I’ve always believed that the best conversations happen when we’re honest, open, and speaking as one professional to another. So, in that spirit, I wanted to share some reflections on the year in construction marketing—not as a distant expert, but as a fellow traveler who’s been right there in the trenches with you.

As the entire world is preoccupied with fear, social distancing, and sheltering-in-place, we still need to do everything we can to save our businesses, protect our employees’ jobs, and preserve the work we have already secured.

Buyers are better informed about products and services than ever before, and this helps shape their purchasing decisions. This holds true whether they are buying a new coffeemaker, a new car or a newly-constructed building.

As an inbound strategic marketing firm, we strive for the most effective ways to connect with our clients (and our own) audience. Whether we are attempting to educate, entertain or simply engage, producing consistent and relevant content can pose several challenges: What types of content should we publish? How often should we publish? What format should we use?

First impressions are important for everyone, and within the business world, it is essential to begin by putting the right foot forward. Whether you are a small company or a large corporation, business cards are one of the first opportunities you have to introduce yourself to a prospective customer.

I recently returned from the construction conference, where I had the pleasure of spending three days meeting with more than 100 of the best commercial contractors in North America. I continue to be amazed by their resilience to sustain their businesses throughout tough times and boom times. It's a crazy and competitive industry that comes with a lot of challenges.

I won’t lie, it is difficult to put into words the impact of my internship at Cline Design. When I first met Lorraine, Corinne, and Meredith at the University of New Hampshire Career Fair, I never imagined that interaction turning into the opportunity and experience I’ve had.

As we enter 2018, we are happy to announce we have added to the Cline Design team. Corinne Cline (yes, she’s our daughter) has joined our family-owned company as Vice President of Content Marketing.

At Cline Design, we have worked with contractors, architects, and subcontractors from across North America for nearly three decades. For many of the services we deliver (website creation and implementation, blogs, newsletters, brochures, project profiles, RFQs, etc.),  we rely upon our clients to supply us with photography.