Katie [00:00:02]:
Welcome to the AEC Marketing for Principles podcast. This show is designed as a conversation between sales and marketing principals to address trends, challenges and best practices that are driving growth for professional service firms. Through our collection of discussions with subject matter experts, industry legends and leaders, we aim to share thoughts and practical tips with our listeners and that you can use for growing your AEC brands. Hosted by me, Katie Cash, Senior Vice President at smartigies, the AEC growth consulting firm that’s been developing smart business strategies for design and construction firms since 2008.
Leslie Blaze [00:00:42]:
Hi everyone. Welcome back to AEC Marketing with principals Katie Cash here. And you know, we’re starting to get into procurement season here in the AEC world, so I thought we could spend today talking about one of what I believed to be an underrated tool in any AEC marketers toolkit. And that is a well written, well framed case study. Some of you may call it a project sheet, a PI sheet, project portfolio, whatever it might be. We’re basically talking about how do you leverage your past project experience and the stories from that experience to gain new work. And so today my guest is Leslie Blaze. She is a cpsm.
Leslie Blaze [00:01:28]:
So for all of you marketers out there, she is a fellow marketer as well, and she’s a freelance content strategist and she’s a writer. So you guessed it, Leslie does specialize in crafting case studies for AEC firms. She knows how to pull those stories out. She’s worked with firms large and small, various disciplines all across the US and she has a really good perspective on what makes a story resonate with your readers. Not just with clients, but maybe say, prospective employees or you know, highly technical selection committee members that really want to get into the weeds or maybe the other side of the coin. And it’s the generalist buyer that have never pursued or purchased professional service before and they don’t know what a civil engineer does. So how do you have a story for that? And as we sit here and competition is heating up and I know lots of firms in the AEC space are trying to find ways to break into new markets where maybe they don’t have experience. And case studies are really one of those ways that you can show your knowledge and that you can bring some of that experience to bear and they’ve never been more valuable in my opinion.
Leslie Blaze [00:02:42]:
So Leslie, I’m super excited to have you on the show today. Welcome to today’s Conversation.
Katie [00:02:47]:
Thank you, Katie. It’s really delightful to be here. You’re inviting me to talk about one of my favorite topics Case studies for the AEC world. I think it’s my mission is to promote the use of case studies and storytelling in the industry because the industry has so many good stories to tell and I know that a lot of people that are in it, you know, it’s like, oh, the technical expertise, that’s what’s important. And that’s true, that is very important. But there are lovely stories that you can tell that form a human connection and can really make a difference for those people that want to work with you because, you know, you’re hired because they know like and trust you. Often, you know, you go to client interviews and the people who are listening think, you know, they really are all technically qualified. But who do I want to work with? Who can I collaborate with over the next, perhaps even year, two years, whatever.
Katie [00:03:37]:
These are big ticket items, often the times. So the people that hire you want to know that they would like working with you. And case studies, I also call them client success stories are one way to tell the story, especially from the client’s point of view about how they loved working with you. So that’s why I’m delighted to be here. Katie.
Leslie Blaze [00:03:56]:
Oh, I’m so excited. And we do share a passion point. This is going to be fun. There’s lots of ways for us to kind of dig into this topic. And what I love about it is all of our listeners can relate to this. Because you could be a small consulting firm, you’re going to need case studies to help, you know, showcase and talk about what you have done and what you’re able to do for future clients. If you’re a big firm, you’ve got to do it. If you sell engineering or architecture or landscape architecture or construction or program management, it doesn’t matter.
Leslie Blaze [00:04:27]:
Everybody can use a well written case study. And I know, Leslie, you’ve made a career helping AEC firms better tell those project stories, you know, know more than just the facts and the figures of the highlights that you put in the sidebar. Right. But why do you think case studies are kind of having their moment in the spotlight right now and they’re becoming so essential that they do have that human connectivity point?
Katie [00:04:51]:
Well, you know what, AI can’t write a case study. I mean, you can feed it information, but if you have a client focused case study or a client success story, a crucial part of that is, is talking to you. You’re the company, you’re happy client. And they talk about how they liked working with you. And so those quotes, those stories, AI can’t come up with those. Because I know in this day and age, a lot of firms are probably using AI in some aspect. We hopefully not just feeding it in and getting it out, and that’s it. You don’t want to do that.
