The Construction Marketing Association (CMA) announces the availability of a certification program, the Certified Construction Marketing Professional (CCMP).

The program awards a Certificate in Construction Marketing, along with the license to use the professional designation, CCMP. A comprehensive marketing handbook is provided to program registrants, who are required to pass a rigorous examination.

Professional certification benefits both the manager and the sponsoring company by providing advanced training, exposure to best practices, and recognition. The program is designed for marketing managers and executives for brands (e.g., building products, equipment, etc) that target the construction industry, or that work for architectural, engineering or construction firms. Program fees are $790 for non-members, and $690 for Construction Marketing Association members. Group rates are available on request. For more information, click here.

In development for nearly two years, the program covers all aspects of marketing, from strategic initiatives of planning, research and results measurement, to all types of tactical marketing implementation. The program offers separate content for dealer marketing, retail home improvement marketing, and marketing architectural, engineering and construction (A/E/C) services.

ABOUT CMA

The Construction Marketing Association (CMA) provides professional development and training, resources and information, networking and recognition to marketers in the construction industry. Full information on the association is available on the website atwww.ConstructionMarketingAssociation.org. The site links to the Construction Marketing Blog with marketing news, resources and related content, and the association’s Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn pages. Questions? Contact Neil Brown at 630-579-8383.

Webcast – Tuesday, January 17, 2012

A webcast will preview the new book:  Tools of the Trade:  Modern Marketing for Construction Brands by Construction Marketing Association (CMA) Chairman Neil M. Brown. Registration is now open on the Construction Marketing Association (CMA) website, link below. The free webcast for members and non-members is scheduled for Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 1 pm CST.

The breakthrough new book is a comprehensive guide that covers all aspects of marketing in the construction industry, from building products and equipment, to A/E/C services and retail, along with detailed examples of construction marketing implementation. The book is organized in five units including strategic marketing, tactical marketing, specialized channels and segments (distributor and retail channels, marketing architectural, engineering and construction services), practical marketing considerations, and construction marketing resources. AndMODERN MARKETING will serve as the as the study guide for CMA’s Certified Construction Marketing Professional (CCMP) program.

“Marketing is changing rapidly. Many textbooks, curriculums and marketing certification programs have not kept pace with the realities of modern marketing, certainly not with specific focus on the construction industry. We saw the need for sharing modern marketing best practices, which is aligned with the mission of the Construction Marketing Association,” explains author and CMA Chairman Neil M. Brown.

To register for the free Construction Marketing Book Preview Webcast, CLICK HERE.

ABOUT CMA

The Construction Marketing Association (CMA) provides professional development and training, resources and information, networking and recognition to marketers in the construction industry. Full information on the association is available on the website atwww.ConstructionMarketingAssociation.org. The site links to the award-winning Construction Marketing Blog with marketing news, resources and related content, and the association’s Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn pages. Questions? Contact Neil Brown at 630-579-8383.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Neil M. Brown is Chairman of the Construction Marketing Association, and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Construction Marketing Advisors. Prior to these roles, Brown was CEO of numerous marketing consulting and creative agencies for the past 15 years, managing some of the biggest brands in the construction sector. Brown was a brand manager at electrical products marketing powerhouse IDEAL Industries, and later CMO of an architectural metals manufacturer. Neil earned an MBA from Northern Illinois University, and a BS-Marketing Cum Laude from Southern Illinois University. Neil is a frequent speaker, author and contributor to Advertising Age, BtoB magazine,Marketing News and many other publications. In 2009, he published the book, Branding Best Practices:  A Guide to Effective Product and Business Naming.

This is the second blog in a two part series on Blogging for Construction Marketing. Part 1 covered the benefits of blogging, blog platforms and features.

This blog, Part 2, will consider the ongoing management and implementation of the blog, which focuses primarily on content. Other ongoing blog management considerations are building a blogroll and corresponding reciprocal links, updating other resource or content items like case studies, and supporting search engine optimization.

Content is king! Content is the fuel that will keep your blogging initiative alive and relevant. What’s more, when blogs are integrated with other social media  including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, these social profiles can disseminate your blog content.

