Your architectural firm's website is the center of your inbound marketing efforts. Inbound marketing is about attracting potential clients to your site using channels like social media, SEO, email, blogging, and other digital channels. To turn those visitors into leads, you need to include certain elements on your website that engages and gets them to take action and provide contact information. 

There are four elements you can use that will guide visitors from attraction, through conversion to the sale. Let's look at how blogging, landing pages, calls to action, and drip or automated email marketing all work together to guide visitors through the buying process.

How To Structure a Website for Inbound Marketing Campaigns

Inbound marketing uses various digital channels to attract customers seeking architectural services to your website. Today's consumers are savvy, and most buying decisions begin with online research.  Inbound marketing is about providing relevant information (content) to prospects and attracting potential buyers to your website. 

Content Creation 

The process begins with content creation. Your content should answer specific questions and address the needs of your target market. Promoting that content through various digital channels increases your firm's odds of being found online.

Lifecycle Marketing

Lifecycle marketing is the process of nurturing prospects through the entire buying process by answering common questions they have about the design and construction process. The best way of accomplishing this task is an automated email marketing platform. As you continue to provide educational guidance and information to potential customers, you build trust and meet specific needs.

Marketing Personalization

Once you've learned more about your potential clients, you begin to personalize and more precisely target your information to address their needs. This continues to build trust, and keeps your firm “top of mind.” Your website and email analytics should be able to collect data on the pages viewed and actions taken by a prospective client. This data can be used to guide content creation.

Content Marketing Integration

Creating and publishing content then using analytics to determine your message's reach and effectiveness all work together to help you refine your approach. Success means providing the right information, thru the right channel, at the right time.

Inbound marketing is an integrated multi-channel approach that attracts visitors by targeting them where they search for information about architectural services. This may be online through search engines, on Houzz, Facebook, Pinterest, Bēhance, or Twitter. Giving your prospects the opportunity to engage with your firm via the channels they choose will enable you to stay relevant and top of mind while they are moving through the decision process.

Four Elements For Better Design Clients

All of your marketing efforts should lead visitors back to your website. Here are four items they should find when they arrive. Including a blog, landing pages, calls to action and email follow-up will keep them engaged on your site, and informed as they work through their research and buying process.

1. An Educational Blog

Your website is the center of your marketing activities; your blog is its heart. Blogging is one of the highest value traffic drivers you can use. Search engines love keyword rich content and use it to determine your page ranking, driving traffic to your site.

Your blog is where you tell your story, engage with prospective clients, showcase your expertise, build trust, educate visitors and help guide them through their buying process.     Effective blogging requires consistency. You need to develop a list of topics relevant to your business and a publishing schedule. Make sure to build your content around “keywords” or the words or phrases a potential customer would type into a search engine to find a business like yours.

2. Call To Action Buttons or Graphics

A call to action is something that prompts your reader to take action. A button, graphic or link, when clicked, takes your reader to a landing page containing a free premium offer in return for contact information. For example, your visitor is planning an addition and is interested in sustainable architecture, they read a blog and see your call to action. When they click on the "CTA" they are taken to a page offering a free report on the “Benefits of Sustainable Architecture” in exchange for their email address.

3. Landing Pages and Valuable Advice

A landing page is where lead conversion takes place. It's a page on your website that provides an overview of a topic with an option to learn more by filling out a form. A landing page is where a visitor can get a free premium such as a guide, whitepaper or discount to entice prospects to provide their contact information. Once you have their contact information, they become a lead and are further nurtured through the buying process with ongoing automated email marketing.

4. Automated Email Marketing

Once your prospect has converted, you need to maintain contact. This is where email comes in. Analytics tell you where they converted, and you can then begin to personalize your emails to address their specific needs. For example, if you obtained their contact information on your “Benefits of Sustainable Architecture” page, you can begin to target emails informing them when you post additional content on sustainable architecture on your blog. This can help guide them through their buying process and keep your firm top of mind when they are ready to purchase.

Staying in front of consumers as they work through their buying process is how you close sales. Blogging, landing pages, calls to action and email marketing all work together to inform, convert, and guide your readers through the buying process. If you include these elements on your website, you can effectively turn it into a lead generating machine.

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.