Marketing For Architects: Blogs, Social, Targeting and Analytics

For years, architectural firms relied upon outbound marketing techniques like advertising, direct mail, and cold calls to generate business. The problem today is that prospects are not interested in the hard sell of years past. Those old techniques are no longer working. Marketing has entered a new paradigm and it's time for many architectural firms to join in the new marketing landscape.

Inbound marketing solves the issues of blind marketing techniques like advertising and direct mail. The goal and purpose of inbound marketing is to bring your prospects to you instead of chasing after them. Inbound is all about positioning your firm and brand in places where prospects go in order to gather information, educate, or entertain themselves online, for example, social media sites and search engines.

Creating a solid marketing mix using inbound marketing strategies and tactics can generate high-quality leads and convert them into paying customers.

Using An Inbound Marketing Mix Strategy To Drive Engagement

Inbound marketing consists of several different techniques you can use to deliver your message to potential prospects. One of the true benefits of inbound marketing is the ability to quantitatively verify results. By creating a marketing mix consisting of several different channels and strategies, and then analyzing results based on data that is generated, you can fine-tune your marketing efforts to focus on the methods and delivery channels that work.

For example, creating a marketing strategy that incorporates social media engagement, SEO (search Engine Optimization) and blogging can work to establish trust in your brand, thought leadership in the architectural industry, and drive qualified traffic to your website where users can find more information about who you are and what you do and then engage with your company from a position of trust.

The key to effective inbound marketing is avoiding the hard sell and overly promotional material in favor of educating, informing or entertaining your readers. Today's consumers are much more sophisticated and a bit jaded by traditional sales methods. The key is to understand your market, understand the consumers of your service, and deliver relevant information to them at the right time in their buying process. This is true across all inbound channels and strategies.

Using Targeted Social Media To Generate Leads

Social media is an excellent way to learn about your customers, who they are, where they spend their time, their pain points and what matters to them. When used correctly, it's a great way to build relationships, forge trust and position yourself as a leader in the architectural industry. The key is to engage with them by distributing information about your business that meets their needs, in a non-promotional way.

Recent studies show that 78% of consumers say that social media posts impact their purchase decisions. To expand on this theme, the same studies have found that 81% of consumer's purchasing decisions are influenced by their friend's social media posts. To put it another way, it's the experience users have with your brand and the information that you provide that drives traffic to your website and conversions. Successful engagement will provide you with an army of ambassadors for your business who will engage with others and influence them on your behalf.

By using social media effectively and learning about your customers, you can create targeted messaging that meets their needs. This social targeting can help you to create and provide information that readers are seeking.

A solid social media strategy involves the ongoing testing and optimization of your content to identify what generates the most interest and engagement. This information is important because it will help you to develop more targeted content that your audience will seek out, benefit from and share with their social network.

Blogging and SEO

According to BlogHer 81% of US consumers trust information and advice from blogs and 61% of those consumers have made a purchase based on a recommendation from a blog. These are pretty big numbers. Blogging is a great inbound technique that can help prospects shape their impression of your business. Most consumers will research services before they purchase. Blogging and the engagement it brings is a great way to build trust as prospects enter their buying cycle.

Blogging can not only work to inform your prospects about who you are and what you do, it can help to build deeper relationships in a conversational fashion. It can also work to drive traffic to your website by helping you place higher on search engine results pages. Search engines love new content. By using keywords that are relevant to your business, those words or phrases are searched your blog will show up in SERP pages. This will drive prospects to your blog pages which are linked to your website. As prospects learn about you and your business, they will then visit your website. In a nutshell: Blog Traffic = Website Traffic = More Captured Leads = More Sales.

Tracking Your Marketing Mix Through Analytics

Because inbound marketing is a digital-based strategy, tracking and measuring results is easy, unlike traditional marketing techniques. Whether you choose social media engagement, email, blogging, your website or any combination of digital techniques, you can measure performance, evaluate and adjust your approach as needed. Thanks to the background data, or analytics, generated you can take an in-depth look at your efforts.

Analytics let you know who is viewing your content or visiting your website, how long they stay, what they interact with and where they go when they leave. Using analytics, you'll know where you stand at any given moment.

Using an inbound marketing mix for your architectural firm gives you the ability to target your customers, deliver relevant information, build relationships based on trust, and convert leads into sales. The right marketing mix of content and delivery channels can increase traffic to your website and attract the kinds of customers you're seeking to you instead of your searching for them. Using analytics, you can further refine your approach and message to focus on the channels and content that work for you. Inbound marketing is the perfect approach for architectural firms seeking to grow their client base. To learn more contact me. I'll gladly help you design a marketing program that attracts the right clients and increases sales to residential homeowners.

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.