Bresslaw Court
CBG were appointed following competitive tender to undertake this external refurbishment/ façade remediation contract in Mile End, London. The works at Bresslaw Court involved removing and re-applying an insulated render system for compliance to new regulations. The existing timber balcony decking was removed and replaced with a new compliant aluminium system. Whilst undertaking the works it was discovered that the secondary framing system was insufficient so we were instructed to install additional metal framing to ensure the building could support the new insulated render system.
Telling Your Story In The Right Way
What is good content and why is it important? Over the last couple of years, the importance of good quality content has become really apparent. With Google changing its algorithm to favour helpful content and other search engines following suit, it’s important to make sure your content is up to scratch to maintain and even boost your ranking . What is good content? Algorithms are constantly changing which can make identifying good content seem like a daunting task. But there are some key principles that don’t change. So here’s three questions to ask yourself to determine whether your content is good: Is it helpful to your target audience? The age old rule for marketing is ‘know your audience’ and the same goes for content. You need to make sure that the content you’ve created is useful to the audience it’s for. Which is what the search engines are looking for – they’re delivering the most helpful content to their users. Even if the content is ultimately selling your product or service, you need to make sure that it adds value to the audience. Is it original? There are billions of content pieces out there now so of course it is difficult to be completely original. But it is important to put your own spin on someone else’s idea to keep your content original. It’s also important to make sure that the exact same content hasn’t been posted elsewhere. This is especially important if working with AI platforms like Bard or ChatGP as these platforms mine the internet for answers to your questions. Always remember that whatever they produce, it won’t be original and it could be from out of date sources. Search engines hate duplicate content so publishing duplicate content will have a negative impact on your rankings and could see your website being downgraded. Is it part of a bigger strategy? Moving away from just thinking about external factors, the content needs to be beneficial to your business. It should be helping you reach your business goals and align with your company’s objectives. Being part of a bigger strategy also means that it is not just a stand alone piece of content as, like with all marketing activity, consistency is key. How good content can help your business Unlike other ways to market your business, content can support your customers through every stage of the customer journey. Being such a versatile tool for businesses means that it can help your business in a variety of areas. Here’s just a few of the things we have achieved for our clients as a result of improving their content marketing: Less bounce rates and longer website session time By creating good quality content, target consumers are spending more time on our clients’ websites. Increasing their engagement with consumers and working to convert them into paying customers. Improved brand awareness Establishing a strong content marketing strategy has meant that our clients have improved their brand awareness. Making sure that the content that they put out reflects positively on their brand and firmly establishes brand messaging Built better relationships with customers Content marketing isn’t just about obtaining new customers, it’s also about improving your business’s relationship with existing ones. By creating engaging and consistent content, our clients have built better relationships with their customers. It’s these customers that become advocates for the business and ultimately refer new clients to you. Start reaping the benefits of a good content marketing strategy now. Get in touch with us to find out how our team of experts can help you achieve your business goals.
Why Social Media Is Important For Construction Businesses
Social media is now a firmly established part of the business world, but many still question its value. Whether it’s about how good and profitable it can be, or what it can bring to a businesses. Over the years, we’ve worked with a number of construction businesses to build their presence on social media. In fact, just recently, we helped Cheesmur Building Contractors increase their social media reach by over 825%! While this is a fantastic result, many business owners in the construction industry are sceptical about what social media can do for their business. So here are three key things our clients have achieved as a result of improved social media presence: Improved relationships with stakeholders One of the main foundations of the construction industry is the connections that are made with others. Whether that be suppliers, sub-contractors or consultants, it’s important for your business to maintain a good relationship with them all. Social media can play a huge part in this.. By posting about recent projects and tagging those involved, you can show your appreciation for those businesses and the teams behind them as well as boost your chances of being front of mind for the next project that comes along. Be considered for new projects Being active on social media, particularly on LinkedIn, allows you to be on the radar of the big decision makers. Meaning that they could consider you for projects you may not have been considered for before simply because you weren’t coming up in their feeds. A lot of decision makers use social media to follow brands and maintain industry knowledge. Our construction clients have a LinkedIn audience of many thousands and Senior Management and Directors make up around half of it. That’s people in senior leadership and director roles, who are possibly those making decisions on tenders and contracts, following our construction clients on LinkedIn to receive their updates to their feed. Enhanced brand exposure Most of our construction clients just didn’t have time to social media before starting to work with us – it’s one of the reasons why they got us onboard! Not only do we understand the industry, we also work with the social media algorithms to make sure that the right people see their posts. Increasing their brand exposure and allowing them to build on their positive reputations. Just in one week in April, one of our clients received 4,877 impressions on LinkedIn – that’s 4,877 views on the posts published in one week! Continuing with that example, the posts published for that client were all about the projects they were working on and events they were attending. Showing their audience they are busy with different projects and active within their business community. A fantastic message to be sending out to stakeholders and peers in the industry. If you’re struggling to make social media work for your business, speak to us today. We can support you in setting goals to achieve as well as run and manage your social feeds to make sure those goals are met. Give us a call on 01903 686858 or email us at info@constructivemarketing.co.uk.
