Last year, Engineering News-Record (ENR) parent company BNP Media acquired Creative MMS, a leading digital marketing firm to expand the company’s marketing services unit, BNP Engage.
Under the leadership of Ben LeDonni, founder of Creative MMS and now president of BNP Engage, ENR now offers a full portfolio of marketing services including website design and development, conversion rate optimization, marketing strategy, marketing content, SEO and social media marketing for the reader. companies and advertising clients alike.
I was excited to sit down with Ben recently to discuss how we can work together to help AEC companies and companies that market to the AEC industry improve and improve their marketing efforts.
SS: What are some of the most common marketing challenges you see among clients?
BL: To sum it up in two words, I would say “keeping up” or maybe “getting up to speed”. When I think about how fast marketing has evolved, it’s been exponential and less technical people struggle to keep up with the latest ways to reach potential customers; especially in business industries that tend toward veteran leaders. Veteran leaders tend to believe that what worked in the past will always work, and while some of the old tactics still work, if you’re not using the newest methods, you’re not keeping pace with a smarter competitor.
SS: Is there a difference in marketing professional services such as procurement or engineering design versus marketing products such as building materials, technology and equipment products?
BL: Some things are fundamentally the same. The process to arrive at any of their specific marketing strategies and recommended tactics is the same. Both companies need to know who they are trying to reach, what their message should be to that audience, and their unique position in the marketplace relative to competitors. This is some degree of business strategy, but it certainly overlaps with marketing. Where it differs is from then on. The audience they are trying to reach, combined with the message they need to deliver, determines the type of content and delivery platform. For example, a bit of text-based, local marketing with a personal, family-focused feel can work very well for a small residential contractor trying to reach a homeowner. But a new, highly technical content company trying to market to a wider audience (ie, the entire country) might want to produce short educational videos and launch a paid advertising campaign targeting their persona’s title, in the ‘the right size company on LinkedIn. let’s say. Also, the call to action for a contractor might be to schedule an appointment, while the material supplier should drive prospects to learn more through a webinar or downloadable spec sheet. Abraham Lincoln said, “If I had 6 hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first 4 sharpening the axe” and that’s our attitude towards marketing. The right strategy makes hacking much more effective.
SS: How would you characterize the pace of change in digital marketing today compared to five years ago before the pandemic?
BL: Exponential! Innovation in marketing has been accelerating, constantly changing from the days of print advertising to web marketing and the evolution of mobile, SEO and social media. Now, with the emergence and prevalence of AI, it is poised to grow even faster than before. The pandemic accelerated learning and working with Zoom, making webinars effective communication tools. We’ve found that even our team members who are experts in their respective fields need to have ongoing personal and professional growth plans to keep up with their fields. There’s a lot of pressure on a marketing or business development person in a company without a team like ours to rely on. These professionals are forced to keep up with changes in a wide range of marketing areas that I believe are very niche and expert. For example, we have people dedicated to each: SEO, Social Media, Design, Development and CRM. Each of them is changing so rapidly. Some companies we help have one person required to provide all of these niche services, who must be up-to-date with developments in each niche area. Our model of providing trained experts in each niche area mitigates exchange rate risk, and because we’re all passionate (read “geeky”) about what we do, keeping up to date is fun, not cumbersome.
SS: What can you do now with a brand like ENR and the resources of BNP Engage that you can’t offer with Creative MMS?
BL: First, the partnership allows us and the ENR team to work together to help market prospects alongside or beyond brand reach. For example, advertising on ENR can generate leads for our customers that we can then continue to cultivate and market beyond the initial point of contact. We do this through content marketing on your websites, website design and development, email marketing, CRM tools like Hubspot and social media. These also help generate leads through some inbound opportunities beyond the ENR audience; that is, most businesses should be doing this to generate their own leads and sales, and our efforts combined with reach really help with that.
Plus, we have access to data that makes sharpening our ax even more effective. We may use data about audience engagement on ENR to drive better content strategies outside of the ENR platform. For example, if we know that sustainable building products are the hot topics right now, while working to market an equipment manufacturer, we can make sure that their marketing content and website talk about the environmental factors of their technology. this team We group these topics into SEO/email strategy for what a brand is saying directly to their audience on their website and marketing outside of ENR. This has proven to be super powerful! Our strategic marketing plans with this partnership are more timely and include market factors we hadn’t considered before.
SS: Finally, what is BNP Engage’s value proposition for ENR’s audience companies and advertising clients?
BL: BNP Engage brings a unique and holistic combination of cutting-edge digital marketing prowess and deep industry knowledge to ENR’s audience and advertisers. Our core value lies in leveraging this combination to deliver not only immediate results, but also sustainable growth. Through data-driven strategies and a full suite of services, from SEO to content marketing, we are partners that ensure our clients not only keep pace but set the pace for their marketing efforts. Especially in industries that are slower to adopt today’s technologies, there are many opportunities for companies to outperform and excel beyond the competition by adopting these modern best practices. By leveraging ENR’s rich audience data and insights, we can also fine-tune our approaches to resonate deeply with the AEC sector. It’s about creating personalized and impactful campaigns and content that drive both engagement and business results. In essence, our partnership with ENR extends our clients’ reach, enhances their brand visibility and provides a competitive advantage that is difficult to replicate anywhere else.
If you would like to learn more about BNP Engage and how it can help your company’s digital marketing efforts, please contact Ben LeDonni directly at ledonnib@bnpmedia.com.
