This is ultimate the guide to architecture marketing and digital marketing for architects.
Regardless of size; this guide for digital marketing is made for both large, small, and independent architects.
We start with basics of branding and go into deep detail on how to use digital marketing to grow your architecture company.
When you need to boost your online presence, this digital marketing playbook for architects will help you with all kinds of short cuts and resources.
Please use the comment section at the very end of the article if you’re interested in learning more or were hoping to see more.
Would you to skip directly to the downloadable version of this guide? Download the marketing guide now!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – Marketing for Architects – Branding Your Architecture Company
Branding Your Architecture Services Company
You’re trying to get your business noticed online.
The right digital tools and Growth-hacking strategies can speed up the process.
Whether you are selling architecture services, software, golf clubs, etc., you need to know how to get in front of the right customers.
In the digital age, putting up a sign on the side of the road no longer cuts it. So where to begin?
In the first chapter we’ll cover the Digital Marketing Basics:
1. Color Selection
2. Name and Logo
3. Style-Sheet
4. Description-of-your-Architecture-Services
5. Architecture-work-photos
This guide will take you step by step through the process of marketing your business and using the right tools to get the job done.
Why would we give all of this away for free?
We want people to share our content and consider using ArchitectureQuote to get more leads in the future. Simple as that.
Even if you don’t end up using ArchitectureQuote, we would at the very least give you a chance to learn something from us.
If this was valuable please share it and come back in the future when you want more projects.
[Related Article – Marketing Tips for Architects [2020 Update] ]
Marketing for Architecture
Architects and architecture service companies need to think of their business digitally.
Just like building a house, first, you need to lay the foundation.
Get through the initial tedious stuff out of the way and the rest is smooth sailing. Well… most of the time.
If you feel like you’re more intermediate level, skip this section.
Basics: Online Branding for Architects
1) Color Selection For Your Architecture Brand
Select your core colors and secondary colors for your brand.
You can take the time and dig a little bit deeper into how branding colors will affect your branding.
Make it simple and take a quiz to determine your brand colors! Your call!
Finding The Complementary Color Tools:
Great tools for picking complementary colors for your brand:
2) Architect Design Company: Name and Logo
No name? No problem.
If you are thinking of changing that name before going digital, here are some tips on how to choose a brand name.
Here’s a great technique for coming up with a brand name and getting a few ideas on logos.
Use a random word generator.
3 clicks later- see if something sticks.
Use keywords to come up with a new brand name:
Check out these keywords tools:
Generate a Company Name Using a “start-up name generator”:
Start-up name generators combine words and ideas to become unique sounding company names:
Next, get the domain for your architecture website
Use Whois to see if the name is claimed
Remember to consider using other domain types:
- .co
- .net
- .ai
- .ly
OR… consider finding expired valuable domains that are on the market.
Now you’re not starting from zero:
[Related Article – The Best Architecture WordPress Themes and Website Templates [2020] ]
Get a Logo in Multiple Sizes and Formats
Assuming your architecture services has a name, you will need a logo in two styles.
Get a professional:
What are some professional freelance websites?
Logo File Formats and Sizes
- Rectangular and square for different listing sites and formats.
- Get a rectangular and square version of the logo in two file formats (below) and multiple sizes.
- Vector image SVG and PNG files
Note: a Vector image will allow you to insert the logo in multiple places.
Get a logo on Fiverr and use this guide to finding good high res $5 logos.
Don’t overthink it. As an architect, you should be able to design logos in inDesign for Photoshop.
Checklist of all the file formats of your architecture firm’s logo:
Square Logo Version (1:1 Ratio):
Used for profile images, vertical images, and branding across different media pieces.
- 48 x 48 (size in pixels) in .PNG format (favicon icons)
- 200 x 200 (size in pixels) in .PNG format
- 400 x 400 (size in pixels) in .PNG format
- 1024 x 1024 (size in pixels) in .PNG format
Rectangular:
Used in branding, listing, and all horizontal layouts. There is no perfect ratio for height to width. Many companies use any size ratios of 1:6, 1:2 or 3:4
- Small .PNG format
- Medium .PNG format
- Large .PNG format
- Very Large .PNG format (HDD)
- .SVG file – (vector images are infinitely scalable)
Download this Marketing for Architects ebook for FREE
Download this ultimate digital marketing guide for architects and take it with you! We’ll trade you your email for the guide!
3) Style Sheet: Consistency helps – Just like in Architecture
A great Architecture design studio should pride itself on clean and consistent aesthetics.
You want a unified look across all digital platforms. This helps build a brand and trust!
Create a document that covers all the styles of your company and have it in one place for all designers and marketers to be able to find it easily.
In general have a cloud-based system (like Google Drive) set up and organized so your files are always easy to find.
In the image below you can see an example Style Sheet.
Examples of elements needed in your Architecture firm’s style sheet or style guide:
- Primary colors (include color number ids)
- Secondary colors (include color number ids)
- Color pairings
- Use of gradients: yes/no
- Line widths
- Font(s): bold or unbold, headers, sub-headers, normal text
- Corners vs rounded edges
- Lighting
- Outline use
- Icons
- Patterns / textures
Here’s a Short Cut – Create a style sheet online using templates:
Frontify style guide allows you to quickly and easily develop a brand style.
Brandmaster also gives you an online solution to creating a branded style sheet.
4). Write a Description for your Architecture Services company
Write five variations of what your architecture services are.
The description of your architecture services should be between 2-5 sentences max.
For Example You Can Have a Tag Line With Something Below:
- ___ the best design studio for residential architecture
- Sustainable architecture for any purpose
- We design dream homes
- Architecture services to fit your next big project
- Your industrial architecture studio of the future
Keep it simple enough for the average person to distinguish you from competitors.
This will help you later when creating online profiles and testing how people engage with your description, tag lines, and more. It’s good to have variation.
5). Photos of Your Architecture Work
Architecture is highly visual, don’t leave your photos out!
Export photos of your best design work at various stages (or build a portfolio).
We came across so many architecture websites in our research with tons of great visuals.
The websites of the BEST architecture companies in the world often had more imagery.
FACT: Architecture company websites with more aesthetics consistently had the more online traffic.
Just like creating a beautiful building, you need to think like the people that will be using that space.
These are the “visitors” AKA people that come looking for your help.
Help them visualize the experience and benefits of working with you.
Make something easy to navigate and informative.
TIP: Organize your thoughts and photos using an online folder on your “drive” or in the cloud saves countless hours, we’ve all been there!
The more colors and variety of architecture projects you post, the more likely you are to grab the attention of digital visitors.
These visuals are great for your Google My Business listing, other listing sites, and your architecture services website.
Below is an example of a listing on Google Maps:
Note: You’ll see more on this topic in Chapter-2
Specifically for your architecture office: take photos of where you work and upload them of your architecture business.
TIP: More media on google business is directly linked to better local SEO.
Snap a few original photos:
- Inside
- Outside
- Co-workers
- Work spaces
All the best architecture studios and design firms in the world do this.
If you do not have an office yet, or you are working from home, take a few pictures of your laptop or architecture materials – Get creative!
AGAIN: Google My Business actually asks for images to validate your business and it helps with ranking locally.
Hold onto all the visuals and architecture photos as they’ll help you to construct ads, landing pages, social media posts, and more!
