Happy Holidays

From my family to yours all the best for the holiday season and a Happy New Year!

It is officially time to unwind. All Holiday cards have been delivered to clients, small tokens of appreciation delivered and the stockings are hung by the chimney with care...

The office is closed until January 5th, but the work will continue over the holidays as many like me will attempt to stay on top of things through out the break. Myself I will try to limit any work related functions to a 1/2 hour per day starting on the 27th.

January is shaping up to be a busy month with seven feature articles to tackle and new sponsorship opportunities being presented.

Enjoy the time off and see you soon.

I learned something new today

With the upcoming re-launch of our Washington Construction News paper I checked out what associations we were members of nationally in the United States through our existing publication in North Carolina and found we had membership in three.



They are: Associated Builders and Contractors Inc and American Subcontractors Association. During the re-launch our rep there will be looking to connect to the local associations of the national ones to develop relationships, provide coverage and obviously connect with potential advertisers and feature articles. Will we join these associations, most likely yes but until we build up our brand and relationship using the national membership link is a cost effective way to get in the door. When looking to expand your existing business to new area before putting down several hundred or thousands of dollars using your national membership as a way to meet the local industry leaders is a smart way to test the waters before you commit yourself. If you are going to do any type of marketing in 2009 start with your local associations where you will get an opportunity to network with your potential clients at every function.



The same can be said for Canada as we are looking at several new candidates from Atlantic Canada to British Columbia. National associations we are members of here are Canadian Home Builders Association and Canadian Construction Association.



Check out the logos below of our US national associations we are members of:

OGCA 2009 Symposium is fast approaching...

Check out the ad that will running in the next issue of the Ontario Construction Report for the OGCA 2009 Symposium. We are proud to not only Partners of the OGCA but also Symposium sponsors.

This is our third year covering the event and it is shaping up to be the best yet. Watch for our special issues on the Symposium in April and May of 2009. If you would like to market your compny in these issues or would like to consider a feature profile email me at chase@cnrgp.com

Skyway Digital & Sky Signs

Ontario Construction Report Readers Choice Awards get coverage in Sault Ste Marie

The staff at George Stone & Sons LTD in Sault Ste. Marie have no idea who nominated them, but they are glad someone did.

April Foster, administrative assistant at the local contractor told Soonews.ca that now that construction firm has been nominated, they want to win! People can vote by going to The Poll and cast your vote.

George Stone and Sons is nominated in the "All-Around Best General Contractor" category.

Another Sault firm, FICMAR Builder's Inc was also nominated in the Ontario Construction Report Reader's Choice Awards for Best Residential Contractor."It would be great for Sault Ste. Marie to have us win these awards" said Foster. Winners will be announced March 1st - Good Luck to the two local companies nominated!

To see the complete list of nominated companies from acoss Ontario check out the following link:

https://constructionnrhroup.wufoo.com/forms/readers-choice-awards-poll/

OGCA 2009 Symposium

This year we are Platinum Sponsors of the OGCA 2009 Symposium. Above is the form you can use to regiater for this event.

This is our third year covering the event and each year we have increased our participation. In 2008 we became a partner of the OGCA, you can view the deatils here Partner Program, now the sponsor ship for 2009.

Each year we provide a special two part feature article leading up to and including the actual symposium.

The leads are in, but how do you sort them?

The above image easily demonstrates my state of mind right now upon returning from Construct Canada late yesterday evening to sort through the leads I got. Right now I am sorting through to organize the leads into a few categories:

1) Subscription Requests
2) Information Requests
3) Media Guide Requests

From the three categories I am now listing them in order of how likely I feel each one will do. I will then be setting up a tracking system to see what comes of each lead and for the next year track other trade shows. I want to see if I get the same people returning to just "kick the tires" of buying something or if after meeting them again and further developing a relation ship turns a lead into a sell.

Further down the road I will weigh the costs involved with me getting to the show and seeing if I can find out what the true cost for each lead is. Once I understand the "true cost" I will see if there is a way to increase my results while decreasing my failure.

One of the several things I tested this year was not given out my business card unless I exhausted a few other ways to get contact information from people asking for more information. I always asked for the person requesting information that they provide me their card. In some cases people did not have them and offered to write out their information. The reason I did this was to qualify the person a little more to see what their real interest was. If they would not want to write out their email and contact information they would not be very likely follow up to the information I would provide.

The other thing I tested was asking people to fill out a subscription form for the paper so I could send them additional information and set them up with a subscription. I had five people either fill out the application themselves or provide me a business card to do it for them, 4 others took the form and 3 said they would just take a paper and call me. Again if someone is really interested in advertising they should like to get the paper on a regular basis.

Overall from the show I seem to have a good list of leads that contain new subscribers, previous contacts who are interested in having another feature article done a few others looking to start running some advertising in the next few months. I hope to be able to crack the code of what process of getting peoples contact information leads to higher results in converting them to sales and also understanding what the cost for each lead is.

Stay tuned for more updates on this in the next few months.

December issue of Structures NHBA Newspaper

December issue of the GTA Construction Report

December Publishers Viewpoint

Where has 2008 gone? Thinking back it has passed quickly, yet so much has happened this year from new sponsorship relationships with great organizations’ such as Wood WORKS, Canadian Green Building Council, Skills Ontario and Sustainable Buildings Canada to name a few. 2008 was all about getting more involved in the construction industry and improving our overall image while covering a wide range of industry events.

One of my personal goals for 2008 were about getting more involved with my local associations and this has lead me to the Public Relations, Membership and Young Leaders Committees for the Niagara Construction Association (NCA). As I look forward to 2009 I am looking to expand my involvement to include a more active part with the Niagara Home Builders Association (NHBA) with the Habitat for Humanity Committee. First question you may ask is where do I find the time, well when you are doing things you enjoy such as getting involved with your associations time is not an issue the meeting became part of your regular schedule and allow you to keep a close eye on the pulse of the industry.

Even though 2008 is coming to a close I still have a few events to attend. First up is the NHBA Christmas Dinner December 2nd at Club Roma in St.Catharines and travelling to Toronto the next morning to attend Construct Canada where we will be set up at booth #117 from December 3rd to 5th. I will also be attending the annual Toronto Construction Association (TCA) Christmas Luncheon where around 2000 people will be networking on the final day of Construct Canada.

On December 11th I will be attending the 3rd Annual Christmas Luncheon & Food Drive for the NCA. The event is being held from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. at the Quality Hotel Parkway Convention Centre and will be benefiting the Niagara Community Care Food Bank. Special quest speakers for the event will be Mr. Paul Charette, Chair and Mr. Michael Atkinson, President of the Canadian Construction Association (CCA) to talk about what the CCA has planned for 2009. This is my first time being directly involved with the event as a member of the NCA Young Leaders Committee; we will also be running a competition again the Hamilton Construction Association and the TCA to see who can raise the most food based on size of membership.

Chase is the Director of Client Services for the Construction News and Report Group as well as the Associate Publisher for the GTA Construction Report and Structures, the Niagara Home Builders Association Newspaper. If you have any recommendations or suggestions on changes you would like to suggest for the papers please contact him toll free at 1-888-432-3555 ext 211 or email him chasemarketing@sympatico.ca