The process of developing content is challenging, and requires a thorough process and schedule to ensure that your blog strategy stays intact. A Rule-of-Thumb is that the average blog does not begin to build authority until 50+ blogs are published. You do the math—one blog per week takes a year; two blogs per week takes six months. So be ready to consistently blog.

To guide content, define your target audience(s),  then brainstorm and define a content strategy and plan. You will likely have primary and secondary target audiences, so specific content should be developed for each audience. Note that content should not just be about you or your company or prospects and customers will tune out quickly. Research and identify topics that are important to each target audience. Check with relevant publications (magazines), associations, bloggers and trade shows.

The content plan should have a ratio of content for each audience, company and product info, industry topics and other items like case studies, new videos (video blogs=vlogs). Curated content should be part of the content plan.  That is, blogs or articles from other authors and bloggers, used with permission and credit (list the author and/or publisher name with hyperlinks).

The content plan should define a schedule, with blogs for the next week or month defined, and rougher ideas identified for later dates. Developing content over and over can become tedious so be sure to not carry the load alone! Research, identify and cultivate multiple sources of content. Some quick tips to make content make content management easier. Start with internal staff—solicit input and feedback from sales, customer service and technical experts from engineering. Reach out to other relevant bloggers. They are typically flattered to have there content curated with credit, and links that build search authority. If an internal manager cannot dedicate time to ongoing blog content, outsource to a qualified agency or freelance writer.

25 Content Ideas

If the above tips and tricks do not dymystify the process of blogging, it may be the week-in and week-out struggle with developing content ideas. To offer further assistance, we took the liberty of compiling 25 blog topic ideas so you can start blogging today!

With a content plan,  schedule, and ongoing content resources, there are several important elements to be aware of that should be used in each and every blog you publish, and things to do in support of the overall blog:

1. Each blog title should include keyword search terms
2. Use keyword rich blogpost copy
3. Categorize each blog by keywords for archiving, and use keyword tagging for SEO
4. Images should use proper meta coding to support SEO
5. Keep blog length to 400-1000 words (this blog is 883 words); break longer blogs into series (like this)
6. Use hyperlinks to resources, and links to offers to capture leads
7. Continually add relevant links to your blogroll, and request reciprocal links
8. Offer changing content and resources, ex: case study, project spotlight
9. Encourage social sharing and comments (see below)

Of course, please Retweet, Facebook Like, bookmark and comment on this blog!

For many construction marketers, blogging has become one of the most important marketing tactics for several reasons. First, blogging reinforces thought leadership and subject matter expertise. You can publish very specialized content that is searchable for years to come.

Second, when implemented properly, blogging can have profound effects on search engine authority in so many ways. Consider that each blogpost builds indexed pages. Also blog titles, page titles, URL structures and image Alt tags all support SEO. The typical blogroll can build reciprocal links, and interlinking within a blogpost can build back-links. Next, social sharing (Retweet, Facebook Like, bookmarking, etc) and linking to social profiles can build search authority. Finally, throw in Header Tags, keyword tags and Google Analytics and you have a powerhouse of search engine optimization (SEO) delivered to you website.

Third, your blog can be the center of your content marketing and social media program. When integrated with other social profiles, sharing tools and counter tools, blogs can effectively “automate” content deployment. How? With Retweet, Facebook Like and now Google+ counters, content is automatically posted in these respective profiles. Even LinkedIn profiles can be integrated for auto-updates.

Fourth, blogs can generate leads in a variety of ways. How? RSS registrations capture email addresses. Links to registration pages for email newsletter sign-ups. Place offers within blogposts that hyperlink to registration pages. Blog comments often contain customer questions or requests. And finally, website analytics can identify traffic from blogs.

Despite all these extraordinary benefits, the daunting task of creating and managing a blog can be a deterrent. Our goal for this and the second blogpost in this series is to demonstrate that blogging can be manageable and extremely effective.