Introducing Constructive Marketing
All businesses need to evolve and move forward… It’s exciting times at our HQ in Lancing. No business should ever stand still and for us, as Seaside Creative, we recently decided to rename the company and become Constructive Marketing. The name might be different but not everything is changing as, for the most part, we’re the same company offering the same expertise. We’re even keeping a beach hut in our logos as people love them so much. Why change the name? Seaside Creative started as a small agency offering full service marketing expertise, mainly to SMEs in the local area. In the beginning we worked for a wide variety of clients covering; retail, care, restaurants, hair and beauty, pharmaceutical, property and construction. This was mainly because the Seaside Creative team provided different services to different industries – such as photographing a production line and then writing technical articles for construction firms – sometimes on the same day! Lockdown was hard for the agency, just like it was for most businesses, with many clients pausing services for significant amounts of time. But it did give us time to really assess what worked best. What we realised was that the industry where we had supplied the widest variety of expertise and achieved the most success for clients was construction. It was also one of the few industries that continued to thrive during the Pandemic. Seeing this as an opportunity to grow the business, we decided to focus our efforts on becoming known as a specialist in marketing for companies involved in the construction industry. Fast forward to today and the agency now has over a dozen construction clients from across the South East. With a growing reputation as construction marketing specialists, it made sense to change our name to better reflect that. We still have clients that are not in the construction industry, which is why we think the name ‘Constructive Marketing’ works really well. The meaning behind Constructive Marketing When deciding to change the name of the business, we wanted something that was both positive and appealing to those working within, as well as outside of, the construction industry. The great thing about the word ‘constructive’ is, while it alludes to ‘construction’, it also means ‘to have a useful or beneficial purpose’. This is exactly what we aim to be for our clients, regardless of what industry they’re in. Why now? Knowing that we have been beginning to specialise in construction for the last 2-3 years may make you wonder why we’re making the change now. In truth, although focusing on construction has been creeping up, it has only really been the majority of what we do within the last year. So, in the background, our name change has been something that’s been on our minds for a while. We were just waiting for the right time to do it. Although, as most people in business will agree, there isn’t ever really a ‘right time’. Now was as good a time as any! Moving forward So, from now on, we’re Constructive Marketing. A diverse team of marketing experts ready to help you with your marketing needs. Could we help you? Give us a call on 01903 686858 or email us at info@constructivemarketing.co.uk to get in touch with the team.
