Why do people come to BIMobject?
Alright. I hope you're familiar with what BIM is, and the journey a BIM object takes. But have you considered how users find BIM content? Or what they're looking for?
Architects and engineers coming to the BIMobject marketplace are hungry for content. A marketplace is a natural place for them to look for BIM objects currently not in their own content library. According to architects in our survey, 54.5% of our users prefer to use search engines to discover new products, while only 6% find them at trade shows.
This uptick in digital proficiency combined with the demand for BIM and BIM content is why many building product manufacturers publish products and BIM content in a marketplace like BIMobject.com.
Online search behaviors
For architects finding products is a challenge. According to architects we surveyed in 2022, 45% say finding the right product takes most of the time when working on a new project.
We also know from asking our users that a significant share of them come to get inspired. In a global market with construction products in an endless number of categories, you will end up with many options for an architect or engineer to choose from.
So why is it not enough to make your content available? After all, we use Google and find things online every day.
Yes, we all find things online, but we don't necessarily go to the second page on a search result page. And let's be honest: some of us don't even scroll past the top results…
"BIMobject is clearly on the right track to becoming the Google of BIM worldwide," said Miguel Angel Heras, Roca's Head of Marketing and Communications in 7 business cases for the value of BIM.
So what does this mean for you?
Whether someone is browsing through categories or using a text search, one thing is true: deciding to click to download is a micro-moment, one of those intent-rich moments where decisions are made, and preferences are shaped.
When choosing between similar products, tiny things can make all the difference. For example, products showing up early in the search results tend to get more downloads, simply by being top-of-mind in that crucial micro-moment.
To impact someone right as they are ready to search for, find and make that download requires a multifaceted strategy. Let's dive into what you can do.
Optimize your BIM information for search results
To make the most out of being on a marketplace like BIMobject, you can and should optimize product descriptions to end up higher in the results of relevant searches. How you optimize content for search is almost a science of its own in today's digital content strategies, but to keep it short and sweet:
- Include and use keywords.
Research and work on what terms an architect or engineer would use to search for your products.
- Don't forget about translations.
Tavolo (table in Italian) or cadeira (chair in Portuguese), know that the professionals you're targeting might conduct searches in various languages.
- Remember that people are visual.
Use a number of images you can include that show the products the BIM content represents.
- Create collections of products
Group products into collections that make it easier to understand your solutions.
Want to know more about collections and other options for the brand page? Watch this demo.
Promote products to boost your growth
Beyond spending time on search engine optimization (SEO) to get to the top of search results organically, there's a shortcut to getting ahead of the competition. You can promote products to get shown at the top of BIMobject.com results in geographies that are important to you.
This feature lets you make BIMobject a powerful channel in your marketing mix for the product line you want to promote or give a new product an extra push to get noticed after investing in new BIM content.
Customers have boosted both their most popular products and new or underperforming products. VELUX, for instance, was one of the customers promoting their products. Martin Hansen, BIM Manager, comments:
We tested Promoted products on both well-known and new products, and the test generated a lot more downloads than we could have anticipated.
Read more about VELUX's experience using Promoting products.
Why promoting your product BIM content is a win-win-win
By running a campaign to engage more users by promoting your products, you are not only increasing your visibility and downloads as the campaign is running, but you are also:
1) getting seen by your key target audience
2) making a designer somewhere happy for having found your product
3) continuing to impact your search results beyond the initial promotion.
See, designers who might not have found the perfect product for their project have now found and downloaded it. And to top it all off: the increase in traffic you have won also impacted your overall rank among the trending products. That's what we call a win-win-win.
Alright... But what about actual results? Well, during a recent product promotion, we saw an average 10-fold increase in download activity. And isn't that something we all love as marketers? Seeing that trendline pointing up, knowing you have impacted your key target market and increased their awareness of your products and services. We sure do, and so do many of our customers.
Read more about our solutions for promoting your brand and products.
Bodil Wicknertz
Product marketing manager
