Expand your BIM content strategy and integrate it into your marketing mix

You know what BIM is, and you’ve invested in your BIM content. If you haven’t, check it out and learn what BIM is.  You might even have published it on a marketplace, gotten the downloads, and even gathered a group of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) professionals who follow your brand for updates and news. Fantastic – you’ve provided valuable content to your target audience(s), and they are on a path to integrating it into their BIM projects. 

It’s an investment that has paid off, and you want to make the most of the opportunities you’ve created. But this is not the end of the road. Far from it.

As a product marketer, you want to engage all those downloaders and followers who’ve shown genuine interest in your brand and products. You don’t want to lose that momentum. Beyond this, you will want to give the downloaders great reasons to continue coming back for more. Again. Again. And again…

Learn more about who the key players are in BIM 

Get clear on your customer journeys

First things first - your company, brand, and your digital marketing journeys are unique. They are yours, and you know them like the back of your hand - right? 

You likely have a range of channels and content at your disposal. After all, you work to drive early product and brand awareness, educate professionals on who you are and which niche your product stands out in - and last marketing and technical content that helps someone select the right product or product line for their project. Great! 

BIM content falls in the technical content category, and to integrate your BIM content into the existing journey, you need to start by asking yourself a few  fundamental questions: 

• Who should you target?
• What other content, channels, or touch points will you guide them to?
• When do you reach out to them, and with what frequency?
• How do you bring it all together, and what tools do you have at your disposal?

Let’s dive into these questions a bit more:

One size rarely fits all - who should you target?

Users on the BIMobject marketplace are hungry for BIM content. Searching, browsing, and downloading are primary actions. But you can also gain followers; professionals who want to stay informed about news and content from you. 

When working with your target audience on BIMobject, we’re talking about those who already have found your products and either downloaded BIM content or even followed your brand.

The question is, who should you target? It depends on your strategy. You can create separate audience segments based on occupations, regions, and products that they have downloaded. 

In our experience, it’s better to be more specific and not think one size fits all. It might not be realistic to create personalized communications for each individual. However, you can still be more personal if you aim your campaign or activity toward people who share common interests or traits.

Those who chose to follow your brand might expect some extra love and attention whenever you have added something new to the marketplace so they can go into a segment all of their own. 

What content and calls to action do you have?

When planning to integrate your BIM content into your customer journey, clarify how you want to guide and engage users who have downloaded your BIM content. What content do you already have? I am guessing you have a lot, but to give some ideas of what we are looking for: 

• Training programs & Webinars
• Social network
• Guides and videos about product maintenance and installations
• Sign up pages for support community
• Use case studies with customers and construction projects with your product
• Blog post … like this one ;)
• Podcast

The list can get long - especially if you’re a global company with a wide range of product lines across multiple categories.

Map out the different touchpoints to create a blueprint of what your optimal customer journey looks like. 

When and how often do you reach out to nurture?

Lastly, here is some quick advice on timing. When building relationships with leads, you shouldn’t leave them hanging. It’s better to focus your efforts on reaching those who downloaded your products more recently – as opposed to those who did it a year ago, as they are more likely to have the BIM content fresh in mind. 

But you may also need to reach out more than once to nurture the relationship beyond a first contact too. This is, of course, especially relevant for the group of followers you’ve just gained. 

With our target audience feature, you can segment and create different target audiences based on several attributes, such as location, occupation, and time since the last interaction. 

What to do next? 

Phew, that was a lot. Now that you’ve mapped out your touchpoints, and have target audience segments sorted and your content gathered; the next steps should be easier. But how do you reach out?

Use email campaigns to engage specifiers who are interested in your BIM content

Email campaigns is one of the (many) tools you can get on the BIMobject marketplace to activate those who interact with your brand and products. It provides you with easy-to-use and smart ways to engage with prospects that you have acquired on the BIM marketplace. 

But don’t take our word for it - listen to what one of our first customers who started using Email campaigns has to say: 

Making marketing part of the marketing mix

Sounds great, doesn’t it? By now, you may ask yourself: how do I bring the customer journey with who, what, and when together? You want to make the most out of that investment, so how can you create a successful email campaign?

Start with where you want to end up

All emails should include a call to action - the reason you are speaking to the recipient. This is where you really should start. What do you want the recipient to do? Why are you putting this piece of content in front of them? 

This is key, whether the action is to join your community, sign up for your newsletter, or webinar, follow you on social media or guide them to your event landing page. 

The BIMobject email campaign tool allows you to include a button with a link -  a call to action. Use it wisely.

The body and image

When preparing presentations, you are often advised to 

1.) say what you are about to say 

2.) say it and

 3.) say what you just said.

The same applies to writing emails. 

The body of the email is where you convey your message. Keep it short and to the point, no need to use overly complicated or technical language (unless your audience is techy themselves and knows the jargon). Including an image can set a tone or support your story. We all know the saying: “An image can say a thousand words”.

Opening line - the subject line

Writing a subject line in emails that gets them opened and clicked is as much a skill as dark arts. 

A strong subject line will increase your chances of getting your email opened and read, but you also don’t want to come across as clickbait. Finding the right balance can be difficult, but giving your subject line some thought can really impact the success of your campaign.

After you sent the message, what do you do?

After a send-out, you check the numbers. 

The key metrics are: 

• Open rate:  the percentage of the recipients who opened the email.
• Click-through rate: the percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in an email.

You are looking at a balance between these; it can give you an indication of your campaign's success. You want many to open your message, read it and find it relevant and engaging enough to click your link and call to action. 

In the end, you want to see the registrations for the webinar or training session, or for the social followers to start moving up. The action may differ - It all depends on the purpose of the campaign.

Best of luck! 

If you are curious to see and learn a little more, jump over to watch the recorded webinar “Hello BIMobject for business".

Bodil Wicknertz

Product marketing manager