On Architect Marketing Developing a Successful Marketing Strategy

Tips on how to create a niche, generate leads, and provide

content that creates client loyalty & trust.

FREE TEMPLATES INCLUDED

Start by Devising a Strong Marketing Strategy Your customers have to like & trust you, before they’ll believe in you. In today’s content rich environment it’s equally important to stay ahead of current trends, and to be a source of information for your customers.

Therefore, Architectural Design Firms should take steps to inform customers and prospects of new trends and ideas in order to build trust in your services. The number 1 mistake architectural firms make in their marketing efforts is pushing ahead with disjointed marketing tactics. Essentially, this means that they do not have a plan.

Developing Your Marketing Strategy

All successful marketing plans start with positioning your company

as a thought leader and expert in your specific niche, and then

defining your firm’s mission.

Defining Your Market Niche Choosing a market niche is an integral decision. You’ll need to focus on geography, service, an industry, or facility type? Try to come up with a one sentence elevator pitch that defines your company’s direction.

What does your firm do really well? The answer could be design, service, or some special expertise.

Are there things that your firm does not do as well? (Be honest)

Are there new opportunities in your niche? What’s changing? What are the new trends?

What factors could hurt your firm’s current position? “What keeps you up at night?”

What’s your firm’s vision? This is where you highlight your (USP) Unique Selling Proposition. What do you want your firm to be known for- Design? Innovation? Efficiency? Service? How does your firm work to improve the lives of your customers or society in general? How do you change the world for the better?

Defining Your Mission Where’s your firm going in the future? Think big, but create a mission that’s practical and achievable.

Set goals. What does your firm need to do to accomplish its mission? Hire new kinds of staff; modify processes; look for a change markets, or make changes in strategy or operations.

Everyone in the firm should participate in the marketing strategy. We use a one-page Marketing Brief including the questions above.

Developing a Marketing Plan A firm should aim to have a message tailored to each of its markets. A short and simple marketing plan is most likely to be followed.

Below is an example of a one-page marketing plan:

Market Niche: Philadelphia’s most experienced Architectural Design firm for historic restoration projects.

Mission: We strive to provide authentic period renovations, and create spaces that impact the Arts Culture, and advances community interest in historic, heritage properties. We want to lead Philadelphia in this charge.

Current Position: Our firm is still a newcomer in this market, but we have a vision. We plan to place emphasis on acquiring new customers who share our goals to enrich our community by promoting The Arts. Our current clients share in our commitment.

Market Trends: Restoration projects are booming in Philadelphia. You can hardly walk two blocks without seeing another building being restored. Old building renovations are a huge part of this boon. We plan to take advantage of the current trend of transforming these buildings into cultural icons while giving our all to keep the historical integrity of each historic restoration project.

Competitors: Though we face strong competition from [XXXX Co. & YYYY Co.], who are building many new buildings in the city revitalization hubs, we believe our experience, vision and integrity will make developers understand the cultural value of historic restoration.

With clear goals and a defined mission, we’re poised to be a leader in Philadelphia’s historic revitalization.

Objectives: The heart of our plan is to work with businesses and people who understand the cultural and historical significance of heritage properties—our staff members intend to identify culturally conscious, organizations, developers and private owners who care about architectural antiquity, and understand the role of these places as domiciles for artists & The Arts. In the meantime, we will continue to advance The Arts in Philadelphia by supporting organizations that further this cause.

Responsibilities: We plan to assign specific responsibilities to individuals in order to accomplish our objectives.

Paul: Website Copy Peter: Blogs/Content Mary: Networking/ Tradeshows Freelance Help: For Specific Marketing Campaigns

Schedule: We’ll evaluate our team’s progress each quarter to update the plan, and make new assignments.

Budget: The budget for our 2017 marketing in Philadelphia is 7% of last year’s profits or $140,000. The hard costs include ($40,000 in printing, $20,000 in networking/tradeshow expenses, etc.) and soft costs include $40,000 in staff time and $40,000 in freelance time.

