Construction Sales and Marketing Newsletter

April 2015

Welcome to this month's edition of the Construction Sales and Marketing Newsletter. We are excited to be able to invite you to our first Twitter Chat, this is on Specification Selling at noon on 28th April, simply use #SpecSelling to ask your questions.

Construction market

Highlights:

The latest ONS figures show construction output in February 2015 decreased by 0.9% compared with January 2015. The CPA do not agree with these figures, as they are not supported by a wide range of construction surveys, which all indicate growth in January and February. The CPA construction industry spring forecasts expect an increase in construction output of 5.5% in 2015.

Read full report including:

ONS Output in Construction, CPA Spring Forecast, Markit/CIPS Construction, House price indexes.

Regulations & initiatives

Sustainability

Eric Pickles, in his Planning update, confirmed that the Code for Sustainable Homes has been withdrawn. The Government have announced an extra Ł3m funding for low carbon heat networks to be awarded to 55 councils across England and Wales.

BIM

The NBS have launched their new BIM Toolkit. The top 500 influencers and players active on Twitter in BIM has been published by McClelland Media Ltd, in association with CIBSE. Craig Sewell asks in his blog: Why Do Specifiers Ignore Your BIM Content?

Industry updates

Glenigan provide a report on how the results of the general election could impact construction.The long awaited 2015 editions of several Approved Documents have now been published. Innovate UK is to invest up to Ł2 million in feasibility studies to explore ways to improve the construction supply chain.

Articles

Understanding why the construction sector is the way it is

4 key research methods to better understand specification

Creating an effective specification strategy

Secret Confessions of a Telephone Researcher - Interview No.1

Will BRE make its Mark on Green Construction?

Marketing & sales

This month we provide guidance on B2B content marketing, advice on the new mobile algorithm update from Google and an update on digital marketing. We are thrilled that the Construction Marketing Awards are open for entries and excited about our first Twitter Chat being hosted by Barbour Product Search on the 28th April at 12.00, simple use #SpecSelling to post your questions.

Read in full

Forthcoming webinar

Using research to understand the drivers behind product specification

Thursday 23rd April 2015 - 12.30

This webinar looks at how to:

Know the research techniques that can explain the decision making process.
Decide which research process works best for your needs, looking at the advantages and disadvantages for each
Understand how surveys should be structured to get value from your responses
Understand how samples quotas should be set
Identify free sources of information to keep you informed of construction market trends
Use research to inform your specification strategy

Forthcoming events