Making Empire Construction An Award-Winning Company
When we first met Empire Construction Group, they were (and still are) an ambitious firm looking to gain recognition for their success and growth they’d achieved. Our growing reputation for winning business awards meant we had been recommended to them as a good fit, especially as we’d won them for other construction firms. Listening to the story One of the first things we did was sit down with the Managing Director and listen to his story; covering where he’d started, how he’d developed the business, the successes and the challenges. This allowed us to assess exactly what business award categories could be relevant and, perhaps more importantly, achievable for them. We decided that the Construction category of their local business awards offered a good mix of both, so we went for it. Art and Science It’s true that there is an art to crafting a winning award entry, but there also needs to be some science involved too. You can’t just tell a lovely story, most award judges will want to see the evidence that backs up the story. This can be in the form of financials or charts that show growth. Reviews and third party endorsements are also really worth gathering. Despite Empire being a lot smaller than some of the other companies entering, they had a fantastic story of growth, development and community support to tell. We made sure that we combined all of these elements into their award entry. What’s more, the combination worked! It was great to be shortlisted as a finalist, but even better to win! Once a company wins an award they’re always award-winning. A New Website and More We have since carried on working with Empire, building a new website that reflects the development of the company and scale of projects they now work on. We also maintain and update the site. This involves making content updates where needed and making sure the site is both secure and optimised for Empire’s target market. “Working with the team at Constructive Marketing when we need them is a real bonus for us,” says Group MD, Marcus Farrell. “We wouldn’t be the award winning firm we are today without their help and having that accolade has helped open some doors for us.” “They’re there when we need them and we know we can trust them to understand what we do and also to get on with the work.”
A New Website For Woodstock Day Nursery
When we were first approached by Woodstock Day Nursery, they were unhappy with several aspects of their incumbent website. The design looked increasingly out of date and the site was difficult for staff to update. Woodstock Day Nursery asked us to redesign their website to give it a modern look and to make it more appealing to parents. One of the most important things for Woodstock (aside from having a great website of course!) was to have a site that was easy to use from both the front and back ends.. For this website, we used WordPress which is a simple and easy to use content management system (CMS), it allows the client to make their own changes to the website if they wish to do so. We chose a theme that included a drag and drop front end page builder, meaning that it’s very easy for the client to pick up and edit if they want to make changes to the site themselves once it has launched. We started the project with a discovery meeting with Woodstock. This helped gain understanding of what they wanted to achieve from their new site. We then created a few initial design ideas for each of the pages on the website. These were then presented to the client for consideration and progression.. Once the overall design of the website (colours, font and layout) had been agreed we began development on the site. The client provided a selection of high quality relevant images, and we used them throughout the site, creating an eye-catching website that was new and fresh. Capturing the attention of any parents looking for the perfect nursery for their children. The information on the site was also fully updated and optimised for all major search engines. Once the website had been built, one of the last steps was to make sure that not only the content was optimised, but also the rest of the website was too. To make sure that it can be found organically on the internet. There were 2 main ways we did this, first we made sure that every image on the site had alt text. This is what search engines use to identify what an image contains – You can read more about ALT text in our blog post. The second way we optimised the website was by installing an SEO plugin on the website. This was used to ensure that each page on the website was using the correct keywords and the meta descriptions fitted each page they are describing, as well as a multitude of other requirements that boost the SEO score of the website. Using these combined methods we managed to increase the SEO score of the website by almost 20% before it had even launched. The end result of this project was that Woodstock had a brand new fully functional website that was easy to navigate on desktop and mobile devices. The website is also searchable on all search engines, thanks to the SEO plugin and ALT tagged images. Using these SEO techniques, the new website is more likely to be found when searching for children’s nurseries in the local area. Nursery owner, Anne Shrieves, said, “The new website is lovely and bright and so much easier to use than the old one. It really reflects the fun and laughter we share every day at Woodstock and it’s just what we wanted.”
Getting Cheesmur Building Contractors Noticed
Cheesmur were struggling with maintaining their online presence and keeping their website up to date. They needed to raise awareness and increase engagement. What we did: Our content experts worked with Cheesmur’s Senior Management team to establish a social media strategy that highlighted all of the fantastic work they do as well as the great people that make it happen. This included: Results: The Cheesmur team fully embraced our involvement which allowed us to create engaging social media posts for all of their feeds. Increasing their social media reach by over 825% with the biggest growth seen on LinkedIn. Regular updates to the website resulted in an increase in website visits and session time. Due to more people visiting the website and spending time reading the content. Contracts Director, Steve King said, “The reaction we’ve been getting from our social posts and web updates has been fantastic. It’s great to see the staff getting involved and also hearing from others how they’ve noticed our posts too. Like most Contractors, we’re not easy to get hold of sometimes. However, the Constructive Marketing team knows how we work and understands what we do, so we don’t have to spend lots of time explaining technicalities, which is great.”
