Getting Specified is about getting your construction products specified by architects and engineers in the US and Canada. The focus is to provide marketing and sales managers with the information and tools they need to market their products and provide useful web sites for architects, engineers and specifiers.
Our Newsletters and Articles: This is the list of newsletters and articles of use to the sales and marketing managers for manufacturers of "specified" construction products. This are listed in reverse chronological order, and some have had some minor editing to bring them to up to date.
- You are not specified, Now What? - November 2024
- What is happening with the 4specs - Conspectus Alliance? - October 2024
- Specifications: Connect with Your Buyers at the Beginning of Every Project - August 2023
- When does a construction specification become a sales lead? - July 2024
- Are You Asking the Right Questions? - May 2024
- The 5 Stages of Architectural Sales - April 2024
- Is your Website a 3-Ring Binder or a Glossy Brochure - February 2024
- SEO vs. PPC: How To Choose - January 2024
- Specifier Comments - December 2023
- Sniper Approach to Marketing - November 2023
- Who Makes Which Product Decisions - October 2023
- What’s Wrong With Architectural Specification Selling - September 2023
- CSI Formatted 3- Part Specifications - August 2023
- Exhibiting at Major Trade Shows - July 2023
- Improving Your Website Speed - June 2023
- Can Specifiers Understand Your Product Offering? - May 2023
- Can Specifiers Search for Products on Your Website? - April 2023
- Product Selection Guides & Websites - March 2023
- Who Visited Our Website From 4specs? - February 2023
- Competition and What Does Marketing Do? - December 2022
- What is an Office Master Specification? - November 2022
- A Second Perspective on Marketing Strategy - October 2022
- What is Your Marketing Strategy? - September 2022 - comparing a blunderbus and sniper marketing strategy
- The 5 Costliest Manufacturer Mistakes - August 2022 - Marketing mistakes not understanding how specification decisions are made
- Nearly Worthless Websites - June 2022 - Some thoughts on how to make your website more useful to the specifier and design team
- Getting Specified and Still Losing the Sale? - May 2022 - Countless hours are spent attending webinars, trade shows, and listening to experts, followed by hundreds, if not thousands, of calls each year to support that goal. How do we get a return on investment? Can we turn specifications into a sale?
- What is the purpose of your website? - April 2022 - As most of the companies listed in the 4specs directory are ultimately specification driven, we see these as the primary purposes for a product website.
- Who is Your Target Audience? - March 2022 - Many businesses have a vague idea of who their target audience is and what they want but haven’t taken the time to do the research.
- What are a Specifier's Needs? - February 2022 - several comments from specifiers about the January newsletter
- Does Your Website Meet the Specifier's Needs? - January 2022
- What Are You measuring and Tracking? - December 2021
- Do You Still Need Your Local Reps? - October 2021
- What is Your 2022 Marketing Strategy - September 2021
- How Has "Specified" Product Marketing Changed - July 2021 - Covid-19 has changed how manufacturers direct their marketing to architects and specifiers. In-office visits, CSI dinners and remote working have made face-to-face presentations and interactions difficult.
- What Makes a Problem Website - June 2021 - Examples of problem websites in my opinion
- Measuring Return on Investment - May 2021 - Newer marketing people coming from the Internet marketing arena expect to measure short-term return on investment in advertising.
- Speed and Google - April 2021 - I look to evaluate how quickly the server starts to return information, is the amount of data sent reasonable and are there identified problems.
- Improve Your Specification Position - March 2021 - During the coronavirus pandemic, which is currently keeping us from face-to-face meetings, web-based availability of a BPM's content to specifiers has never been more of a necessity.
- Developing Your Product Data Sheets - February 2021 - "I fear that the [PDF} may be too lengthy, but I felt a need to include all pertinent technical data because it does not yet exist on their website or elsewhere.
- 2020 4specs Survey
- Or Equal… Or are they? - October 2020 - a great newsletter on what is an equal.
- Raising the Bar for Manufacturer Specifications - September 2020 - ideas on how to improve your CSI-formatted specifications
- Getting Specified in the post-COVID Economy - August 2020 - How will you sell without face-to-face meetings and while both parties are working from home?
- Who Just Called You? - July 2020 - A look at Caller ID on your phones - incoming and outgoing calls.
- Product Data Sheets - June 2020 - A great way to put all your product data in one pdf for ease of use
- What Will Your New Normal Be? - May 2020
- Tips for Great "Specified Product" Websites - April 2020
- Does Everyone (in your company) Understand Getting Specified? - March 2020
- Does Your Web Designer Understand Specified Construction Products?