New Brochure $

Tradeshow Booths/Attendance $

Association Memberships/ Attendance $

Online Drip Campaign/ Lead Generation $

Networking $

* (See the blank template at the end of this guide)

Architectural Firm Marketing Budgets

National Firms 11%

Large Firms 9.5%

Small Firms 8.5%

Soloprenuers 5.5%

Build Your Content and Become an Authority

Prospects want to know and you before they buy from you

B2B Marketing is still a customer-focused process. People want

to work with other people they can trust. Yes, it’s important

to brand your

firm’s identity, but it’s also vital to let internet visitors get to

know you, and the key players they’ll be interacting with?

The key people in your firm must agree on your vision and the firm’s identity. What kind of projects do you work on? What do your people believe in? You’ll have to decide what you want your firm known for.

Are you a design-based business with a signature style, or are you specialists in a specific type of facility? The key players in your firm must decide your niche.

When your firm becomes an authority in a specific niche, it becomes the obvious leader in a given area. Then, a lot less time and money is required to bring in new work, and profits can soar. Follow two cardinal rules:

1. Create content that’s worth trafficking. 2. Push out that content consistently.

Architectural Firm Marketing Budgets According to a 2006 AIA Firm Survey, larger firms typically spend 9.5 to 11% of their fee revenue on marketing; small firms of two to four people and solopreneurs spend less (8.5 and 5.5%). Architectural Marketing is different from marketing other services or products. Architecture involves a complex mix of creative and technical skills, and marketing your services calls for convincing prospects and customers that the professionals in your firm offer creativity, as well as, problem-solving ability, attention to detail, follow-through, and passion for the project.

Traits all good content has in common SEO- The process of streamlining your website’s content to include as many naturally flowing mentions as possible of relevant industry search terms is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Keywords themselves aren’t enough to keep your site performing well on search engines. To keep your site competitive and well ranked, you’ll need to maintain consistency of high-quality content. Google uses complex algorithms to rank websites based on a number of factors, including how valuable your audience finds your content, how much traffic your website receives, and how many other sites link to content within your site. Relevant Keywords- Getting your content to your prospects starts with good writing on relevant subject material packed with relevant keywords. Those keywords can be divided into two intuitive categories: short-tail and long-tail. An example of a short-tail keyword would be: “historic renovation,” while a long-tail keyword would be something like: “how to transform old warehouses into culturally significant dwellings.” Engaging Content- For content to be good, it must be engaging. Engaging content should include images, graphics, illustrations, and eye-catching headlines. Engaging elements like images play a huge role in making content social media friendly. According to a 2014 study by eMarketer, Facebook posts with images outperform post with links by (4%) and posts with videos by (3%). Posts with single-focused graphics have an incredible 87% interaction rate. Get Visitor Information- You need a mechanism to capture enough information about visitors to guide them down the sales funnel. Gather important information such as a name, email, role, marketing budget, etc. This information will help you gauge the value of a given lead. Calls-to-Action- Once they’ve arrived on your site; make sure visitors know what to do next. Use clear, well-placed calls-to-action. For example, “Download our new guide.” Landing Pages- A landing page is where a visitor will end up after clicking on a call-to-action. This is where the information exchange takes place—the user provides a small amount of information in exchange for your downloadable content.

Subscriptions- Newsletter or blog subscriptions are a great way to capture information in exchange for a steady stream of branded materials from your firm. The more useful your content, the more dedicated your audience will be.

Architectural Firm Business Development

New sales are critical to business growth To reach each of your target markets, Architectural Design Firms need to communicate why they are the right choice for each project. Your branding, voice, and communications need to be personal and persuasive. Your online copy has to make a compelling case to new prospects that your firm has the best solution.

Current customers may know about your firm through prior experience or reputation; they send you (RFPs), you respond, hopefully you win a good portion of this work and it sustains your business.