The Outsourced Marketing Team For Wall Bros Carpets
We have been working with Wall Bros for over seven years to modernise their brand and continually maintain their business reputation through various channels. The rebrand We were first approached by Wall Bros in 2016 to work with them on modernising and in their words, ‘sort out their marketing’. The company was approaching its Diamond anniversary (60th year) and had been continually trading from the same premises during that time. We started with a full re-brand. This included new logos, new colour palette, and a completely new approach to how everything they had would be branded. After that, we put together and implemented the brand roll-out which included; the shopfronts, signage, clothing, all stationery, advertising, social media and the website. The new website and becoming award-winning A new website was built using WordPress, which we continue to manage. For this regional and more traditional retailer, we put together an ongoing multi-channel marketing campaign that covers both online and offline awareness and collateral. We built a loyal following on Facebook and expanded that to Twitter and Instagram. We also convinced them that their story was good enough to try for award entries. They were unsure at first – but we had uncovered some fantastic information during our research and then sought some testimonials which cemented the entry. They were delighted to be named ‘Best Small Business’ in 2017! This started a trend, as they also won the Adur and Worthing ‘Customer Service’ award in 2018. Director at Wall Bros, Ashley Horne, said, “We thought we were just an ordinary local flooring firm, but Constructive Marketing showed us that our story was actually extraordinary! Since having the re-brand and becoming a multi-award winning company, we have gone from strength to strength, with Constructive Marketing helping us all the way through. I am really grateful for everything they’ve done so far.” Maintaining an award-winning reputation Now, over seven years on, we continue to look after every aspect of Wall Bros’ marketing. From their social media channels and website to their merchandise and print advertising. Making sure that Wall Bros continues to be an outstanding flooring retailer in Worthing. Having worked with Wall Bros for so long, we have a detailed understanding of what the team wants to achieve and how they like to be portrayed. In 2022, we updated their print advertising and thought the website could do with a design refresh to reflect the aspirational imagery used in the new campaign. Refreshing the website After getting approval from Wall Bros, we started working on the website to give it a new lease of life. Adding new, well-written and SEO-friendly content to each page; including writing an FAQ (frequently asked question) for each type of flooring that Wall Bros sells on the corresponding page. Making sure it was relevant to that flooring; for example, we answered a frequently asked question about wool flooring on the carpets page. Almost all of the images on the website were also changed to; not only make sure the site reflected the latest flooring trends, but also to boost organic SEO through ALT tagging each image. We also added the latest team photo too. Our photography team attended the Worthing showroom and conducted a photoshoot of both the wonderful Wall Bros team and the vast array of flooring they have on display. We also installed an SEO plugin into the website to make sure search engines can properly recognise each page of the site. Using this SEO plugin also means that we can measure the performance of each page. The results A couple of months after all the website updates were completed we saw a huge spike in website impressions and clicks. See the image below which compares website analytics from April to July: Managing a website is an ongoing process. Things are constantly changing in the fast-moving digital world and no website is ever ‘complete’. We carry out monthly checks on the websites that we manage to ensure that everything is working correctly and all plugins are up to date. We also monitor the analytics of the websites from various sources to watch how they are performing. This allows us to keep on top of the data and notice what is, and perhaps more importantly, what isn’t working for our clients. We are not the type of team to sit on our laurels, we continually learn and move forward, just like our clients do.
Knowledge Is Power!
