Marketers Take Flight

Is there a career path in A/E/C marketing beyond the marketing coordinator role?

If you have been in your role as a marketing coordinator for any length of time, usually around the 2-3 year mark, you begin to wonder what role is next. You can become a Senior Marketing Coordinator and then eventually a Proposal or Marketing Manager. Eventually, you may be managing other staff, larger pursuits, and/or multiple pursuits. 

Can you ever get beyond the proposals? Do you want to? What other career paths are there for A/E/C marketers?

I asked my community of marketing professionals this exact question, and they didn't disappoint. In part 1 of this series, I share the career path stories of seven different marketing, communications, and business development professionals.

There's also a special guest who started as a marketing coordinator, turned to business development, and now is providing project management assistance on the very design-build projects she helped to win.

This is a fun and inspiring episode, so grab a coffee or put on those earbuds and sneakers and listen up.

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.

Imagine how it would feel when you are able to manage a proposal process from start to finish that is planned, organized, and follows a predictable schedule. 

You not only know the steps involved in any proposal response situation but take charge of the entire process and delegate with authority and confidence.

You are confident your proposal is compliant, customized, and showcases your firm as the best. 

After you hit that submit button, you feel like a success. It makes your entire marketing department (which might only be you) proud. Firm leaders take notice of how smooth the proposal process was. 

Can you even imagine that? Now that’s #marketingboss 

After managing proposals for 17+ years in the architecture/engineering industry, I have compiled a list of the activities involved in proposal management from the moment that RFP hits your desk to its timestamped by the client. 

I’ve boiled all of it down to three phases—Coordinating, Content Development, and Review, Finalization, and Delivery (RFD). 

And in today’s episode, I am going to narrow on one of those phases – the Content Development phase. And more specifically some best practices on how to approach the order in which you develop your proposal content. 

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.

If you have ever opened a trade magazine, you might have thought, 'I can do that.' But you aren't sure where to start.  And that's exactly what we're going to discuss today.  Reputation Ink's Michelle Calcote King is here and we're talking about the content sweet spot, knowledge extraction, and editorial calendars. 

 Consider taking notes on how to work through those steps if you have been thinking about getting published either for your own brand or for your firm.  We have never discussed this topic before, so let's begin.

 Here are some highlights:

• Michelle’s career path: 1:57
• What is media relations: 3:58
• What should you do to get into publications: 7:30 
• Pitching to the Media: 11:39
• What works for trade publications: 12:34
• Getting consistent results: 13:03
• Steps before writing: 13:44
• Formulate your media plan: 15:21
• In-house journalism: 20:02
• Modern marketing: 22:58
• #1 piece of advice for a new AEC marketer: 24:50

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.

Capture Planning is an essential element in winning pursuits. It is a methodical process of understanding the client and decision-makers, the potential project, and the competitive landscape; and then turning that into a winning proposal. It often requires a full team of business development, marketing, and technical professionals.

The goal is to have the right information to create compelling and compliant submissions that win! As you can imagine, much of the Capture Planning effort happens before the RFP is released. This important process assesses opportunities, and positions firms accordingly.

And, part of the Capture Planning involves meeting with clients, stakeholders, and other decision-makers to gain intelligence about the project and its goals. To help you uncover the best information, you need to know what questions to ask and how to ask them. 

In this episode, I share a lesson from my Proposal Pro Course - Gap Finding. In this lesson, I explain what a gap is and why it's critical to help differentiate your firm. And then how to find gaps for your pursuits. (Hint: it involves asking great questions!)

To help you get started, download my handout that includes dozens of gap-finding questions.  Use this list to help prepare your business development and technical staff before they meet with clients. You can download this free pdf on the show notes page.

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.

You most likely have a LinkedIn page for your firm. And, you're most likely posting employee get-togethers and industry events you're attending. Am I right?

But are you really maximizing LinkedIn to showcase your subject matter expertise and position your firm as the industry leader?