Katie [00:05:23]:
You always want to have the personal touch on what you write. Case studies tell that the human side of it, and that can be lost. And also, you don’t want proposals to be where, you know, somebody thinks, oh, they’re all alike. You know, you want to stand out. How can you stand out? It’s your stories. Nobody else has those stories. You know, where your guys, our women, went the extra mile and really came up with a good solution that helped the client. So I think that’s why they’re having a moment.
Katie [00:05:47]:
It’s all about these days, you hear talk of the human connection. Yeah.
Leslie Blaze [00:05:51]:
And, you know, I don’t think a day goes by where I don’t have a conversation that kind of curves into an AI discussion. And you’re right. You know, there’s a time and a place to use AI to help you with ideation and content generation. And I do think, you know, there’s certain ways you can use an AI tool to help you be in a better position to tell your story. So say, for example, you know, you just submitted a proposal and you got word that you won that project. Well, now, great. Let’s create a case study out of it. Right.
Leslie Blaze [00:06:24]:
One of the first things you might do as a marketer is you might upload that RFP that outlined the scopes of services and maybe the project parameters you might load in the client URL and a few other things and get it to give you a baseline of just the facts. But you’re right, Leslie, you don’t want to publish that. Nobody wants to read that. Even computers don’t want to read that.
Katie [00:06:47]:
Right.
Leslie Blaze [00:06:48]:
You’ve got to still put on your human hat and think about things. And what I like to advocate for is you want to think about things that your audience might want to buy and what is interesting to them and not just what you want to share. So, sure, it’s great you won this, you know, this new project that’s exciting. How is it relevant to the rest of the world? And how can you frame that case study to be important? You know, and I think you and I share that perspective. You know, when it comes to case studies, you’re putting them in your marketing materials, whether it’s in a proposal on your website, you know, a feature on your social media that’s valuable, real Estate. So getting the story right is critically important, that you’re making sure the reader and the audience gets it and that they view it through the lens that you’re wanting them to. Hey, do I trust this brand? Do I want to work with that person? You know, is that a project that I could see my organization getting excited about, getting behind? So let’s talk a little bit about that. Let’s talk about how do you understand what detail stays and what detail goes or, you know, what kind of stories the owners or the audience might actually want to hear from these AEC brands.
Katie [00:08:02]:
Okay, well, let’s talk about what the owners, what the company, the AEC company, what kind of case studies they want to create. It really comes down to your strategy sessions. So you know, you’ve got the owners and maybe marketers, business developers, project managers or whatever, and you’re talking about, okay, what are the key pursuits we’re going to go after in the next year? Okay, so this is what we’re going to go after. Well, what are some similar projects that we’ve done that we should highlight through case studies? And so then, you know, you can pick out your projects and schedule them and, you know, pursue them that way. And I think, and then you also, when you’re actually writing the case study, it’s like, okay, what elements do we really want to emphasize in this case study that are going to help us with these future pursuits? There’s different ways of looking at case studies. You know, you can write a project and bring in client testimonials, or the other way is to have what I call a client success story or a client focused case study. And that’s where you talk to your happy client of that strategic project and let them tell their story. And your project manager, you can have quotes from them about the process and you can have a sidebar where you list the technical details, but your happy client is the star.
Katie [00:09:13]:
And they say, you know, I had this situation, you know, and I really needed to solve it. And this AAC firm came in and they really, their solution really helped me. And now my situation is better for whatever reason. But it comes down to strategically looking at what are the key projects that can help you out down the road. Cause you know, the projects, you know, a lot of firms know, okay, that bridge is coming up or the downtown development or whatever, and you could be prepared for it. You can start doing early work to position your yourself.
Leslie Blaze [00:09:42]:
And I think kind of what you described is, you know, when we think about all the different places, project case Studies. These portfolio profiles take up when it comes to helping position for your firm. When you think about your website, you know, kind of your online store, something that needs to be always on and something that is attractive and useful for a wide variety of audiences, your case study that you present in that format might look and read a little bit differently. I think that’s a great opportunity to use your idea, Leslie, of, you know, really showcasing the story from the client’s point of view, because other owners can probably view themselves through those shoes and through that lens. And it’s really easy to relate to that on a human to human standpoint. And then for social media, it might be a little bit smaller, it might be a little bit, you know, more visual. You might take out unique pieces and that might be a great opportunity to do the challenge solution format. You know, I know we see that a lot and again, it’s still human to human, trying to find a way to connect.