- Our "Getting Specified" Series of Newsletters to help you understand what it takes to get specified by architects, engineers and specifiers
- What is Your Marketing Strategy Series
- Updating An Architect's Specifications - October 2019
- Our 2019 Speed Series
- Top 7 Benefits of Having Guide Specifications Prepared - May 2019
- Our Micro-Site Series
- Critical Marketing Issues: Follow-up, Follow-up, Follow-up - November 2018
- How Are Products Specified? - October 2018
- What is the Purpose of Your Website? - September 2018
- Google AdWords and More - August 2018
- Tracking Your Advertising Results - June 2018
- BIM Management - May 2018
- Internet Security - Smart Phones - April 2018
- Internet Security - Web Usage - March 2018
- Targeting The Key Specifiers - February 2018
- Understanding the Specification Process - January 2018
- Tracking Your Internet Advertising Results - October 2017
- Secure Websites - The Next Step - September 2017
- How to Evaluate Your Mobile Website Performance - August 2017
- What is next with search engines? - July 2017
- Our Bim Object Series - BIM is Much More Than Revit! -
- Getting to Know the Specifier - November 2016
- Idealized "Getting Specified" Process - October 2016
- Target Landing Pages for Specifiers - September 2016
- Target Landing Pages - August 2016
- Accountability - July 2016
- Why Specifiers? - June 2016
- What's Next for Your Website? - May 2016
- Time to Rethink Your Internet Strategy? - April 2016
- The 4specs 20th Anniversary - March 2016
- Our Mobile Friendly Series
- Our Selling to Architects Series
- Checklist for Website Redesigns - June 2015
- Social Media in Construction and Design - May 2015
- Use of BIM through Design, Specs and Estimating - March 2015
- Understand Your Google Options - February 2015
- Your Browsing Security - January 2015
- Is Your Google Analytics Up To Date? - October 2014
- Website Strategy - Specifier verses Architect - September 2014
- What Is the Value of a Referral? - August 2014
- Where is Google Heading? - June 2014
- What Does Google Believe? - May 2014
- What Happened to My Keywords? - April 2014
- Things to Ponder About Specifiers - March 2014
- Finding the human touch in a web-based age - February 2014
- Thoughts on Website Redesign for 2014 - Part 1 - November 2013
- Thoughts on Website Redesign for 2014 - Part 2 -December 2013
- How Do Design Firms Use Bim Objects and CAD Details? - September 2013
- Google Analytics - Website Speed Suggestions - July 2013
- National and Local Trade Shows? - March 2013
- Google Searches for "Specified" Construction Products - February 2013
- Google AdWords for Specified Construction Products - December 2012
- The Value of Well-Prepared Construction Specifications - December 2011
- What is Your Company Culture? - June 1012
- Our 2012 Speed Series
- Search Engine Optimization Thoughts - February 2012
- Analyze Your Own Website - January 2012
- The Construction Market Landscape - November 2011
- Start Tracking and Optimizing Your Business Today! - August 2011
- Can a Website be Too Simple? - April 2011
- Move Your Business Email to Google Aps - February 2011
- Local Product Shows – More Than a Sales Opportunity - January 2011
- Influencing Specifications: The 5 Costliest Manufacturer Mistakes - December 2010
- Server Setup - September 2010
- Speed Up Your Site - Images - July 2010
- Speed, Speed, Speed and more Speed - June 2010
- Our 2009/2010 Series on Website Design for Building Product Manufacturers
- Should You Name Your Competitors? - June/July 2009
- Product Data Sheets & Guide Specs - March 2009
- Website Backups - February 2009
- Page Titles & Descriptions - January 2009
- Landing Pages - December 2008
- What Does Your Web Server Say to the Search Engines? - November 2008
- Improve Your Website's Performance - October 2008
- Do you need a LEED® statement on your website? - August 2008
- Is Your Website Up-to-date? - March 2008
- Maintaining Your Mailing Lists - February 2008
- Get Specified! - January 2008
- Make Your Next Web Site Easy to Maintain - November 2007
- Basic Search Engine Optimization - September 2007
- Set up Google Analytics in 20 Minutes - June 2007
- How Are Construction Products Categorized? - May 2007
- How Does A Specifier Use Your Website? - April 2007
- Which Key Words and Phrases Are Important to You? - February 2007
- What Does a Search Engine See When It Visits Your Website? - January 2007
- Make Your Website a Process, not a Project - December 2006
- Winning Through OODA - Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action - November 2006
