The Built Environment Marketing Show: marketing strategies and tactics for architects and engineers

Is your website traffic down and you’re wondering what’s going on? This solo episode is for you. I share my own numbers, including one page that had 177,000 impressions in four months and was clicked just 145 times. Zero click search is well and truly here, and AI overviews are pushing clicks down even further.

I also share what happened when I asked ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity how they decide which architecture and engineering firms to recommend. Then I run through what my AI visibility audits keep finding, from firms that vanish on category searches to specialisms that are only hinted at.

You’ll come away with five practical things to do and a better way to measure what’s working. If you lead marketing and BD in an architecture, engineering or construction firm, or you’re part of the team that makes it happen, this one’s for you.

I’ve spent the past few years working on my own SEO and, more recently, AI visibility, so I open up my own analytics and share what the research from Ahrefs, SparkToro and Semrush says.

In this episode, I cover:

• My own numbers: visits from Google doubled, yet my most visible page gets almost no clicks
• Zero click search and why the top result now gets 58% fewer clicks when an AI overview appears
• What ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity say about how they pick firms to recommend
• What my AI visibility audits keep finding, including firms that are invisible on category searches
• The content that gets you shortlisted, and why decision stage content is the quickest win
• Zero click content and why value in the feed builds trust
• Five things to do now and how to measure what matters

If you found this episode useful, grab my checklist of handy tips to help you put it into practice.

• Abbas Marketing
• Ahrefs: AI overviews reduce clicks by 58%
• SparkToro: 68% of Google searches don’t generate a click (2026)
• SparkToro: Zero-click content by Amanda Natividad
• Masooma at Ink & Copy’s newsletter

The Built Environment Marketing Show is hosted by Ayo Abbas from Abbas Marketing. It is a show that is unashamedly about marketing for architects and engineers, as well as bringing forward voices that we don't always get to hear.

BOOK A CALL TO TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH ME

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This week is a crossover with Jeremy Brim, founder of Growth Ignition and host of The Red Review podcast. Jeremy's world is bidding, mine is marketing, and we worked together at Mace, so this is a proper two-way meeting of minds where we talk across these two fundamental disciplines that are so intertwined.

In this episode we talk about:

• How clients buy now, and why the funnel is way too simplistic
• The gap in senior leadership marketing and BD skills
• Joining up marketing and bidding so they chase the same deals
• The importance of the 80/20 profit rule and finding more of your most valuable customers
• How customer touch points have increased
• The need for strategic focus and knowing the five people who'll score your bid, a year ahead

I've created an amazing free resource about what to do before, during and after events so you can get more ROI and visibility. Get your copy here

Ayo Abbas - Abbas Marketing

Jeremy Brim - Growth Ignition

The Red Review podcast

The 95:5 rule, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute

Marketing and BD training

The Built Environment Marketing Show is hosted by Ayo Abbas from Abbas Marketing. It is a show that is unashamedly about marketing for architects and engineers, as well as bringing forward voices that we don't always get to hear.

BOOK A CALL TO TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH ME IN 2027

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📝 Leave us a review on Apple or Spotify

💬 Tell a friend about the show who you think will benefit.

Decarbonisation and retrofit are two of the biggest challenges the built environment industry faces. In this episode, Ayo talks to Max Rengifo, Director of WRAP Architects and its new spin-off, WRAP Retrofit, about how a service that started as an aspect of everyday projects became a business in its own right. And what it will actually take to retrofit the UK’s housing stock at the scale the Government is committed to.

In this episode we cover:

• How retrofit went from being a byproduct of Wrap's projects to its own business, WRAP Retrofit
• Why Max and Sean put their idea in front of Kingston University’s MBA students, and the 300 page report it produced
• The three main reasons behind splitting into two separate brands
• What it takes to get properly accredited in retrofit
• Why the UK needs to retrofit one home every 53 minutes to hit government targets
• Why talking about moisture and steamed up kitchens works better than acronyms
• Max's advice for practices considering more retrofit work

I've created an amazing free resource about what to do before, during and after events so you can get more ROI and visibility. Get your copy here

Ayo Abbas - Abbas Marketing

Max Rengifo - WRAP Retrofit

The Retrofit Academy

Kingston University - Help to Grow

UKREiiF

The Built Environment Marketing Show is hosted by Ayo Abbas from Abbas Marketing. It is a show that is unashamedly about marketing for architects and engineers, as well as bringing forward voices that we don't always get to hear.

