Digital marketing is transforming how companies, including architectural firms, are marketing themselves. As of this year, the digital marketing industry is worth $460 billion and is projected to grow to $786.2 billion by 2026.
If you’ve been thinking about employing digital marketing for architecture firms, we’re here to help. This article will give you a deeper understanding and appreciation of what digital marketing is and how your firm can benefit from it.
Laying the Foundation
Before crafting your digital marketing strategy, it’s important to understand what it is, what comprises it, and how to make the most of it.
What Does Digital Marketing Entail? Why Is it Important?
Digital marketing or online marketing is online advertising. It means reaching out to potential customers through the internet and using digital communication channels such as emails, blogs, websites, and social networks.
An effective digital marketing strategy can boost your company’s brand awareness by up to 86%, and increase credibility and trust by 75%.
Other benefits of digital marketing for architecture firms include:
- Greater visibility
- Increasing website traffic
- Strengthening client relationships
- Brand building
How To Effectively Leverage Major Digital Marketing Channels
To strengthen your firm’s position as a leader in architecture, you need to use different types of digital marketing channels.
Here’s what you need to know:
Website
Today, websites are a business necessity for architecture firms. Most potential clients who’ve heard about you will confirm your legitimacy by doing a quick Google search for your firm. Since you don’t want them to come up empty-handed, a website provides validation and adds to your credibility.
Your web design for real estate should brief visitors about your firm’s history, noteworthy clients, past projects, top management, and other relevant information. It can also include upcoming and ongoing projects as well as reviews to assure readers of your capabilities and expertise.
Think of your website as a one-stop destination where clients can get all the information they need to convince them to hire you.
Digital Brochures and Portfolios
You may have relied heavily on printed brochures and portfolios in the past but this is no longer the case with digital marketing. Digital versions of printed collaterals can reach wider audiences, can be transmitted and shared more quickly, and can be conveniently stored on phones and laptops. (Plus, they’re more environmentally friendly!)
Using digital brochures and portfolios lets you showcase your services better since you can incorporate additional features like video marketing for real state, relevant links, and richer images.
Since they’re digital, they’re easily updated and can be repurposed and integrated with other digital marketing activities. Brochures can be shared in an email marketing campaign. Videos can be reused on your website and links to your brochures can be inserted in social media posts.
This brings us to our next marketing tool:
Email Marketing
With an average conversion rate of 4.2%, email marketing is extremely effective for reaching and staying in touch with customers. If 4.2% isn’t enough to convince you to use email marketing, consider that its return on investment or ROI is as high as 4200%. This means that you get $42 for every dollar you spend.
One of the advantages of email marketing is you can create different mailing groups to reach different stakeholders. You can thus tailor your content according to their interests to stack the odds in your favor and increase the success of your email initiatives.
A lot goes into creating effective email marketing strategies, but it ultimately boils down to maintaining contact with your target audience and keeping them updated about new and exciting developments.
Social Media
Social media plays an incredibly important role in building connections between businesses and clients. Around 82% of companies consider it vital for their customer experience.
Platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Tiktok, and Pinterest offer ample opportunities for architecture firms to grow their audience and interact with partners, suppliers, investors, (potential) customers, and other stakeholders.
These platforms will help you build a distinct and unique brand identity, allowing you to showcase your work in new and interesting ways.
Each platform serves a different demographic, and requires a slightly different approach to successfully reach your client base:
Facebook is considered the most popular social media platform. It offers opportunities to create text-heavy posts, which other social networks aren’t built for.
Your architecture firm’s Facebook page, therefore, can be used for updates, blogs, and marketing promotions where you can share:
- Your latest projects
- Recent developments in your firm or existing projects
- Insights and details about different design processes
- Behind the scenes moments in the architecture industry like the creative process for projects you’re working on
- Anecdotes about interesting projects
- Other information that will help you connect with your audience and build interest
You can also use Facebook ads to drive traffic to your website, which can encourage potential customers to contact you.
While you can also share images and videos on other social platforms, Facebook is unique because you can write longer posts to introduce these marketing materials.
Instagram and Pinterest
Pinterest and Instagram are visual platforms, making them ideal for architectural firms that naturally have a lot of visual assets.
Capturing your target audience’s attention with images is a smart move in digital marketing since 65% of people retain information better with images.
Both platforms can be used to build your brand image and showcase your projects with interesting image renders that let your talent and skills shine. You can post images and videos of:
- Planned, ongoing, and completed projects
- Designs to attract and maintain interest
- Your design and planning processes
Instagram also lets you interact with your audience through design challenges, reels, and lives to grow your page, build awareness, and create a community of followers.
Youtube and TikTok
Youtube and TikTok are more focused on videos. YouTube is an infotainment platform that offers more versatility as it enables you to upload longer, more detailed videos with lots of information and enticing visuals.
In contrast, TikTok is better used for sharing short and entertaining snippets of video that highlight your latest projects and designs while increasing brand awareness.
Search Engine Optimized Content
Search engine optimization or SEO is a highly effective way to land new clients and direct prospective clients to your website. SEO-optimized content should have relevant keywords so that you can easily be found by potential clients.
You should consider coming up with keyword-rich content that your target audience will want to read. This will help you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) while helping establish you as an expert in architecture and design.
Virtual Reality and Real Estate
Virtual reality combines innovation and digital content. One of the most exciting and unique applications of virtual reality for architecture firms is 3D virtual tours. Since real estate and architecture deal with spaces, virtual tours allow users to explore digitally constructed architectural spaces on their computers and smartphones. These spaces can be navigated by clicking, dragging, and other means, letting clients take in the features of a property that has yet to be constructed, is being constructed, or actual model units without having to be there physically.
While there’s a lot to know about virtual tours, it has three key benefits for architectural firms:
- Architects and builders can showcase their designs and create detailed references for their clients and contractors.
- Potential buyers and other stakeholders can enjoy a realistic view of a property 24/7 without having to travel anywhere.
- Employees, architects, and designers can show their work to stakeholders more quickly.
These benefits have encouraged many real estate firms to commission their own virtual property tours and 3D renders. Defined by an article on Forbes as the “metaverse,” these immersive digital versions of reality are gradually becoming the norm for real estate companies, including architecture firms.
Virtual Reality and Architects
Architecture requires ample creativity and imagination, skills that not everyone has. Communicating your vision to your client, no matter how grand or basic, is a challenge that every architect faces.
This is where virtual reality and 3D renders come to the rescue. A beautifully and properly rendered space can help clients and other stakeholders appreciate the space better, make it more accessible and memorable for them, and help you and your firm stand out.
These advantages may prove pivotal when your firm is trying to get a client to accept and sign off on a drawing or idea that has them feeling apprehensive and uncertain.
Conclusion
The ability to effectively use digital marketing for architecture firms can give your firm an edge over your competitors. Digital marketing for real state can also make your marketing efforts more cost-effective, targeted, and successful.
Social media, websites, SEO, digital brochures, and email marketing are used across different industries but virtual tours and 3D renders are unique tools that your architectural firm shouldn’t ignore.
They allow your clients and partners to appreciate spaces your firm has designed even before the foundation is laid.
For high-quality, realistic, and immersive renders, visit the Plus Render website. Plus Render is a trusted name for high-quality 3D architecture, 3D virtual reality, video renders, and infographics.