SpecifiedBy.com

THE CONSTRUCTION MARKETERS GUIDE TO

BIM

A GUIDE TO USING BIM AS A MARKETING TOOL

By SpecifiedBySpecifiedBy.com/construction-marketing

darren@specifiedby.com

© SpecifiedBy 2014

Contents

1. Introduction

2. BIM 101

3. Marketing with BIM

4. Benefits of BIM as a Marketing Tool

5. Where to Start?

6. BIM Resources

7. BIM BONUS

© SpecifiedBy 2014

Unless you are really new to marketing construction products, you

will be well aware of Building Information Modelling and its

increasing role within the industry.

But while the techie’s argue about the best software to use, the

best way to deliver data drops and whether IFC is or is not the

answer to everything, building product marketers like yourself

have a few things to consider too.

Sure, this is really important stuff. Stuff that could dramatically

revolutionise the industry for the better. But BIM doesn’t work

without buy-in from building product manufacturers.

And actually, there’s a strong argument that the marketing

benefits of BIM actually provide the more important discussion for

building product manufacturers when it comes to deciding

whether or not to go ahead and get ‘BIM ready’.

Yet this is an area that seems to be remarkably light when it

comes to articles, discussion or guidance.

So our aim here is to give you, the savvy building product

marketer, a guide on the key aspects of BIM you need to know

about, the benefits to the marketing team and how you can get

started.

Enjoy.

Darren Lester

Founder, SpecifiedBy

Introduction

BIM 101OK, so let’s start with a really quick

overview of what BIM is and why you

should care. Feel free to skip this part if you

are up to speed.

@SpecifiedBy

“

What is BIM?

BIM is an acronym for Building Information Modelling, which is a

process that involves creating and using an intelligent 3D model

to inform and communicate project decisions.

The

National Building Information Model Standard Project Com

mittee

has the following definition:

“Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a digital

representation of physical and functional characteristics of a

facility. A BIM is a shared knowledge resource for information

about a facility forming a reliable basis for decisions during

its life-cycle; defined as existing from earliest conception to

demolition.”

One of the common misconceptions is that BIM is software.

But as you can see from this description, BIM is a process,

which is enabled by various types of design and data

management software.

Whilst it is currently the most talked about subject in

construction, it is not a new idea. BIM, as a concept, dates

back to the 1970’s when it was referred to under various

terminologies, such as ‘Virtual Building’ or ‘Integrated

Project Models’.

But it is only in the last 10 years that BIM has started to gain

a much broader audience, and really only over the last 2-3

years has it become such a hot topic.

BIM 101

@SpecifiedBy

What is a BIM Object?

A BIM object, sometimes referred to as a BIM component, or

model, is a 3D representation of a real-life object, in your case, a

building product. It is geometrically accurate to the real life

version of the product. Critically, for it to be classed as a BIM

object, rather than just a 3D CAD model, is that the model

contains, or links to, other data and information about the

product.

This can include information about the manufacturer,

performance properties such as U-value or Fire rating, and other

data such as cost or lifespan. It is this information that is the

really smart and valuable aspect of BIM.

Why is This Important for Building Product Companies?

As touched on briefly, BIM won’t work without the buy-in of

manufacturers. This is because BIM relies on the data or

information stored within the 3D objects. And for this to be an

accurate representation of real life and actually be useful, it

needs manufacturers’ data.

And because construction professionals need this information of a

project being created using BIM, they are more likely to use a

company that has provided them with the BIM object to make

their process really simple.

BIM 101

@SpecifiedBy

Marketing with BIMSo just how do we use BIM as a marketing

tool?

@SpecifiedBy

Well, in marketing terms, BIM is effectively nothing more than a

very technical form of content marketing which is aimed at a very

specific market – specifiers who use BIM.

It’s what we call an infoproduct.

Infoproducts

Infoproducts are generally types of long-form, technical content

that are great at attracting and converting your target customers.

While your blog posts will bring in traffic, relevant to your

products or services, infoproducts offer these readers to dig a bit

deeper on a particular topic in exchange for a bit of information

about them (name, email address, company etc.).

You get the details of someone who you know is interested in a

particular topic and they get a free copy of a valuable and useful

piece of information.