BOOK A CALL TO TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH ME IN 2026

📲 Share about the show on socials

🔗 Follow us on Apple or Spotify

📝 Leave us a review on Apple or Spotify

💬 Tell a friend about the show who you think will benefit.

Why do some people get seen and others don't? In this solo episode, Ayo talks visibility and thought leadership, and the invisible work sitting underneath both.

Nobody just lands on a stage, a panel or an advisory board. Ayo shares the six months of unseen work behind one senior director's conference appearance, and why that story stopped a room of junior engineers in their tracks. Then she turns to the other side of invisible work: the expertise technical leaders hold that rarely travels beyond a handful of people.

We cover:

• What visibility and thought leadership actually mean
• The real question to ask instead of “why not me”
• A behind-the-scenes story of what it really takes to land a stage moment
• Why untapped technical expertise is a genuine commercial loss
• What to do next, whether you're a marketer or a technical / design lead

Want help with your own marketing and BD strategy in architecture, engineering or construction? That's what I do at Abbas Marketing. Get in touch: [email protected] or head to abbasmarketing.com

Ayo Abbas - Abbas Marketing

The Built Environment Marketing Show is hosted by Ayo Abbas. It is a show that is unashamedly about marketing for architects and engineers, as well as bringing forward voices that we don't always get to hear.

BOOK A CALL TO TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH ME IN 2026

📲 Share about the show on socials

🔗 Follow us on Apple or Spotify

📝 Leave us a review on Apple or Spotify

💬 Tell a friend about the show who you think will benefit.

Andy Burnham has been Prime Minister for few weeks and the content he's been pushing out has been relentless. Reddit AMAs, a chair in a square in Cardiff, a TikTok account built from zero, 26 posts in two weeks in fact. Politics aside, there's a serious comms strategy running underneath all of it, and it is worth understanding if you are running marketing and BD for a professional firm.

I am joined by two people who have been watching it closely. Alex McCann runs social media agency Altrincham HQ and has been doing this for nearly 17 years. Jaysica Marvell is a social media consultant and a borough councillor in Stevenage, so she sees it from inside politics and outside it.

We get into how much planning sits behind content that looks completely off the cuff, why the person in front of the camera matters more than their job title, the clients who say no to 90 percent of ideas and then wonder why nothing works, and why rough and ready content that's from the heart beats polished anyday.

Want help with your own marketing and BD strategy in architecture, engineering or construction? That's what I do at Abbas Marketing. Get in touch: [email protected] or head to abbasmarketing.com

Ayo Abbas - Abbas Marketing

Alex McCann - Altrincham HQ

Jaysica Marvell - Jaysica Marketing

The Built Environment Marketing Show is hosted by Ayo Abbas. It is a show that is unashamedly about marketing for architects and engineers, as well as bringing forward voices that we don't always get to hear.

BOOK A CALL TO TALK ABOUT WORKING WITH ME IN 2026

📲 Share about the show on socials

🔗 Follow us on Apple or Spotify

📝 Leave us a review on Apple or Spotify

💬 Tell a friend about the show who you think will benefit.

Welcome back to The Built Environment Marketing Show hosted by strategic marketing consultant Ayo Abbas. This week I'm joined by Tim Heatley, co-founder of Capital&Centric, an investor, developer and operator spending three to four million pounds a week on regeneration across the UK.

We talk about how he builds trust with communities before a single plan is shown, why his advice to architects and engineers is to take a naff scheme off their website, and, with the UK's political leadership in flux, what the rest of the country can actually learn from Manchester.

Recorded just before Andy Burnham was confirmed as UK Prime Minister, this conversation already had us talking about the rise of Manchesterism and what the rest of the UK can learn from it. What do you think, could this approach work beyond Manchester? Let me know in the comments.

Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to the channel for more from the people shaping marketing, BD for Architects, engineers and contractors.

Want help with your own marketing and BD strategy in architecture, engineering or construction? That's what I do at Abbas Marketing. Get in touch: [email protected] or head to abbasmarketing.com

SUBSCRIBE TO MY YouTube CHANNEL HERE

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#BuiltEnvironment #BuiltEnvironmentMarketing #architecture #MarketingStrategy #developers

In this episode, Ayo talks to Rachael Bernstone, founder of Sounds Like Design and former architecture journalist of nearly 25 years, about why marketing has such a bad reputation inside architecture practices — and what changes when firms stop avoiding it.

