Access Marketing’s Sioned Yates on fenestration marketing and AI

Access Marketing is celebrating two years in business. Founded by Sioned Yates to provide practical, strategic marketing support for businesses across the fenestration, construction and building sectors, the business has worked with manufacturers, suppliers, trade organisations and industry events.

In this second part of a three-part Q&A, Sioned (SY) explains the opportunities and pitfalls working withing marketing, AI, and the model she works with.

What have the last two years taught you about marketing in fenestration and construction?

SY: Probably that we still have a tendency to jump straight to tactics.

“We need more social media.”

“We need a new website.”

“We need SEO.”

“We need AI.”

Maybe you do. But why? What are you actually trying to achieve? What does the business need?

The businesses that do marketing well are the ones that start there. Understand what the business is trying to achieve, understand the customers and then decide what marketing activity is actually going to help.

I also think businesses underestimate what they’ve already got. There are some fantastic companies in our industry with great people, knowledge, products and stories, but they’re often not very good at talking about them.

I genuinely love this industry. I’ve spent a huge part of my career in it and there are some brilliant people and businesses within it. Sometimes I just wish we were better at telling people about them.

What are the biggest marketing opportunities and pitfalls?

SY: It’s a challenging market at the moment and when things get difficult, the natural reaction is often to cut marketing.

I understand why businesses do it. But disappearing when customers are buying less isn’t necessarily going to put you in a stronger position when the market returns.

I think the opportunity is to become much more focused.

Understand which customers and markets offer the greatest potential. Know where your enquiries are actually coming from. Measure what’s working. Put your money and effort into the things that support what the business is trying to achieve and stop doing things simply because you’ve always done them.

There’s also a huge opportunity around the knowledge we have in this industry. Fenestration and construction are full of people who really know their stuff, but we don’t always make enough of that expertise.

AI is obviously changing things too and there are some really exciting opportunities there. But I’m also slightly wary of businesses feeling they have to buy every new AI product or service because they’re frightened of being left behind.

Technology changes. The fundamentals don’t. Understand your customer, have something worthwhile to say, communicate it well and make sure people can find you.

What does Access Marketing offer that clients may not have in-house?

SY: Experience, probably, but also perspective and a huge amount of passion for the job and for business.

I’ve spent more than 30 years working in marketing, all of it in construction and building products. I’ve sat on senior management teams and been responsible for strategy, budgets, agencies, campaigns, product management and launches, websites, exhibitions and events.

So, when I go into a business, I’m not just looking at the marketing. I’m looking at what the business is trying to achieve. I’m also independent enough to ask questions that perhaps don’t always get asked internally.

But I don’t want to be the consultant who comes in, produces a lovely document and disappears again. I like getting involved. I like understanding the business and the people in it. The relationships that work best for me are the ones where I become part of the team.

How does your PR and social media partnership strengthen the offer?

SY: One thing I’ve always stood by is that I’m not an expert in every single area of marketing. Nobody is! I know what I’m good at and I also know when I need a specialist.

My role is often to understand the business, work out what we’re trying to achieve, build the strategy and then bring the right people around that.

That’s where working with trusted specialists for creatives, PR, social media and paid activity works really well. I can bring in the right people depending on what the client actually needs.

It means clients can access a wider range of expertise without having to build a large in-house team or manage several disconnected suppliers.

I think that’s probably how Access Marketing will continue to grow. Not by trying to become a big agency, but by having really good people around me who are brilliant at what they do.

For more information about Access Marketing, visit: Access Marketing