Your regular infoproduct would usually be one of the following:

eBooks

Guides

Infographics

Podcasts

Webinars

Slideshows

Useful tools (calculators etc.)

Marketing with BIM

@SpecifiedBy

This guide you’re reading right now is an infoproduct, designed to

help us identify the marketing people within construction

companies, who are interested in BIM, so we can start to build a

relationship.

And that’s the really powerful aspect of infoproducts and in this

case, your BIM content. They allow you to target a really specific

type of customer and position your company as an educational

and valuable resource on a particular topic. Over time, this builds

trust and makes it an easier decision for people to use your

products.

So you need to use your BIM content as you would with any other

piece of good quality content marketing and use it to accurately

identify quality sales leads.

Marketing with BIM

@SpecifiedBy

Benefits of BIM asA Marketing Tool

Ignoring the demands of Government

projects to use BIM, let’s have a look at

some of the other benefits of having BIM

objects as part of your content marketing

arsenal.

@SpecifiedBy

#1. Identify Very Specific, Quality Leads

As touched on before, your BIM content will attract a very specific

type of potential specifier (ie. One using BIM). But perhaps even

better than that is that the action of downloading your BIM

content shows real intent. Anyone could download your brochure

to have a high-level browse through, without any real intention of

using your product at this stage, but downloading a BIM object

suggests your product is at the very least being very closely

looked at.

#2. Stand Out from the Crowd

Don’t be fooled by all the noise surrounding BIM. We’re still a long

way from wide scale adoption, and on the manufacturers side,

only a relative handful of manufacturers have BIM content

available. If you look at the two main content creation houses in

the UK (Bimstore and National BIM Library) they only created

content for around 80 companies between them (accurate at the

time of writing). But this number is growing all the time. By acting

now, you could massively benefit from ‘first-mover’ advantage.

#3. Create a PR Storm

Building on the previous point, being the first [insert product type]

manufacturers to have BIM content created is a newsworthy story.

Industry press and journals will pick it up and run with it. And

even if you’re not the first in your product vertical, you will still

pick up press. Again, there is not as wide scale adoption as the

noise can make it seem. Tell people that you’ve got BIM content,

and more importantly, why.

Benefits of BIM as a Marketing Tool

#4. Demonstrate Technical and Digital Savvy

In an increasingly digital environment for sales and marketing

(and everything really!) it can only be beneficial to demonstrate

that your company is no dinosaur. Show everyone that you are on

top of modern technology and that you are willing to invest in

staying ahead of the game. This is only going to be more

important as the wave of digital construction professionals come

to the fore.

Benefits of BIM as a Marketing Tool

@SpecifiedBy

Where to Start?So let’s assume your company have or

have decided that you will get BIM content

created. How do we start marketing with

them?

@SpecifiedBy

Step 1. Get them on Your Website

The first thing you need to do is get your BIM content online. You

will want to do this in a few places in order to ensure you get the

most visibility, but the first place to start is your website.

Most companies will have a dedicated BIM area on their website,

where specifiers can download BIM objects for all of their

products. This is fine, and is a good idea to have, but it’s just as

important to have BIM objects available on each individual

products page.

This is important as many visitors to your site may only land on a

specifics products page, so they should be able to find all they

need for that product on that page. This also provides a much

better user experience than having to navigate different areas of

your website, depending on the type of content required.

Step 2. Get them on Other Websites

Getting your content on your own website will be the first step,

but in order to really make the most of your BIM content and

reach the widest audience, you need to get it out on other

relevant platforms.

If you have content created by BIMstore or National BIM Library

(NBL), then they will likely provide you with hosting on their

respective platforms. These are good for attracting users who are

specifically looking for BIM content and already know exactly

what they need. But for many specifiers, this is not the case.

Where to Start?

They need to find your BIM content in the context of researching

your building products, in which case they need more than just

your BIM content.

At SpecifiedBy we host BIM content from both BIMstore, NBL and

content created in-house by manufacturers, but importantly, it is

promoted alongside your other vital product information –

datasheets, sample specifications, CAD files, case studies etc.

allowing specifiers to find and download your BIM content when

they need it.

Step 3. Collect Leads

Your BIM objects are now online, but that’s not enough in itself.

This content needs to be generating leads for you to qualify and

follow up with, so whether it’s your own website, or any other,

you need to be capturing details from the people who are

demonstrating their interest in your products, by downloading

your BIM content.

