How do we promote your content through social media networks?

Whether you have engaged with the world of social media marketing or not, it is always useful to have people distribute and share your content through these channels on your behalf. It increases your audience, contributes to your brand building, and can help push your content up the search engine rankings.

Did you know that the Content Team at ESI.info has been actively promoting your products and services via channels like Twitter and blogs for several years now? During this time, we have built up a large network of UK built environment professionals.

Through editorially led Twitter feeds, and with the help of our publishing executives and business developers, we have got to know thousands of your prospects, clients and collaborators on Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Facebook.

These people have been directed towards your content on ESI.info and have shared it with their colleagues, signed up for eNewsletters or otherwise engaged with your product or service offering.

Image courtesy of mkhmarketing.wordpress.com

Marketplace-branded Twitter feeds

We have made great headway as early adopters of social media marketing here at ESI.info. However, we are always on the look-out for improvements. We are now making some changes to how we promote your content through Twitter. These changes are designed to ensure that as many people as possible – and what’s more, the most relevant people in your company’s target market – get to see your content via ESI.info’s Twitter activities.

From now on, we will have five Twitter feeds, corresponding to our five ESI.info ‘marketplaces’: External Works, Interior Design, Building Design, Building Services and Environmental Engineering.

Each feed will be very clearly identified, both in terms of branding and content, as being specific to that particular market. This means that its followers – your audience, your prospects and clients – will know at a glance that this Twitter account is directly relevant to them, their interests and their community.

The more relevant and directly appropriate information we promote through these marketplace-specific feeds, the more people will want to engage with and share this content.

This, in turn, ties in with our ambition to help designers and buyers make better decisions for better environments.

It also goes hand-in-hand with the way we organise information and communication through other channels: the landing pages and associated content on ESI.info, the monthly eNewsletters and the ESI blogs each relate to a specific marketplace.

You can check out our marketplace-branded Twitter feeds here:

• External Works
• Interior Design
• Building Design
• Building Services
• Environmental Engineering

If you have products, services or other content you are keen for us to publicise through our Twitter feeds, do get in touch. Don’t forget, you can use our simple Content Management System to update your pages on ESI.info so that they’re fresh and ready for sharing.

Call the Content Team on 01786 407000 to get involved!

ESI.info marketplace-specific Twitter feeds

Lift for construction industry as London 2012 Marketing Protocol is relaxed

Last quarter, suppliers to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were finally able to promote the work they did last summer after a deal between the Government, the BOA and the IOC was reached. If you helped build the Park or the venues, or provided goods and services for the Games, you can now actively promote your involvement. The move may provide a significant boost to the construction industry economy.

Image by Danny Nicholson on Flickr

Supplier recognition scheme

Companies need to apply to the BOA’s ‘supplier recognition scheme’ for a free license. On receipt of the free license, they will be able to promote their work at trade shows both in the UK and internationally, apply for industry awards for their London 2012 work, and use their Olympic involvement in direct pitches and tender documentation when competing for international contracts. Additionally, the license will give businesses exclusive access to the Olympic Delivery Authority’s (ODA) library of more than 4,000 free photographs from the Games.

Case studies on ESI.info

You can promote your case studies of the London 2012 Games on ESI.info, in our opt-in email newsletters and in print in External Works edition 23, to reach tens of thousands of key decision-makers in the UK design and construction industry.

Case studies, authored and edited by our Content Team, follow a problem –> solution format, and demonstrate your expertise in providing buyers and specifiers with design assistance and technical support. They can also be used to highlight a multi-product supply solution, or your capabilities for producing bespoke products that address specific problems or unique site conditions.

Supplier recognition scheme – FAQ

Case studies – External Works – external furniture

How to maximise the visual impact of your entries

A picture speaks a thousand words… A truism, perhaps, but the old adage certainly makes sense in the world of product specification. We saw a good example of this in our interview with architect Matt Franklin on ESI.infoTV: designers and buyers often narrow down their product shortlist on the basis of visual information alone.

In this quick ‘How to’ video, we show you how to make the most of the images in your illustrated entries on ESI.info. Brand new functionality in our Content Management System allows you to re-crop, zoom and drag-and-drop images to make sure your product page or case study looks its best.

Follow these simple steps to update your images on ESI.info:

1. Log in via My ESI, top right corner of the ESI.info home page.
2. Find an entry where the images need updating, e.g. one with white edges along the sides, and click ‘Edit this entry’.
3. Open the ‘Images’ field, select the picture you want to update, and copy the image caption.
4. Click the yellow ‘Add an image’ button, upload it from your machine, and crop. (Alternatively, if we still hold your original picture on our system, you can use the ‘Re-crop’ button – above the blue cross next to the image. A small text box will appear when you hover over the re-crop symbol, showing you if this is an option.)
5. Copy in the caption, then delete the old picture (by pressing the blue cross next to it).
6. You can now drag and drop the images to rearrange the order in which they appear.
7. Save and exit, go back to the relevant entry on ESI.info and enjoy the results! You can now press ‘Zoom’ to enlarge the images, too – a great tool for vision-led specifiers, particularly if the picture is of a good quality.

Do get in touch if you’re wanting help with any of this – the ESI.info Content Team is only a phone call away.

Hot tip: Quick new links to edit your content on ESI.info

If you want to update any of your illustrated entries or content on ESI.info, then we’ve made it even easier for you to start editing your content at the click of a button.