A blog can be defined as a website containing articles, referred to as ‘blog posts’ or ‘blogs’, that highlight subject matter expertise, industry news, or any relevant information to the audience you are targeting. These blogs often times include links and images adding value to the readers experience. Managing a blog can provide your company with an opportunity to further extend your brand and the industry expertise you have to offer, but most importantly can drive your company to rank number one on search engines. The road block that impedes the ability to manage a blog is content development, and we hope to demystify why this is so complicated in ‘Blogging for Construction Marketing – Part 2′. We will outline a process that will allow you to consistently add valuable content to your readers, month after month. As a marketing professional, we all know the first newsletter is easy to produce, but developing interesting, engaging content after that is a struggle. Blogging is no different, and that’s why having a process is so important.

Blogging Platforms

There are several options out there for what platform or software to use for blogging. The two most popular options are Blogger, which is owned by Google, and WordPress. There are several other platforms out there, but these two dominate due to both user-friendliness and features. A plethora of plugins are available on WordPress, some of which can amplify your SEO efforts, making WordPress the leading platform in our eyes. A chart discussing the pro’s and con’s of WordPress vs. Blogger can be found HERE. Keep in mind what you intend your blog to be; If intended to be a community where people come to interact and engage you might consider a platform such as Drupal, which is for building community sites. At the end of the day, WordPress offers a easy to use interface or content management system (CMS), coupled with excellent SEO-enhancing features, including Google Analytics. In addition, WordPress is extremely customizable. Not to mention, the basic version is free!

Still, costs can be incurred for design services, advanced development, hosting integration and ongoing content development. No matter what platform you choose, be ready for the next step of developing content and publishing regularly, the subject of our next blog in this series.

List of 5 Blogging Platforms

1. WordPress
2. Blogger
3. Tumblr
4. Drupal
5. Joomla (Considered a Content Management System, but can be used to create a blog.)

A WordPress Walkthrough

WordPress gives us the ability to customize a blog as much as we want. As long as a skilled developer is on hand, you can build an extremely user friendly experience. The Construction Marketing Advisors specializes in blog design with integration of social media. A thorough process of building a destination to extend your brand is important. With WordPress you are given that rich user experience, along with a robust content management system (CMS) on the backend. This CMS is so amazing and easy to learn we had to show you. Below you will see an example of a custom WordPress theme developed by CMA and the CMS that we use to publish our content.

Blog Example

1. Custom Designed Blog
2. RSS Feed Subscription and Search Functionality
3. Blog post with Title, Author, Archive Categories, Tags and Date.
4. Social Media Sharing and Integration
5. Customizable widgets tailored to target audience
6. Images hosted and search engine optimized
7. Not shown, blogroll with reciprocal links

WordPress CMS

1. Main CMS Navigation allows you to manage all aspects of your WordPress Blog.
2. Search Engine Optimized Title and URL.
3. Content publishing area; ease of uploading text, images, and videos.
4. Archive Categories; Allows users to sort through content by topics they are interested in.
5. Tags; often referred to as keywords. Help users find interesting content, as well as help SEO.
6. Not Shown – Plugin; often times they are used to help maximize SEO by amplifying each and every blog post. You can browse plugins by visiting HERE.

