The truth is my firm didn't do a great job of marketing. Luckily we had repeat clients. Maybe because of the repeat clients we found it easy to not value marketing.

If I were starting all over, knowing what I know now, here's what I would do.

I would implement a simple Six Step Marketing process:

1. IDEA
2. GRAPHIC
3. CTA
4. BLOG
5. EMAIL
6. REPEAT

Grab an idea

What would your potential clients find interesting or helpful? Brainstorm periodically to create a backlog of readily available topics that lend themselves to graphics. Thinking about what your clients are interested in is worthwhile. Bits of information that makes you a helpful resource is what you are after. Since the ideal ratio* of graphics:text is 83.875%:16.125%, focus on images.

* I totally made that ratio up, but graphics should dominate. Nobody wants to read. Keep it short.

Always have graphics

Always have graphics. A post without graphics has a life expectancy equal to the time it takes to click “DELETE”. Add graphics and you zoom up to 5 seconds or more!!! - long enough for it to register ‘who sent this’.

Don't get crazy about perfection. Your graphics are about an impression. They are not about ‘gorgeousness’. Quick and simple! Gorgeous is an ego trip - and it’s not sustainable. You have important things to do.

Here are a couple of processes to demonstrate.

Take pictures when at the construction site. Focus on the stuff that looks cool. Crop the view for impact. Add a comment or two about what’s important, or screwed up or ‘good to know’.
When you photograph a completed project, use a cropped photo (to add drama) and add the announcement of completion/thank you for the opportunity/cool features/great value - whatever is appropriate.
Take screenshots of design work in progress. comment on the status, expected bid date, what’s important about what you have done.
If you do 3D graphics, use them here too. A 10-15 SECOND walk-thru or fly-by is really good. (Make sure it loads fast!)

Almost anything that can be considered interesting or helpful information (costs!) will work.

Always have a Call To Action

Never put anything out there without a call to action. Even if your focus is name recognition, don’t miss the opportunity to let your audience interact. A Call To Action could be a question, a button or just a link to another webpage or downloadable file.

Make it appropriate, even if it is just a link to more of the same. It could be as dumb as “compare these (widgets)”.
Or as helpful as “get in touch with me for how to avoid (widgets) like this” with a email link.

More CTA ideas:

Link to a similar project
Link to an earlier post
Link to the bio of the designer
Link to your page on costs,
or your page on your design strategy.

Make the CTA something more to help them - not something to help you! This is marketing, not sales. Demonstrate helpfulness and care, not bragging.

Always have a call to action.

Start a blog

See my post named No.1 Marketing Tool for my thoughts on having a blog. It boils down to 'a blog is just a tool'. The benefits of this tool are that you will have a constantly changing reason for your prospective clients to think about you. Getting attention is priceless. The blog is just a way to package up your content, get it delivered, and to file it where it can be easily found again.

If your website has a blog, great, use it. If you need to add a blog, see the link above.

Don’t worry about domain names and SEO. You are emailing the content. It doesn’t matter if Google doesn’t put your blog in search results. Maybe add a menu item on your website that sends people, who click it, to your new blog site.

Connect blog to email

Connecting your blog to email means an email service provider sends out your blog posts for you. This makes it automatic for your blog entry to land in the inboxes of your mailing list. You don’t have to wonder if they will see your piece because you have effortlessly emailed it to them. If you are interesting, they will give you a few seconds of their time to see what you sent.

You connect your blog feed to an email service provider like MailChimp, MailerLite, ConvertKit, etc. Every time that you publish a blog post, it is sent to your list. Most email service providers are free until you have over 1,000 or so addresses in your list.

Repeat

Consistently build an impression of your firm that your potential clients can relate to. Trustworthy. Knowledgeable. Conscientious. Human. Funny. I don’t know about funny. Maybe. Would I want my dentist to be a funny guy?

The point is that you get to choose and develop the kind of impression you want your audience to have about you. Run through this simple process once or twice a month. More than that will seem like you are a pest. Only increase the frequency if your audience is begging you to.

This is the best cheap, easy and effective marketing that you can do. Master this before you try anything else.

6 Step Marketing