has to do with you know, getting the right clients and landing the right projects and actually moving your business in the in the direction of where you want to go rather than just sort of being taken on the journey.

Ayo Abbas 08:30

And then the other two episodes covered consultants with Julia Nicholls and Dominique Staindl. And also collectives are Tanisha Raffiuddin and Luke Neve.

Julia Nicholls 08:41

One studio I worked with was being stretched too thin, really, they were trying to do everything they needed to really recalibrate and ensure that they were focusing their limited time and effort on the audience's that were most important to them, and you know, where they wanted to grow their business. So we worked together, we established a voice for them that had a really distinct character, we created a timeline for communication, so it didn't feel overwhelming to them. And we agreed some core messages that would be a thread in their work and would connect them with the type of clients they wanted to work with. And, you know, seeing them since and, you know, we have check ins they've said it's really transformed, not just their communications, but the way they run their business because they have a much clearer focus of where to invest their energy and also importantly, when to say no to this, you know, on their path, and just don't waste your time that

Dominique Staindl 09:33

the whole point of us and what we do is to enhance your business decisions. There's no point in this just, you've got to have a business plan. You've got to have an audience in mind. You've got to have sectors you want to work with or a sort of calibre of how you want to work or where you want to work. Otherwise, we're just guessing, with some of the clients I work with, I do just guess based on their like, listen, just do it and we'll come to you with a business plan. And I'm like, okay, you know, because I can do that, and that's fine, you know, sort of self autonomous, and, you know, the, the practice, and studio itself is just rolling along. So it's great, but I was gonna say, for me, it's work with someone you can build a relationship with, because there's so much efficiency with that, you know, instead of writing, sort of, I was gonna say, ass covering, but I'll say accountability, covering emails, you know, you can pick up the phone and have a really great friendly chat on a Monday morning and just bash out a few things that need clearing, and then you've got the week, and you can just absolutely, all these things you want to get done for them.

Ayo Abbas 10:44

And I guess one of the things about these past two episodes was actually looking at them and thinking, we're all consultants. But we all work in a slightly different way. And we bring something different to in terms of marketing and communications experience. And I guess approaches in terms of what we do. So I think the whole series was really good to do, but also, it showed what each model is, how to use it, but most importantly, how to get the most out of it. And I hope that it kind of opened your eyes to different ways to get your marketing done. If you do have any questions or feedback on these episodes, please, please, please just drop me a line because I'd love to hear it. And to end this kind of marketing models miniseries, here's the thing for a quote from Tanisha, which I think kind of sums it up really about marketing very much being a two way process.

Tanisha Rueffidin 11:30

So realising that this is going to be a two way process, that you as a client have to invest your own time, and you have to be committed to the process. And that you have a fair a realistic budget realistic goals, realistic timeline, will just get you to where you need to go faster, in a more efficient way. And you will see the ROI because everyone's like, Oh, I don't see the value in this, I don't see the value in branding, I don't see the value in marketing. And if you are that person who doesn't see the value in branding marketing, then it's not my job to convince you, come to me when you are aware of the value of the branding and marketing. And then let's have a conversation.

Ayo Abbas 12:11

And now let's move on to Episode 33, which was another standout episode for me. This one was a lovely one, even though I didn't really have to ask many questions. My guests actually knew themselves and each other so well that they kind of were having a conversation without me. But you know, it was great, I could drink my tea. So Episode 33 features Simon Drayson, Juliette Mitchell, Darren Leach, aka George and James Architects and Archetypal. So, we talked very much about tone of voice and finding your voice as a practice. It's a fascinating conversation. And there are a couple of standout tips I just like to play back to you.

Darren Leach 12:51

And actually, it became more about building a website that told our story and will actually talk to our prospective clients in a in a language that isn't so architectural isn't you know, isn't so alien to people who might visit our website and want to learn about how to hire and work with architects. And that's, that's where it came about. And, and so I guess the, what we thought we wanted from a website became something quite different. As we went through the process of of writing and sort of working with Juliette and working out, working it out,

Juliette Mitchell 13:27

finding the words for your website, you know, finding your story and your voice, it's a really good opportunity to sort of dig a bit deeper. And to really own that story and feel that you know, there is a narrative behind what you do. There's a narrative that sort of glues your all your projects together. And that's the story that your clients wants to hear. And that's what's going to pull them into wanting to work with you.

Ayo Abbas 13:51

We certainly covered a lot of ground in that episode. And I know that is one that many people refer back to. So definitely worth checking it out if you're thinking about looking at your tone of voice in the coming year. Another episode that I'd like to shine a light on is Episode 33, which was Chris Moore from Orice and Myers, which was a bit of an engineering fest. I love engineering. So anyone who knows me knows, Chris is an amazing comms leader and an amazing writer as well. So he had lots of great advice to share. And it really was a pleasure to do that interview. Here some words from Chris.