Having a lot of knowledge in our field is great for us, but it feels even better to share that knowledge. Which we do through various talks that we put on at different events. Just recently, we spoke to South East Construction attendees about how to make the most out of exhibiting. We also run training sessions for clients to improve their in-house capabilities. Including social media training for groups so that staff can better understand how social media works for businesses and how to plan and formulate good content. Just recently we built a new website for a client and our web designer, Liam, made sure that the client was completely happy with how to make changes themselves. While we can of course look after everything from social media to websites, we understand that sometimes it’s best for those things to be predominantly looked after in-house. Running training sessions that work for you The main aim of our training sessions is to make sure that you and your team get the most out of them. Which includes delivering them in the way that you would like; whether that’s in-person, virtually or a mixture of both. In some cases, virtual training sessions are the best way to work. Which was especially the case for one of our clients based in Suffolk! Other times, attendees prefer to be in the same room and have a more hands-on experience. Whichever way you or your team want to work, we will accommodate you. Making sure that everyone comes away with a few key takeaways that they can start implementing into their work straight away. A recent attendee said, “I had a real light bulb moment” which is exactly what we like to hear. The approach we take with our training sessions is often hands-on, we love to get the people attending interacting and trying out the skills they are learning right there and then. If you’re looking for training across any marketing sphere of expertise, we can most likely cover it. Our sessions are delivered bespoke to clients’ needs. What’s your marketing pain point? We’d love to help you! Give us a call on 01903 686858 or email us at info@constructivemarketing.co.uk.
Is Marketing Really The Most Stressful Job In The World?
And if it is, what are some easy ways to give your online presence a boost? April is Stress Awareness Month and according to careercast.com research, when asked to rate their job stress out of ten 78% of marketers rated it at seven or higher. So it’s no wonder business owners find it extremely difficult to run their marketing alongside their day-to-day job. One of the main things business owners are always trying to do is use their marketing to improve their search engine rankings. So what are some easy wins that small to medium business owners can do to maximise their SEO efforts with the least amount of stress? Here are our top three: 1. Replace images on your website One of the easiest ways to give your SEO a boost is to do some small updates on your website and replacing images is a good place to start. We recommend doing this every six months to make sure your images are up to date and to give Google a nudge to rearrange your site’s ranking. Although stock imagery is okay to use, adding authentic images of your own work or staff is best. If you don’t have any photos of your own, give us a call on 01903 686858 to speak to our team about how we can help. Top tip: On top of replacing the images on your site, make sure that the new images you add have ALT text. Search engines can’t see images so using ALT text describing the image is the only way to get that image ranked. Adding new images without ALT text will flag up as an update, but adding ALT text will also allow the search engines to understand what your image is and show it in relevant search results. 2. Make sure you’re using the right title tags While websites need to be created to be helpful to your target consumer, it’s also important to make sure search engines can read your website too. We’re certainly not saying to ‘keyword stuff’ or use other black hat SEO tactics, but what we are saying is to make sure your website is formatted correctly. The main thing to do is use Headings properly (known as H1’s, H2’s and H3’s) in the right way. These are the three main types of title tags. Although there are more, generally speaking, you’ll only ever need the first three: H1 – A title and the biggest of the title tagsH2 – A smaller heading used to title subsectionsH3 – An even smaller heading usually used for subheadings Why are title tags important for SEO? Title tags are crucial for SEO as they allow search engines to understand what content is the most important. Which, in turn, enables it to understand what the webpage is about. Since Google’s new algorithm update, it is focusing more on producing helpful results to users. Making sure that your website uses title tags correctly will help Google place your website in relevant search results. So setting aside some time to go through your website and making sure that all the right headings have the right tags could really boost your website up the search rankings. Top tip: Where you can, make sure that your H1’s include a focus keyword. 3. Update and republish old blog posts There’s a lot of pressure now to always be creating new and unique content but when it comes to SEO, this isn’t essential. In fact, re-using old content can be just as effective if you spend just a small amount of time ‘top and tailing’ it. What is top and tailing? Top and tailing simply means to write (or re-write) the start and end of a piece of written content. In this context, it means to give it a refresh and potentially make it more current. In other circumstances, you may ‘top and tail’ a piece of writing to make it more effective: Top and tailing an old piece of content will take less time than writing a whole new piece of content and it can still be used as if it’s new. So, by all means, republish it as a new blog post and talk about it through your marketing channels. If you feel it’s appropriate, you can explicitly say that the ‘new’ article is an updated version of a previous article. Just like we did with our networking blog post. If you’re finding that you just don’t have the time to try these quick wins, it might be time to ask for some help with your marketing. Which is where we come in! Give our marketing experts a call on 01903 686858 or email us at info@constructivemarketing.co.uk to find out how we can help.