Marketing Handbook for the Design and Construction Professional

Yes, it is out! The Marketing Handbook for the Design and Construction Professional is finally here. The book, put out by the Society of Marketing Professional Services and BNI Building News can be picked up at your local SMPS National website for $69 bucks.

Why a Marketing Handbook?

“This Third Edition of the Marketing Handbook for the Design and Construction Professional is designed to become an indispensable resource and a well-worn volume on the bookshelves of those engaged in professional services marketing and dedicated to building business for their companies.”

So, You Are One of the Co-Authors?

Yes, I am one of the many authors of this new Marketing Handbook. I was originally contacted to write Chapter 2.13: How Marketers Can Help Prepare for the Risks and Problems Associated with Construction. But then as I saw the table of contents, I suggested that I write the Web 2.0 chapter instead. That’s Chapter 5.9: Promoting Your Firm by Leveraging Web 2.0. I ended up writing both. And I’m not sure who, if anyone else wrote multiple chapters.

Originally there was supposed to be a chapter on social networking and a chapter on Web 2.0. The social networking chapter was in Part 3: Client and Business Development. The Web 2.0 chapter was in Part 5: Promotional Activity. I called the author who was supposed to do the social networking chapter so we could coordinate our chapters, since they were tied together. But unfortunately, I was done my chapter much sooner than he was. So there is some duplication between Chapter 3.7, which is now Leveraging Social Media to Connect to Your Audience. So there is a bit of duplication in those two chapters to the point that there really is no chapter about social networking.

But there is an SMPS Foundation Whitepaper on Social Networking that can be found here. In addition, I will be working on a social networking article that will hopefully appear in SMPS Marketer. Other Help Everybody Everyday.com alumni will be helping with that too.

Should I Buy The Book?

Here is what I would say. For $69 and at 627 pages, this book is really cheap. It comes to about 11 cents a page. That’s actually ridiculously cheap. So I do suggest you buy this book if you do any marketing in the A/E/C industry and especially if you are a SMPS member. I personally admire many of the authors of this book. They include Tim Klabunde, Ford Harding, Marjanne Pearson, Randy Pollock, Joan Capelin, Nancy Egan, Sally Handley, J Rossi, and Bernie Siben. It is probably worth buying for just those chapters alone.

Special Note

This book is so big that, frankly, it is going to take me quite a bit to read. But as I read the chapters, I will do my best to provide whatever insight I can about the topics.