Four suggestions from Mark Zweig that will result in more work than you can handle.

It’s interesting to me to see how many architects, engineers, planners and environmental consultants really don’t understand marketing. Many either see it as something that you have to do “just to keep up” with other firms orsomething that’s pretty much a waste of time – a cost to be minimized. Truth is, marketing is probably one of the most important ways to drive your firm’s success, because you can use your marketing to drive demand for your firm’s services beyond your ability to supply it. And when that happens, a lot of other good things happen. You grow. You can say “no” to clients who don’t pay their bills or those whose project will hurt your reputation. You can hire better people. Your value goes up. You can increase your prices. These things will transform you firm – and maybe even your outlook on life!It’s interesting to me to see how many architects, engineers, planners and environmental consultants really don’t understand marketing. Many either see it as something that you have to do “just to keep up” with other firms or something that’s pretty much a waste of time – a cost to be minimized. So how can you – as someone in the A/E/P or environmental business – use marketing to drive demand for what you do beyond your ability to supply what you do? Here are some thoughts:

1. Fix your website. Lately it seems like I have run into a whole bunch of firm websites that are the modern-day equivalent of a bad ’80s brochure. They aren’t dynamic, the information is static, and the graphics are horrible. With most clients finding new service providers through Google searches and then checking out their websites, and with the cost of websites being as low as it is today, why any company would have a bad website is beyond comprehension!
2. Build your list. You cannot do anything promotion-wise without having a list of who you are trying to sell your services to. Yet so many companies – more than I can count – don’t even have a customer relationship management system. They cannot even send out a Christmas card to all of their clients and potential clients because they cannot print out a list. That’s ludicrous. No other business can get away with that.
3. Promote ONE brand. I see many A/E firms that clearly don’t get this idea. They may be called “ABC Associates” but then have a company newsletter targeted at development clients, and this thing has a name of “Developer Insite” (catchy, huh?) with a completely different graphic image from the rest of the firm. This kind of stuff only dilutes your brand and I don’t understand why people in this business do it every day.
4. Contact your targets frequently and use lots of different methods. That means you need to call them, go see them, email them, mail to them, see them at events, see them at tradeshows, give talks to them, have them view your videos, have them hear your podcasts, have them see articles on you in the media, and much more. It is all about getting your name in front of these clients and potential clients frequently – much more frequently than architects and engineers think is “normal” (probably 10 to 20 times more often than most firms do it now). We are generally scared to do this and worried that if someone complains, it proves it is a bad practice. No matter if you got 20 new clients from the efforts!

There’s a lot you can do marketing-wise to drive demand. One thing I know: It all costs time and money. Stop looking at it as an expense and instead think of it as an investment. CH2M-Hill, HOK, Walter P. Moore, EDSA – none of them became the brands they are by minimizing their marketing investments! Mark Zweig is the chairman and CEO of Zweig Group. Contact him with questions or comments at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.

---

This article first appeared in The Zweig Letter (ISSN 1068-1310), issue #1094, originally published 3/9/2015. Copyright© 2015, Zweig Group. All rights reserved.