However, the more proactive your approach to lead generation and new sales, the faster you’ll realize sustained growth. Firms should carefully select the individuals and organizations it wants to work for and pursue them. Consistent outreach to new prospects gives you more control over whom you work for and the kinds of work you accept. This targeted approach can open up many new areas of growth.

Proactive (inbound) marketing requires considerable work, but it can also be extremely rewarding. Consider hiring a freelance copywriting to help your firm’s communications messaging.

Finding New Business A recent report generated by BusinessofArchitecture.com and ArchitectsMarketing.com, states that, “…over half a million has been spent in trial and error to find the answer to the question... What is the best way for an architect to attract clients?”

Here we’ve summarized some of the more major concepts revealed.

First, educate the market and you’ll own the market Offer problem solving information about design, building, and renovating that answers the questions and solves the problems of your ideal clients. This will position you as the expert. The key is to only provide this information in return for the prospect’s contact details and their “opt in,” permission to send it through.

NEW

BUSINESS

Experts educate, sales people sell (we want to be seen as the

expert not a salesperson)

People will willingly give their name and contact details for relevant educational material (typically 10x more than traditional marketing)

By offering educational materials you capture people when they’re doing research (this gives you a chance to establish a relationship first.

Help to shape the buying criteria of what prospects should be looking for in an architect.

People who request appointments after they have been through your education are better quality clients, you have pre-trained them.

You can automate the education process

Get Referrals from Clients, Builders, and other Architects Develop a formal referral system. You need easy, organized ways for clients to send prospective clients to you. Why not put a referral offer into your signature? Builders or contractors can be a huge lead source for architects. These guys are talking to prospects daily. Once on board, they’re like your unpaid sales force. Don’t think of all architects as competition. You may be a commercial architect who has a relationship with a residential architect who will happily hand over commercial leads.

Third, Optimize your Content for Organic Searches Coming up on page one of Google searches for ‘architect’ in your area is extremely important. The top three businesses listed will get 68% of the traffic. Having a good lead capture form and follow up system in place can generate a lot of leads

Fourth, Generate Press Releases The major benefit of press releases is that they are free. The media need news stories, and at times, press releases can make up as much as 80% of media content. The benefit of being featured in the media is that the credibility is high.

Fifth, PPC Campaigns- Google Adwords Paid advertising doesn’t have the credibility of a press release; however, the rewards can be worth it. Send visitors to a landing page offering a targeted promotion.

Note: For this to work well you must have a great lead capture and follow up system in place.

Funneling Towards a Sale

Awareness- When strangers are just becoming aware of your firm, a well-established online presence will help boost your search engine ranking, and make you more visible to that stranger.

Interest- When strangers fill out your registration form, they become an early stage lead, actively invested in vetting your firm. At this stage, building a relationship through trust and thought leadership is crucial.

Desire- As your early-stage leads become more invested in the vetting process, the funnel narrows. At this stage, you’re likely to be interacting directly with principals, CEOs, and other high-level executives who like what they’ve seen, but want to mitigate any risk from a bad hiring decision. If you can carry the trust and information relevance into this relationship building stage, you’re forming a bond with your prospect that will naturally lead to closing the deal.

Action- After a new client gives you a first project you need to perform admirably. New and existing clients are a valuable source of word-of-mouth marketing. Their evaluation of your firm’s execution during the they’re likely to recommend you in the project will determine whether or not future.

Subscriptions- Newsletter or blog subscriptions are a great way to capture information in exchange for a steady stream of branded materials from your firm. The more useful your content, the more dedicated your audience will be. Finally, Get seen on the Jobsite, in Google Maps, and in Registries Don’t forget jobsite signage. Grab eyeballs and make a useful offer. Rather than just printing your business name and phone number, how about a referral offer or a freemium if they log-on to your site with a special code. Getting registered on Google Maps is free and Google searches will often rank the location of the nearest architect high on the results page. Regional & National Registries are typically free as well. By linking to other relevant, highly-trafficked “authority sites,” you company will also get ranked higher on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). *1 Another article designed to help architectural firms find new business outlines additional ideas to close more business. Highlights from these ideas include identifying ideal projects, creating clever design objects to distribute to potential clients, following-up with potential client contact by sending them educational or informational emails, promoting your company brand at tradeshows and out-of-town events, organizing an open lecture series to attract new markets, and growing your online presence. Generating new business opportunities involves both marketing and communications, but most of all it involves nurturing relationships. As long as you can continue networking effectively and keep your contacts talking about you, then your firm will most

