Marketing for Architecture – Part 8 - Stair Step Marketing

In the last MARKETING FOR ARCHITECTURE blog post we looked at using educational content on our website to build credibility, trust and authority with potential clients.

Now we’re going to look at how to sequence our marketing.

Sequence matters a lot and after you go through this blog post you will know how to put your marketing together in a logical sequence that introduces your business all the way through to availing of your services.

In addition, if you find watching video better than reading an article simply scroll on down to the bottom as there is a video version of this blog post down there.

"Don't Ask Her To Marry You On The First Date"

You don't ask a woman or man to marry you on the first date.

That would be just plain weird and creepy, wouldn’t it?

However, that’s how most marketing for architecture is done.

They go straight from introducing their business into pitching their services from the bat.

That’s too much of a commitment for a potential client to take.

And very few people will be at the stage to be ready to hire an architect.

Most people will take their time with that decision.

So by offering your services from the get go you are missing out on building a relationship with 99% of the people that come in contact with your business.

That’s a lot of people that you could otherwise turn into clients down the line.

And when you’ve got a group of architects all doing the same thing then the only criteria given to the potential client to make a decision is price.

And of course, then you are into the territory of sending proposals and even doing some design work for free to try and get the job.

It’s a game of how low can you go.

None of this is good for you & your business.

Instead, offer value, information, and solutions when marketing for architecture.

Introducing Stair Step Marketing

Your clients are people, and they want a trusted long-term relationship.

Too many architects create marketing that feels impersonal, sterile and distant.

People are built to interact with people, not with "corporate entities."

Marketing for architecture should create a Marketing Experience that feels like building a relationship with a new friend.

Now we are going to go into this a lot deeper in the Advanced Marketing sections of this series with what I call The Client Journey but for now I am introducing the concept because it is the most powerful strategy you’ll learn in this series.

But the basic premise is that instead of asking for marriage on the first date, we set up our marketing to be a series of mini steps that leads the potential client from initially finding our business all the way through to being a client.

So think of it like walking up a stairs, you take one step at a time.

And you eventually get to the top of the stairs in a series of steps instead of one big leap.

And we base these steps on the way we make husbands or wives in the real world.

Now obviously we aren’t going to be as intimate but you get the idea.

A Basic Framework For Your Stair-Step Marketing System:

The basic steps when we meet someone we like are as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Get to know you conversation
3. Exchange number
4. Follow up for a series of dates
5. Ask for marriage
6. Work at sustaining that relationship

We then set up our marketing to follow these steps too.

So that looks like this:

1. Advertising
2. Educational Content
3. Get prospects contact information
4. Offer a low priced offer and a series of further content to nurture the relationship
5. Sell them your main architectural services
6. Sell them more stuff with joint venture offers

Now don’t worry too much if some of that doesn’t make sense just yet such as the low priced offer or the joint venture bits, we’ll be going through this in extreme detail in a couple of later blog posts.

Small Action Steps Lead To Big Results Over The Long-Term

Stair step marketing also takes account of where the prospect is in the buying cycle as they’ll be able to take these mini steps in their own time so it becomes a tailored adventure for each individual person.

Some people will spend longer in one step than another, it will be different for every person and will feel to them like a real relationship.

As you build your Stair Step Marketing System, you'll also find that many people taking small steps adds up to big results long-term.

The objective is to optimize the marketing for architecture system, not to "get at the golden egg" by killing the goose.

This is about REAL RELATIONSHIP BUILDING.

Build It And Optimize It For One Client, Then Attract Many

Build your Stair Step Marketing system for ONE person (your Client Avatar).

In other words, everything should be written like you are talking to one person.

And in reality you will be, as it will be one person reading your content or watching your videos.

After you've designed a personalized, relationship-oriented experience, then you can scale it and start to promote it with advertising.

Exercise 9 – Creating Your Stair Step Marketing & Product Sequence

In order to be succesful in marketing for architecture and increase the value of each prospect and Client you attract to your business, it’s important that you create a stair step marketing sequence:

• Where are the best places to advertise, in other words where are your ideal clients found?
• What educational content can you write to attract potential clients to your website in the first place?
• What can you offer them in exchange for their contact details?
• What service could you splinter from your main services that you could offer for a smaller fee to start them giving you money (think of it like a trial run)?
• What educational content would they need to help them make the decision to hire you?
• What products and services does your ideal client use before, during, after and instead of hiring you on their projects?