Chapter 2 – Marketing for Architects – How To Create an Architecture website
Websites are EASY! Don’t over think it.
In this section, we’ll break down the elements of the homepage and some tools to get it done.
This chapter takes you through digital marketing for architects on:
- Freemium-Architecture-Websites
- Home-page
- Hero-Image
- Headline on the Homepage
- Architecture-Services-Section
- Architect-Services-Page
- About Page
- Contact Page
- Architecture Portfolio
- Your Domain
- Google My Business
- Social Media
Whether you are an architect fresh out of school or want to start your design studio’s digital transformation on a budget, we got you!
Related article: Almost Free and Free Ways to Build an Architecture Website:
These days it’s easier than ever to create a professional looking architecture website for free or very close to it.
Freemium Architecture Websites:
If you’re far from technical, consider one of the following sites for creating your architecture website:
Drag and drop style platforms allow you to create something simple and elegant.
Be sure to use plenty of architectural visuals and short write-ups. Don’t get intimidated.
Without much effort, you can also hire a marketing agency to help you build a website pretty quickly.
WordPress has long been the standard for online websites with the ability to scale and add advanced features.
Get hosting, then a wordpress theme, and build your website quickly.
Most important pages for an architecture website
Building Your Architecture Website – Home Page:
Before you get started, you need to ask yourself the following questions about your architecture services business:
- What makes you a unique architecture firm?
- What architectural services do you offer?
- Who have you worked with?
- Which architect websites do you admire?
These questions will help you design your website, texts, and visuals, you will use.
Included elements of every architecture services homepage
1) Architect Homepage – Headline at the top:
Tell your visitors exactly what you do. This helps your visitor know they have come to the right place.
Pro tip: create video guides that assist your customers in navigating your website.
Examples of great headings:
- “Architecture Services”
- “Elegant Resident Architecture”
- “Business and Industrial Architects”
- “Interior Design for Luxury Apartments”
- “Infrastructure and Civic Designs”
2) Architect Homepage – Hero Image:
Picture of a project that represents you, your clients, your type of architecture projects.
Images need to convey your abilities and also show others the finished product.
3) Architect Homepage – Architecture Services Section:
List the types of architecture projects you’re looking for… What types of projects do you do?
Architecture Project Examples:
- Residential
- Commercial
- Interior Design
- Healthcare
- Academic
- Landscape
- Remodifications for Renovations
- Civic or Infrastructure
- Artistic installations
- Everything else
Does your Architecture company specialize in something?
Architectural Specialization Examples:
- Green or low environmental impact
- High end or luxury residential
- Cabins
- Small or mobile structures
- 3D printed technology
- Elegant interiors
- Innovative classroom designs
- Living spaces in developing countries
Think about it…
It’s a business storefront for your architecture services, just in digital form.
Build trust by giving the user an understanding of what you do.
4) Create Your Architect Services Page:
- What types of architectural projects do you do?
- What is your unique approach to building design?
- Why are you different? If nothing comes to mind, what do you do better than other design studios?
As shown in an example below, you will want to highlight your distinctive services.
Sections of the Architecture Services Page Include:
- General process
- Approach to architecture
- All the industries you serve
- Architecture service offerings
- Certifications.
- RIBA process.
- Specialties
- A general summary of your style
5) Your Architecture Website’s About Page:
Brag a little about yourself. Who are you?
Google’s EAT update requires websites that rank to establish, “Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness” (EAT).
If you don’t tell the world who you are and what sets you apart, you’re not going to rank.
Sections for your Architecture About Page:
- Awards
- Education
- Big Wins
- Listing the owners
- Owner summaries and backgrounds
- Team members
- Where your architecture firm has been published or written about
- Client logos
Your About Page could look like this:
Elements to include in the “About Us” page
- Has anyone or any publishers written about you? Add that information to your website!
- Who have you worked with?
- What is the company’s mission?
Show with pictures of work that represent that or quote clients’ comments that support that! - Start capturing product and lifestyle photos for this purpose.
This page builds trust and authority in the architecture space and for your customers. Google also cares about your expertise, authority, and trust (EAT).
This may not feel like marketing for architects, but it’s incredibly important.
6) Create Your Architecture Website’s Contact Page:
Tell people where you work and how to get in touch.
Additional elements of your architecture firm’s contact page:
- Your phone number (if you want).
- Contact form (we can go into this later).
- Social Media and Youtube pages.
- Events you will be attending.
An example of a architecture company’s contact page:
Tip: Get a contact form [instead of a general email address]
Contact forms have a significantly higher conversion rate than emails.
Setting up a marketing tech-stack is what digital marketing and growth strategy agencies like Klint Marketing are all about.
7) Create Your Architecture Portfolio:
Customers want to see what you’re capable of doing for them.
Your architecture company portfolio is about creating trust, authority, and showing your expertise in your field.
Architecture Portfolio Examples and Inclusions:
- Finished architecture projects
- Competitions
- Concept Designs
- Detailed Designs
- Schematic Drawings
- Sketches
- 3D reliefs
- Anything else that allows your customers to get a full perspective of your work.
Purchase your domain, get hosting, and get a professional email address.
You can do all those things through the website creation sites above.
You can also find many websites that compare these creation sites in tables.
If your architecture design studio is larger than a few people, you need an architecture services site that is more professional – so spend the money on something nice.
Domain prices (per year) can go from 9 USD to 100 USD depending on the name you are choosing.
Get hosting and a website that is fast and allows you to capture customers seeking architecture services.
Work with a GOOD marketing agency to build you an elegant & functional website. You may know some agencies such as Klint Marketing, always pick trustworthy ones that will deliver.
[Related Article – 20+ Professional Website Builders for Creating an Architecture Portfolio
Register your architecture business with Google My Business:
Every reputable architecture company needs to be registered with Google My Business.
You need to get listed locally.
Listings could look like this:
A Google My Business listing gives your architecture website a significantly higher likelihood of getting found online.
Google tends to skew their searches for more local results.
No Office? No problem.
If you’re working from home, you need to register your address. Here is some help for optimizing your Google My Business Listing.
After registering your architecture firm’s mailing address, you will receive a postcard containing a code to confirm your architecture company’s location.
It can take up to 14 business days to receive the postcard from Google.
Log in and confirm the code to verify your business listing.
Now you are registered and confirmed locally as an architecture services company. You did it!
Measure Traffic With Google Analytics and Google Search Console:
Google Analytics tells you about your traffic:
This will allow you to later track your architecture company’s traffic and where it’s coming from.
This will allow you to see the most successful channels driving traffic to your website and what types of campaigns are working for your business.
Your Google Analytics may look like this:
You always want to measure how far you’ve come over time building a successful online presence that helps get you, clients.
Other great resources for setting up analytics for your architecture services company are here:
- Video: Setting up Analytics and Search Console.
- Moz’s Guide to Analytics
Search Console is crucial for understanding the technical structure and performance of your architecture services website:
Adding a tracking pixel in the body of the header is required for confirming the search console is installed correctly.
If this is a little too technical, a front-end developer or a marketing firm can help you get this off the ground.
Check out a how-to guide on Search Console for yourself.
Pro tip: if you’re looking to take your analytics to the next level, you can use visitor intelligence software to identify, track, and qualify your leads.
