If you type “marketing strategies for architects” into your search engine, you’ll see page after page filled with articles that offer all sorts of marketing tips. Many among these sound legitimate, but may or may not work for you because there are a number of variables. For example, your firm size, location, area of expertise, specific deficiencies and strengths. All that needs to be considered when creating an effective marketing strategy for architects. This is why having a mental list of marketing touchstones is far more useful than any hand-me-down strategy you might find online.

#1 Integrate Marketing into Your Business

One of the reasons why many architecture firms with marketing departments struggle to get their message across is because marketing is still seen as an expense and a fast lane for bringing in work. When marketers underperform, it is often due to the lack of interdepartmental integration. The most effective marketing strategy for architects efforts are those that develop organically from a clear firm-wide vision. They reflect the principals’ awareness that marketing departments have to be fully integrated into the firm’s day-to-day activities. Therefore, enable your executive-level marketing professionals to bridge the gap between the design, marketing, and sales departments.

For example, Phil Harrison, CEO at Perkins + Will, hired Allison Held as CMO to forge interdepartmental relations and to establish a cohesive direction for the firm. Held now communicates directly with the firm’s leaders. She advises all levels from the corporate to the local, and gives real-time feedback from global sites where the firm plans to expand. Her team works with the big picture while remaining sufficiently connected to everyday activities. It is organizational alignments such as this that provide two-way information channels through which business owners reevaluate their strategy to keep their business on the right course.

You need to understand who you are and who your ideal client is. Then the idea of marketing as a natural extension of your work ethics, company culture, and service quality starts to make sense.

#2 Be Authentic

One of the best and worst pieces of marketing advice any business owner can get is to be authentic. The old “be yourself” marketing adage sounds corny and particularly hypocritical when followed by a list of rules that offer a magic formula for success. Following rules and being authentic seem to be polar opposites, right? Not necessarily. While I strongly believe that authenticity should be rooted in any marketing strategy, it also means breaking the rules. So, re-write them to fit your own strengths, and be willing to fail over and over again. Authentic marketing is both a short- and long-term game, the aim of which is to increase revenue, and more importantly, stay true to the company’s identity and to your clients.

Grow while having fun

If one of your main concerns is attracting talent, make sure potential employees see your business as a place which will allow them to grow, learn, and enjoy coming to work. Show your team having fun with a project; give shoutouts to interesting people you met through collaborations; let your most innovative design speak for itself. With these approaches, your marketing reflects that your business is about great work and the people who make it all possible.

Growing a business is often a painful process which requires taking on jobs which do not support your plans for the future, but rather pay the bills. Nonetheless, on your website and on social media, you might showcase how these “misaligned” works relate to your core values. This curated presentation will engage prospective, higher value clients and attract projects more similar in scale, type, and value to your long term goals.

#3 Create Conversations, not Campaigns!

One of the most common pitfalls young companies fall into is making their marketing content sound like a sales pitch. An effective marketing strategy accomplishes lead generation and conversion. But its main purposes are also to establish market recognition. In addition to demonstrate expert standing and to build long-lasting relationships with clients. Create specific content around ideas, projects, and clients. Like blog articles about relevant industry topics. Instead of talking about yourself or using vague terms like “quality service” and “beautiful project”. This will likely resonate more with your audience than content reaffirming your firm’s success and coolness. Above all, you want your audience to engage with what you share.

#4 Become a Thought Leader

Becoming a thought leader within your industry allows you to not only participate in conversations. But also position yourself with a higher degree of authority to build trust in your company. Speaking engagements are an excellent way of networking. You can reach a large number of people at the same time and catch the attention of potential clients. Meeting people in person is the best way of establishing valuable personal contacts and far exceeds any other form of communication.

Share unique opinion pieces on Linkedin and guest blogs on other sites. Develop or contribute to podcasts. Publish white papers, case studies, and “insider” industry reports that deliver valuable content to your target audience. These are excellent vehicles for establishing trust based on giving without immediately asking for something in return. Make your social media channels a place where peers and clients are sure to find unique content. Create content that they want to read, save, and possibly share.

#5 Get Published

There is no way around it. Regardless of what marketing strategy you choose to use, getting published will always have an immense impact. Hence, on raising awareness about your work. Research relevant media outlets. These can vary depending on geographic area, audience type, and themes. Furthermore, find a way of establishing contacts without resorting to cold calling or sending unsolicited pitches. You don’t have personal contacts with bloggers and editors? But you want to pitch a story about your recent project? Then make sure you have great visuals and a concise project description matching the publication’s editorial tone. Because news outlets want to generate views, images and headlines are key to attracting eyes. You will need professional looking photos and/or great renderings. Moreover, it is important for your personal website to be accessible. This means having a well-structured platform with big, bold images, and intuitive navigation.

Content is king

Many digital publishers now use more content marketing-led approaches such as native advertising. Increasing in popularity, native advertising relies on creating content relevant to your industry. Remind readers of your company and helps establish a presence on other websites beyond your own. For instance, interviews and features can be more an effective marketing strategy for architects when compared to newsletters, press releases, and other forms of traditional outbound marketing.