- Major Redesigns of Your Site (October 2006)
- Make Your Home Page Powerful! (July 2006)
- Our 10th Brithday! (March 2006)
- Site Maps - Are all your pages included in Google? (February 2006)
- Tracking Site Statistics (January 2006)
- Really Great Product Websites? (December 2005)
- Getting Your Reps in Front of Architects and Specifiers (November 2005)
- Hot, Warm and Cold Medium (October 2005)
- Marketing and Sales to the Specifier in the Future - Part 2 (Sept 2005)
- Marketing and Sales to the Specifier in the Future - The Next 5 - 10 Years (August 2005)
- A Survey of 4specs Users (July 2005)
- How 4specs Uses MasterFormat 2004 (June 2005)
- How to Understand Your Web Site Activity - (March 2005)
- What is a Referral - (February 2005)
- Getting Your Products Specified on LEED Projects - (December 2004)
- Email Control Directions (September 2004)
- Glossy Brochure or 3-Ring Binder - which does your user want? (August 2004)
- A Quick Fix to Your Website Problems - One way to work around a faulty web design (July 2004)
- Your Overall Internet Objectives (December 2003)
- How Can You Improve Your Results, If You Don't Know What's Happening? (November 2003)
- An Update on Search Engines, Spam and AIA Learning Units (July 2003)
- Domain Name Management - do it right or lose it! (June 2003)
- Optimizing Your Website - additional resources (April 2003)
- What are typical web site statistics, and how did people get to the web site? And how do you get more visitors? (March 2003)
- Online Product Design Manuals for 2003 - Web site or Online Product Design Manual. The definition is essential to being specified. (January 2003)
- What Has the Internet Really Changed - The answer is probably not what you expected. (October 2002)
- What is your web site's purpose? Sounds simple, but many web sites do not demonstrate that the web designers had the right purpose in mind, or even any purpose. This article discusses our perspective of what your web site's purpose should be. A marketing tip on increasing exposure within an architects office is also included. (September 2002)
- Getting Your E-Newsletter Through (August 2002)
- Sending Your E-Newsletter (July 2002)
- Developing Your E- Newsletter (June 2002)
- Marketing with AIA Learning Units (May 2002)
- Advertise on Google (March 2002)
- Get More Visitors from Google (March 2002)
- Key Search Engines (January 2002)
- Make Your Web site Search Engine Friendly (December 2001)
- A Five-Year Plan for Your Web site (October 2001)
- 2 Questions Before Advertising on the Internet (September 2001)
- 6 Tips to Speed Up Your Web site (discussing all of the techniques used be 4specs to make 4specs fast) Image Examples (July 2001)
- Construction eCommerce - A Year Later (June 2001)
- Web site Statistics - Part 2 - Examples of what information is available from your webserver (May 2001)
- Web site Statistics - Part 1 - The mechanics of web site statistics (April 2001)
- Web site Usability (February 2001)
- Web site Objectives (January 2001)
- What does an Architect or Engineer Want to Find On Your Web site (October 2000)
- You Have 60 Seconds - Don't Waste Them! (September 2000)
- WebFormat - This is the 4specs proposal for a standardized layout for manufacturers' web sites This is the paper published by the Construction Sciences Research Foundation. The full-sized sample pages used are:
- Home page - (pdf of original page) this is a sample home page. Key concepts:
- You know what types of products they make and the CSI sections their products are generally in.
- You know immediately the company name, address, phone number and email.
- Loads very quickly
- Product page - (pdf of original page) this is a sample product page. One page for each product or product type.
- You get an overview of all the data available.
- The manufacturer can add pages as they are developed
- Specifications page - (pdf of original page) sample specs page. Could also be used for CAD details. Note specs are available in editable form using Word and RTF formats.
- Construction eCommerce - Hype and Reality (July 2000)
- Protecting and Using Your Domain Name (January 2000)
- Internet Advertising (October 1999)
- Know Where Your Visitors Came From (July 1999)
- Hits, Visitors and Referrals
- Our Recommendations for Web Design - an overview of website recommendations for "specified" products.
- Developing a Construction Product Web Site (1997 CSI Specifier article)
- Deliver Your Product Information Using the Internet (1996 CSI Specifier article)