Register Your Architecture Company on Social Media:
Every design studio needs social media accounts when marketing architectural services digitally – at the minimum:
Each of these sites take a few minutes to set up a company account or page.
The ultimate goal is to:
- Get more eyes on your website.
- Validate your architecture brand.
- Legitimize your architecture company.
It sometimes seems silly, but it’s actually really important!
It only takes a short time to create these accounts! Plus, social media isn’t going away anytime soon.
In order to save time on updating these social media platforms, look into a tool that lets you schedule, update all posts (with slight variations at once), and monitor your reach. We will take a look at these tools later in Chapter 7.
But you don’t have to just stop there, social media can be a realistic revenue stream for enterprising architecture firms! And if you want to optimize your social media, it might be worth getting into social media analytics to better understand where your audience is actually coming from!
Chapter 3 – Digital Marketing for Architecture – Get Discovered Online
This chapter covers how to increase the digital marketing reach of your architecture business.
Building organic traffic and referral traffic which eventually will lead to new projects coming to your door.
Digital Marketing: How to get discovered online by customers
If you don’t have a website yet or social media accounts, or tracking, then go back to our first checklist in Chapter 1 to learn how to start out marketing your business digitally.
In this chapter, you will learn about some of the tools and techniques for advertising your business digitally for free. Many of these marketing tools will help you save time, money, and headaches by automating the work so you can focus on more important things.
A lot of people will Google generic terms and then their location, but there are also some that will put more specifics. Your online presence will allow you to appear higher up in searches.
List your Architecture company everywhere online
Create company profiles on different online platforms. This is where current and new users may search for your services and find you.
Examples of information needed for these directories and listing sites:
- Architecture company name.
- Architecture firm owner.
- Description of your architecture company.
- List of design or architecture services and competencies.
- Portfolio images.
- Company logos.
- Contact information (phone, address, and email).
- Website and Social Media URLs.
- And all other fields being asked.
Go broad first and get specific by your industry
| Bing Places for Business | Yes! People still search for services using Bing – actually nearly half of the population in the U.S. does! |
| Yahoo | Just because they have gone bankrupt and been sold to Verizon, it doesn’t mean online searchers don’t know it still exists. |
| Yelp | Get your services listed and rated – in this age, people are influenced by social media comments, so kindly let your clients know that a positive review on Yelp could help you out. |
| MerchantCircle | An online directory for small and larger businesses – here is a step by step guide on how to claim your business on their platform! |
| Yellow Pages | Exactly! Good old Yellow Pages is already online and about 60 million people use this search engine a month. |
| White Pages | How business used to be listed in the old Yellow Pages when everything was in a big book. |
| Yellowbook | Similar listing service to yellow pages and the others. |
| SuperPages | Another variety of business listings that is like all the others. |
| YellowBot | Listings are free but you can pay to get extra features |
| Magic Yellow | Listings for any business owner to claim or list their business |
| Manta | A listing site with free listings |
| Hotfrog | International listing site for all kinds of companies |
| Mapquest | Not free but a listing service to bring customers to you |
| Local | Service providing local listings and popular business listings |
| Express Update | Add your business profile to get found |
| FourSquare | This app pivoted to make their business about listing companies that you can check into upon visiting |
| Dexknows | List your business and also engage with users and see stats on how your business is listed |
| Business Journals | List your business and pay more for more listings |
| Angie’s List | Service listings online for consumers to find, research, and rate local companies and contractors. |
| Kudzu | Service geared specifically towards contractors and homeowner service |
| Ez Local | Local listing service |
Online Marketing – Getting Industry Specific
How to find industry-specific directories?
Perform the following searches and replace “your industry” with the architecture specialty within your architecture firm (e.g.residential, business, academic, civil, etc):
| Your Industry + ”add your business”/ “list your business” Your Industry + location (*choose town, country, state, or country) + Listings Your Industry + directory Your Industry + directory + add/submit/suggest/post Your Industry + intitle: “directory” Your Industry + inurl: ”directory” Your Industry + Listings |
For example, let’s say you’re an interior design company:
Using the above search techniques, consider adding your specialty:
- Interior design
- Home remodeling
- Sunrooms
- Business and warehouse construction
- Other specialties
You can take a look at companies with a specialty in interior design:
- Archdraw Outsourcing
- In Style Direct
- Snøhetta
- Design Group Latin America
- HKS Architects
- Stac Architects
- H&H Studio
- Comité de Proyectos
- Studio Mart
- Adrian Amore Architects
- Flack Studio
- Hare + Klein
- Layan
SEO Warnings: Listing Your Architecture Services Company on Directories: It Can Do More Harm Than Good.
If you’re going to go “all-out” on listing your architecture business in directories, then you should follow the next steps:
1) As a rule, you should only list in “credible” directories:
The most popular directories are ones that look updated, have a more modern look aesthetically, and seem to provide value to its visitors.
If they don’t have an “https” or “secure site,” then Google has deemed your website to be unreliable and unlikely to rank.
The SSL certificate keeps sensitive information you share within a specific website encrypted (secured).
2) List your business in directories that appear to be moderated with regularity
Don’t bother listing your company on a site that doesn’t appear to update anything. You can find the copyright date in the footer of most homepages. What year does it list?
If the content is stagnant (old) then your listing is unlikely to go live.
3) It can be worth paying to get listed:
The websites that require a monthly subscription sometimes can also afford to moderate their listings, freshen up their content, and market your business to others.
These paid listing sites seldom get “slapped” by Google because they are providing a real service.
But if the site looks like it was designed back in the 90s or the pricing is over $1000 for the year, maybe it’s best to steer clear.
4) Niche and Local Sites Are Great!
Focus on your niche! Your niche is architecture.
Get on architecture forums, directories, and listing sites alongside your competitors.
Find out where your competitors are being listed and get your information listed beside theirs.
Chapter 4: Digital Marketing + Engagement On Other Platforms
Promote Your Architecture Company on Digital Platforms
- Forums
- Q&A websites
- Social Media
- Blogs to Promote Your Architecture Company
Be part of the conversation happening online
The architecture industry has its own challenges- what do people talk about?
There are plenty of social media platforms where you can provide value to topics related to architecture.
In return, you can receive traffic and/or new projects.
Participating in conversations by engaging in comments within websites, blogs, and social media groups/discussions related to architecture will help build a strong online presence.
How? Keep reading to find out about simple ways to do this!
How to engage with people in the architecture industry online?
- Comments.
- Post links to your articles as comments (not right away though! Do so after engaging in a few comments – this will make you look genuine).
- Answer and ask questions.
- Participating in blogger exchanges.
- Provide value and insights.
- Get active in social media groups.
All of the above takes time and effort, but the benefits are numerous.
What are the benefits of engaging in conversations online about architecture?
- Increasing backlinks.
- Boosting your presence online and brand awareness.
- Talking with potential customers.
- Establishing your authority and your brand as subject matter experts.
- Becoming more familiar with your community.
- Building trust.
- Getting more traffic to your website and blog.
Architecture Industry Forums – Q&A Websites – Social Media Groups
There are tons of online groups for people in the architecture industry.
These groups are made of people that may live and work in your town, it’s true!
The same people may also end up being your customers, future colleagues, and/or mentors.