At the very least, you should be aiming to collect a name and

email address, but really you want to be collecting as much

information as possible. Who do they work for? What is the

project they are working on? When does it start? Etc. etc.

To do this on your own website you can either ask for some

combination of these details every time someone wants to

download a file, which becomes a real pain for the user if they

need more than one, or you can create a signup process in which

you capture the persons details once, and then track what they

download each time they come back and log in.

Where to Start?

With third party sites you need to be getting this data as well.

Again, at the very least, they should be collecting names and

email addresses, but preferably much more. At SpecifiedBy, we

capture details of the specifiers projects and a history of products

they’ve been interested in or specified.

Tip: Making the simple change of asking for people to enter their

‘Work Email’ rather than just their ‘Email’ will see the majority of

people use their work email, so you can work out what company

they work for.

Step 4. Get the Word Out

As we touched on earlier, there is still a good story to be told

when you have created your BIM content, so push for whatever

PR you can when you launch them. The platforms you host them

on should help, particularly when it comes to search engines, and

then there is plenty you can do yourself.

Create content (guides, blogs etc.) around BIM related

keywords that link to your content eg. window bim objects

Attend BIM focused events to meet people who are working

with BIM and need BIM content

Create case studies for projects where your BIM objects have

been used

Create informational content about the creation of your BIM

objects were and the information they contain

Where to Start?

@SpecifiedBy

Step 5. Keep People Up to Date

One of the challenges with BIM is that there will inevitably be

regular updates to your objects, either due to general changes

needed to improve the BIM object itself, changes to your

products, or an update to comply with new software versions.

Whatever it is, make sure you let anyone who has downloaded

your BIM content know when it has been updated, or even when

you have had additional content created that they can now

access.

It’s a great excuse to get in touch with someone, see how they

are getting on and what projects they have coming up and to

generally keep your products fresh in their mind.

They’ll appreciate you taking the time to make sure they have the

most up-to-date version of your content.

Where to Start?

@SpecifiedBy

BIM ResourcesTo finish, here’s a collection of websites and

articles worth visiting to learn more about

BIM from a manufacturers perspective.

@SpecifiedBy

Websites

BIM Task Group – useful website which aims to help deliver the

objectives of the Government Construction Strategy

BIM4SMEs - working group aimed at helping SMEs to better

understand and engage with BIM

BIM4SMEs LinkedIn Group - Join in the discussion with other SMEs

BIMCrunch – BIM related news and opinion

Useful Articles

A Q&A with the Cubicle Centre on their BIM Journey

Discussion with ASSA ABLOY on their decision to become ‘BIM Rea

dy’

Article from AluK looking at how they justify the costs of BIM

Guides

Government BIM Report – Outline of the Governments plans to

support and encourage BIM Adoption

BIM for the Terrified – Technical look at adopting BIM from

Construction Products Association

Content Creation

Bimstore – Space Group / BIM Technologies

National BIM Library – RIBA Enterprises / NBS

Bimstore Standards and Templates for In-house Creation

BIM Resources

As a thank you for downloading and reading this guide, we’ve got

a special discount which gives you 20% off the annual cost of

our Lead Generation package which comes with unlimited

hosting for all your BIM content. That’s a saving of £298 per

year!!!

Go to http://specifiedby.com/construction-marketing, register your

company and enter the code below when you are asked to choose

between the Listing Only plan or Lead Generation plan.

**BIM BONUS**

1798

20% Off

01 06 14

SpecifiedBy for Manufacturers

“SpecifiedBy makes it even easier for specifiers to access details about the performance and properties of our product range and compare them with others on the market in order to make an informed decision.”Abby Chandler, Marketing Manager @ Heckmondwike

“…a must for manufacturers to be on.”Paul Ogle, Marketing Manager @ Olsen Doors & Windows

“Unlike other portals, SpecifiedBy puts us directly in touch with clients who are specifically in need of our particular specialised products and services.”Andrew Guppy, Marketing Manager @ Classic Barns Company

"Specifier leads are crucial to our business"Craig Sewell, Marketing Manager, Cubicle Centre

SpecifiedBy.com/construction-marketingdarren@specifiedby.com

© SpecifiedBy 2014