In the last MARKETING FOR ARCHITECTS blog post we looked at the Client Avatar and putting together a profile of the person we want as a client.
And we do this so we can narrow our focus and tightly market to these people.
It also makes it easy for us to market ourselves where these people are found.
In this blog post we are going to look at the 2 different types of marketing.
You're going to discover how both of them work and which you should deploy for your business.
After you go through this blog post you'll know exactly how to reach out to prospective clients.
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.
There are two basic approaches to Marketing: Branding and Response Marketing.
Branding is about getting people to "remember your name."
This is the kind of marketing that Nike, Coca Cola & Apple engage in.
Just think of the Nike check mark and Just Do It, written underneath it.
There’s nothing else to that marketing.
Response marketing however, is about getting people to take ACTION and BUY.
There is a lot more to this type of marketing, we have to bond with the reader and show we understand them.
We then make an offer which shows we can solve their problem.
And finally, there is always a Call To Action at the end be that to hire us, to click on our ads or to give us their contact information.
The reason it's called "Direct Response Marketing" is because it's based on two key ideas that are very powerful together.
The first is marketing DIRECTLY to prospective clients & the second is asking for a RESPONSE.
Branding is "indirect" - in that its intention isn't to generate action NOW.
It’s to get brand awareness & familiarity.
In professional sales, a "continuation" is when you set-up a follow-up, but don't actually make a sale.
In marketing (and sales), a "conversion" is when your prospective client takes action - ideally hiring you for your architectural services.
Aim for conversion, not continuation.
Most people default to branding or "getting their name out" - because it's the easy road.
You never have to face direct rejection if you never ask for a sale... which makes branding a very appealing route for most business owners.
You can always blame someone else when you don't take personal responsibility for sales.
It appeals to ego, status & the part that wants everyone to know who you are.
Branding marketing is extremely expensive and you’ll go broke very quickly if you don’t have deep pockets.
PLUS you can’t measure its effectiveness in terms of the number of new clients it generates.
Direct Response on the other hand is directly measurable.
And as a result, you can track results and consistently make improvements over time so its effectiveness increases.
The best way to think about a good Direct Response Marketing piece is to think of it like a real salesperson - only multiplied & automated.
The techniques of Direct Response have been tried, tested and refined over 100+ years.
It's now considered a "science" by the pros.
It’s a system.
Most people are afraid of selling their services "face-to-face."
In fact, it's the best possible research you can do for your business.
You'll never learn more specific, powerful things you can use in your marketing than when you SELL.
Most of us don’t want to sell.
When you ask about their fears and frustration then try and sell your services you will get to know what their objections to hiring you are.
You can then pre-emptively address these objections in your marketing so they don’t come up at all.
Don't imitate the big companies - or assume that what they do will work for you.
If you want to imitate them, go back to when they began and do what they DID...
.. and not what they're doing NOW!
And what they did when they started was usually SALES.
Sales has gotten a "bad name" over the past several decades.
Professional selling looks nothing like the manipulative hustling that we associate with the "used car salesman".
Professional selling is about discovering and developing needs, then matching needs to solutions.
Professional salespeople see the sales conversation as research into the prospective customer's needs.
An essential book to read is SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham.
Don't aspire to have people "know your name" or "be famous".
Instead, aspire to have people who have a need come to you to hire you.
Instead of trying to become a "famous brand" - work to sell your services to one person at a time... then replicate this Direct Response system to grow.
Appeal to the interest of your client not your ego.
Go for response and not recognition.
There are two fundamental approaches to marketing.
The first is branding which is about getting your name out, becoming famous so that people have you top of mind.
The second approach is called Direct Response Marketing and is focussed on finding individual prospective clients and triggering them to respond to your offer.
It’s critical that you develop your Direct Response Marketing skills and develop the ability to sell your services 1-to-1 in any situation and in any niche or environment.
Ok now that we know what type of marketing we are to deploy we can now turn our attention to educating our potential clients with our marketing.
Nothing exudes credibility, trust and authority better than providing education for our prospects and that’s what we will look at in the next blog post.
If you find watching video easier than reading a blog post then this is for you!
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:
It's fantastic that you are getting ideas from this piece of writing as well as from our dialogue made at this time.