Architecture Forums:
- Archinect Discussion Forum
- SkyscraperCity
- Canadian Architecture Forums
- Archdaily
- Global Architecture Firm
- International Architecture & Design Forum
You can also make a list of forums to interact with more specific to your firm’s specialty and location based on your culture and language.
Architecture industry Q&A Websites:
- Quora
- Mind the Book
- Answers – The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life’s Questions
- Looking for more Q&A? Check out this List of Alternatives to Yahoo Answers since it shut down.
Architecture Groups on LinkedIn:
- Interior Architecture + Design
- Women International: Women in Architecture, Engineering, Archaeology, Environment, and Agriculture
- RIBA Group
Facebook Groups for Architects:
- Revit Architecture Tips & Learning
- Architecture and Design
- Amazing Architecture
- Architects, Interior Designers & Contractors Group
- Design & Architecture
- Interior Architecture Group
- Design & Architecture Group
- Architecture Group
- Revit Architecture Users Group
Alternatively, join and post on the best Entrepreneur Facebook Groups.
Make relevent and thoughtful comments:
Find discussions or posts that you can relate to and “give your two cents.”
Post links to your content and your website
The content you create needs to be woven into the conversation. This isn’t sneaky or disingenuous, if you’re answering real questions and being part of the conversation.
Create a marketing project plan for your architecture company
Think about your marketing strategy the same way you would tackle a design project.
A processes’ driven approach to marketing a plan
Make a list of all the architecture-related channels online:
- Forums
- Blogs
- Publishers
- Social Media Groups (broken up by platform)
Collect the following information about each site/group you add to your Google Sheet:
- Name of Site / Group / Publisher / Blog / Forum
- Channel (SoMe, Web, Forum, etc)
- URL
- Number of members (if applicable)
- Contact Email
Organize your list into a Google Sheet on Google Drive, for example like this:
Now you can navigate your lists in an easy way and use them when you need them in the future!
Architecture Blogs:
Find architecture blogs and publishers that are geared toward the architecture industry or at the very least addressing an area of architecture that your company often deals with.
Commenting on architecture blog posts:
Although commenting isn’t anywhere near as viable as it used to be.
If you are lending genuinely insightful and helpful comments it can move the needle – we know this to be true!
- Be honest
- Don’t be too long-winded
- Be personable by speaking as if you would to a friend
- Include a link to either your website or your relevant blog post
Blogger exchange:
It’s often challenging for architecture service blogs and other publishers to always create fresh and new content.
Many of the folks that run these architecture publishing sites will be open to the idea of someone who works in the industry producing content for their site in return for a backlink.
This can take off the pressure of creating content all the time and it can also expand your firm’s range of visibility – it’s a win-win!
How to get your content posted on other websites for FREE
Good content can be far more valuable than running ads.
- Good content will drive traffic
- Boost your ranking on organic search
- Build your domain authority
- Capture more keywords
- Most importantly – Attract new customers
Where do you post content?
If you were going to put up a sign for your business, you would want to put it in a highly visible and high traffic area of your town.
You want to post your sign where potential customers are going to be.
Therefore, you should post your content online where lots of people are going to see it and engage with it.
Examples of “digital” places where you can post your articles:
- Architecture blogs.
- Subreddits and forums for architects
- Architect slack groups.
- Organizations that specialize in architecture unions or services.
- Publications geared towards architecture.
- Social media groups or pages.
- All related platforms that are relevant to your industry.
For example, you can answer questions on Quora that people have about architecture and drop a backlink to your article related to the question.
Go over the next steps to make sure you got this right!
Step 1 – Build a list architecture industry publishers, groups, forums, etc
Start by searching for the above (publishers, groups, forums, etc.) and build a list in a Google Sheet.
This will be the document you will use for future references, so enjoy the process!
Step 2 – Find out whom to contact
Find the people behind the blogs, publications, and websites.
You can locate their contact information under the “contact us” section of their website or look up the owner of the domain and add their email address or link to the contact form on your google spreadsheet.
Email Discovery Tools like Hunter.io, Contactout and Adapt.io have freemium plans that show you business emails of publishers and blog owners.
If you’ve collected a large number of email addresses, make sure to check their validity with a simple email verification tool.
Sometimes you won’t be able to find anyone to contact – it happens, so move on.
Step 3 – Craft meaningful emails.
People know when they are being spammed.
They know when you are writing a boilerplate email (generalized email) that feels like a template.
Credibility/Intro + Compliment + Compliment + Question. Ask for more, specifically.
Architecture Publisher Outreach for a Guest Post Example:
Depending on the architecture publisher, one out of every ten will respond positively.
Make sure that when you send your article over it includes at least one backlink to your website.
Step 4 – Follow up
Many people will pass on the first email about a blogger exchange. Send a “friendly reminder.”
Example of a follow-up email:
Step 5 – Send a “Thank You” and Additional Post Opportunity in the Future
If they respond positively, it will eventually end up going live online.
Send a thank you and ask if they’re open to letting you write again in the future.
Make a calendar event and actually follow up in the future.
Extra tips on exchanging content:
Automate the process of outreach
You can use a blog-contact details scrapper like Ninja Outreach and BuzzStream to save you time on getting the contact details for architecture websites and blogs.
Avoid Duplicate Content
If you have given away the article, don’t post that same article on your own website.
It’s considered duplicate content and will look bad on you.
Instead, put a summary on your blog and link to the guest post on the publisher.
Always promote on social media.
There is canonical tagging and, yes, it works, but unless you know what you are doing, don’t risk it.
Chapter 5 – Architecture Marketing with Good Content
Why should you create content for your architecture company’s blog?
Does my architecture company need a blog?
Yes! Your architecture company needs a blog.
This is the stuff that drives traffic.
Related Article: Marketing Tips for Architects
If you are good enough at your job, you can still give away many of the “secrets” to your success for free and actually gain traction.
People will see you as the authority and an expert on architecture services.
You need to produce content and articles that will live on your blog and other popular industry websites that cover content within architecture and architecture services.
Architecture Marketing 101: The importance of content”
- Creates brand awareness.
- Connects you with your potential customers.
- Increases the potential for discoverability.
- Increases organic traffic.
- Boosts your architecture services firm in search results rankings.
- Creates engaged and recurring visitors.
- Legitimizes your company and gives credibility.
1 – I’m an architect, what should I write about?
Think about who your audience is (customers and young architects) and what they are likely interested in knowing about you, your industry, or your business?
Write content that answers the most questions or things that you wish your customers knew.
For example: In the residential architecture industry, your audience client may be just your average late-career professional interested in building their dream villa or summer home.
It could also be content that other architects would be interested in.
For example, you might want to know how to get more leads or clients, so you Google it.
Likely you will click on the first article, which is this one.
So you will want to create content that answers these types of questions that lead people to your website.
What are the things they might want to know or could learn about before doing business with you (or someone like you)?
Architecture Blog Ideas
- How to build your inspiration board to show your future architect exactly what you want.
- How to find an honest design contractor?
- Which projects do most architects dislike the most?
- How to find out if you’re getting a good deal?
- What questions as a consumer should you ask the architecture design company before signing on the dotted line?
- How to spot an illegitimate architecture firm?
- How do architecture design companies estimate project costs?
- Top 5 considerations when renovating or remodeling a home
- Permit nightmares: fastest ways to get those pesky permits
There is a virtually limitless amount of topics you can cover. These are ideas you can come up with on your own.