Chris Moore 14:23

If we want engineering to be more diverse, and I really do believe that we do, because we can draw a lot of strength from that. We've got to get the kids more excited about engineering when they are younger, when they're when they're thinking about the STEM subjects when they're overcoming gender stereotypes that occur in schools between boys and girls, when they might be from a minority culture in a part of town where, you know, they don't aspire to go to university or to become engineers, if we can make engineering cooler. And we do that, like, you know, on an individual level on a practice level and then on an industry level. That's actually one of the ways that we're going to be able to tackle some of these bigger questions. And I think that's everything from talking about the environment and sustainability and the solutions that we need there to, you know, overcoming the preponderance of middle aged white men in senior management roles. We can't just automatically turn around right now and say, oh, okay, right. So it's all it's all a bit stale and pale. Let's get more folks from different cultures in.

Ayo Abbas 15:24

Then it was onto my Live series, where I decided for a week that I would go live every day on LinkedIn, at lunch times to record a series of practically based podcast episodes, we looked at websites, whether it's a podcast, PR, we look to LinkedIn, we looked at bids and networking, what more could you want, especially as the talk of recession, so I wanted to make them as practical as possible so that people can action, action things at you know, cost effective things and kind of get on with their marketing. So here's some clips from that. First up, we have Tom Garfield from Episode 36, looking at websites.

Tom Garfield 16:02

But one of the things I see that people need to be much more aware of is that when people land on the website, they're looking for inspiration, for sure. But they're also looking for reassurance. And as they get closer to that decision making process to the buying this decide to inquire. They aren't to be not only inspired by all of these wonderful things that they see to go, look how beautiful that building is, or look what this is, this is fantastic. But they then need to be reassured because they're going to start to almost get a pre buyer's remorse, which is, first thing is they are asking how good this could this be? How good could this project be? And they're really excited. And then there's the sort of thing am I going to inquire now, they then asked a different question, which is, how bad might this be? How could this go wrong? Maybe. And so you want to make sure that you are, you know, when you're getting close to that inquiry stage, you are using things like reassuring language, you're making sure that your process is really comprehensive and clear. You're proving your expertise with great testimonials from past clients. Perhaps you're giving insight into your people to sort of instil trust, and likeability, all of those things really matter.

Ayo Abbas 17:10

And then we move on to Leonie Thomas, where we are talking about bids and networking in Episode 37.

Leonie Thomas 17:17

Responding to a bid or doing a bid, that's really it's like the icing on the cake, or the cherry on the cake, whatever you want to say. But it's very much the last part of the process, the more important work happens far further upstream. It's understanding what your what your kind of sets or goals look like, what you know what your business plan looks like, how bids fit into that. And then being very, very strategic about the people that you meet, who you speak with. How you're influenced in the market, in terms of maybe award submissions, or PR, or, you know, a lot of the stuff that you do with clients, and how you can marry those up so that when the bid actually comes out, it's you're going to be successful at it because you've done the work.

Ayo Abbas 18:02

And now onto my favourite social media channel, LinkedIn, and we're talking to my friend, Stacy Meadwell.

Stacey Meadwell 18:10

think about the questions that you get asked, regularly. You know, that is a great source of content for me, you know, because I do a lot of training. So there's always questions or when I'm, you know, when I'm talking to clients about, you know, pieces of work that I'm doing for them the questions that they ask, I think actually, that would be good, that would make a good post to write about to write about that, because it's something I'm getting asked a lot. Think about, common problems that you that your clients have the that you help solve, or you can then you know, thinking about we obviously both write about the built environment, think about observations about your sector, your industry, you know, and that can be observations, like for me, it could be observations about sort of content. And people sometimes I comment on, you know, what's going on on LinkedIn, and start, you know, different kinds of trends and things happening. But then I also comment on, you know, things that are happening in the built environment, you know, so think about your industry trends that you're seeing, you know, what's influencing? What are the challenges, can you write about that kind of stuff.

Ayo Abbas 19:19

And the final clip I've selected is from Hannah Cox, where we talk all things PR, what it is and what it isn't, which is episode 40.

Hannah Cox 19:28

PR is, which can also be substituted with communications, it's really part of your overall business function. You need to kind of think about it at the beginning and think about when you're setting your goals and objectives for the for the year for the business, and then think how are you going to? What are you going to need to communicate who's going to want to hear your ideas, your product? Where do you need growth? Who are those people going to be that your growth targets? And once you've kind of done those kind of that area of research and objectives I think then you can use the PR tools to kind of get there and map it out.