Important Features Every Blog Should Have

• Resource Links / Blogroll – This benefits SEO and acts as a valuable resource to your readers to find industry content
• RSS Feed – This allows your readers/visitors to sign up to be emailed when you publish a new blog. RSS = real simple syndication. We suggest using Feedburner, which is yet again owned by Google.
• Image Optimization – Images can be optimized for SEO in 3 ways; image file name, image title, image alt tag. Use strong keywords to take full advantage of images.
• Social Sharing – Add the social sharing features such as the Facebook Like button, the Twitter Retweet Button, the Google+ button, and the LinkedIn Share button. When your readers share your content it builds up your SEO and over time will drive your page rank higher on search engines.
• Call To Action – Each and every blog you write should have a purpose. Be sure to have a call to action to solicit a response from a reader. Often times these will be a link to a form the reader can fill out to receive ___ (insert offer here)___.
• Branding – Custom design should extend your visual identity and reflect company goals and vision.
• Tags and Categories – Both necessary functions for SEO and on-page experience. Users will have the ability to search your content, and sort through it based on these two important elements. Tags are keywords that explain the content of the blog post and allows users to see other content that has that keyword within it. The Categories allow users to sort blog posts by that segment so they can read all blogs on that topic.
• Utilization of Bold Face and H1 Header tags – Both of these rich text editinrg features help to build SEO. Be sure to use these, when appropriate throughout blog posts to maximize each posts effectiveness.
• Widgets on the sidebar – WordPress has a vast amount of ‘widgets’ available for use on the sidebar. Examples include Blogroll, Archive by month and Categories, Word cloud, recent Blogs, recent Tweets.
• Analytics – be sure to track and monitor your success with blogging. Before you even start blogging be sure to develop several key performance indicators (KPI’s) that you will keep track of. This may consist of total visitors to your blog, click-through to landing pages, or form registrations. Google Analytics integrates with WordPress quite nicely.
• Plug-Ins – Currently WordPress has 17,126 plug-in’s available on their platform. You can peruse through the various plug-in’s available by visiting the WordPress plug-in site HERE.

Part 2 of ‘Blogging for Construction Marketing’ will cover the content development process, integrating blogging into your marketing mix, and content ideas to fuel your blogging strategy.

Please Retweet, Facebook Like, and Share this blog!

The Construction Marketing Association (CMA), a professional organization launched in 2010,  and has appointed six directors and seeks more. Founder and chairman Neil M. Brown has announced that Rick Kean, Jim Scarlata, Kevin Enke, Tim O’Brien, Deborah Hodges and Paul Deffenbaugh have agreed to serve on the board.

Mr. Kean is Managing Director of the Business Marketing Institute, and former Executive Director of the Business Marketing Association (BMA). Mr. Scarlata is Marketing Director for Knaack LLC, a division of Emerson Electric. Mr. Enke is Marketing Director for Accessory Brands at Robert Bosch Tool Corp. Mr. O’Brien is Marketing Manager at Case New Holland Construction Equipment, and a Caterpillar veteran. Ms. Hodges is Executive Director of the Construction Writers Association, and a former Bovis Lend Lease executive, among other firms. Mr. Deffenbaugh is Chief Content Officer of Deep Brook Media.

“I have known and worked with Rick, Jim and Kevin, and respect their relevant experience and marketing skills,” states Chairman Brown. “Each have already contributed incredible advice in the development and start-up. Tim, Deborah, Paul and I have just recently started working together, and their insights and enthusiasm are already contributing greatly to our association.”

The association is actively seeking additional directors and hopes to recruit a director from a major construction company, homebuilder or engineering firm. In addition, a number of Groups are forming that will require leadership including Construction Technology, Social Media, Home Center/Retail, Architectural/Engineering, Chief Marketing Officers and more.

Please Facebook Like, Retweet, Share, or Social bookmark!

As we continue to highlight winners of the 2011 Construction Marketing STAR Awards, one of the most prestigious categories of the program is the 2011 CONSTRUCTION MARKETER OF THE YEAR, awarded to the top entries in each region (North America in 2011, expanded to Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia in 2012).

This year’s winner include USG for the Midwest region, MWH Constructors for the Western region, and McGraw-Hill Construction for the Eastern region. Judging criteria was based on program description and objectives, strategies and execution, and results measurement. Following are more details on the 2011 Construction Marketer of the Year winners.

Midwest Region Winner: USG, Integrated Campaign Category

Building materials manufacturer USG is truly an innovator within their industry, and this innovation carried over in their recent integrated marketing campaign. With the campaign tagline “The Weight Has been Lifted” several marketing elements were used culminating in an outstanding, SuperStar Award worthy campaign. Below is a list of all campaign elements, followed by select images.

1. Print Advertisements
2. Microsite
3. Videos
4. Social Media: Twitter and Facebook
5. Banner Ad’s
6. Sales Support: Posters/Banners/Countermat/Playbook, PoloShirt and several other outstanding elements!

Thank you to USG for sharing this campaign with the Construction Marketing Association, and congratulations on winning Construction Marketer of the Year.