Once you’ve found the page you want to edit, simply log in to ESI.info using your email and password and then click the Edit this entry link to start editing the entry in the content management area.

This link will then appear on all your pages on ESI.info saving you time when it comes to keeping your content up to date.

If you need a reminder of your log in details for our Client Information Centre then simply click the forgot your password button or contact us

Tel 01786 407000 Mon-Friday 09:00-17:00hrs

Or email us

How do designers and specifiers use ESI.info? Find out with ESI.info TV

Over the last 3 months, ESI.info have been working with Su Butcher of Just Practising to interview designers, architects and landscape architects about ways they use ESI.info to source specialist products and services on live projects.

The aim of the campaign was to generate insight about the important role ESI.info plays in helping designers, specifiers and buyers choose what and who to work with.

Episode 1:  Matt the Architect- How illustrated content helps specifiers at design stage.

Matt Franklin of mbf design is a regular user of ESI.info. In this episode Matt shows how illustrated entries are key in helping him refer products and systems to his clients for one of his recent projects.

Episode 2: Using ESI.info to shortlist and contact manufacturers

In this video Su Butcher talks to interior designer, garden and landscape designers Francoise Murat & Associates.  Francoise’s use of ESI.info reflects the range of disciplines she works in, and illustrates how effective the website is in finding relevant solutions for a wide array of built environment projects.

Episode 3: Award Winning Landscape Architects Davies White talk about EXTERNAL WORKS

In this video Su Butcher talks to RHS Gold Medal winning Landscape Architect Adam White FLI, director of Davies White Limited, about sourcing products and specialist services for a major public works project. Adam is a regular and loyal user of EXTERNAL WORKS and describes how the book and the website have become his first port of call when sourcing specialist suppliers and materials.

The award-winning industry bible, EXTERNAL WORKS. To print or not to print? That was the question.

Over 25 years of influence and expertise as the market leader and still going strong!

We recently undertook a survey to find out how many professionals and companies still use the EXTERNAL WORKS directory, either in its printed form (affectionately known as the industry bible) or via our website www.ESI.info

The survey, which was completed by over 2200 professionals involved in external works and landscape projects, clearly illustrates that this trusted, reliable printed resource is still very much in demand, when it comes to making decisions about who and what to work with.

Nearly 80% of those who took part in the survey, confirmed that they still used their printed edition of  EXTERNAL WORKS and over 70% of respondents wanted to receive a new, up-to-date edition.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

A trusted and reliable source for finding and comparing products and services

Most respondents referred to EXTERNAL WORKS as their first port of call when looking for new products or suppliers. The main factors influencing this choice related to convenience, timesaving, the authority and reliability of the information published. Many indicated that they preferred the book as everything was in one place, rather than having to use search engines to look for several companies at a time.

A significant segment also referred to EXTERNAL WORKS as an essential visual aid and reference when discussing designs or specifications in meetings with the design team or with clients.

Click image to enlarge

 

Online routes to EXTERNAL WORKS

Approximately 21% preferred to access EXTERNAL WORKS information online.

Factors for choosing online routes related to convenience, the depth and currency of information and saving time when contacting relevant manufacturers or suppliers. Respondents also indicated they often started using the book and then went online to find more granular information in order to shortlist and compare products, or to contact multiple suppliers.

Click image to enlarge

Unsurprisingly, the pressure on space in offices meant fewer respondents had access to printed libraries, and many companies indicated company policy meant a move to paperless working. Other factors for online included those working in shared or mobile workspaces.

What was surprising, was fewer than  1% of respondents mentioned visiting manufacturers websites directly when sourcing products and suppliers online, preferring to use websites like ESI.info where they could significantly save time looking for products or services.

Key findings from these survey results indicate EXTERNAL WORKS and ESI.info play a very influential role in supporting key decisions when it comes to finding products, materials and companies to work with.

Looking ahead

With such a strong and clear response from our customers, we have decided to print a 25th anniversary edition of the EXTERNAL WORKS directory to be released in May 2013.

This decision goes hand in hand with an exciting development programme planned throughout 2013 to make EXTERNAL WORKS information available in different formats including, print, online and mobile to meet the evolving needs of designers and buyers. We’re also updating our monthly eNewsletters to focus on new products and solutions to a rapidly growing list of opt in subscribers.

Talk to us

If you would like to feature your products and services in this 25th anniversary edition of EXTERNAL WORKS or on ESI.info then we’d love to hear from you.

To request a Media Pack or talk to one of our Account Managers, please contact:
Email:    marketing@esi.info
Tel:         01786 407000

Increasing page views and enquiries for your company – the devil’s in the detail

We’re never happy standing still at ESI.info. Our goal is to maximise conversions for you and all the other companies featured on the site. To this end we’re continually improving the user experience for the thousands of specifiers, buyers and designers who choose ESI.info every day. By helping them to make smarter decisions more quickly we are confident we will create more leads for you.

Great tips from an Architect. Make it easier for your products to be found and specified?

We all know architects and designers are highly visual people. So it comes as no surprise that appearance is a key factor when specifying products or systems for client projects.

Getting social with ESI.info

All companies listed on ESI.info can now add social media links to your company profile pages, allowing designers, specifiers and buyers easy access to share and connect with your accounts. This new development allows you to clearly display your Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts next to your company profile.

Catching our eye on the web in August

August -  After a truly spectacular games, life slowly returns to normal at ESI.info towers.  That said, there has been some fantastic resources and posts on the web this month.