Online marketing to specifiers made (very) easy

If 'getting to grips with marketing to specifiers online' was high on your list of New Year's resolutions then this might just be the thing for you; an easy way to communicate with over 170,000 of them.

RIBA Enterprises offers a variety of methods of communicating with architects, engineers and facilities managers, but here are five remarkably simple – and cost-efficient – ways you may not have been aware of.

1. Email marketing

What was the first thing you did after switching on your computer this morning? How many emails did your spam filter block? Email has become an integral part of business communication and spam the major issue for marketers wanting to exploit it. Architects and other specifiers may hide behind receptionists, secretaries and voicemail, but nearly everyone checks their own email.

select is a monthly product alert emailed to over 9,000 opted-in recipients. It's used to promote product updates, company news and case studies and is read by a range of construction industry professionals including architects, engineers, building facilities managers and other specifiers. Prices to advertise start from £270 a month for up to 200 words plus one image. Extended entries include 500 words and three images.

2. Online advertorials

Online advertorials have a few handy advantages: you set the topic agenda but (if you're working with a responsible website owner) will receive firm guidance on how best to engage the site's audience; your keyword-rich copy will be indexed by search engines and, via links to your website, in turn boost your site ranking; and finally, you benefit from being seen by a potentially much larger audience than the one your own site attracts.

Online advertorials — sometimes also referred to as 'sponsored articles' — are now available on theNBS.com. From £800 you can include up to 1,000 words, three images and ten web links to announce the launch of a new product or service, or to update readers on the availability of an existing one. Sponsored articles are featured on theNBS.com main Home page for one week before being moved to a relevant category Home page. They are also automatically included in the NBS eNewsletter.

3. Banner advertising

The World Wide Web is undoubtedly one of the foremost research resources used by specifiers today. With an estimated 25 billion pages of content it's also a pretty big haystack for them to have to delve through to find what they're looking for, especially if they don't know that it's your product information that matches their needs.

Banner advertising provides direct link 'short cuts' from high-traffic sites to the website page(s) of your choosing. Banner ads placed on specialist sites reap the twin benefits of maintaining a strong brand presence while offering a one-click route to more detail.

Market-leading websites ribacpd.com, ribaproductselector.com and theNBS.com, offer advertisers all the advantages of high traffic, cross-branding and one of the most trusted brand names. A choice of banner ad positions above the fold starts from as little as £200 a month. Ads can be static or animated, and on ribaproductselector.com can be served on contextually relevant pages.

Create a buzz

Want even more 'bang' for your buck? The Business Booster and Product Launcher below combine all three products in ways that are guaranteed to create a buzz around your website or new product launch.

All include links to the URLs of your choice from high-traffic websites. theNBS.com attracts 52,314 (ABCe) users each month, while ribaproductselector.com is visited by 172,564 (ABCe) building industry specifiers. ribacpd.com meanwhile, is unique in providing a full list of all manufacturers providing RIBA-assessed CPD seminars and presentations available to architects. 

4. The Business Booster

The Business Booster will drive traffic to your website and improve your SERPS (search engine results page) ranking.

It includes three standard entries in select (total three months) plus a sponsored article on theNBS.com for one month, plus a one month banner ad spot (in position 3) on either ribaproductselector.com, theNBS.com or ribacpd.com.

Package price is £1,990* – a £505 saving.

5. The Product Launcher

Does 'what it says on the tin' by providing access to ribaproductselector.com, theNBS.com and ribacpd.com's combined audiences, as well as including a high-profile presence on theNBS.com Home page and three month's coverage in select. The package includes two standard entries and one extended entry in select plus a sponsored article on theNBS.com plus a position 1 banner ad (on all three sites). Careful synchronisation of keywords with page content in your sponsored article will ensure that every specifier can find your product.

The Product Launcher is available for only £2,990* − an £815 saving on the full price.

* All prices exclusive of VAT

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