We love the world of the built environment: the feats of imagination, design, engineering and construction we see around us every day never cease to amaze us.
But just as a skyscraper requires foundations, structure and cladding, your reputation needs to be constructed carefully so that it doesn't topple at the first sign of a stiff breeze.
In this blog, we showcase six easy, time-efficient ways in which you can build your reputation and positioning in the mind of your clients and wider world: simple ways to use ready - and often free - channels to showcase your abilities and demonstrate how you are aligned with the needs of your clients:
Use your company website as the starting point to showcase your projects, building case studies that reveal more than just the contract value and location.
Explain the challenges you overcame – and how – and use professional pictures to highlight the project and key people. And what was the difference you made? What value, cost or time savings were created, and do you have quotes from happy clients to build in?
Company milestones also offer opportunities to build a picture of success: appointments, new contracts, new offices – anything new and different that will attract interest and attention.
Consider: would an event – even a cheap and cheerful barbeque - be a good way to celebrate a new milestone with your client? These opportunities are gold in terms of building a good relationship with your client outside of day-to-day work.
Find and create opportunities to showcase your people and their knowledge, via:
- Regular reports you send to your client on project progress
- Newsletters
- Annual Reports or other company publications / collateral
- Online channels – through e.g: LinkedIn / groups
- In the media
Knowledge is always a more powerful tool than service 'sell'. What your people know about their world is often valuable and interesting to the outside world – so, as long as you don't give away your valuable IP, then it's worth considering.
3. Use your team meetings productively
Include a 'PR' item in your meetings every time – a 2 minute discussion to capture what you might wish to put on your website / in your newsletter, or as an email to clients: what is new and / or different about something you are doing?
You'll definitely save time later on if someone records that detail now…
Regional media provide opportunities for you to showcase your work in a community and is particularly useful if backed up by trends, data and regional commentary.
Give opinion. Ask yourselves: do you have some new information that the market would find interesting – for example, a trend spotted, made or broken - or have you achieved a milestone that should be publicised?
But just as a skyscraper requires foundations, structure and cladding, your reputation needs to be constructed carefully so that it doesn't topple at the first sign of a stiff breeze.
In this blog, we showcase six easy, time-efficient ways in which you can build your reputation and positioning in the mind of your clients and wider world: simple ways to use ready - and often free - channels to showcase your abilities and demonstrate how you are aligned with the needs of your clients:
1. Tell the stories of your successes
Use your company website as the starting point to showcase your projects, building case studies that reveal more than just the contract value and location.
Explain the challenges you overcame – and how – and use professional pictures to highlight the project and key people. And what was the difference you made? What value, cost or time savings were created, and do you have quotes from happy clients to build in?
Company milestones also offer opportunities to build a picture of success: appointments, new contracts, new offices – anything new and different that will attract interest and attention.
Consider: would an event – even a cheap and cheerful barbeque - be a good way to celebrate a new milestone with your client? These opportunities are gold in terms of building a good relationship with your client outside of day-to-day work.
2. Build a picture of your brand through knowledgeable, connected people
Find and create opportunities to showcase your people and their knowledge, via:
- Regular reports you send to your client on project progress
- Newsletters
- Annual Reports or other company publications / collateral
- Online channels – through e.g: LinkedIn / groups
- In the media
Knowledge is always a more powerful tool than service 'sell'. What your people know about their world is often valuable and interesting to the outside world – so, as long as you don't give away your valuable IP, then it's worth considering.
3. Use your team meetings productively
Include a 'PR' item in your meetings every time – a 2 minute discussion to capture what you might wish to put on your website / in your newsletter, or as an email to clients: what is new and / or different about something you are doing?
You'll definitely save time later on if someone records that detail now…
4. In the media:
Regional media provide opportunities for you to showcase your work in a community and is particularly useful if backed up by trends, data and regional commentary.
Give opinion. Ask yourselves: do you have some new information that the market would find interesting – for example, a trend spotted, made or broken - or have you achieved a milestone that should be publicised?
5. Use your tenders to tell stories
6. Repeat yourself until you are sick of it! And then do it again...