Western Region Winner: MWH Constructors, Print Ad Category

“MWH Constructor’s Vision is to be the most sustainable construction company in the wet infrastructure industry.” This vision was showcased in the print advertisement shown below. Beautiful, eye-catching photography is brought to life with the clean, refined copy on the left-hand side, followed by a list of their strategic services offered. This print ad takes your eyes exactly where they need to, and all elements are tied together with a curvaceous use of white space at the bottom.

Thank you to MWH for submitting this print ad to the 2011 Construction Marketing Star Awards.

Eastern Region Winner: McGraw-Hill Construction, winner of 13 STAR Awards

Also winner of the Construction Marketing STAR Awards Best-In-Show based on total STAR awards, McGraw-Hill Construction also received Construction Marketer of the Year for the Eastern region. An example of McGraw-Hill winning entries is their Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest. Displayed below you will see the designs created for the contest, as well as some of the outstanding creative submissions from students and professionals alike. Who would have known that such detailed artwork could be done on a napkin? The results of the napkin contest speak for themselves, with over 1,200 napkin submissions. Winners were selected in one of two categories due to the vast amount of submissions. These categories included professional architects and non-professionals. Take a look below out the outstanding work!

Thank you to McGraw-Hill Construction for submitting to the 2011 Construction Marketing Star Awards.

The 2012 CMA STAR Awards will get underway in January, with the entry deadline in September and winners announced by November. For more information, visit the CMA awards subpage: www.ConstructionMarketingAssociation.org/Awards.cfm

Plese be sure to Retweet, Facebook Like, bookmark and/or comment on this blog!

The Construction Marketing Association is proud to highlight the best in show of the 2011 Construction Marketing STAR Awards. This years awards were extremely competitive with over 100 submissions of quality, creative work from clients and agencies worldwide. An esteemed panel of judges evaluated all entries across 16 categories and 78 sub-categories.

Best-in-Show honors goes to the the winner of the most STAR or SUPERSTAR awards, which for 2011 was McGraw-Hill Construction with 13 total awards.

McGraw-Hill Construction took home 13 awards in this years show. A full list of all the awards received can be viewed here in a recent CMA blog post. Below you will see McGraw-Hill’s integrated marketing campaign. “Essential” brings together all aspects of the construction industry including architecture, engineering, design, products and green building. “it connects those who will translate that dream into concrete and steal.” Over fifty visual elements were developed and executed for this integrated marketing campaign, which helps you understand why McGraw Hill took home this years best in show.

You can view the outstanding elements to this campaign below, and see why this submission received a Construction Marketing Association SUPERSTAR award. Congratulations McGraw-Hill!

Don’t be worried that you missed out on this years awards, the 2012 Construction Marketing Star Awards will be underway in January, 2012. Early entry deadline will be September, with judging complete by November.

For more information on the awards please visit the CMA website at http://www.constructionmarketingassociation.org/Awards.cfm

Advertising is one of the most expensive elements in the marketing mix, whether print, broadcast or online. And because of the fickle and subjective nature of advertising, seemingly great ideas can flop, while unexpected approaches surprise even the most experienced marketers. With all financial investment at stake, it makes sense to gain insight into customer reaction.

There are a variety of options for advertising testing. The extent of testing depends on the expected advertising budget-both ad production and placement. Clearly a $1.3 million Super Bowl spot requires more elaborate testing than a $20,000 print ad.

So what are the advertising testing options? And when should you use one testing type vs. another?

Most experts agree on two broad types of advertising testing: concept testing and copy testing.

Concept testing is sometimes called pre-testing, and is generally exploratory using headlines, rough layouts or storyboards. Concept testing typically uses qualitative research techniques including focus groups or depth interviews to gain insight into effective ad concepts, identify problems or issues, or to generate new ad concepts.

In contrast, copy testing evaluates different executions of an advertising campaign using finished (or close to finished) ad executions. Copy testing typically employs quantitative research techniques including surveys to measure recall or recognition. Larger sample sizes can provide a level of statistical validity decisions that may be important with larger investments.

