Paying attention to where your business – or clients – come from helps you make decisions on where you should be spending your time and resources. When your client is still a prospect, do they find you through networking, advertising, speaking engagements, direct mail, or being referred to you?
The Real Definition of a Referral
Most of us think we know what a referral is since referrals have been around forever as the holy grail of how to grow your business in the easiest way possible. But most don’t understand what makes a referral a referral which leads to lower closing ratios, mislabeled leads, and incorrect assumptions about how your […]
Storytelling – Your Defining Moment
Story Origins In the first two articles of this series, Architects as Storytellers and Architects’ Claim to Storyteller Status, we looked at the “Story Origins” of Architecture. We saw that the sculpted frieze of ancient Greek temples was used as a narrative device to honor a god or goddess. It told a story. We claimed […]
Three Steps for Marketing Your Architecture Firm
At Archmark Architect Branding & Marketing, we’ve seen architecture firms struggle to implement effective marketing strategies that help them get in front of better prospects so they can win better projects. Historically, architecture firm marketing has relied heavily on word-of-mouth referrals. This passive approach is what we call “Hope Marketing.” Essentially, you’re not marketing at […]
The Problem with ‘Hope Marketing’ and What to Do Instead
Working with many architecture firms over the past several years our agency, Archmark Architect Branding & Marketing, has been approached by many architects who have struggled to establish a consistent, repeatable, and reliable process to attract new clients and projects. The challenge for many firm owners is that they rely too heavily on passive new […]
Make it Your Job
Today I was watching a recent talk by Chris Brogan and among many thought provoking ideas, he proposed one tasty tidbit that stuck in my head. Chris is a successful marketing pro, NY Times bestselling author, magazine contributor, blogger, speaker and mega-nerd (he knows more about comic superheros than anyone… ever). He didn’t just decide […]
My Time Online: Presenting Portfolio, Creating Context and a Top Google Rank
This week, we’ve been exchanging website URLs over at the Entrepreneur Architect Linkedin Group. It is very interesting to learn some background on the people we’re interacting with on that forum. I shared our website URL (which is in the midst of an upgrade from our original site to a new one). Then, I posted […]
Great Architecture Will Not Build a Great Business
1) Design great architecture. 2) Get noticed. 3) Thrive! Isn’t that how it is supposed to work. Well… it doesn’t. The trick is step 2. Getting noticed. How do you get noticed? The answer in a word, is Marketing. Even uber-successful “starchitects” have a marketing team working to get their “great architecture” noticed. Whether you […]
Are You “Locally Famous”?
What are you doing to become “locally famous”? Do you have a facebook account with which you post regularly and interact with your fans? Do you follow Twitter feeds for people who have influence in your local communities… and respond to their tweets? Do you blog… consistently, and have a website which reflects the expectations […]
BUILD LLC… the documentary
Check out the new short film documenting the life and times of the Seattle-based architecture firm, BUILD LLC. It is beautifully done. A film like this can be used for so many purposes. First, it documents a specific time in the life of this specific firm. Andrew, Kevin and their team will have a great […]
How do your clients find YOU?
At the end of an interview with a prospective client, I ask them to complete a short questionnaire. Most of the questions are names, address and telephone numbers, but near the bottom of the page is this question, “How did you learn about Fivecat Studio?” The question is followed by a few choices, “Magazine or […]
How important is your firm’s name?
Our firm’s name is Fivecat Studio. It took quite a long time to settle on the name when we launched the firm back in 1999. Our intent, then and now, is to build a great and enduring firm that will long outlive its founders. We did not want to build the firm around any single […]