Ayo Abbas 20:04

On the back of COP27, I also have a solo episode looking at why marketers need to upskill about sustainability. I personally think that we've all got our role to play, and that we really all need to upskill and understand, I guess, the whole topic or how to communicate sustainability, because you know, it's something we're all going to have to do. And my final interview of the year, featured the lovely Sarah Canning, and Deenie Lee from The Property Marketing Strategists, which was another fun interview to do. We talked about research, we talked about Gen Z, and so much more. And it was really nice to have a different perspective, from a kind of B2C perspective, which I don't always talk about. So here's a few clips from that one, too.

Sarah Canning 20:47

You know, you have to really put yourself in the shoes of the customer. And again, you know, we've got the benefits, we don't work within one particular organisation, but I know from experience that it's very easy from marketing point of view, to churn the same stuff out, you know, year in, year out. And just because it worked one year, you know, in, particularly in student accommodation, and you know, also in the rest of the private rented sector, because there's quite a high turnover, it's a new audience all the time, you know, so you kind of have to do the same thing or do the same thing. But that audience changes and what they want and what they're focused on, that

Deenie Lee 21:21

they need to understand their demographic in their building, you know, no city is the same, no buildings, the same, the university is the same, no residential community is the same. And I think if you're not asking the questions of that community about what they want, what they like about their product, what they don't like about the product, what's frustrating them, then you're never going to improve that product or change that product or, or be prepared for the future. And I think far too often, and probably more so in student accommodation is that it's been really good for so long, and there's demand there, and you can build and people arrive, actually, when you get a much better kind of educated audience, when you get a an audience that kind of knows what they want, and what they should be getting. And they're gonna they're gonna vote with their feet. And if you're not asking the questions, now, when you've got a three to five year build project, you're going to be way behind the curve further down that line.

Ayo Abbas 22:18

And now for 23. Well, I'm getting my wish list together for who I want to come on to the show next. So if you've got any ideas, do email me at ayo@abbasmarketing.com I'd love to hear from you. I'll be taking my show on the road next year, and heading to a major event to actually do some interviews live. So that's quite exciting. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do that and which guests I'll get on. But you know, that'll be a fun one to do that for sure. Of course, I kind of made myself a vow that I will be doing more solo episodes of master classes. So that's another part of the podcast that will be coming to you, I think more frequently than I ever done before. So that's going to be a good one as well. Oh, and of course, I will be doing a few more live recordings on LinkedIn because I actually enjoy them. They're good fun to do. So that is all for me in terms of this RoundUp episode. And I look forward to you listening to my show in 20 Free and play us out. I'll leave you with my biggest blooper from Episode 31 This year, enjoy a merry christmas. In terms of sex stories as I said stories that's wrong. I'm gonna edit that out. The podcast was good. It's like it's like in terms of sex stories.

Dominique Staindl 23:47

so you just want to know about our sex stories? Got it? Right. We'll let you record again.

Ayo Abbas 24:03

Okay. In terms of success stories, where have you Where do you feel that what how you work has worked really well have you got some examples done.

Dominique Staindl 24:13

Um, so I guess without giving too much away, it's been really nice when the sort of, there's a bit of a and I'm gonna go into like jargony language here, but there's a bit of a cross pollination and this happens in in agency as well, where basically you learn about something through one avenue and you can basically hit hit that across all your clients and suddenly, you know, all the others who didn't know about it are really delighted. And then you can do the same for the you know, for the people who, who gave you that initial opportunity. So there's a lot of that that's really exciting for me is when you can kind of draw loads of industry information from one avenue and just spread it across other clients channels and all of that. So

Ayo Abbas 24:58

cross pollination that for that just kind of keeps coming to my head. But yeah, that kind of thing, isn't it? Yeah,

Dominique Staindl 25:03

exactly, exactly. And just being able to share in talent recommended, you know, when you've got people I think and I think this is really important as well as operating in a certain level of clientele, so making sure that you know, your clients are kind of the kinds of people you want to be promoting. So making sure that the information that's relevant for one is likely to be relevant for others because they care about certain values or certain delivery standards or, or whatever it is that you're after. So that that's when it gets really exciting for me because that means you're building a little ecosystem. And yeah, that's really exciting.

Ayo Abbas 25:45

Fantastic. and Julia, have you got a story

Dominique Staindl 25:58

please don't cut this out.

Ayo Abbas 26:05

Thanks so much for listening to The Built Environment Marketing Show. Don't forget to check out the shownotes which will have useful links and resources connected to this episode. You can find that on www.abbasmarketing.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.

Ayo Abbas
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Ep 42: Research, Resi and Gen Z with Sarah Canning and Deenie Lee