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Need a B2B persona for targeting Facilities Managers or Buildings Managers? 

Helena Phillips

12 Feb 2024

Knowing your audience is the first step in constructing strong B2B marketing campaigns. You need to understand their motivations and pain points, but also how you can pragmatically reach them. This series of articles provides deep dives on the audiences we target most regularly here at Velo.  Many sizable organisations manage their facilities themselves. These can include factories, offices, or spaces dedicated to hosting visitors and guests, such as hospitals, universities and multi-site retail shops. Typically, these estates consist of either a single large building or multiple interconnected sites. These buildings are commonly looked after by a Facilities Manager and a Buildings Manager. Sometimes, one person has both sets of responsibilities.  Facilities Manager As a Facilities Manager, your role involves overseeing the premises and the various facilities within them. This includes ensuring compliance with regulations such as fire safety, health and safety, water safety, air quality management and security, among other responsibilities. Additionally, you are accountable for managing IT provisions, maintaining appropriate temperature and ambience within the building, and overseeing facilities like desks and meeting rooms. Essentially, you are the individual solely responsible for the efficient and safe operation of the building. A wide-ranging and vital remit. Building Manager or often an Estate Manager As a Building Manager, you may also have responsibility for facilities management. You may be the building owner, or the building operator.  Beyond overseeing the basic maintenance of the building, your role extends to ensuring regular upkeep of its structure, HVAC and heating systems, pipelines and other essential components. This meticulous maintenance is crucial to prevent the building from deteriorating, ensuring its safety, fitness for purpose and the well-being of its occupants.   In organisations like hospitals, universities and other educational settings, these responsibilities play a vital role in providing facilities and premises conducive to positive engagement in the intended roles by the building’s occupants.  In these roles, your responsibilities fall into three common areas. The building must be compliant and follow appropriate regulations without compromise. It must be safe, and it must be effective.  What products and services am I making decisions on? Increasingly, you’ll find yourself making decisions regarding maintenance to ensure the building’s upkeep aligns with a budget, often reducing in size every year. There’s a growing emphasis on making sustainability-led choices to help the organisation achieve net zero and decarbonisation goals, too, so solutions that reduce costs and save the environment are highly sought after.   Your focus extends to the building’s fabric and the materials used, as well as the wellbeing of occupants and how effectively the building supports their evolving needs.  What are the challenges that are top of mind? In many office settings, the rise of flexible working has rendered traditional desk configurations obsolete. New working styles, such as collaborative spaces with sofas and booths, are becoming more commonplace.   Above all, your primary concern is the commercial viability of the building. Managing a fixed budget to keep the building running effectively and relevant within financial constraints poses a considerable challenge. Each budget comes with its unique challenges, encompassing financial restrictions, the imperative to move towards a sustainable future and adapting to changing working styles.  The pain points you face include considerations about the life stage of the building — whether it requires retrofitting with improvements or if it’s a new build — ensuring it’s fit for purpose. Compliance is a continual concern, necessitating adaptation, development and changes to the building to remain current and compliant.  Creating powerful messaging Many B2B marketers in this space tend to focus on sustainability, emphasising the need for better choices and responsible decision-making.   However, there’s an opportunity for more emotion-led connections and messaging.   A building is a space where people spend a significant portion of their time, close to 60% of their waking hours. Therefore, there’s a connection to the building — both for those who provide it, and those who work and live within it.   Highlighting pride, connecting to the building’s purpose and aligning with good decision-making while addressing compliance, financial, and sustainability considerations are all areas that B2B marketers should explore.  How can you reach these audiences? The channels available to B2B marketers to reach these roles are actually more varied than is obvious.
  • Paid social channels — particularly LinkedIn, are relevant for targeting this unique job title with a clearly defined category. 
  • Institutions and associations, like the Institute for Facilities Management, as well as organisations like CIBSE, BSRIA and BESA, offer building services qualifications and accreditations. These certifications are crucial for professionals seeking to stay updated in a continuously evolving industry. 
  • Trade Media: a number of websites and publications service this market, providing advertisement opportunities. We recommend considering: 
    • Property Week 
    • Estates Gazette 
    • Facilitate Magazine 
    • Facilities Management Journal 
    • IFM 
    • This Week in FM 
    • Tomorrow’s FM 
    • Buildings & Facilities Management
There is also a host of smaller events for properties in specific sectors — particularly education and healthcare — providing access to a niche but important audience. 
  • Frameworks such as the “rule of thumb” by BSRIA provide B2B marketers with guidance to align their new products and services with established behaviours within the sector. This provides avenues for search targeting keywords beyond traditional intent-based terms. 
  • Face-to-face: while events and exhibitions are common, conferences hold greater significance. Among the largest events in this field is The Facilities Show, and those by industry associations, such as BSRIA and BRE. 
  Are you looking to build out a persona, or plan a campaign to find and engage with these personas? We’d love to help. You can read more about our skills here.  

Helena Phillips

Marketing Director

Holding senior roles at B2B marketing agencies for most of her career, including over a decade of experience in B2B financial services marketing – particularly insurance – HP leads Velo’s strategic marketing projects.

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