Brennan Chui
Here’s the hardest part about marketing to architects. You have to focus on this singular audience.
Many are afraid of missing other opportunities - “We want to speak to distributors, contractors, and clients too.”
We get it. But there's a better way to approach this.
Marketing to architects doesn’t mean you exclude everyone else. It’s just a matter of priority. Architects are the doorway, and once you open the door, it’s time to focus on the rest of the supply chain.
However, if you try to target everyone all at once, your messaging will end up connecting with no one. So the main argument for marketing specifically to architects is that they are the key to getting in the spec and becoming part of the initial conversation.
Since you can’t reach everyone all at once, they will be the first intentionally targeted audience.
After this 6 month or 12 month campaign, you will move on to your next segment.
As author & marketer Seth Godin says, "When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.
There's your argument for why you want to run an architect specific marketing campaign.
Now let's get started making a plan.
We will cover how you establish the foundations of your activity, build a content engine, distribution that content, and what success looks like.
Let's start with the foundations.
1. Establishing Foundations
The foundations of your marketing are your website and CRM.
Website
There's no point creating titillating content on social media if your website is a dead-end, because this is where specification decisions will be made. Make sure your website is full optimised. All your marketing activity ultimately leads back to the website - it's crucial that this is ready to convert visitors into enquiries.
CRM
Make sure your CRM is capturing the right data and integrated with your website. If you don't have a CRM that your sales and marketing team is working on together - get one! This is very important for sales and marketing alignment, and to make sure you have full insight into your customer behavior and history so you can segment and personalise your outreach.
2. Creating a Content Engine
When it comes to marketing to architect, content is at the core. You may have other projects going on like website redesigns, CPD updates, or project-based marketing campaigns, but you should always have a content engine running in the background, producing helpful, informative material for architects.
First, identify the type of content you want to publish.
Content Buckets
Segment your content into specific themes or "buckets" that resonate with architects. These can include educational content, project showcases, design trends, industry insights, and case studies. By diversifying your content, you cater to various aspects of architects' interests, positioning your building product clients as valuable resources.
Content Timing
Understanding the architects' buying journey is crucial for timing your content effectively. The construction process involves distinct phases such as concept design, schematic design, construction documentation, bidding, and construction administration. Tailor your content to match these stages, addressing architects' pain points and needs at each step.
Early Design Phases: During the concept and schematic design stages, architects seek inspiration and innovative solutions. Provide content that highlights your building product clients' unique features, benefits, and design applications.
Mid-Project Phases: As projects move into documentation and bidding stages, architects focus on practicality and specifications. Offer in-depth technical content, including specifications, installation guides, and comparisons that help architects make informed decisions.
Later Stages: During the construction administration phase, architects seek project management and troubleshooting guidance. Deliver content that addresses common challenges, offers best practices, and showcases successful case studies.
3. Distribution
To efficiently manage your content calendar, consider using the following tools:
Content Management System (CMS): Use a CMS like WordPress or HubSpot to create, schedule, and publish your content. These platforms offer content scheduling features that keep your posts consistent.
HubSpot offers an integrated set of tools that can help with everything from your blog, email, and social media. We always recommend HubSpot as their content publishing platform and central analytics tool.
Email Tools: MailChimp, HubSpot, and Campaign Monitor are all examples of email services that make sending marketing email easy.
Social Media Management Tools: Tools like HubSpot, Buffer or Hootsuite enable you to schedule and manage social media posts, ensuring your content reaches the right audience on various platforms.
Project Management Tools: Use platforms like, ClickUp, Trello or Asana to collaborate with your team, assign tasks, and track the progress of content creation.
A well-structured content calendar serves as a strategic road map, guiding your construction marketing agency in consistently delivering valuable content to architects. By understanding their preferences, addressing their needs at different project stages, and utilizing appropriate tools, you can establish your clients as go-to resources for architects in the building industry.
4. What success looks like
Unlike many traditional marketing tactics, marketing to architects requires creating genuinely valuable, educational content that empowers their research and specification process.
The payoff of this can be months down the road. Years when it comes to orders placed. If a specification is placed, but the job is delayed, then you may only end up seeing orders come in months or years later.
If you've been monitoring your lead metrics, then you've already been able to report to your leadership team about the green shoots coming from your campaigns. If they bought into this up front, it's much easier to communicate with them, rather than trying to convince them that "downloads" mean much if they are expecting to see numbers on the bottom line.
We've helped clients double the size of their businesses strictly through inbound marketing. The numbers will be there. It's just a matter of time and consistency.
Generally, you can expect a few phases of maturity in the performance of the content assets that you create. They are:
- Create - soon after you create them, you won't see any financial impact. You will see lead metrics like engagements, impressions, downloads. It's important to not get discouraged and continue with your content calendar. (1-3 months)
- Optimise - when you start to get enough data to analyse how your audience is finding the content, then it's time to optimise. But don't change the URL! All the related content is working to establish itself in Google Rankings. But feel free to add, edit, or update it, then republish it on socials and promote it on emails. (3-6 months)
- Mature - this is the stage where you start to see the growth. Your content has been out in the world making an impact. You'll have people coming inbound consistently. This is probably 6 - 12 months out.
By knowing the stages of content development you can resist the urge to pull the plug on content thinking "it's not working". It will work! Focus on serving up the best content you can. The more helpful it is, the more effective it will be at generating the right type of conversations.
With this perspective, you'll build a content engine with compounding results as your content matures.
Conclusion
Deciding you want to market to architects is the first step.
It's hard to prioritise, but it's crucial. Otherwise you end up with vague messages that don't resonate. That's why we've created this series about marketing exclusively to architects. So your messaging can be laser sharp and you can cut through the noise.
Hopefully in this post you've learned how to set lead goals for your marketing activity that everyone can agree to, create a content calendar to form the main engine of your marketing activity, and reset your expectations of when to expect results.
Again, results will come. But they come organically and sustainably. This process cannot be rushed, unlike many of the more popular tactics that people turn to for quick results. But ultimately, quick and dirty marketing tactics aren't long-term, successful, or sustainable. It's worth putting in the time to create a marketing plan that has a robust content engine at the heart of it.
Then, every time you reach out to your audience of architects, you have something new to say. Something helpful, interesting, or inspiring. This will form trust and awareness so that they come to you when the time is right.
If you follow these steps, architects will be coming to you over your competitors. Not because you're cheaper, or quicker, or have a handshake-to-handover service (same as everyone else), but because they like you! And they know you know your onions, because they've been on your website, browsed your technical and educational material, and even found helpful articles on topics they're interested in.
This is when your efforts at marketing to architects really pay off. The specifications start coming, then the orders, and then the revenue grows. And the great thing about this playbook is that the content you create continues to generate results for years to come.
If you'd like to learn more about this, set up a meeting with one of our experts, to discuss how to implement the new playbook for marketing to architects.
ABOUT INSYNTH
At Insynth, we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to connect with a technically demanding audience.
The latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, help building product companies to grow sustainability.
As the only HubSpot-certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, SEO, and Content Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.
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