Marketing Best Practices for AEC Firms
Marketing Best Practices for AEC Firms
Follow these tips to effectively brand, position, and promote your Architectural, Engineering, or Construction firm. 
The process of marketing Architectural, Engineering, or Construction firms, also known as AEC firms, has become increasingly competitive over the years because of lower construction activity and new firms entering the market. Too many AEC firms fall into the trap of only marketing when the phone stops ringing, but you cannot gain momentum unless you schedule a few hours every week for marketing and business development activities. Ongoing marketing campaigns give your firm consistent visibility.
AEC firms typically target owners or managers of public or private construction projects in their marketing campaigns. The focus of an AEC firm’s promotional efforts is to generate leads and win projects. Therefore, it is important for AEC firms to create a strong brand image and develop a comprehensive marketing plan.
Build Your Brand
It’s not easy to differentiate between various AEC firms because they often use the same language and buzzwords to describe themselves. It’s up to you to clearly communicate to your potential clients what sets your firm apart from the competition. You need to express your differentiating qualities in a way that resonates with your target audience.
Write a sharply defined position statement that defines who you are and what you do for whom. Your position statement should also express the benefits of what you offer. If you merely list the many marketing segments that you serve on your website, you’re sending the message that you are trying to be everything to everybody. Avoid being a generalist and instead make a commitment to a specific marketing strategy in order to instill confidence in potential clients.
Once you agree internally upon a brand identity and direction, instill your brand’s values in your employees to ensure that you are all on the same page. Everyone in your firm must be committed to your brand identity in order for it to achieve success.
Develop a Marketing Plan
Take a long, hard look at where your AEC firm is and then develop a comprehensive marketing plan complete with objectives, an action calendar, and measures. This plan should serve as the foundation for all of your marketing, informing both your business development and sales activities. You can build awareness of your AEC firm with the following methods:
Your website is your AEC firm’s home on the web, so make sure that its design and content are professional and reflect your brand image. Furthermore, make sure that your website is well organized and user-friendly. A visually appealing website that provides a positive user experience can dramatically improve people’s perception of your company. In addition, follow search engine optimization (SEO) best practices to optimize your website for search engines and ensure that prospective clients are able to find it. Populate your website with plenty of well-written content that showcases your knowledge and expertise while positioning your firm as a thought leader in your industry.
efelle’s content management system, FusionCMS, allows you to publish new content and optimize it for search engines with ease. FusionCMS also comes equipped with an easy-to-use project portfolio gallery that enables you to highlight projects with images, detailed descriptions, links to relevant services, and clear calls-to-action. The testimonial and case study module allows you to share your firm’s success stories with prospective clients to build trust and boost conversions.
FusionCMS also features a staff profile module that allows you to create and manage staff profiles complete with bios, awards, publications, projects completed, links to social media accounts, etc. Users can automatically generate staff profiles in PDF format. FusionCMS’s location manager module gives you the ability to manage multiple office locations with ease and display different services, contact information, and maps and directions for each location. Blog categories and testimonials/case studies can also be linked to specific locations.
Want to Learn More About FusionCMS for AEC Firms?
Contact efelle today if you’d like to learn more about FusionCMS, an all-in-one website management solution for AEC firms. Call 206.384.4909 or fill out our online contact form to get in touch.
See also:
Why Your Architecture Firm Needs a Website CMS
5 Ways to Improve Your Professional Services Firm's Website
Effective Branding for Architects: More Than Just Logo Design