For years, creating a brand for building products treated digital marketing as a support function. Host a website. Populate a CRM platform and an outbound email campaign. Post some social content and a budget for selected paid media. And when technology finally became cost-friendly… capture a product demonstration video or two.
Useful menu? Of course, it’s a good place to start.
But not then – and certainly not now – central to how products are researched or trusted. Specified and sold.
What has replaced those assumptions is bigger than any single channel. Enter “digital customer experience.”
Where every interaction an audience has with a Building Product Brand – from search, content and social – to dealer referrals, specification resources, sales follow-up and post-sale support is intentional.
And that experience must no longer exist only where it may get discovered. It lives now where credibility gets evaluated. Where buyers compare claims and contractors look for proof. How dealers search for confidence and specifiers decide whether a manufacturer understands the jobsite… or is simply filling mind space with marketing language.
AI search is emerging. Social search is evolving. The challenger brands pulling ahead are not the ones merely adopting digital.
They are the ones competing through it.
Discovery Has Changed… In Important Ways
Building product audiences have always relied on trusted relationships. A rep who knew the product. A dealer who could recommend it. A contractor who had installed the system before. A lunch-and-learn… that clarified the spec.
Those moments still matter.
Yet they are no longer the only moments shaping the decision.
Increasingly, buyers form opinions long before the first conversation. They scan websites and rely on compelling videos. Search LinkedIn engagement while comparing technical documents. And ask AI tools for a short list of options… looking for repeated signals that a brand is credible, current and worth their investment of time.
Just imagine an architect researching a rainscreen system. Before anyone at the manufacturer knows the project exists, that specifier has probed an AI tool – visited the website and reviewed the details – watched an installation video and pulled the specifications.
The brand that answers each of those queries clearly earns the short list. The one that leaves gaps gets passed over… silently.
The buyer’s journey has not disappeared.
But, it has splintered.
Trust Is Built Before the Sales Conversation
Building product decisions carry weight. The poor choice can affect installation time – jobsite coordination and warranty exposure – code confidence and long-term performance.
As such, the digital customer experience must capture more than merely attracting attention.
It must eliminate uncertainty.
A contractor needs to know installation will be efficient in the field. A dealer wants assurance the brand will support the sale after the order is placed. A specifier wants marketing claims backed by documentation. And above all, every contractor wants fewer surprises.
Each audience enters the conversation differently.
But they must all arrive at the same brand promise.
That means the website cannot target one opportunity while sales training promotes another. A product video cannot promise simplicity… as the installation guide creates confusion.
A social post mustn’t stake claim of expertise if the landing page offers little proof.
Digital trust is built through sales and marketing alignment… the same message, metrics and analytics. Choreographed in all the right places. Audiences want answers. Not a pitch. Proof before a sales conversation. And confidence long before a form-fill.
By the time they reach out, the best brand promise has already earned the conversation… or lost it.
The Experience Doesn’t End at the Manufacturer
Digital marketing rarely closes the sale. It creates demand and the channel fulfills it.
A manufacturer should build awareness, preference and demand. Yet, when the dealer lacks product knowledge – the distributor cannot support the specification or the contractor receives inconsistent messaging – the experience breaks down at the very moment it matters most.
The handoff and flawless thought leadership content engagement… is where best practice solutions win.
The most compelling experience permeates across the entire channel. A case study becomes a sales story… complemented by an influencer product integration. And demonstrated in a jobsite installation with dealer talking points. Earned media supports the spec resource. Which strengthens the follow-up conversation. Nothing contradicts the focus for building trust.
In a market where products can look increasingly alike – it is the difference between being specified – and being substituted.
Connected Experiences Create Competitive Advantage
For executive leadership, the question behind all of this is simple. Why it matters to stakeholders?
Because friction isn’t just inconvenient. It is expensive.
When buyers can quickly find answers – validate claims and access proof – decisions move faster. Specification rates climb. Dealer confidence rises. And demand pulls through the channel instead of stalling in it.
When buyers experience uncertainty or contradictory information, they tend to default to the incumbent brand… and that brand is rarely the challenger.
The manufacturers creating unique selling propositions today are not producing more content. Or chasing last year’s algorithms on Google. They are creating more connected experiences. Across landing pages and microsites. Specification resources, PR and influencer engagement.
Developing sales tools for channel partners that all reinforce the same message.
Audiences encounter fewer gaps and fewer reasons to hesitate. In a category where products can appear commoditized, that consistency becomes difficult to replicate… and even harder for a competitor to displace.
That is the differentiator advantage. Not more pieces. Better connection.
One Last Thought
The digital customer experience is not a department. Or a category on a P&L and position on an org chart.
It is the way your brand shows up. How it affects sales conversations. After the trade show and long after the lead is captured.
The question is no longer whether digital matters.
It is whether the experience is helping the buyer believe the brand promise… or forcing them to piece a narrative together on their own.
At Kleber & Associates, we’ve invested some four decades leveraging complex market shifts into meaningful success with the audiences that matter most. If you’re considering how to offer a better digital customer experience – for building trust and pull-through – or simply considering even more momentum, I’d welcome the conversation. sk@kleberandassociates.com