Leslie Blaze [00:10:48]:
But I want to take a minute and maybe talk a little bit more about leveraging case studies, getting them to work harder at the bottom of the funnel. When you have that sales initiated ask and the marketing team is partnering with business development. They’re responding to those RFQs, those RFPs, and you know exactly what project you’re chasing. And you’re going through your Libra library of case studies and you’re trying to decide which one is most relevant, which one showcases, you know, similar expertise, which one points to similar client pain points, which ones, you know, are really going to let this client, the reviewing selection committee, understand that I’m a low risk decision. I’ve done it before. Here’s all the proof points. You can talk to my clients, you know, this, that and the other. One of the big things that I’ve learned in my career as a AEC marketer is you might have a project library, say on your marketing drive, and you’ve got all of the facts about your job.
Leslie Blaze [00:11:49]:
Maybe you have a database, but you might have six or 12 different ways you tell the story of that project. You might talk about it from a scheduled performance standpoint because sometimes that’s the relevant connective tissue you want to bring forward. Sometimes it might be from a budget success standpoint. Maybe it’s community involvement, maybe it’s, you know, sustain. You might slice and dice the way that you share that story in a lot of different ways. And I think it’s the marketer’s job to think about as they’re putting those proposals together, what’s the right way for me to frame this particular project experience that my firm has to make it relevant for this opportunity. So, Leslie, I’d love for you to maybe give a little bit of insight on, you know, maybe some best practices our marketers could use when they’re sorting through case studies to find the story hidden within the details, you know, and making those connective points to what they’re chasing and what they’ve done.
Katie [00:12:49]:
Katie, I think you said it really well. It’s like, okay, what are the key elements of this project you’re pursuing? Like, if it is a scheduling issue, then go to some of these strategic projects and bring out, you know, maybe the happy client. Said, we weren’t sure we can, you know, finish it, the timeframe, but ABC firm really knew how to schedule it and we got it done on time and that made all the difference. If you could pull out some of those quotes, just think how that would liven up your proposal. Having a few really key quotes or testimonials for the issue that the prospect is really concerned about, you know, so I think that’s, that’s a good idea, or even go back to the project manager and maybe ask for a little bit more.
Leslie Blaze [00:13:28]:
And I think that those, those are really good tips for our marketers. Here is to think about what resources are available to you. So in most cases, the projects that your firm has had the opportunity to provide services on, there’s usually a scope of work and a contract that you could reference to what your role was and what you were responsible for. In some cases, there might have been a formal RFP that you responded to that talked about, you know, maybe the owner entity and the scope of services and the project details that you can reference. But then internally, absolutely lean into your internal resources, your project managers, you know, your superintendents, the engineer, whoever might have touched that project and understand from their perspective, what was it like, what are they most proud of, you know, what was a highlight during the project, what was one of the most challenging pieces. I really like to encourage our marketers to get out from behind the screen sometimes and have some of those internal conversations. It does two things. It allows you to have a face to face or a screen to screen conversation with your internal clients, those technical partners that we work with day to day.
Leslie Blaze [00:14:36]:
But it also allows you to get different perspectives and you kind of act like a journalist in that. Right. You’ve done your research ahead of time, you’re coming with some questions and you’re finding ways to build a story. And when you ask different people, even the same Questions. Nine times out of ten you’re going to get a different angle and then we can just take all of that back to the lab and use that as we’re creating the narratives and kind of anchor all of those pull quotes like you mentioned, Leslie. You know, pull those into a text library so that you have them at your disposal. When that unique, you know, marketing opportunity comes up, you can go to it, pull it forward and have it to shape your story.
Katie [00:15:15]:
I mean, you can dissect your case study. If you’ve got a written case study, you can take that apart and you know, like with the quotes you said, or if there’s some good metrics, graphics, photos and have those at the ready. You know, that’s the whole point of a case study. You have a lot of return on investment because you have one piece and you can dissect it and then use those pieces in different ways. Or the client interview, you know, you could go back and take out that picture and that quote and put it up there. That’s going to make your client presentation a lot more engaging as well.