Additional Resource:
Find the popular architecture articles about specific architecture themes, using Quora, Reddit, or a tool like Buzzsumo.
2 – How should your blog articles look?
These articles should focus on providing value.
If they are not interesting or valuable, then what’s the point?
Don’t ever write for the sake of writing.
Your blog posts should contain a preview image and look professional.
Visuals are important. Articles aren’t only about text.
If you don’t add visuals to the content, your blog visitors (people!) will get bored and eventually leave.
Example of “before and after” shot:
The pictures you use should be original. That means you need to take a ton of photos of your projects:
- Show the planning stage
- Snap photos of the first meetings
- Take a ton of “before” shots “after” photos [Show off your work!]
If you are early in the process of building your architecture company, that’s okay; then use free stock images.
You can even dress up the content a little more using tools like Canva or PicMonkey.
There are hundreds of other tools you can also find in our master list of tools to help you with your business.
3 – Use other visuals
Showing photos of work you have done or the stages of a project on the topic you’re writing about is great!
You can also add other visuals quantifying data that is relevant to the topic or that add some human aspect to what you are saying; graphics on clients’ preferences, most used designs in the last five years, etc.
4 – Blog length
You should strive for long-form content.
The top articles in any niche tend to be over 2000 words these days. That’s counter to what many journalists will tell you.
People want to understand the topic in detail. Give them a chance to explore all sides of a subject.
The longer the article, the more likely you are to capture long-tail keywords – this will help your website beat others in search engines!
Neil Patel does an amazing job of showing why your articles need to be longer.
Just keep in mind, the information needs to stay on topic, be relevant, engaging, and interesting.
5 – SEO tips for architecture blogs:
Internal and External Linking:
An internal link is a link that points to other blog posts or articles on your site.
An external link points users towards other relevant websites and publications that help validate points or blog posts.
An example that can be explored in this post on the difference between the two, which ironically also includes both types of links.
Keep your title and URL structure short:
The post’s title should be between 6 and 12 words (under 60 characters).
The URL of your post should be 3 to 5 words.
Shorter titles seem to be seeing an uptick in ranking.
Meta-descriptions:
Your meta-description isn’t actually helping you to rank according to most SEO experts.
However, this is the preview text that is shown in the search results and it does support your click-through rate (CTR). If you don’t give people something “juicy” to click on, they will scroll past your article.
Avoid Duplicate Content:
Don’t take written content that isn’t yours. Google has gotten incredibly sophisticated at recognizing content that existed elsewhere previously.
Don’t steal pictures of someone else’s work without properly giving credit.
6 – ebooks
All your best content eventually should be turned into an ebook.
Repurposing content is extremely useful considering how much time can go into every post your architecture firm produces.
These are great “trip-wire” pieces of content that require your visitors to give their contact details in order to download a piece of content
Just remember to keep them entertained.
These sometimes come in the form of pop-ups or as an option at the end of articles, to download a nicer PDF/ebook version of the content, like this:
You should only write an ebook if:
- You are knowledgeable about the topic.
- The content you’re giving away is valuable:
- Using simple forms, you can capture information about the visitors to put them into a funnel later.
- ebooks can be a ton of work but also mark you as an expert.
- Just as it is with blog posts, make sure to break it up with visuals, and provide a ton of examples.
When done correctly, this is the type of content that gets passed around just as much as any content you will ever produce.
Consider using ebook templates to reduce the amount of design work.
Create Architecture Templates
Think of what your clients and architects in your industry use alongside your services.
How much of your preparation or design work is repetitive on every project?
Make a list of documents that you often need to recreate with every project.
These may be original documents you have developed to make things easier for you internally at your architecture design firm – these are documents that you can offer up as a time-saver for others!
There are also plenty of templates for the end-customer and the architecture industry.
Examples of Architect / Customer Templates for Architecture Marketing:
- Customer interview checklist for architect clients
- Architecture subcontractor comparison template
- Architect work order template
- Client agreement template tailored for Architecture
- Statement of work template
- Architecture project timeline template
Here are some examples to get you inspired:
More Examples of Architecture Industry Templates:
- Residential architecture invoice template
- Interior design template for architects
- Construction Agreement Template
- Work Order Template
- House measurements template
- Architecture project estimation template
- Proposal template
- Architect Job Description
These templates can be tricky to make if you are not familiar with Excel or Photoshop. Consider using a site like Upwork or even Fiverr to get the templates created quickly and efficiently.
Create Checklists As Marketing Content
Everyone loves a good checklist. Many of us use them for every step of a project.
In architecture, it’s especially important for safety, saving time, reducing miscommunication, and reducing waste.
Any time we try to remember too many things at once, we make mistakes.
it’s always helpful to have an extra checklist laying around.
Again, checklists can be for the architect industry, contractor, or client.
Architecture Client Checklist Examples:
- Contractor comparison checklist
- Renovation checklist
Architecture Industry Checklist:
- Material or order checklist
- Run to the hardware store checklist
- On-site safety checklist
- Architecture tools for a project checklist
Architecture Marketing: Infographics :
Remember when we talked about quantifying data?
Show meaningful data through icons and stats inside case studies.
People love to see data behind projects.
If you collect original data sets or you are using others’, remember that infographic content has some of the highest number of shares across all channels in social media.
Infographics always work best when you have quantitative data but you can also display aspects of a business, process, or idea via visual representation.
Creating a Architecture Related Infographic:
Infographics get a TON of engagement when done correctly.
First – Come up with a subject to demonstrate visually.
Decide what you want to display
- Are you trying to show a trend over time?
- Can you show current or historical trends?
- Do you measure hours spent on design projects?
- Can you quantify parts of the process?
- How do you help clients save money, save time, or reduce waste?
- Does your architecture project make people happy?
- Do people spend more time in a location now?
Examples of great ideas for infographics:
- Commercial architecture projects and spending in your country in the last 5 years.
- Highest paid architecture professions this year.
- How to design an interior for “multi-use” or “learning”.
- Steps to Winning a Tender.
Next How to Find the Data for your infographic:
It’s often difficult to extract your own data especially when you are a smaller company. This should be changing with more architects considering BIM tools.
Many architecture companies source information gathered by larger firms or governments to talk about their market potential and clients.
Surveys to a handful of potential customers and old clients can also help you put numbers together.
Examples of where to find FREE architecture data:
Residential Data:
Cost living / Purchasing / Census:
Academia and architecture industry publishers sometimes find all the information for you. Search for studies using broad terms that help to prove your point using data.
Chapter 6 – Architect Marketing Ideas – Customer Case Studies
Architecture Case studies are marketing GOLD!
After you complete a project and the client is the happiest with you they will ever be, make sure to take the time to get their positive feeling recorded in one way or another.
Testimonials and case studies are the most overlooked marketing elements of any architecture business.
If clients have an overwhelmingly positive experience with your architecture firm, don’t forget to capture that positivity. With time everything fades.
How to get the most out of architecture case studies
- Document as much as possible!
- Get selfies on-site with the client.
- Snap a million photos of the finished project.
- Interview the client and those that will be using the space and ask them how happy they are.
- Hire a camera crew to go on-site and speak with key decision-makers. Why not?
The most compelling architecture case studies take a narrative format. The best ones are video productions that show a before and after glimpse into how a client’s business or life in general improved after you did your job.