What’s more, you may use both types of testing for an important or expensive advertising campaign, using concept testing for the early stages of campaign development, and copy testing to select the final ad option.

Finally, advanced copy testing using quantitative techniques can also involve physiological measures including eye-movement analysis, galvanic skin-response methods and brain-wave analysis. Although I will suggest these are too complex or expensive for most requirements.

And what would a blog post about advertising testing be without an example of an actual ad test. Earlier this year, The Construction Marketing Advisors conducted an ad test for client BOSCH Power Tools. Per above ad testing types, this was definitely a copy test using finished print ads with a striking visual (ala Cyborg) and varying headline, copy and the treatment of the direct response offer.

(click any ad example above to enlarge)

We set-up a survey using the free web-based SurveyMonkey tool and posed four (4) questions:

1. Which headline do you prefer most? Which headline would you stop and read?
2. Which copy version do you prefer most?
3. Which Free Offer treatment and layout position do you prefer most?
4. Please rate overall preference of each ad on a scale of 1-5 (1+hate, 5=love)

The ad test was emailed to a random list of remodelers, the target audience from the circulation of Hanley-Wood’s Remodeling magazine. We received hundreds of survey responses making the copy test statistically significant, and most importantly, a clear direction with a large percentage of respondents selecting the “Maximize Your Multi-Tool” headline and copy. The preference for “offer treatment” was even more pronounced with nearly 68% preferring the offer in yellow, top right position (an unconventional offer position, and unexpected outcome).

More Resources:

Advertising Research Foundation

As always, please comment, Retweet, Facebook Like and bookmark using the Share tools.

The Construction Marketing Association (CMA), sponsor of the annual CMA STAR Awards and CONSTRUCTION MARKETER OF THE YEAR Awards,  announces 2011 award winners.

The STAR awards recognize excellence in 16 marketing categories and 78 sub-categories. CONSTRUCTION MARKETER OF THE YEAR recognizes top brands, companies or individuals both by region. SUPERSTAR and STAR (first place/second place respectively) are awarded for each sub-category. Finally, BEST OF SHOW is bestowed on the winner of the most awards.

McGraw-Hill Construction (McGraw-Hill) won BEST OF SHOW with 13 total STAR Awards, along with the CONSTRUCTION MARKETER OF THE YEAR for the Eastern region. USG won CONSTRUCTION MARKETER OF THE YEAR for the Midwest region, as well as SUPERSTAR for the Integrated Campaign category. MWH Constructors won CONSTRUCTION MARKETER OF THE YEAR for the Western region, as well as SUPERSTAR for the Print Ad category.

“Our first annual Construction Marketing STAR Awards exceeded expectations both in the volume of entries and the quality of work,” explains CMA Chairman Neil M. Brown. “The CMA STAR Awards recognize both marketing effectiveness and creative execution in the construction category.”

AWARD winners were notified by email and mail, and receive a frame-quality certificate. In addition, winners can order an engraved STAR Statuette™ from the same manufacturer as the Oscar®. CMA’s annual STAR and CONSTRUCTION MARKETER OF THE YEAR AWARDS are open to both members and non-members.

SUPERSTAR and STAR Award Winners by category are as follows:

Award Winners by Category

Integrated Campaign
Superstar – USG
Star – McGraw-Hill

Print Ad Campaign
Superstar – McGraw-Hill
Star – SmartBidNet

Print Ad
Superstar – MWH Constructors
Star – Weather Guard

Print Advertorial
Superstar – McGraw-Hill

Print Insert
Superstar – McGraw-Hill
Star – McGraw-Hill

Banner Ad
Superstar – McGraw-Hill
Star – Weather Guard

Brand Identity/Logo
Superstar - Better Built Garages
Star – Knaack

Brand Identity/User Guide
Superstar – L&W Supply
Star – Kryton

Environmental Design
Superstar – Hilti

Internet/Website Design
Superstar – Maxwell Systems
Star – TapeTech

Blog
Superstar – Crane
Star – Bosch

Social Media/Profile
Superstar – Hilti
Star - McGraw-Hill

Search Optimization
Superstar – Jobsite123

Microsites
Superstar – Bosch
Star – McGraw-Hill

Brochure
Superstar – L&W Supply
Star – Sloan

Catalog
Superstar – Hilti
Star – TapeTech

Sales/Dealer Kit
Superstar – Polyglass
Star – Pouls

Media Kit
Superstar – McGraw-Hill

New Product Launch
Superstar – Ansell
Star – Reed Construction Data

Channel Marketing
Superstar – Hilti
Star – Knaack

Fleet/Vehicle
Superstar – Hilti
Star – Knaack

Packaging/Design
Star – Emerson

Photography/Product
Superstar – Hilti

Publicity/Press Event
Star – Weather Guard

Promotion/Contest
Star – Knaack

Promotion/Sports Marketing
Star – Bosch

Merchandising/POP
Superstar – Knaack
Star – Ames Tool

Trade Shows/Exhibit Design
Superstar – Polyglass
Star – McGraw-Hill

Exhibit Graphics
Superstar – McGraw-Hill
Star – McGraw-Hill

Exhibit Promotion
Superstar – McGraw-Hill

Event Invitation
Star – Hilti

Video/Product
Superstar – Weather Guard
Star – Ames Tool

Employee/Newsletter
Star – Ames Tool

The 2012 CMA STAR Awards will get underway in January, with the entry deadline in September and winners announced by November. For more information, visit the CMA awards subpage: www.ConstructionMarketingAssociation.org/Awards.cfm

A webcast on search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) best practices for the construction market is now open for registration on the Construction Marketing Association (CMA) website. The free webcast for members and non-members is scheduled for Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 1 pm CST.

Internet marketing is key for most marketing managers in the construction industry. Getting top search engine results is the goal for anyone responsible for Internet initiatives. Panelists include Jo Broussard, Google Account Manager for Construction Markets, and Derrick Manor, SEO manager for CMA strategic partner Construction Marketing Advisors. CMA Chairman Neil M. Brown will moderate and share results a live polling survey.

“Whether organic or paid, search marketing is foundational to a modern marketing program,” explains CMA Chairman Neil M. Brown. “Our panelists will detail SEO and PPC basics and advanced approaches to succeed.”

To register for the free SEO and PPC Best Practices Webcast CLICK HERE!

ABOUT CMA

The Construction Marketing Association (CMA) provides professional development and training, resources and information, networking and recognition to marketers in the construction industry. Full information on the association is available on the website at www.ConstructionMarketingAssociation.org. The site links to the award-winning Construction Marketing Blog with marketing news, resources and related content, and the association’s Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn pages. Questions? Contact Neil Brown at 630-579-8383.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Jo Broussard is Google Account Executive for Construction, active new business and strategic relationships with advertisers in the industry. She leads a team of account reps to create custom, cross-platform (search and emerging platform) ad solutions to drive new business opportunities for clients. Prior to Google, Jo led branding and information design projects for Fortune 500 companies during her tenure at Duarte Design. Jo holds a master’s degree in accounting and an undergraduate degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated magna cum laude in 2004.

Derrick Manor is SEO Manager for Construction Marketing Advisors. In his role, he manages search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), pay-per-click (PPC), web development and social media integration for multiple brands and companies in the construction industry, along with the Construction Marketing Association. Derrick earned a Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications from Ball State University.

Neil M. Brown is Chairman of the Construction Marketing Association, and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Construction Marketing Advisors. Prior to these roles, Brown was CEO of numerous marketing consulting and creative agencies for the past 15 years, managing some of the biggest brands in the construction sector. Brown was a brand manager at electrical products marketing powerhouse IDEAL Industries, and later CMO of an architectural metals manufacturer. Neil earned an MBA from Northern Illinois University, and a BS-Marketing from Southern Illinois University. Neil is a frequent speaker, author and contributor to Advertising Age, BtoB magazine, MarketingNews and many other publications. In 2009, he published the book, Branding Best Practices:  A Guide to Effective Product and Business Naming.