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If you align your marketing with your business, you will build trust with your clientele. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge your shortcomings – it will make potential clients confident in the legitimacy of your strengths. Experiment and find your own marketing formula. Stay human!

Further reading: 9 Creative Business Development Strategies for Architects and Designers

The post 5 Important Marketing Touchstones for Architects appeared first on Archipreneur.

This week’s interview is with Grizzle and Jonathan Junker, founders of Graypants, a company that produces pendant lights made entirely of repurposed corrugated cardboard.

The company’s flagship line Scraplights embodies the team’s interest in repurposing and environmentally responsible design. In 2012, they set up their European office in Amsterdam, from where they started distribution to over forty countries, while the Seattle studio still provides local production for North America and functions as a prototyping shop.

Their portfolio includes public artworks, architectural installations and several lines of lighting, furniture, packaging designs sold throughout the world. Their debut architecture project Garage won the coveted AIA Seattle’s Award of Honor in 2013.

We were curious to learn how these two architects turned their ideas into products and made the transition from “classic” architecture to productizing designs, successfully selling them and establishing a brand.

Enjoy the interview!

What made you decide to found Graypants? Was there a particular moment that sealed the decision for you?

Graypants was an early dream hatched in our college days and refined through scribbles and sketches on napkins. It was born from the desire to combine our love of making with our fascination in technology. We wanted to find a way to bridge that gap and bring technology back to our fingertips.

The moment that sealed our fateful decision was the recession in 2008. Working as architects, that soon had no more building to design, we had to find another outlet for our creativity and energy. We then decided to take the leap and turn those sketches into something crazy and tangible.

Which of your products was first piece with the potential to sell?

The scraplight series (made from repurposed/recycled cardboard boxes) was our first designs with commercial success.

What do you find the most fulfilling about product creation?

Coming from the world of architecture, which can take several years and up to a lifetime to realize a design, we instantly enjoyed how quickly you could prototype and touch a product design. We both really enjoyed model building in architecture and product design was a way for us to bring design back to our hands using a more tactile process.

How did you establish your brand?

Our brand was established and grew out of a friendship. The name Graypants comes from an inside joke between Jonathan and myself.

We saw creating our brand as another fun design problem to solve and we approached it that way.

We wanted to tackle this creatively and come up with a unique solution that was an extension of who Jon and I both are.

How has your architectural training helped you in the actual running of your business? What specific/transferable skills have proved the most useful?

To be honest, through our architectural training we learned how to be creative problem solvers which became our best asset. We had zero business experience and training. However, we approached business as a design problem and were eager to solve it.

With that said, I would definitely recommend some business training!

I think finding a business mentor was one of the most valuable things we ever did.

We soon realized that we did not have the appropriate knowledge to tackle a lot of the difficult challenges we would face. We were very fortunate to find mentors and colleagues early on that were able to help fill in the gaps that we really needed.

Graypants expanded to Europe in 2012. What was the biggest challenge in the process of developing the business from a two men startup to an international enterprise?

One would think language might be the biggest hurdle… but the fact that the Dutch can speak better English than us made that part pretty easy. All kidding aside, the biggest challenge was probably trusting that we were making the right decisions. It was scary to scale and expand.

Again, we were very fortunate and met some amazing people along our journey that made all of this possible. We learned to trust our dream and our vision. It is easy to second-guess yourself, but trusting your passion and speaking from your heart helped us realize our truth and gave us the courage to keep pushing ahead.

You continue to work as architects. Could you tell us about your project Garage?

When we started Graypants we were not sure if we would practice architecture again… There was something about the profession that we loved so much that we ended up having a struggle with it. We decided that we would only dip our toes back into architecture if we would be able to treat it as art. And that is precisely what the garage became… architecture turned into art and poetry.

The garage was a dream come true process for us. The clients allowed us to approach the space in that way and they also challenged us to design in that way. The garage became more than a space, it became an experience and it became a way for us to capture a memory for the clients in a surprising way that allowed us to transform the space into something magical. We wanted to find a way to honor the mundane things we do on a daily basis, and celebrate them as a tool to change the way we live.

What is next for Graypants? What kind of products will be launched soon?

Lots of exciting things are on our horizon…. perhaps too many to list but we are most exited about a new lighting series that we have just launched in Milan. It is a huge departure for us in material and technology.

Do you have any advice for archipreneurs who are interested in starting their own business?

Never give up, get back up and remember to breathe.

Pursuing your dreams is not a sprint but more of a marathon.

How do you see the future of the architectural profession? In which areas (outside of traditional practice) can you see major opportunities for up and coming developers and architects?

TECHNOLOGY!!!! The profession is changing so quickly due to the rapid expanse in technology. Fabrication, 3D printing and virtual reality are amazing tools that designers now can easily access. I particularly find the virtual design space to be fascinating and can easily see how that will start to rapidly change the way we think, work, design and live.

About Seth Grizzle and Jonathan Junker

Seth Grizzle and Jonathan Junker are founders and partners of Graypants. They both enjoyed a similar upbringing in a small town in Ohio. Here, they lived with the motto “if it’s broke, you fix it”, which functioned as an inspiration for their later professional life.

