Inbound Marketing for Architectural Firms

By now, we've all heard the term “inbound marketing or content marketing” and many of the best firms have employed at least some inbound or content marketing techniques. Taking your online presence beyond that of a digital portfolio can reduce your marketing costs, increase your return on your marketing budget and attract better clients. Your architectural firm's website is an essential element of an inbound and content marketing strategy. When applying this type of lead generation strategy, your website should be used as the hub of your online and advertising outreach.; The approach is intended to get visitors to take an action on your website and give up contact information so that you can email them with pertinent information and remain top-of-mind when the time comes to move forward with a project. A comprehensive inbound strategy consists of several elements that include creating blog articles, using keywords in your content, creating landing pages with strong call-to-action elements, creating premium white papers and other methods.

“Focus on providing better answers for your audience: Know the Google wants to have “answers” for its audience, not just a lot of information. ”

— Cyrus Sheppard, Head of Content and SEO, MOZ

These techniques drive traffic to your architectural firm's website where landing pages and premium giveaways, along with strong calls-to-action can convert visitors into leads for your business. Let's examine these techniques to see how they can generate new business for your firm!

1. Blog Articles

Blogging is the best way to establish thought leadership and drive traffic to your website. Placing a blog on your website offers additional benefits like better Google ranking and greater online visibility.

Your blog should consist of articles directly related to architecture. For example, “Architectural Design Trends in Residential Construction” or “Using New Materials in Architectural Design”. Anything that is of interest to potential clients and relevant to your business. Search engines use this content to determine relevancy for specific keyword terms and having unique content can help drive traffic to your blog.

2. Keywords and Phrases

Keywords are words or phrases directly related to your business that a search engine user would employ to find a company like yours. For example, “architect, architecture design firm, or architect for a kitchen remodel” may all be used to find your architectural firm online.

By incorporating these words or phrases into your website and blog content, when Google crawls and indexes your site it “sees” these and establishes your site as relevant for these phrases. Depending on how the long tail keyword phrases or terms are used and how frequently they appear on your website, when a user searches on Google using these keywords, your business will appear in the search results.

3. Landing Pages

A landing page is a page on your website that is specific to a single topic and includes a call-to-action designed to elicit your reader into giving you their contact information in return for an item of value like an ebook or white paper.

For example:
You've created a blog post about “Using an Architect for Your Kitchen Remodel” in the content you embed a call-to-action link for a free report on the “Ten Must Have Design Elements for Kitchen Remodels” When you visitor clicks the link they are taken to a landing page. There, your visitor is prompted to input their contact information to access your free report. They have become a valuable lead and are ready to be nurtured through the buying process.

4. Call-to-Action (CTA)

A text block, graphic or button, when clicked a call to action brings your visitor to another page on your website, like a landing page.

CTAs like “Click here to learn more” are used to direct users to more information on a topic like a related blog post, or separate landing page where your users “take action” and give their contact information for a premium offer like free white paper, ebook case study or video.

5. White Papers or Premium Content Offers

White papers are longer form content (generally 7 to 10 pages) that educate users on a single topic. They have a branded graphic design and photographs. A white paper should:

   • Provide unbiased information and analysis
   • Present both a problem and a solution
   • Is based on sound research when presenting a solution

These are just a few techniques you can include in a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy. Let's look at an example of how these techniques are interconnected:

A consumer is searching for an architectural firm for an upcoming home renovation. They go to Google and input, “The Cost of Hiring an Architectural firm, Boston”. Because your business is relevant for Architecture and you are located in Boston, a page on your website or blog article shows up at the top of the search results page. They click on your link and are brought to your site

Once there, the read several blog posts on architecture and kitchen remodeling. There the see a call to acton for a free report on “Architectural Trends in Kitchen Remodels.” They click and are brought to a landing page where they provide their email address and receive your white paper. They are now a lead that is put into your automated marketing system for further nurturing.

And that's the beauty and power of inbound marketing. By offering information as opposed to “selling,effective” you draw customers to your website. Rather than searching for them, they find you! Your content works to educate visitors while building a trust relationship, establishing thought leadership and keeping your business top of mind. When done correctly, no method is more efficient than inbound marketing at attracting highly-qualified leads to your business.

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About Michael Conway

I'm the owner and strategist at Means-of-Production. My firm builds Squarespace websites, Houzz profiles, and content marketing and advertising solutions for architects, interior designers, design-build contractors and landscape design firms. Our all-in-one marketing tactics attract the right clients with exceptional architectural photography and brand messaging that sets you apart from the competition.

How Architects Can Use Inbound Marketing To Find New Business