likely pop up during conversations about new projects. *2

*1 Findings synthesized from: http://architectsmarketing.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/06/The-

Top-10-Lead-Sources-For-Architects-2014-print-v2.0.pdf

*2 Findings synthesized from:

http://www.archdaily.com/775410/9-ways-to-find-more-business-for-your-architecture-firm

NE

W B

US

INE

SS

Developing Leads The more people are familiar with your work, the greater the odds of someone thinking of your firm when they hear about a great new project.

Like most firms, your decision on whether or not to bid a project depends on many factors. Does your firm have an existing relationship with this customer, or any connection to the people involved? How can you connect with the decision makers?

“No matter how you look at it the odds of

winning a project from someone you

don’t know are slim.”

Now, imagine a new prospect coming to you after researching your firm online. Your message has piqued their interest because your website presented your company’s great work, and your community support. The odds of closing this deal just went way up. Right!

That’s what a fully optimized, content-rich web presence can do for your company. Your online messaging can help you generate leads, inform visitors, and motivate buyers.

You don’t want your website to be like a digital brochure of your work, there are a million of those. A lead-generating website is designed to capture information from visitors in exchange for targeted, valuable content such as blog posts, white papers, insiders’ guides, webinars, and the like.

This kind of content attracts new clients, encourages content distribution, attracts new talent, and most importantly—builds trust in your brand. That trust will help guide your new leads into your sales funnel.

To become a thought leader and an authority site in your niche you need to have consistently relevant content and a means to attract eyeballs to read and share your information. Within the past 4-5 years online content has become the most significant trend for attracting new prospects and building loyalty in your existing customer base.

FAQ’s about new projects:

What is the project?

How big is it?

Where is it?

What‘s the budget?

What‘s driving the project?

Why is it happening now?

What’s changed in the customer’s business?

What’s the customer’s objective on this project?

Is it right for your firm?

Is this project not something you’re truly qualified to do?

Is it something you’re passionate about?

Who’s your competition?

What is the timing? When is the bid due? Are there other firms already lined up to do the project? If the project is still in planning, can you get a walk-thru or scope meeting? Can you win the job? What are the chances of winning

this project? Does the potential

client and the project, match your

firm’s experience?

This trending communications strategy is called the hub and spoke content model.

Hub and Spoke Model Process

This process takes prior planning and have resources in place to fulfill the plan. Essentially, you research, produce a main piece of content, which becomes the hub. Then you create many spokes that link back to that main content to support, promote and drive significant traffic to it.

The spokes are published continuously for 2-3 months after the hub. The spokes are published to drive traffic to the hub, and the hub helps drive conversions to the spokes. Without a hub, the spokes would not be tied to any specific content marketing goals or strategy. The hub and spoke model drive together. They need to work in harmony because without the spoke content promoting the hub; it wouldn’t get enough traffic to be successful.

Final Thoughts The only way to grow your firm is to devise a marketing strategy that can help you become a leader in your chosen discipline. Without a focus on determining who you are, where you stand, and where you want to be in the future, your odds of generating significant new business are greatly diminished.

However, with a strong marketing strategy outlining your mission, goals, and your objectives, as well as, a communications strategy defining your niche, your target markets, and the messages you’ll communicate to convert leads into sales, you can open new horizons for your company and dominate your space.

Form a plan, devise your strategies, and execute your marketing tactics and you will be light years ahead of 90% of your competition.