Every architecture company exists because of 2 things.
Clients and Revenue.
And revenue is the result of a powerful sales process and proven marketing tactics.
So here are 20 battle-tested ways to market a architecture business that will lead you to more success for your architecture company.
1. Craft a Direct Message to Your Ideal Client
To start, it’s important to understand who your target audience is and how to craft an overall message that will reach them.
Let’s chop it up into 3 steps:
- Define your target audience
- Craft a message for them
- Make sure they see the message
What trades do you specialize in? Are you a one-man show? Are you a big company with 10+ people in your office? Do you usually work in residential or commercial?
Answer those questions and figure your own organization out first. Next, paint a picture on who your dream client is. How old are they? How big is their company or project?
Get as specific as possible. Once you have your dream client in mind, you have your target audience. A target audience is a collection of your dream clients.
So now you have your target audience, and the next step is to tap into their desires and speak to them.
What does your dream client want? What do they want to hear? What do they struggle with almost every single day? Once you know the answers to all those questions and ones similar, you have all the fuel you need to craft a message.
“Crafting a message for an audience” is more than just what to write in a promo flyer. It’s your entire brand. It’s what you’re all about.
Let’s illustrate an example so you can better understand.
You’re an architect trying to do big commercial project in the city. After speaking with developers in your area you start to realize that the biggest problem they deal with is they are arguing for cheap construction over great design. Armed with this info, you set up some Facebook ads targeting developers with more budget and people working in real estate development companies and you give a sales pitch on how much better the design can serve the client and even save money in the long run.
That’s a message for a specific audience.
Once you create the message you need to make sure your target audience receives it. To make sure of this you first need to see where their attention is. Most contractors briefly check their phone on the job site occasionally, and they’re mostly on email or Facebook or LinkedIn. Because of this, if you want to target contractors it makes sense to target them on Facebook and Email.
See what has their attention and make a presence there. In your specific situation it can be something different.
2. Build a Content Creation Team
The business world is evolving very rapidly into a dynamic where the people who succeed are the ones putting the most content out into the world and occupying people’s attention.
As an architecture business, it’s essential you create and distribute content to attract attention. In other words, you must create and post a lot of content on the internet so you can get a reputation that encourages people to view you as the go-to architect.
Unless you’re an experienced content creator, it’d be wise to hire a team or to outsource the task entirely. If you’re going to keep it in-house you’re going to need these 4 roles:
- Written word person (Editorial Management)
- Math person (Data Analyst/Strategist)
- Video person (Video Content)
- Art person (Designer)
Keep in mind these don’t have to be 4 different people, it can be 1 person satisfying all 4 roles, 2 people with 2 roles each. As long as all 4 roles are satisfied.
If you don’t really understand anything above, then it’s a good sign you should probably hire a marketing agency to help you out. Check out #12 on this article about social media for architects for help on how to hire one.
3. Post Content on Facebook
Once you have your team, agency, or yourself situated and ready to start producing content, it’s time to go hard on the platforms your potential clients are on.
According to the Pew Research Center, 69% of U.S. adults use Facebook, and many of those are contractors and homeowners who can potentially be people that give you work, so it only makes sense to attack your marketing on this platform.
Make a list of the different types of content you want to post, this will be your guide to having a solid, predictable brand that people can expect, and also not having to think so hard on what to post. This is called a content type planner.
An example content type planner for an architecture company could be:
- Video’s giving advice to other investors
- Quotes from videos
- Examples of finished work
- Videos of projects being worked on
This is entirely personal and up to you, but the above content type planner should give you a head start on thinking of what to post.
4. Post Content on Instagram
Just like with the content type planner above, you’re going to want to make something similar for Instagram, if not the same thing.
Once you have a planner detailing all the different types of content that you’re going to publish, it’s time to execute and put stuff out to the world.
Remember that if you’re having trouble with social media, don’t be afraid to hire a team or to outsource social media management to an agency. It may be pricy, but the brand it will build will be worth it.
5. Post Content on LinkedIn
If you’re a commercial architect, LinkedIn should be the platform you’re going the hardest at. There’s great organic reach on the platform which means that if you post things consistently there’s a great chance a lot of people are going to see it.
Most people who have never used social media for their business tense up when it’s mentioned, they don’t know how to make their way into the community or how to get started. Our advice is to just start.
Make a list of ideas for posts and just start posting, as you get more experience it will flow more easily to you. If you don’t have the time to attack your content creating, hire people to do it for you. Invest in your brand and reap the benefits for years to come.
6. Attract Leads with a Lead Magnet
This can almost instantly blow up a architecture business, especially if you work mostly in the residential sector.
A lead magnet is a free offer for something that collects contact information to eventually sell your services.
For example, a design contractor who mainly works on residential design jobs may offer a special video training “How to Redisgn Your Home on a Budget”, that people can see only after they’ve given away their email address.
That’s a very simple and effective way to collect emails.
7. Ask for Referrals
This one is very simple, after you complete a project that you know you did a good job on, don’t shy away from asking if they know a partner company who has some projects they’re fixing to work on.
Sometimes the action of simply asking for extra work could lead to amazing opportunities you would’ve missed out on if you’d have never inquired about it.
8. Go All-in on Local SEO
Local SEO for architects is what happens when you look up something location-specific on Google.
Exhibit A:
Architect SEO example:
As you can imagine, being on that list would get you a lot of exposure and bring a lot of legitimacy to your company.
Without getting too technical, the main thing you need to be ranked up there is for Google to approve of your page and consider you a better website than the competition.
The way to make that happen is by getting people to vouch for your website and add links to it on their website. So in other words, the website with more links to it gets ranked higher on Google.
Of course, there are a million other things to it, but that’s all you really need to know because the easiest way you can rank higher for Local SEO is by hiring experts.
9. Call Past Clients on a Specific Schedule
Keep a database of all your past clients you’ve ever worked with and give them a follow up email a couple weeks or months after the project is over, asking how they’re doing and if they have any other projects they’d be interested in collaborating on.
You’d be surprised how many architects can secure more work just from following up with past clients and showing how much they genuinely care about their company.
Plus, this establishes a relationship in the industry where you can position yourself as the go-to for a architect in your area, which is a win-win for both parties.
That’s the real prize here.
10. Hire an Advertising Team and run ads
The goal of marketing a architecture business is having a lot of attention on your brand, and then having a powerful brand that inspires people to come to you for work.
Having content on the Internet helps that goal come to life, but it isn’t enough.
Everyone that would be interested in engaging with your content should receive ads that invite them to see your content and eventually hire you for your services.
Similar to content creation, you can either do it yourself, or hire an advertising agency to handle it for you.
If you want to go full-scale attack mode and scale your marketing efforts fast, then hire an advertising and content creation team. However, it’s recommended you hire an agency to help you so it’s not as heavy on your schedule and you don’t have as much overhead.
11. Create an Authoritative Website
Having a well-designed website is such an underrated aspect of having a business. A website is one of the core pieces of your marketing.
Don’t be afraid to invest in web designers to give you a great website so you can appear more legitimate and professional. A great website and some local SEO (see tip #8) can result in a lot of business.
Conclusion
This is a modern approach to marketing a architecture business, there are many other methods and strategies out there, but these are the most standout, battle-tested methods that can bring any business from a 1-man company to needing an entire office floor to accommodate all employees.
I hope you got some great value in this piece!
Remember that DIGIMEA is here to help you estimate your projects lightning speed so you can spend more time selling the job and less time in the office. Contact us to see all we can do for you and your business: digimea@digimea.com