What if there were some other features of LinkedIn that you could add to your marketing strategy that actually attracts your ideal clients and prospects? And, by adding those wouldn't take too much time, effort, or resources? Would you be interested in learning about those?

That's what this week's Marketers Take Flight podcast episode is all about - introducing you to a few new LinkedIn features and why AEC firms should add those to their marketing strategies. 

I've got a special guest, Mindi Rosser, who specializes in helping B2B firms build the personal brands of their SMEs as well as company brands, specifically on LinkedIn. She brings a broader perspective of how other B2B companies are leveraging LinkedIn to start meaningful conversations to fill their pipelines of potential new work.  

Additionally, Mindi discusses our profile, the importance of an up-to-date profile picture, and what a good headline should include.  We discuss how our firms can help us with that headline and how it can be used to acquire new prospects or clients.  This episode is packed with actionable strategies. 

Here are some highlights:

• New features on LinkedIn: 6:02
• LinkedIn newsletters: 7:16
• LinkedIn live: 9:45
• What happens on LinkedIn lives: 15:37
• Personal vs. Firm Brand: 17:37
• How to attract the right people on LinkedIn: 21:34
• Headlines: 23:59
• How can your firm help with headlines: 27:52
• Recap: Your LinkedIn strategy and approach: 31:36

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.

We all know how difficult it’s been to find and hire experienced marketing coordinators for our AEC firms.

We are all usually underwater with deadlines and need help. Once we get that approval to hire, we need to not only find someone quickly but get that person up to speed and fully functionally ASAP. If you are one of the lucky ones to find this AEC marketing coordinator unicorn, you will want to make sure you set a great first impression, so he/she stays with your company for a long time. 

This is where a great onboarding experience can come into play. And that’s what today’s episode is about. I’m going to break down the different phases of onboarding and give you some ideas to make this experience better for the new hire and you so everyone feels good about the decision and even better, the new hire can feel like they are making meaningful contributions right away. 

Here are some episode highlights:

• Defining what onboarding is and isn’t
• How you can start to make a great first impression before the new hire’s first day
• Two tools you can prepare to help the new marketing coordinator be productive faster
• Setting the right first impression on the first day
• Best practices to make the first 90 days productive and rewarding
• Examples of how to make the first year successful – for both you and the new hire
• How you can shape the new hire onboarding experience, even if HR already has their own

I provide you with two download freebies to help you start enhancing your marketing onboarding experience – the Resource Guidebook and Help Source Card questionnaires. You can download those for free over on the show notes page – marketerstakeflight.com/60. 

I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope this gives you some ideas to enhance your new hire onboarding experience for your marketing department. I know we have a lot of creative people in the audience. So tell us, friends, what are some creative ways or experiences you provide to your new marketers? Share them with us in the comments on the show notes page. 

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.

It’s all in the data.  Data is being used more than ever before. It's being used to make decisions, create products and services, to find solutions to problems; it's not just about managing the data, it's about using the data for something. Are you using that data to its fullest potential?   

Stacey Ho, CPSM loves all things data. She's here on the show today to talk to us about the four pillars of data collection and auditing: training, collection, auditing, and reporting. She’ll share with us examples of this data being used effectively to make intelligent decisions and prepare effective proposals.

 Here are some highlights:

• Best practices for data collection and data auditing: 4:14
• How can firms automate data collecting and auditing: 11:53
• Dashboards make it easier: 14:33
• Visualizing the data: 16:14
• What else can the data tell you: 16:47
• Get the whole data story: 19:36
• Using data for decisions and proposals: 23:17
• Next-level marketing is the future: 27:55

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.

Today we are talking about three ways you can start preparing for an unexpected RFP. Because let’s be honest, even though we want to have months and months to do our capture planning and prepositioning, a lot of times, a project manager or principal brings you an RFP that wasn’t on your radar. 