Obviously, there is a difference between (business to business) B2B and B2C (business to consumer) projects, but the same principles apply.
If you want to create video case studies but you’re on a tight budget, you can use free video editor online to create sleek and professional videos that showcase your work.
Architecture Case Study Questions: Four types
Case studies such as the one below can give a unique insight into the kind of service that you offer and what clients can expect from you, removing some of their uncertainty.
1) About the project:
- Who is the end beneficiary of your project? (this is different depending on whether it’s a school, residence, business, civil engineering project, etc)
- What is the purpose of the architecture project?
- Where is the architecture project located?
- Why is now the right time to get this project done?
- What was special about this particular project – was it a historical site, multi-use, gave someone a place to call home, etc.?
2) Life before your architecture project :
These are questions you can ask your clients to boost the credibility and likelihood that new clients will choose your architecture firm for their projects!
- From your perspective, what caught your attention about _____ company/client?
- How did you start doing business with _______ company/client?
- What had your projects been like before you used _____ company?
- Why did you choose ____ company?
- Was there a turning point or a moment that you can remember that made you choose us?
Searching across the web you will find many different examples of how different Architects have chosen to approach the case studies, and it may be labeled as projects, like the one below.
3) Life after the architecture services project is completed:
- What has improved since our architects delivered the project successfully?
- What parts of the architecture project came out better than expected?
- Would you use our company again? Would you recommend us (and why)?
- Are you able to do anything now that couldn’t before?
- If you could say one nice thing about our company, what would it be?
- Is there anything we could do better in the future?
4) Get quantitative data; hard numbers
- Can you quantify any of the improvements to your business / residence?
- Have you saved money, added customers, improved something measurable?
- Are you saving or making more money resulting from your service?
Add Pictures to dress it up
Architecture is HIGHLY visual. Potential clients and architects alike LOVE seeing before and after photos. Even models tend to get people excited.
Sometimes it’s not always possible to get photos in advance, but you should push for this.
Set a Process for Snapping Photos of your Architecture Projects: Before, During, and After.
Before Picures:
On the initial site visits, always take a minimum of 30 photos of all angles, details, and show the site from various angles.
If you have done this right, the finished project might be unrecognizable from where you started. This is where you get those wanted “wow” moments.
During Pictures:
There are so many opportunities for you to gather visuals that give off the gradual improvements within your process.
We often get too focused on our work and want to show the final result and forget there’s plenty of room to show incremental improvements.
Just a few pictures while the “chaos” is happening will go a long way.
After Pictures:
Once you have finished the project, take plenty of pictures of the final polished product. It goes a long way! These pictures highlight your hard work and give others a good impression of your craftsmanship.
Always try to keep that narrative structure. You will find many examples such as the one below which shows the architectural transformation of the building.
Show Your Customers’ Appreciation:
Take photos of the smiling faces of the clients you have worked so hard to earn. Most should be proud of the work you have done for them.
It’s not hard to ask for a group photo after the work has been completed.
It gives both you and your architecture clients a positive image, memory, and puts a human touch to the whole thing.
These photos are GOLD when it comes to marketing.
Format, length, tone, and focus:
- Architecture-client case studies can be as long or as short as you like.
- Tell the story and show the end results.
- There’s no need to overthink the tone, make it with personality.
- Cover the project from all sides.
Ask the client share on social media for potential referrals!
Share your progress across social media platforms to show the steps (before, during, and after) of all your projects.
When you complete the project, give the client a chance to see it online and make sure it’s in its own section on your website.
Consider the example below, how the design of the house has been shared and the client seems delighted to have the drawings and is likely to share the post.
You can turn the case study into a blog post as well!
Share your case-study videos, write-ups, and PDFs:
- Tag the client on social media.
- Link to their business in the write-up or in a blog post.
- Case study content makes for perfect newsletters.
- Each case study is a chance to WOW future potential clients, don’t get lazy!
Make sure all your partners, contractors, and future potential architecture clients know about the great job you did and ask your customer to do the same.
Chapter 7: Architecture Marketing on Social Media
Every architecture company that has clients should create content for social media
What to share on social media:
Producing social media content can be expensive and time-consuming while providing little in results.
Despite this, it is important to know that these days everyone is on social media, even architects!
Organic reach for companies has diminished so much over the last few years that there are very few company posts that garner any engagement.
This is true for all the platforms at this point: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
Truthfully, with the exception of Facebook ads, most businesses don’t really get much out of social media on their company page. It’s a “check the box” type of thing.
Using the Facebook Ad manager you can get an overview of your campaigns and the demographics of your audience.
It’s a different story when you are boosting your personal brand on your own pages.
Let’s face it unless your product or service is really sexy, interesting, futuristic, or controversial – you are likely not going to get much engagement unless you take the time and follow the tips we are sharing with you in this ebook.
Why do people share things on social media?
Social Currency
People want other people to think they are clever/smart/funny/sexy/thoughtful. Who wouldn’t? This is the idea of Social Currency.
Emotion
People engaging in social media have a strong emotional reaction to what they see/watch/read.
Value
People find relevant content (articles, videos, etc.) for people in their network.
Stories
We love narratives and sometimes stories are a great way to give information and to share experiences with others.
Inspiration
People want to provide some altruistic or inspirational message to others
What types of content gets shared the moston Social Media?
Almost all posts on social media will fall at least into one of the above categories – however, some posts will do better than others:
Types of media with the most shares
- Lists
- Why posts – explanations/humor
- Videos
- How-to guides + articles
- What posts – providing value in terms of asking or identifying something
Figures based on data on a HubSpot study on content.
Depending on where you look, the social shares of content varies slightly. Noah Kagen from Okdork finds similar results with his data.
Architecture Marketing: Things you should post on your company’s Facebook and Linkedin
Original and Shared Content
- All blog articles.
- Infographics, lists, eBooks, guides, templates, case studies, white papers, etc.
- Videos: How-to Videos.
- Case Studies & Testimonials.
- Pictures of a job site: before, during, and after.
Don’t just take our word for it, take a look yourself at how original and creative content shared on LinkedIn, such as videos, both gets engagement and views from your audience.
Company Updates, Announcements and News
- New hires in your staff.
- New service announcements.
- Won contracts and competitions.
- New partner or contractor announcements.
- Bought a big-ticket item for your business (office, tools, truck, tools, server racks, etc.).
- Milestones (first double-digit month, 90 days without accidents, etc.).
- Moving offices.
- New hires (big and small) shows your company is growing.
- First project in a new city or town.
- Completion of a big architecture job.
- Attending a conference, an event, or a show.
- Sponsoring a team or an event.
News/Media coverage
- Coverage of your architecture company in the news, industry publisher, blog, podcast, etc.
- If your content gets published.
- When someone mentions you or your business in an article about architecture.
It can be coverage in a large media or your local newspaper, there is value from each source.
Many architect sites, like the one we found below list all their press mentions.
Industry News/Predictions
- Upcoming events.
- Legislation, laws, and international agreements affecting your industry.
- Future predictions and trends about the architecture industry.
Random things you or your staff enjoy
- Funny videos of something related to the architecture industry.
- Inspirational quotes for architects (in the form of a picture is always better).
- Other relevant architectural viral content.
How to Make Your Images Look Amazing
You are architects, you should be great at photoshop.