Leslie Blaze [00:15:48]:
Well, and I’m sticking kind of with the proposal development piece. I’ll get on a little bit of a soapbox. I’ll advocate for my owners out there that are often charged with reviewing these proposals. And you know, we have to remember most of those individuals, they have full time jobs that don’t include reviewing proposals. So they’re carving time out of their day where, you know, they’re actively managing school systems or you know, they’re over healthcare systems or they’re actively, you know, trying to develop day data centers or whatever the market might be. Nobody really signs up and says, I want to review AEC proposal, right? And no marketer wants to put one together. Like we wouldn’t do it if you didn’t ask us to. So preparing those case studies, you know, it’s kind of Marketing 101.
Leslie Blaze [00:16:36]:
Remember your audience, don’t make them hunt for information they asked for. So those sidebars on your case studies are super helpful if they want to know, hey, what was the initial project value and the final project value and the reason for the difference? Make it easy. I also, when I was, you know, a proposal reviewer at the state level, I hated having to read the same information twice. So don’t tell me the thing in the sidebar and then give it to me in narrative format too. Like use the space wisely, you get a limited amount of real estate there. Tell me something different. And I really appreciated it when the marketing Teams took time to connect why that project was relevant. And it’s kind of like you mentioned dissecting it.
Leslie Blaze [00:17:20]:
You might have 10 different facts about a project, but only one piece of it is relevant to the pursuit. Then just shine a light on that piece. You don’t have to talk about all the other pieces.
Katie [00:17:30]:
Yeah, yeah.
Leslie Blaze [00:17:31]:
If the underground utility mapping is what makes this project the most relevant, celebrate it and tell the story about it and bring that forward. I think that is some of the best advice that I can give out there. Because you don’t want to just have one case study that you copy and paste use everywhere because it’s not memorable, it’s usually not framed the right way, and it doesn’t make an impact.
Katie [00:17:53]:
No, I think that’s great. And I agree that the readers want. They skim. They just want what’s relevant to them. They don’t care that maybe in this one that it came under budget or if you got it done quickly, maybe that doesn’t apply to this one. What applies is your expertise on underground parking.
Leslie Blaze [00:18:09]:
Right. This is uniquely interesting. So I want to do a small little pivot it and talk about another scenario. Leslie, here’s a true blue scenario that I’m seeing a lot. You know, we have a number of clients that we work with at smarter GS, kind of across the design and construction space that are really looking to diversify their firms. They’re trying to break into new markets, whether it’s into new geographies or if it’s into new vertical markets. They’re getting at bats. You know, they’re getting opportunities to submit proposals, submit fees, interview, whatever that might be.
Leslie Blaze [00:18:44]:
But one of the things that we always kind of get stuck on is how do we let the buying audience understand that we can design or we can build this project if we haven’t done it before? So what’s the best way for firms to maybe quote, unquote, stretch a case study from, say, one market to another in a thoughtful way where they’re not losing credibility, but they’re kind of providing that connective storytelling. Like what. What do you see as being the best way there?
Katie [00:19:16]:
Well, I think you have to look at what’s relatable experience. So what did you perform in this project? Was it the timeline or working with many subcontractors or sustainable issues or whatever, and take those elements that are going to be needed in this new project and focus on them? You can say, well, we. We have a system in place to design these sustainable elements, and these are our successes. And focus on that just to show that you have the expertise in the area that you could bring it over to that next project.
Leslie Blaze [00:19:47]:
Yeah, I think it comes down to the dissection of what is the most relatable feature or aspect of the scope of work to the one that you’re pursuing and just finding a way to weave it together. And a lot of times when you really focus the story around that piece and you. You take away the noise of everything else, it’s pretty clear to the reader or to the audience that might be listening to, say, a verbal presentation at how it’s relevant.
Katie [00:20:16]:
And the other thing could be your process. You’ve got a successful process. You listen to the prospect and you see, okay, what are their needs? And you bring in your team, okay, we’ll bring in a specialist, because there’s that concern. And it shows that you know how to attack problems and you’ve successfully done it in the past. So for this prospect, maybe it’s a different problem, but you’ve got the same successful process that’s proven that you’ve used before and that can give them confidence that you can handle them, or, you know, the way you work with subcontractors or the way you keep up and follow the timeline and make sure that the different points are met. So all of those things add to build your credibility and give confidence to the prospect.
Leslie Blaze [00:20:55]:
That is great advice. I want to keep going down these different scenarios with you because I think they’re super relatable. All these AEC marketers that listen to the show can probably get inspired by some of your tips and tricks here. So what are some of the ways that you think marketers can put new spins on existing case studies?