Again I don’t expect you to fully get all this just yet, I’m just introducing this concept.

As I said we go way deeper into this later.

The next blog post is about positioning and is a topic that is badly misunderstood.

I break it all down for you so you can differentiate your business from your competitors in a way that makes you irresistible to potential clients.

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Here's The Video Version Of This Marketing For Architecture Blog Post:

If you find watching video easier that reading a blog post then this is for you!

How Architects go from being ‘Undervalued’ to generating High-Value Custom Residential Projects using this Sir Norman Foster method…

...without being 'Fee Shopped'...

...and even if no one knows who they are and they don't have good marketing skills...

My name is Declan Connolly, founder of Affluent Architect.

I’ve been designing homes since 2000.

I started my own practice in 2009.

And now I teach Architects from all over the world how to generate Custom Residential projects for their practices.

And after all that, I can safely say:

The ‘normal’ way of educating potential clients on the benefits of hiring an Architect…

...is NOT THE ANSWER to getting great clients & projects.

If that worked Architects wouldn’t find themselves in the constant battle of:

❌ Talking to people only interested in free advice…

❌ Writing proposals for people who only use them as a fee shopping exercise…

❌ Being underpaid & treated like a commodity…

These problems happen because Architects haven’t been taught something crucial:

How to articulate the value of their services in a way that impacts their clients on an EMOTIONAL level.

Instead, they try to ‘logically’ educate potential clients on:

❌ Reasons to hire an Architect…

❌ Project process…

❌ How they deliver their services, etc…

But high-quality clients don’t care about these things.

In fact, they view these things as OBSTACLES to them getting their new home.

It’s like when someone books a flight for a holiday.

They don’t care about the number of rivets in the plane & the stitching in the seats.

All they care about is enjoying their holiday at the end destination.

Similarly, all that matters to the potential client is the new home.

Along with all the lovely lifestyle benefits it will give them.

All the ‘logical’ based approach does is position Architects as a ‘set of plans to get the permit’.

So, here’s how we fix this.

My Architects attract creative residential projects with clients that pay top dollar for great design.

And the key to this is my proprietary A.V.I.D. Method (Articulate Value & Influence Design Method)...

…which creates marketing messages that emotionally connect with their potential clients.

This A.V.I.D. Method has been developed by trial & error in the real world since 2009.

And it’s the only method specific to the single-family residential market for Architects on the planet.

It’s enabled me & my Architect students to:

✅ Work with celebrity clients on their new home like Mark Owen from the pop band Take That...

✅ Work on jobs that have been featured on the TV Show Grand Designs…

✅ Work on homes worth as much as $18.75 million…

And the secret to this is something I learned when I was struggling to get decent projects for my practice.

I had hit a brick wall and decided to study how past Architects managed to do it.

And who better than Sir Norman Foster himself.

He got started in the high-tech industrial market.

Which is a super-competitive market against far bigger and more established firms.

Sir Norman Foster didn’t go and try and ‘logically’ educate potential clients.

Instead, he described what his target clients’ businesses would be like AFTER they built one of these buildings.

And once I applied this same principle to Custom Residential it completely changed the game for me.

Describing a potential client’s life AFTER they have built their new home is what gets their attention.

✅ It instantly creates trust & respect because we are describing what they really want...

✅ It creates an air of 'exclusivity' & ‘uniqueness’ around our services which clients pay more for...

✅ Defines who our target clients should be & where to find them…

However, it must be done in a certain sequence.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to show you on a special Case Study recording.

Where I show you how the A.V.I.D. Method works.

As well as how it creates my students’ marketing for them which saves a bunch of time.

This Case Study also shows you loads of examples of our students' marketing that is working like crazy in the Custom Resi market:

Click Here To Register For Your Free A.V.I.D. Method Case Study

So, if you're sick and tired of being treated like a commodity...

And you want to finally work with appreciative clients who value what you do…

…get paid the fees that you deserve & have a great income for a change…

…and work on fulfilling creative jobs without sacrificing time with your family…

Then let’s get the A.V.I.D. Method working for your practice.

Go ahead and register for your free Case Study right now: