Most AEC firms play it safe with bland marketing, but bold, consistent outreach is what actually drives results.
I’m sure I spend too much time on LinkedIn (thanks, Dr. Matt Waller for telling me years ago I needed to be on it in spite of my prejudices against it!), but I have found it educational and helpful for the most part. If anyone gets political or too wacky, I just unfollow them.
So being on LinkedIn often with the network I have that includes thousands of people involved in the AEC business, I read a lot of stuff about AEC marketing. Some of it is good and some of it mediocre. But let me share my thoughts on some of what I’ve read that confirms my own experience as an AEC firm marketing director and owner in a number of other firms in this business:
- Most AEC marketing is boring. It’s what you expect. Pretty pictures of projects – most of which aren’t all that unique – with tons of cliches describing them. It doesn’t matter whether we are talking proposals and qualification docs or social media posts. There is nothing noteworthy about them.
- In general, architects and engineers are afraid to do two of the three things they should do to make their marketing stand out. First is humor. That is deemed “unprofessional.” Next is controversy. We shy away from that and are afraid of it. The third thing that we do sometimes but not often enough is provide helpful, useful information. Examples would be publishing “10 things to consider when planning new office space,” or “Eight things that happen over time that keep your HVAC working like it was designed to work,” etc.
- AEC firms don’t do enough original research that they can share with their clients and potential clients. Research on problems and issues those clients are facing. Survey Monkey surveys are great. So are white papers based on secondary research. Then publish it for them. It’s useful information. No advertising. This also produces great material to turn into press releases that actually get picked up because they contain data.
- AEC firms don’t do enough to build their client and potential client databases. They need to systematically identify every potential organization within whatever geographic reach they have and everyone in those organizations who could hire them. It needs to be a consistent and intense effort over an extended period of time and has to be convenient for every employee to access. The fixation on duplicate entries and keeping the wrong people out is misplaced. You want to get everyone you can IN and then come up with ways to clean up later.
- AEC firms don’t do enough PR. Again – it starts with a list. Then it has to include frequent press releases to a large enough list. Let the odds work in your favor. For example, in our business 20-plus years ago (when we were growing by 30 percent plus annually), we sent out three different press releases a week to a 500-plus name press list. Many were controversial or cited unique data. We got 15-20 press mentions a month from that. It’s a very low percentage if you look at the numbers but the odds bear out.
- In general, AEC firms just don’t do enough stuff. All of our numbers are too low. Not enough emails, social media posts, press releases, etc. I was a grad assistant to a guy who understood probabilities. He taught me the rule of big numbers. The odds bear out over time. AEC principals are more afraid of opt outs than they are of not getting results. They need to be the opposite.
- AEC firms do a bad job with their branding. Their company vehicles are not unique or even branded in any way. Their project signage is inconsistent. They don’t have enough merch and when they do, it’s ball caps, insulated cups, and golf shirts with polyester in them. Their use of color is inconsistent. Their trade show booths are boring. Their business cards forgettable.
Is any of this helpful? I could go on here and add a bunch more but am out of time and space. Let’s hear from you all with some of your ideas for how we could all do better!
Mark Zweig is Zweig Group’s chairman and founder. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.