No time to lose, right? Let’s jump right in.
We had the extreme pleasure of attending (and presenting at) SMPS Heartland in Indianapolis a few weeks ago. It took a bit to process what we learned after all the traveling and catching up with emails, follow-ups… you know the drill. But here’s our take on the conference insights.
SMPS HRC: Game On – A Playbook for Success
This conference focused on two things: business development & marketing. Most attendees picked one track and stuck to it, though some of us did not follow the rules of the game and slipped into other sessions.
One thing, it seems, everyone can agree on is that AI is here (thanks for the awesome mini keynote, John McDonald of Tulsa Innovation Labs and NEXT Studios) and we need to adapt as marketers for A/E/C. Whether we use AI for concepting or creating entire presentations, we need policies and practices that serve the team and the firm.
But that’s not even the half of it.
Let’s break down some fun lessons learned and challenges for A/E/C firms in marketing and business development. Here’s what we heard from others at the SMPS Heartland conference:
- Everyone loves games (we played a “baseball game” at our booth!) How can that support your creativity?
- Everyone loves a good ‘90s cover band, which we enjoyed at a social hour one night. Can you use nostalgia in your marketing efforts or business development conversations?
- We all like a challenge, such as generating leads and tracking our goals Are you investing in technology to work smarter, not harder?
- We want to improve ourselves, our work and our business. How do your career goals and skills best align with the firm’s goals?
I also heard common challenges facing A/E/C firms today; a few of those being –
- Not knowing what to pay business development professionals
- There are pros and cons to offering commission
- Finding your unicorn is not an easy task. On top of that, you also have to convince them to stay year after year
- What salary do you offer to start and how do you compete with other firms?
- Teams are small
- One person is often maintaining the website, email lists, marketing campaigns, analytics and strategy
- There isn’t enough time to do everything
- What do we focus on, first? And how much focus do you put on it? When do you move on to the next thing?
- Showing up on Google is hard
- This is an ongoing challenge for most industries from what we’ve heard – not just A/E/C
- Staying on top of algorithm changes and software updates is a challenge, and we’re often left in the dark then rushed to catch up when our old processes grow stagnant
- Being creative on a regular basis is tough
- Marketing departments will outsource to other creatives to develop, write, design and launch amazing campaigns
- AI helps develop content in a crunch, but AI is NOT CREATIVE or original
The last challenge or takeaway I remember from the conference is around managers and mentoring. Sometimes managers can micro-manage, blame employees and they may even be too busy to help. But this can be fixed!
Being a good manager (thanks for the session Colene Elridge of BE MORE CONSULTING presented) means mentoring, providing regular and constructive feedback, having your team’s back when things go wrong and always focusing on the best interests of the team, including recognizing great work.
Everybody’s rockin’ out to That 90s Band.
Overall, SMPS HRC was such a great experience. Ingenuity communication consultants Shannon Bohnen and Christine Nelson presented on GA4 analytics and the revolution of attracting (and closing) leads online. See more information here.
And as you can see, we did have a ton of fun on the dance floor while we were there in Indianapolis as well.
Do you have a marketing challenge you need to solve? We would love to discuss it with you.
Questions? Send us a message!
Related post: AEC Marketing Basics
Dawn