They studied at Kent State University, and this is the where the first steps to Graypants were set. After submitting their work to Design within Reach in 2008 – and becoming finalists – their work is now well-known and respected. In November of 2013, Graypants was awarded AIA Seattle’s Award of Honor for their debut architecture project, Garage.

Graypants designs are products with stories and feelings, more than just beautiful objects. Seth and Jon are passionate about their work, and believe that this is an essential element that can be seen in their work.

Designs such as the Scraplights series and the Kerflights have made Graypants to what they are today. Nevertheless, new collections – like the Chronalights series – are constantly introduced, of which the latest have been shown at Euroluce 2017.

The post Product Design Made by Architects – How Graypants Built an International Brand appeared first on Archipreneur.

Fortunately, it’s not the only path to attracting new projects. In fact, the most effective business development strategies for architects involve more time spent on proactive relationship-building (before the project is made public), and less time on responding to RFPs and RFQs, which are available to anyone.

Below are 9 strategies that can help you define a good business development approach to get you ahead of the competition and win more clients and projects:

#1 – Identify the ideal project, and then work backwards

What are the ideal projects for your firm? Who are the people who can lead you to them? Do some research into their social environments and find ways to meet them there. The best projects or partnerships occur through direct commissions via a personal contact. Make the personal connection by networking in the same places that your ideal client spends time in. If you haven’t already, start thinking of everyone in your rolodex as a potential client, collaborator, or lead to new information; it may just be that the person who may lead you to the next job is someone you already know.

#2 – Export your design as portable, and shareable objects

Several companies design books that showcase their projects. Rather than make the book simply a portfolio, make the book a design object itself. Your design philosophy should be manifested in any tangible object (books, business cards, etc) your company produces, so that whenever you meet a potential client, you can offer them a small sample of what makes your firm so great. Follow up with well-designed emails, and be sure that your website is clear and easy to understand. The worst is for a client to be turned off by a slow or complicated website.

#3 – Follow up

Always make sure to have business cards on hand. And after you receive a handful of business cards at networking events, be sure to enter them into your email list. Additionally, stay in contact through periodic, personal emails. If you want to send out occasional updates with a mass mailing service, be sure to ask if they’d like to be included in the mailing list.

#4 – Turn your firm into a brand

Become an expert in a specific area of design. Determine the expertise available in the office, and the kind of projects your firm would like to be known for. Perhaps it’s environmental (like SITE and HOK) or urban design (Gehl Studio), master plans, residential, cultural, or civic. There needs to be something that potential clients can associate with your firm’s name. If you want to be more of a generalist, then make “process” and “philosophy” your brand (like Grimshaw). This way you will be known for creative solutions and high quality design. What can you provide that’s unique to only your firm? Figure that out and use to brand yourself. Then you will successfully promote and market your firm.

#5 – Create brand ambassadors at your company

Create a company culture that reflects your firm as approachable and fun to work with. Make sure there is fluid communication within the office so that when architects are traveling, they are comfortable discussing information about the firm , spreading the company’s vision, and creating new business contacts.

#6 – Organize an open lecture series at your firm

Organize an open lecture series at your firm where you can invite anyone to your office and provide an opportunity to introduce your firm to a new audience. Better yet, make the lectures have nothing to do with architecture, but about something your firm believes in. This will make your firm more approachable and will also show a different facet to the practice.

#7 – Book as many speaking opportunities as possible

You never know who is in the audience. It’s a great way of reaching multitudes of people at the same time. At a school, you may find that you’ve attracted more students who want to work for you, but you may also catch the attention of a developer who is teaching a class at that school who may want to speak with you about a potential opportunity.

#8 – Grow your online presence

More so than booking lectures, it’s one of the best ways to reach large audiences and catch the attention of many potential clients around the world at the same time. Think about maintaining a blog on your website to publish frequent updates and also use Instagram and Twitter to boost your online presence. Instagram especially is quick and visual, so architects can “seduce” clients with beautiful images. Especially when that relates to their design aesthetic without having to spend so much time. The ROI (Return on Investment) on that is better than on any other platform. Because it reaches so many people without much effort. With Twitter, you can retweet articles about your firm, drive people to your blog, or post updates and images as well.

#9 – Network with colleagues

Other firms and industry professionals are great resources for staying on top of trends and new developments. Rather than considering other firms as competition, consider them as potential partners on future projects; the combined, complementary expertise from each firm can only help to strengthen a business proposal. Additionally, keeping good relations with other firms may also lead to information. For example, about new projects that you might not have known about before.

Generating new business opportunities involves both marketing and communications, but most of all it involves nurturing relationships. As long as you can continue networking effectively and keep your contacts talking about you, then your firm will most likely pop up during conversations about new projects. And as long as your name continues to pop up, and you proactively pursue new information, the more likely it is that you will be included in shortlists and be receiving direct commissions.

What other effective business development strategies for architects would you recommend?

The post 9 Creative Business Development Strategies for Architects and Designers appeared first on Archipreneur.