MARKETING TOOLS FOR ARCHITECTS
Marketing Tools For Architects
I think of marketing tools/tactics as falling into six groups. They have a natural progression and if it is time to refresh your marketing, or start some marketing, this is the order I would suggest. Any group could be moved a space or two depending on your circumstances, but reverse order of these six would be ineffective. Each is explained below.
Marketing Tools For Architects
Image
Networking
Social Media
Outbound Marketing
Publishing
Advertising
Image Marketing Tools
The younger your firm is the more your image should represent who you intend to be - within limits. The disconnect between working out of your garage and presenting yourself as a hospital architect is going to send a counterproductive message. Nevertheless your image should say something about what you aspire to, and who you aspire to work for.
The cost of promoting your desired image is a modest additional cost that more than pays for itself in the impression on your targeted clients.
Networking Marketing Tools
None of us know enough of the ‘right’ people. Join some groups that will rectify this.
The cost / benefit proposition depends on how avidly you will build connections. Chamber of Commerce dues are a waste if you don’t get deeply involved.
Social Media Marketing Tools
Social media can be a type of networking for everyone. Those of us that work for individuals rather than organizations will get more benefit.
The cost is modest and is worth the effort.
Outbound Marketing Tools
Contacting people with your message used to be expensive, and still is for snail mail. Luckily email turns that equation upside down. Follow up on your networking with informative information or just your work in progress.
The cost can be minimal and the benefit over time can be huge.
(Inbound Marketing is the holy grail, people contacting you with work. Unfortunately, people spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars don’t find their architect with Google. Unless you have a highly specialized niche, say, veterinary laboratory architect.)
Publishing Marketing Tools
Once you get the hang of sending out email regularly, the next step is to put it in a blog where it can have a longer life/usefulness. Connect that blog to an email delivery service and each post reaches your contacts looking just like the web version.
This has a modest cost but will bring more traffic to your website and leverage your outbound marketing effort.
Advertising Marketing Tools
Nearly all forms of advertising have a major flaw for architects: advertising can’t reach the very small target audience with anywhere near the impact required to justify the cost. Houzz is the one exception that I can think of for residential architects.
Everything that you do is marketing. Everything leaves an impression. From your email signature to your completed work there are opportunities to build an impression that matches what your future clients are looking for. Marketing is just being aware of these opportunities and creating a few more.