If not, there are all kinds of tools to add some flare to your visuals.
Try out these free design tools to create stunning SoMe posts:
One of our favorite tools is Canva, where you can use one of the preexisting templates to create your own images that have a professional feel and look to them.
Find more tools like these and many other sales and marketing tools on our list of Architecture tools.
Timing is everything:
Is there an ideal time to post content? The short answer is YES.
However, the peak times of sharing social media content and social media engagement are also the times with the most competition.
There is never a “perfect” time to post anything.
At the same time, with the constant flow of billions of posts and interactions across the many different social media channels, there are in fact answers to this.
These are the times that we have found are ideal to post across various platforms:
*A more detailed summary can be found in a social media timing post from FastCompany.com and another study pulling from 16 other sources from CoSchedule.com.
Facebook Marketing: Should I boost?
Don’t boost.
Many marketers have been falsely trained to boost their content on Facebook through the “boost” button.
The issue is that you are extremely limited on the options and targeting.
The traditional method was (and this is wrong):
Day 1:
Boost to everyone who has liked your company page
Day 2:
Boost to everyone who is a friend of the people that like your page
Day 3:
Boost to a target demographic group.
The picture speaks for itself.
It’s frustrating, especially when you put hours into producing a piece of content that isn’t getting noticed.
Don’t boost something that isn’t getting ANY engagement anyway.
If you have installed the Facebook tracking pixel on your site, you have the opportunity to target previous and current site visitors by creating a campaign as a released post on your social media account.
Facebook pixel is straightforward to set up and can be done in the following way:
Is it possible the post itself wasn’t very good? So, before you post another thing on your page, take a moment and think about this: If you didn’t work at the company, would you interact with this post?
How to post and digitally promote that post as sponsored content – just like an ad.
- Post a piece of content like you regularly would on Facebook.
- Go to the Ads Manager on Facebook.
- Create a new campaign and set up targeting and budgets (this is in the ad set level).
You can actually duplicate that post as an ad by setting the target for multiple audiences and countries.
Just like any typical Facebook campaign, you will notice you can re-use the content from a post as an ad but now you have advanced options for targeting with custom audiences.
You can also set different budgets per ad set.
Again, you have much greater control by using the Ads Manager.
Should I share something not directly related to architecture?
It’s your call as to what you want to share.
Some people have major issues with producing content that has an edge to it.
In an age where people choose to take offense to all kinds of innocuous things, realize that your harmless content can offend loonies out there. Yes, this happens.
Generally, a rule of thumb is to consider your “intent” before posting. Is this post meant to engage people and to start a conversation?
Don’t be mean, rude, ostracize, marginalize, or burn bridges online.
Tools for Social Media Marketing, Scheduling, and Publishing
There are thousands of social posting tools that allow you to share, analyze, and amplify your social media posts.
Consider using one of the following to make life easier by using a tool that helps you to schedule, measure, and post on social medial:
You can find a slew of helpful social media and content creation tools inside of our 150+ tools for architecture companies.
Chapter 8 – Architecture Marketing without going digital
There are countless reasons you need to focus on traditional advertising techniques as an architecture company. It is not all social media, so let’s take a look at what you can do following a more traditional approach.
Every flat surface facing high traffic areas should be viewed as a marketing opportunity. Consider trying out these architecture advertising techniques below.
Traditional marketing at the architecture project site
Put Up a Sign!
No matter the size of the project (within reason) or the location, you should be advertising your architecture company.
During construction and after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, you should have a sign in the yard or on the premises that has your architecture company’s name and contact details.
Creating a sandwich board with a message on both sides is about as simple as it gets for someone in architecture. Don’t overthink it.
Lacking creative inspiration? Then take a look at how you can even advertise Yoga via a sandwich board:
People by nature are curious! They might just appreciate your work and decide to give you a call, or at the very least look you up to check out your website for an estimate.
There are all kinds of banners you can buy to put on chain link fences or across doors. Get creative!
Work Trucks are Billboards
Make sure you have got signs up on your truck(s). You never know who might pass by and be interested in your work. Magnetic stickers are cheaper than wrapping your entire vehicle but obviously one looks better than the other. Consider both options.
Shirts for your Contractors and Workers
Nobody hates free T-shirts. The clothes you wear on your site give a passerby a better impression of what type of organization is doing the work. Don’t hesitate to get some inexpensive T-shirts made in a variety of sizes for the folks on the site.
Hand out your card – Yes, really…
In an atmosphere where people don’t usually exchange cards, stand out by handing yours out to everyone. Simply put: “I’m always trying to find new projects. I do _____ type of work. Feel free to pass it along to someone if you know anyone looking.” Done!
Get Creative
If you have a pressure washer and a water source already, try buying a stencil and do some reverse graffiti. This is where you power wash around the stencil and when you remove the stencil afterward, there’s an outline of your design.
See more great examples of reverse graffiti.
Traditional Architecture Marketing and Advertising in Architecture
Architecture, Construction, and Engineering (AEC) Meetups & Networking Events
Every town has its own set of meetups for every industry. Check out Meetup.com or Eventbrite.
Search for events by “architecture” and join all the meetup groups in architecture.
Now what?
Get involved!
- Message administrators or organizers, maybe ask to be a speaker at the next event.
- Volunteer to help organize the next one.
- Host the next event at your office (if you have space).
- Participate in all free and paid events that are related to your field.
If you can’t make it, someone from your company should go. These are the perfect places to stay up to date with innovations in architecture and meet the movers and shakers.
Nonprofits and Charity events
There are countless great causes happening locally. Do a Google search for local non-profit organizations that have causes you are passionate about.
Many nonprofits will agree to put your company logo right next to their logo on banners or even on their website if you make a bit enough monetary contribution; so get some courage and ask!
These are often tax write-offs as well.
Consider this branding… because these partnerships don’t immediately always translate to a new deal or client opportunity.
Use this as a chance to get into the non-profit organization’s network and give yourself the time to engage with donors who are wealthier than you.
Sponsor Sports Teams
No, not the largest teams in the league. This should be more amateur and youth leagues. Find out who the local teams are and get in touch with the “head of sponsorships” or “commissioners.”
The more visibility you get on these, the higher likelihood you have to get in front of the types of people that would be willing to use your services in the future.
Door Hangers and Drop by’s
It’s always a classy move to knock on the neighbors’ doors to apologize for the noise in advance. This also gets them thinking about your services. Door hangers can be a viable marketing tool.
Make a quick pass with business cards to some of the neighboring businesses and houses (depending on the location and what’s around) to give people a heads up.
Always pass around a card that tells a little about the projects you do and has a URL link to your architecture services website.
If it is a non-residential job, why not pass by the other buildings within a short-range and point out what you are going to be working on. Every situation is unique.
Snail Mailers
The old junk mail advertising industry is almost as old as the architecture industry. Our mailboxes wouldn’t get junk mail if people never bought anything.
This space is considerably less crowded these days. Maybe consider seeing what happens depending on who your target clients are.
It may not be traditional, but still exists guides such as the one below about it.
Sending out a few thousand postcard adverts isn’t the worst way to test a marketing technique.
How to Network in Architecture – Offline and Online.
You need to network in the architecture industry. Networking takes MANY different forms.
Networking Offline
Both networking online and offline can be just as important.
