What will architecture marketing in 2016 look like? Here's our take.
Year-end 2015 is nigh, modern marketer of architectural services, so it's way past time to jump on developing trends.
If the experts are right, 2016 is the year you're going to finally get on-board if you've been lagging in digital marketing for architects. And that's going to mean micro-targeting, going mobile, automating your marketing, and—as always—creating the best quality content you can.
COME ON IN (THE WATER'S FINE) . .
Just as with other businesses in general, and professional services in particular, architecture firms will be marketing themselves increasingly online—or they'll start losing relevancy.
If your firm's been one of those waiting at poolside for just the right moment to jump in—or hoping somehow the whole conversion to online marketing would just go away—2016 might be the year you'll finally to wake up to the potential.
The street goes both ways: promotion and awareness out, awareness and familiarity in.
It's a win both ways. Welcome to the world of micro-targeting, mobile, and automation.
TIME TO GET TO KNOW YOUR CLIENTS . .
It looks like 2016 will be the year that business-to-business (B2B) marketers resort to "hyper-targeting"—the finest form of micro-targeting—to zone in exactly on who customers are and exactly what it is they want.
We call this "buyer persona" development, and it's how we (and all of our clients) identify the right kind of target audience based on the problems we solve.
The marketing playbook will require deeper and deeper customization and personalization approaches to discover the next profitable niche, and how to serve it.
Reaching new customers with this degree of micro-targeting means parsing the data sufficiently to create conversations that engage one-on-one. You'll be diving deeply into the needs, lifestyle quirks, and likely motivations of your potential clients.
“Savvy digital marketers will be able to match traffic with business attributes, identify segments they want to grow and serve them with a very targeted message.”
Christophe Primault, CEO, GetApp
GET MOVING, GO MOBILE . .
You're still thinking mobile means phones? Experts predict that by 2020, 1 in 5 sales will come from data collected from wearable devices.
Just think what this could mean for architecture itself, much less architecture marketing. Architecture is about creating space for living, working, recreating.
Essentially, that means people moving around doing things.
Consider the potential marketing benefits for your firm of knowing how they do these things, when, and why.
“We’ve already seen the massive ripple effects mobile has had on the digital marketing industry. I believe we’re going to see this accelerate in 2016 and beyond."
Dan Shure, Owner, Evolving SEO
First, you'll need to catch up on making your website work on a handheld device—like smartphones and tablets.
The long infographics won't work the same anymore. You can't continue asking users to scroll endlessly (or pinch to view).
No more images that squeeze arbitrarily.
And of course, there's the issue with Mobilegeddon that will obviously hurt your search engine capabilities anyway.
You've got to get mobile-savvy to sell to the new crowd. Think in micro-content, create thumbnails, build slide decks, etc.
Once you're out-thinking the smartphone, get hip to the new reality of the Internet of Things. That will certainly set you apart from your architectingcompetitors.
“There will be more integration of technology with our daily lives and habits – which means more chances of hitting me with hyper-relevant messages when they actually matter, and even less effectiveness of broad message blasts.”
William Harris, Marketing Manager, When I Work
MARKETING AUTOMATION TOOLS WILL BE YOUR FRIENDS . .
Businesses that successfully integrate their existing marketing tools into a single system that automates the entire process have seen conversion rate increases of over 50 percent.
These marketing automation systems combine all your online marketing activities—like customer relations management (CRM), use of e-mail, content coordination, search engine optimization (SEO), developing and scoring leads, and results analysis
These "holistic tools" can help boost responses by delivering relevant, timely messages to your prospects.
QUALITY CONTENT BECOMES EVEN MORE IMPORTANT . .
Content quality will go way beyond just explaining something clearly, grammar, or factual accuracy.
Quality content will now mean writing compelling copy adaptable across media platforms, targeted carefully to the tastes of client "personas".
Whoever you have doing your marketing within the firm will likely not have the time, nor the aptitude, to do it right.
You already have them juggling so many balls at once the time they have for crafting creditable copy is disappearing. This means seeking out either experienced content writers or outsourcing writing to agencies.
“Educating the target audience will now become the top selling point of many brands from whatever industry they are in.”
...And it means writing content that whispers directly into the ear of your prospects.