Katie [00:21:17]:
Okay, so, you know, it’s great. You go back to your existing client and say, okay, you built them a park. Okay, well, how has attendance gone up since you have these new facilities? You know, and they could say, oh, give a metric, the attendance has gone up this much and now we can do new programs and we’re getting all these great comments and it’s even become an attraction for people that want to move to our community. When. When you originally wrote it, it was probably soon after the project was done, and maybe it’s two years later. What’s happened in those two years?
Leslie Blaze [00:21:46]:
I love that. So before this call today, I was sitting in and just listening to a school board selection meeting where they were selecting a designer for a new middle school. And when I think about all the different market types that the AEC industry services, you’ve got some of these institutional types of buyers like school systems or healthcare systems, you know, government entities and so on and so forth, where you might be given the opportunity to design a new school or a new courthouse or something like that that they’ve been waiting on for years to get funded and to get passed through, you know, the public process. And now you’re there and you have all these great ideas and then, and it, you know, you go through all the design processes, it gets built, it’s great. And now you’re talking about it from a case study standpoint. But hey, fast forward five years and you still want to use that project. I think that’s great advice. Go back to that principal, go back to that superintendent.
Leslie Blaze [00:22:52]:
Hey, we designed that school for you back in 2000. Is it still working for you? How’s the makerspace working? What are you seeing in terms of the sustainability? Is your energy usage down like we predicted? Like, I think that’s a really, really great idea is to go. And you can still talk about what you did, but maybe the pull quote or maybe you’ve got, as of this year, you know, 10 years after opening, this school has seen an enrollment increase of 20% and still has capacity to add on. You know what might be, that’s really interesting. And then I think about my clients on the private side that do a lot of say, mixed use retail hospitality. And what does that market care about? Well, that market cares about, hey, can you help me create a destination that’s attractive that people want to come to, where people hang out and spend time? Because time means money. And sure, maybe there’s a way for you to talk about, okay, this was our concept. We designed xyz, you know, Mixed use center.
Leslie Blaze [00:23:56]:
And the first year there were this many visitors and you know, this is what the cost per square foot was. And now we’re getting this in rental rates. Any developer would be excited about that. Like there’s different ways and I don’t know that I ever thought about why would you get a quote from a client five years after you did the job? That seems weird, but at the same time it’s another opportunity for the brand to have a touch point with that buyer.
Katie [00:24:22]:
Because, right, it might, it might not even be the same administrator, whatever, but they still are going to know how is the school working or how is the multi use facility working. And it makes you more believable, right? More authentic. And if you have an existing case study where you put in the new stuff and maybe change it and boom, you’ve got, you know, the other part of it, you know, you’ve got a good head start.
Leslie Blaze [00:24:42]:
Yeah, I like that. Okay, I’m going to backtrack a little bit. So we kind of talked about making old stories new. What if we talk about what marketers can do to take the right first step? So, so let’s say they’ve got to create a new case study today and they’ve never done it before. What are the steps that you recommend that they take to prepare for a conversation with their technical teams or to prepare for a conversation with the clients that are the end users? What’s the best way for them to be prepared in that scenario?
Katie [00:25:17]:
First you’re starting with the upper management has decided that this is a good project. You know, somebody, a marketing director, whoever, has decided that this is a good project. So whoever writing it has that support. The writer wants to understand the project. You can read the RFP or whatever other, maybe there’s a project update written already, but you really want to understand the project. So you can go to the technical person and of course they aren’t going to write it, but you can say, here’s what I understand. What do you have to add? Are there extra challenges that I should make sure that, that I’m including in this case study? Or if you’re doing a client focused case study, then you’re going to develop a list of questions that you’ll be asking that happy client and you can go back to the project manager or the marketing director or whatever and say, okay, here are the questions I’m going to ask. Is there anything else I should be asking to reflect some element that you think is important? They say, okay, no, here, add this, this, fine, you can talk to the happy client and then the writer can set up a time and interview the happy client and give them the question in advance, you know, saying, okay, we’re going to interview on Thursday here, it’s Monday.
