Guest post written by Anna Hern of Ridgemount PR and CIMCIG Committee Member

Over the last two years, we have seen a dramatic shift in the way our PR campaigns, delivered primarily for a B2B audience, are driven. An enthusiasm for building our own online distribution channels, with their associated analytics, has moved attention (and budget) away from the trade publications – but are we getting the balance right?

Recent research from the Construction Media Index 2017 into the reading habits of the construction industry certainly supports the view that social media (used by 89% of our audience) is a really significant channel and our own campaigns have shown some dramatic results.

This is a marketer’s dream. We can deliver our own content to our target audience with more accuracy than ever before and, for the first time, we can actually see who’s reading it.

Get it right and the results can be truly astonishing. In this heady environment it can be tempting to believe that the publishing houses have had their day and that the provision of information, insight and analysis can be left to the marketers.

But before we all ditch the trade journals, a note of caution. The same industry research reveals that 86% of our audience still reads the trade journals: that’s a hefty majority of the target market and not one to be ignored.

Those independent journalists with their probing questions and looking at both sides of an argument have served society well and in a climate of growing disquiet over misinformation and fake news, my bet is that we will see a resurgence of interest in independent information sources.

The Trust Barometer, published by global PR Giant Edelman, suggests that this is starting to happen. In 2018 the results point, for the first time, to an increase in trust for journalists: in the UK, trust in traditional media such as broadcasters and publishers, saw a 13 point increase – up to 61 percent. The highest figure, according to the survey, that it has been since 2012.

For marketers, wanting to deliver influential, persuasive arguments to the right people, the safest bet must be to keep a foot firmly in both camps. Self-publishing is certainly a vital part of the programme, but so is the informed and intelligent use of trusted information sources.

Further Information

Anna Hern is Managing Director construction industry specialist Ridgemount PR and a Committee Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Construction Industry Group (CIMCIG). For insight from professional marketers in the sector, go to sigs.cim.co.uk/construction-industry-group/

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