So, what do you do when you hear about an RFP that is going to be advertised next week? What can you start doing now to make the proposal production go smooth and still put out a customized, persuasive proposal to give your firm the best shot at winning? Especially, since you’re already working on 2 or 3 other pursuits at the same time. 

Well, I’ve been there my friends. A project that we were either tracking or a client we have been meeting with, lets us know that RFP is coming out next week or in a few weeks. We are way behind on the capture planning efforts and have a few other must-win proposal deadlines already on our calendar. 

But, we know we have to submit this RFP coming out next week. So, we must start preparing, even if we can’t go through the full capture planning process. Having been through this many times in my past, I have found that there are three items or pieces of information you, as the proposal manager, can start working on the moment you hear about that RFP. And, in this episode, I am going to share those items with you. 

Here are some episode highlights:

• Why do we get unexpected RFPs and why do we need to still submit
• Where to look for the proposal outline
• How to identify your internal and external team
• How to use the project scope to build out the experience section

If you loved any of these or have any of your own items you start working on the moment you hear that RFP is coming out that you want to share with me, jump on Instagram, send me a DM, or post about it. Tag me. I’d love to know some of the proposals tasks you start working on the moment you hear that an unexpected RFP is coming. I genuinely would love to hear from you. And also, if you know someone who would enjoy this podcast episode, please grab the link and share it with them. I’d be so grateful.

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.

The most important part of your proposal is your cover letter.  This first impression could grab the attention of your reader and set the stage for your proposal to be shortlisted. If you start your cover letter with “We are excited to submit?” then you are going to want to stop and listen to this episode.  

Peter Kienle is here to offer advice on what you should and should not include in your cover letter.  If you find yourself seeing some similarities, we have some support for you as well.  A few ideas on what you should be including the length of the cover letter, how to summarize it, and even who should be signing. Stop creating your cover letter all wrong and start getting those proposals read and shortlisted.  

Here are some highlights:

• Peter’s career path. 1:49
• Why are cover letters so important for AEC proposals? 4:33
• What entices them to read the entire proposal? 8:36
• How to focus a cover letter 10:04      
• Magic of 3’s 10:43
• Is your cover letter telling & not selling? 12:41
• Sample Cover Letter 13:54
• Stand out at the end of your cover letter 19:02
• Who should sign the cover letter 21:04
• #1 piece of advice for marketers new to the AEC industry? 25:01

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.

If you’re listening to this podcast, chances are you’re either in marketing or business development for an AEC firm. And, as such, most of your work revolves around proposals. You are most likely coordinating multiple proposals any given week. I know this because I was you. Since 2005 when I began as a marketing coordinator at an engineering firm – learning how to coordinate a proposal submission was task #1 of my onboarding. 

Since then, I have trained dozens of AEC marketing coordinators at three different firms, specifically on how to produce winning proposals. And through this experience, I have realized that there are a few key areas to really master to grow your career in the marketing or pursuit management departments at AEC firms. Those topics or areas of mastery include:

• Understanding how to put together a win strategy,
• Developing a proposal management plan,
• Scheduling the proposal production with all its moving parts and contributors,
• Producing succinct, graphically appealing, and persuasive proposal content, and 
• Getting information from technical Staff.

In this episode, I give you a brief overview of each. Then I share how you can get to mastery level for each topic that will give you more career options—even if you don’t want to stay with proposals. 

Want more AEC marketing goodness?

• New to proposals? Download my FREE “RFPs for Beginners – The Ultimate Proposal Management Checklist.”
• Stop planning, start creating with my FREE “Ultimate AEC Content Marketing Starter Kit.”
• Follow Lindsay on LinkedIn and Instagram.
• Collaborate with other AEC Marketers in our Facebook Group.
• Purchase bite-sized, on-demand templates and training at the Marketers Place.
• Enroll in online training: The Proposal Pro or Content Marketing Clarity.