Katie [00:26:27]:
Here are the questions I’ll ask you. And so they feel relaxed because they know what’s going to be asked of them. And the writer interviews, you know, the happy client, records it, gets their comments and then tells them, hey, you know, before we publish anything or use it, you’ll see a draft. And so then the writer writes it up, brings in comments from the project manager and key metrics, perhaps put it in the sidebar. Maybe there’s, there’s a before and after picture or some chart or whatever. And then you could think of the many ways of using it. Perhaps you have it designed, you Might have a in house designer that puts it together and follows a template of your company, or you have an outside designer, or you don’t design it and just put it on the website. So that’s the basic way of doing a client focused case study.
Katie [00:27:13]:
And you could use kind of the same approach with a case study where maybe you just bring in some client quotes.
Leslie Blaze [00:27:19]:
Yeah. And if, if I were to add anything to that. At Smarties, we really try to advocate for the marketer, but we kind of sit between the C suite and the marketing team, so we hear pain points from both sides. And I always like to remind marketers, every time you go to your internal clients, to those technical, you know, subject matter experts, it’s an opportunity for you to build credibility or to lose credibility. And so the best thing that you can do is be prepared for that conversation and be mindful of that. You’re taking their time and focus away from billable work and other clients. And so doing your homework, reading the rfp, reading up on the client’s website to understand their organization, their mission. If you understand who the other project partners might have been, see if they’ve already shared some information about the project.
Leslie Blaze [00:28:09]:
You can check Google News Feed. Use all the tools at your disposal to have a strong understanding of the project so that when you do get FaceTime with those individuals, you are asking meaningful questions. And the meaningful questions might look different at different phases of the job. For example, if you’re charged with creating a new case study, maybe once you’re awarded the job and work really hasn’t started, you might just be confirming some scopes and you might be confirming information that you understand versus after the job’s complete, you might need to double check that all your records that you had from the beginning. Is the construction cost the same? Did you finish on time? Like some of those things still need to be confirmed and closed out. And then you want to have an opportunity to ask some of the storytelling pieces. I’ve been in this game for a while, Leslie, and I’ve been behind the eight ball a time or two where I’m putting a proposal together. And my technical team has decided at the 25th hour that they want to change the case studies.
Leslie Blaze [00:29:11]:
Right. And they want to pull some new ones in. And guess what? What? This silly RFP has asked for new things that I don’t have readily available. My future self thanks myself when I try to be proactive. So when I have an opportunity to ask some of those questions of my technical team, I try to keep a Like a rolling repository of all of the commonly asked questions that I see in RFPs and in award submissions so that when I get to do that initial interaction interview, I can ask as much as humanly possible during that one interaction that’s going to feed me for the foreseeable future so I don’t have to go back to them time and time again and interrupt their day. And I think that goes a long way at building credibility and building your professional self and your world there. So that’s, that’s the only other.
Katie [00:30:01]:
I think that’s, I think that’s great advice. And also to make sure that you keep what they’ve told you. I know they hate it if you’ve asked something and then you go back a year later and ask the same thing that drives people crazy. It would drive anybody crazy.
Leslie Blaze [00:30:13]:
Drive anybody crazy. It’s like, you know, I have a toddler that asks me every five minutes, well, what’s that name? And when are we going and did it? I’m like, I just told you this. Think, I just told you this. You know, think about it. That’s how I think the internal teams feel when you ask them a million times about how many square footage was that, was that lead gold or platinum? Was that legal? You know, over and over, over again, they’re like, oh my gosh, do you not have a record keeping process?
Katie [00:30:40]:
And, you know, and I, I am going to argue for the, the C suite that they also need to be saying, you know, it’s important that we get the stories, you know, coming back to the story. Yeah, we know that you want the work, but you know, you know what technical people, you really are part of the marketing team because, you know, your good work is what we sell. But we need your help to be mindful of the, the good stories that we could use. And if your client sends you a wonderful glowing image email, don’t file it and not share it with anybody.
Leslie Blaze [00:31:10]:
Don’t just put it in new forma. Share it with everybody.
Katie [00:31:13]:
You might think, oh, well, that’s bragging. I don’t want to share it. No, it’s, you know, you are part of this whole marketing process and if a client has told you something glowing, you know, of course we’re not going to just use it, but if you could share it and just say, hey, Mr. Client, thank you so much for this remark. Is it okay if we use it as a testimonial? Maybe they’ll say, yeah, fine, you know, we love the work that Joe Brown did. Yeah, you can Use it. Or maybe we’re just going to edit it very slightly. Is this okay if we can use it? But that’s, you know, just a culture of yes, our stories are important.