Topics covered:

• Why marketing feels like a "dirty word" to architects, and where that resistance comes from
• The link between university crit culture and adult reluctance to self-promote
• Why referrals remain the most important (and most under-used) channel
• The shift from "client as patron" to "client as customer"
• Why most architecture websites fail to speak to actual clients
• Gateway/entry-level services and why partial offers are winning trust faster than full-service models
• How framing a project distinctively builds authority that compounds across media and AI search
• Lead magnets as a thought-leadership and list-building tool
• Why only 59% of architects say strategy is their real blocker

• Rachael Bernstone / Sounds Like Design
• Rachael's original "Is marketing a dirty word in your architecture practice?" email
• Rachael's marketing quiz for architects
• Ayo's strategic advisory services

The Built Environment Marketing Show is a show that is unashamedly about marketing for architects and engineers, as well as bringing forward voices that we don't always get to hear.

Donate to help cover the costs for making this show

📲 Share about the show on socials

🔗 Follow us on Apple or Spotify

📝 Leave us a review on Apple or Spotify

💬 Tell a friend about the show who you think will benefit.

The Built Environment Marketing Show hosted by Ayo Abbas, strategic marketing consultant from Abbas Marketing. Book an intro call with Ayo

Today's episode is all about what actually happens when things go sideways midway through marketing execution? In this episode, I get honest about two moments where marketing didn't go to plan — a content cliché bingo card for a campaign that was derailed by Wi-Fi not working and a bid submission that never arrived thanks to an incident......

Both carry real lessons about margins of error, adaptability, and how constraints often spark the best creative thinking. If you've ever had to pivot fast and figure it out on the fly, this one's for you.

Content Cliche Bingo Interactive App

Abbas Marketing

The Built Environment Marketing Show is a show that is unashamedly about marketing for architects and engineers, as well as bringing forward voices that we don't always get to hear.

Donate to help cover the costs for making this show

📲 Share about the show on socials

🔗 Follow us on Apple or Spotify

📝 Leave us a review on Apple or Spotify

💬 Tell a friend about the show who you think will benefit.

Episode 101 of The Built Environment Marketing Show is a solo milestone, a chance to reflect, celebrate and take stock of six years of conversations about marketing in one of the most complex, overlooked sectors in business.

Ayo Abbas shares what 101 episodes, 20,000+ downloads and 70+ guests have taught her about the state of built environment marketing in 2026, and what separates the firms who are winning from those watching their pipelines dry up.

She covers four defining themes:

• the real role of AI in your marketing toolkit
• why brand has finally overtaken portfolio as the key differentiator
• the industry's persistent failure to value marketing talent
• what the LinkedIn algorithm shift actually means for how you show up.

This one's for anyone who's ever had to justify a marketing budget, fight for headcount, or convince a partner that the work doesn't just speak for itself.

DOWNLOAD - 101 practical ideas to get more from events checklist

Abbas Marketing

Barbour ABI - The Case for Marketing Investment in the Built Environment

Mace with Danielle Regan and Dave Hendy Episode 23 Part 1 and Part II

Rachel Bell and Rob Sargent, Stride Treglown- Episode 1

Rick Robinson - Episode 6

Magnus Strom - Episode 25

Tristram Carfrae - Arup Episode 47

The Built Environment Marketing Show is a show that is unashamedly about marketing for architects and engineers, as well as bringing forward voices that we don't always get to hear.

Donate to help cover the costs for making this show

📲 Share about the show on socials

🔗 Follow us on Apple or Spotify

📝 Leave us a review on Apple or Spotify

💬 Tell a friend about the show who you think will benefit.

Today's episode of the podcast features Nathan Spencer, MD of UKREiiF which is taking place at the Royal Armouries in Leeds from May 19 - May 21.

We talk through:

• What's happening at the event this year including must see sessions
• How to navigate the programme and events so you reach your business goals
• How to manage your marketing and BD approach so you get the biggest bang for your buck.

Resources

DOWNLOAD - 101 practical ideas to get more from events checklist

UKREiiF

Abbas Marketing

The Built Environment Marketing Show is a show that is unashamedly about marketing for architects and engineers, as well as bringing forward voices that we don't always get to hear.

Donate to help cover the costs for making this show

📲 Share about the show on socials

🔗 Follow us on Apple or Spotify

📝 Leave us a review on Apple or Spotify

💬 Tell a friend about the show who you think will benefit.