The architecture industry is “old school,” meaning a lot of business still gets done without the use of the internet much less computers. Networking offline in this industry is extremely important because people like doing business with people they like.
Find Events
Many industry events are where business deals get done and work gets started. These events require a lot of time and energy but are extremely important in terms of getting noticed and on the radar of potential customers.
You can use the sites that were discussed before, but also some social media platforms such as Facebook allow you to search for events, like the one we found below.
There are thousands of events in your industry worldwide to attend. Some are free, however, most of the larger ones require a paid ticket.
Virtually, all events where you can set up a booth or a table with a sign require money. You should pick them wisely as events can be expensive and they can also be a hit and miss.
Smaller Events
These can be between 100 – 500 people. These generally aren’t promoted with as much fervor but are a good way to sharpen your networking skills and learn more about your industry.
Larger Events:
These events are put on by trade groups, organizations, unions, larger companies, etc. Attendance is anywhere from 500 to many thousands. Larger events require hefty sponsors to foot the bill (renting out the venue) and these can be expensive for attendees exhibitors.
When attending one of these, be sure you’ have an event checklist and be confident that there will be great value coming from you showing up.
Chapter 10 – Marketing Architects – In-Person Networking Tips For Architects
- Search for your industry: Conferences Events Meetings
- Search for a large expo or conference events in your country.
- Look up Large Trade Fair Listings and Different types of conferences.
- Listing of 100 events worldwide: Top Infrastructure Events, Trade Fairs, Conferences to Attend – Global Ranking 2020
How to Network at Events
Starting a conversation can be a nerve-racking experience for some, but often people aren’t wearing badges or name tags (or you can’t read them), so you need to find out who they are and what they’re looking for.
Take a deep breath and relax, you are just curious and want to find out some information! Plus, we got you covered with the following conversation question starters.
Ask Questions!
The following are helpful introduction questions to start a dialogue with a stranger:
In-Person Networking Questions:
- How did you hear about this event?
- What brought you here?
- How are you liking the event?
- What do you do? Tell me about your company
- What’s the biggest challenge in your company/industry/work?
- Where else do you network? What other events are you attending?
- What is your reason for being here today?
- Who at this event were you interested in meeting the most?
- Was this event what you expected so far?
- Have you attended this event before? Is it different from others you’ve been to?
When we go to events, such as the one below, we make sure to always talk to as many of the other attendees as possible, you never know where a conversation can take you!
There are tons of guides for how to network online, a great outline and more detailed questions can be found on Gonetworking.com – here is an additional list of questions.
Collect Cards
Most people at networking events carry cards.
If they have a card, take notes on the back – this will not only help you remember whom you just talked to!
It will also make you look good as you will show the other person you are interested in them.
We attended an event recently and as soon as we got back, someone interested in our business had sent us a LinkedIn request.
Always reach out right after the event while it’s fresh and connect on Linkedin whenever possible.
Additional Tips:
- Never get stuck talking to the same person for too long.
- Breath mints or gum are a must.
- Always look up the dress code or general attendance attire – Business casual when in doubt
- Be pleasant and ask more questions than you answer.
- Remember everyone else is there to network too.
- Have fun with it and stay positive!
Make friends – Be a nice person… Really.
It’s been said that the architecture is an industry of favors, no matter the size of your company, you should consider doing favors for those around (within reason).
Help your competition when you are not overextending yourself. Help an architect when it makes sense. Be forgiving and understanding of those that work with you.
If people like to work with you, they are more likely to do you favors or throw you a bone in the future.
Keep your wits about you and always make your own work a priority, but if you can do something for someone else, they’ll remember it.
- Don’t help those who are too lazy to help themselves.
- Don’t overextend yourself and lose money over a favor.
- Don’t give away your best talent, tools, or expensive toys.
Business Postcards for architects
These are about 3 times the size of a standard business card but they identify the “who, what, where, when” of your business. These can be handed out alongside or instead of your standard business card. These can also be created and ordered using the links below.
There are online tools such as Vistaprint that can help you create these, as seen in the example below.
Business Cards for architects
Carry them around with you everywhere. You don’t know when you will make a connection.
Every printing company on the planet creates business cards, but it’s almost always cheaper to get them online. You can get cards for less than a burger, fries and a drink at any fast-food chain.
Build a template to hand off to printing company:
And finally if you want to get really creative, here are some cool ideas.
Leave Something Behind:
If you meet with someone for business, LEAVE SOMETHING BEHIND.
Bring a pen and write notes on their card if they’ve given one to you to write in actions for later.
- Estimate?
- Business Lunch?
- Site Meeting?
- Prospecting?
Leave a card!
People have a short memory and if that card doesn’t end up in the trash, it may hang around someone else’s desk for a LONG time. Business cards still matter.
I’ve had 3 business cards sitting on my desk for the last month and that’s because the consultants handed it to me before leaving and I haven’t figured out where to put their cards yet!
Referrals
Depending on the size of your company, it never hurts to ask a client if they know anyone else interested in getting work done. It’s always best to ask for referrals AFTER you have completed the work and as long as they are happy about the work you did.
Listen Up! Learn The Names of Contractors and Other People On Site
You don’t have to be everyone’s friend but you should try to memorize as many names as possible. People remember those that remember them.
Why does it matter?
- When you need to field a crew in a pinch.
- Better rapport and morale with those doing the work for you.
- Mutual referrals for other opportunities.
- Better communication overall.
There are countless tricks to remembering the names of people when you meet them, here are a few:
- Repeat the name three times.
- Assign a memorable acronym.
- Tie the name to a known historical figure, celebrity, or friend
All of this should be done in your head, of course!
There are plenty more tips and tricks for remembering names elsewhere.
Networking Online for Architecture Firms
Architecture Forums
These are for learning, asking questions, and finding new services. The more specific you get with your line of work, the easier it is to find forums that have detailed questions about things you may encounter on a daily basis.
- Reddit- r/Architecture – A community for students, professionals, and lovers of architecture.
- Archinect Forum – General question forum for all things architecture.
- Skyscrapercity Forum – A forum to discuss works, news, and ideas of architecture.
Conclusion
You have managed to read the entire guide, and hopefully, you have been able to extract some useful advice and valuable information.
There is this famous saying that life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. One thing we know for certain is that all processes evolve. Therefore we have to try and stay up with times and look back on the data we have.
Architecture is an old industry, where big firms always get the biggest piece of the pie such as government contracts and football stadiums. The small guys then compete exclusively through word of mouth marketing for the rest of the pie.
This is not sustainable. This has got to change. It will change.
[Related Article – The Future of Architecture ]
Growing your business is tough, but there is a ton of information out there that can help you scale fast.
The next step for you is to apply the strategies outlined in this guide, and see if you are able to see any change in course and measurable results in your business.
This is a non-stop process, so make sure to always stay updated, and perhaps revisit our site to see if there are any new tools you should be on the lookout for.
Download the Ultimate Guide to Marketing for Architects
We added a ton of links, visuals, and even more resources in our ultimate digital marketing guide for architects. Download it below for free.
If you have any advice of your own, want to share your experience, or need any additional advice, please feel free to always reach out to us.
Good luck to you and your business!
I keep checking back and finding new stuff! Way to go Architecturequote! I hadn’t realzied you guys are playing the long game with SEO and content. Really cool to see!
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