Katie [00:31:44]:
Yes, those emails or those great comments, you know, you come back and say, oh, you know, wow, the manager said, what a great job we did. Well, okay, let’s, let’s capture that, you know, and not without getting permission, but let’s capture that because that’s valuable. That feels good.
Leslie Blaze [00:31:59]:
Yeah, I think I like to say marketing as a team sport. Right. We can’t do it alone, but at the same time, we’re in a service driven industry and our clients are the technical teams, they’re the talent. If you’ve listened to some of our past episodes, you’ve probably heard my partner in strategy, Judy Sparks, talk about the talent. And the talent is the engineers and the architects and the contractors and the developers. And it’s their professional knowledge and expertise that we get to tell stories about and we get to sell every day. But it’s very much a partnership. I am entrusted to tell their stories, but I need the details from them because I didn’t go to school to be an architect or a contractor or an engineer.
Leslie Blaze [00:32:42]:
And I can ask educated questions on the matter and I can shape narratives that I think are going to resonate with our audience. But I do need them to help me understand why it’s so different, better and special and what we did on this job that makes it award worthy or makes it newsworthy because just the fact that we got got it isn’t going to cut it. Business Chronicle doesn’t care that you just got a job. They want to know how it’s going to make an impact. So, yeah, it’s a team sport. We all have a role to play. We can’t do it without each other. And it’s much better when we work together.
Katie [00:33:15]:
Right. And I think just say, hey, what are the stories that you go home and tell your family? Those are the stories that we want. Or if just from case studies. There’s one where an engineer checked out a new building on Christmas weekend, weekend. And he found some pipes were frozen. Oh, no. And because that he did that extra effort, they were able to resolve the problem and save the client lots of money. That’s a great story because it’s showing expert effort and being diligent even when a lot of people probably wouldn’t have done it on Christmas weekend.
Katie [00:33:46]:
There’s just lots of things where people are going the extra mile. That’s what you want to share?
Leslie Blaze [00:33:51]:
I want to maybe take a minute and kind of celebrate that. You know, when you get those good stories, stories, whether it’s positive feedback about an individual team member or it’s about the overall project success, those are all really great stories. And there’s different ways to leverage it. So, Leslie, you know, at smartigees we really advocate for what we call a full funnel approach. You know, where you take messaging and you use it at top of the funnel to raise awareness for your brand and create demand for your brand. That you kind of frame it a little bit differently. Middle of the funnel to help drive conversion and drive interest and engagement. And then you use it bottom of the funnel for specific pursuit positioning to get clients say, yes, I want to hire them.
Leslie Blaze [00:34:39]:
And I think case studies are a constant across the entire sales and marketing funnel. You know, they’re not going anywhere and they’re continuing to be important. So what is maybe like a good way to think about. Okay, I’ve got this great case study. It’s client approved, meaning we can talk about it publicly. What’s a checklist like AEC marketers and some of the C suite can use to make sure they’re leveraging it in all the different ways that they could?
Katie [00:35:06]:
Well, there’s, you know, so many different ways. That’s the beauty of case study, I guess, putting the entire narrative on your website. Now there’s different ways. Let’s say if you do a more of a client focused case study, you could have a summary of the project and click here for the client’s point of view. And then maybe it’s a longer one, one. So either, you know, you put the hook Casey on the website or you can link to a different page on the website. So your business development or your seller doers, when they’re out talking to someone about a prospect coming up, you can say, oh, you know what, we did a few projects that are just like that. Let me share that with you.
Katie [00:35:40]:
You know, maybe send it to them through an email for another touch point. And then we talked before about dissecting it. Take out the client quotes, you know, the metrics, any photos, or make sure you have all that so it’s readily accessible. And then, you know, you can use it for your client inter. So you’re going and you’re talking about a former successful project. So you’ve got a great testimonial, maybe a little summary and maybe a project tour, a metric. There you are. Using that information or an industry trade show, you can go and promote A testimonial or, you know, metrics or whatever.
Katie [00:36:15]:
And then there’s, you know, there’s a lot of talk about video. So if you’ve got a case study, you can go back to that same happy client and say, okay, you really had some good points. Could we do a video? Or perhaps even on the interview, when you’re interviewing them, you take that and you can edit that into a video or you take the other way, you take a video and turn it into a written case study, perhaps with some more information or social media posts, a Q and a blog. I could go on.
