Construction marketing can be a challenging and complex process. Most marketers in the construction industry are faced with competing priorities, many of which are deadline driven. A category of artificial intelligence tools known as large language models, such as ChatGPT, increasingly are being adopted by construction marketers. From content generation to proposal support, AI is a powerful tool that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of construction marketers.
Launched in November 2022, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history with more than 100 million users. ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, a leading AI research organization. It is based on generative pre-trained transformer, a series of language models developed to understand and generate natural language. By training models with billions of parameters, ChatGPT can generate natural language responses to a wide range of prompts with high accuracy. The ability of ChatGPT—and other LLMs currently being rolled out—to generate human-like responses has led to their adoption in many construction markets. Here are six ways ChatGPT is being used for marketing in the architecture/engineering/construction industry.
One of the biggest challenges for construction marketers is creating high-quality, engaging content on a consistent basis. Construction marketers can use LLMs to create customized content that resonates with their target audience. LLMs generate content ideas and topics, headlines and even full articles.
Topics or keywords input into LLMs will generate a list of relevant content across a wide range of formats, including blog posts, articles, email content, whitepapers, case studies and social media posts. This allows construction marketers to create a diverse range of content that targets different segments of their audience and meets their marketing goals.
LLMs also can improve the quality of content. By analyzing existing content and providing prompts that are specific to the desired tone, style and voice, construction marketers can create written pieces that are highly compelling, informative and engaging. This saves construction marketers a significant amount of time and helps them produce and manage more content on a regular basis.
Search engine optimization remains a critical component of any construction marketing strategy. SEO involves optimizing a website and its content to rank higher on search engine results pages for relevant keywords and phrases. LLMs help improve SEO by providing keyword research and analysis. Inputting a keyword or phrase into an LLM will generate a list of related keywords, along with their search volume and competition level. This information can be useful to optimize content like keywords, tags, titles and headings, leading to the best possible search engine rankings. LLMs also can assist with backlinking efforts, which is an important aspect of off-page SEO. By generating high-quality and engaging content, AEC professionals can increase the likelihood of other websites linking back to their site, which can improve their search engine ranking.
Building relationships with customers is essential for construction, and LLMs can advance customer engagement by providing personalized customer interactions. The models can answer customer questions, provide specific recommendations and initiate conversations. While this doesn’t replace human interaction, AI tools can engage with customers on a deeper level than previously possible with automated services and can provide a more personalized experience overall.
LLMs are also able to help with customer engagement by assisting with the creation of surveys, questions and feedback forms. By generating customized language for these forms of outreach, an LLM can help ensure the questions are clear and easy to understand, and that the feedback provided is actionable. The process can identify areas for improvement and make changes that will improve the client experience.
The process of lead generation involves attracting potential customers or clients and nurturing them into becoming qualified leads. Content creation, as supported by LLMs, is essential for lead generation, and LLMs can also provide lead qualification and scoring, analyzing the data and providing a score based on the likelihood that the lead will convert. This can help construction marketers prioritize their efforts and focus on the most promising leads.
Capturing information via the creation of landing pages that are optimized for lead generation is supported by LLMs as they create customized language for headlines, subheadings and calls to action. The AI tools help ensure the landing page is engaging and encourages potential leads to take action, such as filling out a contact form or downloading a lead magnet.
Producing compelling, engaging and convincing proposals—a time-consuming and challenging process—is often the last step in the sales and marketing process for construction firms. LLMs can generate proposal content ideas and even complete specific sections of a proposal. By inputting information about the project, the client and other relevant details, the tool can generate language that is tailored to the specific proposal.
LLMs can also help with the overall structure of the proposal. By providing suggestions for headings, subheadings, summaries and bullet points, an LLM can ensure the proposal is easy to read and understand. LLMs can make sure the final proposal is professional and polished by providing proofreading, identifying grammar and spelling errors, and catching inconsistencies in the language or tone.
LLMs can summarize long content by analyzing the text and creating a bulleted list of key points or takeaways. This saves AEC professionals time and effort, while also providing a quick and easy way to understand complex or technical information by simplifying complex language, technical terms or jargon. LLMs are able to generate a summary that uses simpler language or explains technical terms in a more accessible way, which can be particularly useful for communicating with non-technical stakeholders or clients.
ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for AEC professionals who want to write proposals that are persuasive, well organized and tailored to the needs of the client. Such high-quality proposals differentiate an AEC firm from its competitors and increase the chances of winning new business.
In an increasingly competitive market, staying ahead of the competition is critical for AEC firms, and LLMs can provide information for a competitive analysis. With basic competitor information, ChatGPT can generate a report that includes information like competitor strengths and weaknesses, market share, capabilities, clients, news, thought leadership and customer sentiment. This information can be useful when developing strategies and approaches to differentiate a firm from competitors.
LLMs are a category of AI tools that provide valuable insights and save construction marketers a significant amount of time and effort, while improving performance. They are great tools to enhance human efforts—although they do not replace them. By incorporating LLMs into their marketing strategies, construction marketers can stay competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace. The use of AI and tools like ChatGPT offer endless possibilities and will push the creativity of construction marketers. Embracing and adopting new technologies is essential to successful and impactful construction marketing.
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