Leslie Blaze [00:36:43]:
Well, and I think that’s the point is that when you think about your case studies, they really are one of the proof points that you can always point to no matter what, where your audience is in their buyer’s journey. And when you utilize like an integrated marketing approach, the idea is that you take that story and you slice and dice it and you utilize it across every distribution channel. So, yes, on the web, yes on your social, yes on the individual team members social media pages, LinkedIn is still a great tool. If your profiles are not optimized, you’re missing out on presenting your best professional self because your own are smart. They’re doing their own research, they’re checking you out online. And does your profile present your best professional self that conveys what you do and why I would want to work with you? Can someone reading it get a glimpse of what it would be like to work with you? Do they understand your point of view? Do they understand your style? Do they get a glimpse of your personality? And one feature on LinkedIn that I love on profiles is the Media Gallery feature. So Leslie Shameless plug for you. You guys check out Leslie Blaze on LinkedIn.
Leslie Blaze [00:37:51]:
You can check out her Media Gallery. Now she’s a communications expert. Her media is communication pieces. But for our AEC listeners that are designing and building projects, that’s where you upload your portfolio. That’s where you could have short little case study blurbs that are relevant to your personal experience and you can go back your entire work experience and it’s a great opportunity, you know. Yes. Convert it into a blog post, maybe a series. Could you utilize that case study and do a webinar? Could you take that story that you did and submit it for earned media and get a feature in trade publications? Could you take it and submit it to speak at a conference? Could you submit it for awards? Could you partner with a local high school or college and use it as a capstone project and have People do a peer review of it.
Leslie Blaze [00:38:43]:
There’s all different ways that you can really leverage these case studies. And that’s why I think it’s one of the most underrated tools in our marketing toolkit because we always need it, but usually we don’t pay enough attention to it till we need it in a proposal and it doesn’t get the right level of attention and then it lives in that proposal. We close it, we move on to the next deadline, and then now we’re trying to figure out which one was it in again. And we go back, back and we asked the technical staff all the questions again because we didn’t build a library and we didn’t save it and we didn’t think about that our future self is going to want it.
Katie [00:39:18]:
Oh, wonderful. Comments.
Leslie Blaze [00:39:20]:
That’s, you know, I think, I think our listeners can tell that this is a passion point, slash, pain point for us. Right, Leslie? We’ve been doing this long enough that we know this is super important. Leslie, before we wrap up today, this has been super great. I love talking with you and I certainly echo your viewers on Please tell better stories and tell the stories of your projects, not just the facts. For our listeners that want to learn more about Leslie and her services, maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed. You need some help creating the content. I vouch for her. It’s hard to write for aec.
Leslie Blaze [00:39:53]:
It’s very technical, it’s very nuanced. You need somebody that understands the space. Don’t just go to someone on Fiverr or online. Go to a professional. You can grab her [email protected] we’ll also include some links to that that in our show notes. But Leslie, anything else you want to share with our listeners?
Katie [00:40:14]:
Well, I could just say that I do have the LinkedIn newsletter, AEC Connect, where I focus on case studies and storytelling. And I’ve been doing that for years. And so that’s a way for me to really promote this because I really believe in it. You know, I love the AEC industry. You know, the technical people are great, but the stories there just need to be told too. And especially in this day and age with aac, you want to make that human connection. And stories are a great way to do it. They’re memorable and they’ll help cement your role and hopefully get you more work.
Leslie Blaze [00:40:45]:
Yeah. And if I could just say people remember stories, not facts. And so finding a way to bring in that human element that really celebrates what your team did really goes a long way. So thanks, everybody. For listening. Leslie thank you for your insights on this topic. And until next time, everyone keep up with your smart marketing and we’ll see you next time.
Katie [00:41:11]:
AEC Marketing for Principals is presented by smartigies, the AEC growth consulting firm that has been developing smart business strategies for design and construction firms since 2008. The show is hosted by me, Katie Cash, Senior Vp at smartigees. I would love to hear from you.
Leslie Blaze [00:41:29]:
If you have a question, a guest.
Katie [00:41:31]:
Request, or a topic request for a future episode episode, send an email or a voice memo to podcastmartigees.com and if you’re looking for past episodes, be sure to visit our podcast [email protected] podcast. We hope you’ll tell your friends and colleagues about our show, and be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes. Thanks for listening.