I’ve found that the AEC industry is an amazing beast when it comes to commitment. Where else can it take more than 6 months (or a year) to win one job, but we expect marketing efforts to produce 1-to-1 results in 6 months or less?
Marketing professional services firms takes time and consistency, both of which are necessary if your marketing efforts are to make an impact. A great strategy can go down the tubes quickly if there is no consistent execution and timeline. Likewise, brilliant execution is wasted if it only happens once and then your firm is never heard from again.
As marketers, we need to commit – to our budgets, our campaigns, our newsletters, our target audiences, our websites – for a longer period of time and measure our successes and failures by the quarters or years, instead of by the months. This length or level of commitment is driven by a multiple of our clients’ buying cycles.
When we simply respond to an RFP, we’ve hit the tail end of the buying cycle. As we all know, this rarely works out unless there is a prior relationship. It’s what we do after the loss that shows our commitment to the client though. The day after the job is won or lost is the first day of the next buying cycle for your clients. If they don’t hear from you again, you likely won’t factor into the next decision. If they hear from you consistently during the next year, you have gained awareness and proven a level of commitment to understanding their needs.
I’ve recently launched a postcard campaign that highlights three distinct marketing vehicles. All three of these play a part in showing clients how committed you are to their industry/needs – your website, your social media presence and your proposals. Obviously there a number of other ways to impact a potential client’s perception of your firm, but these three specifically are arguably the most widely used and can be uniquely crafted to show commitment to your clients.
When it comes to assessing how successful your marketing efforts are – whether one of these three or not – be sure to ask yourself how committed your firm is to the target audience. If you’re confident in your commitment, give your efforts ample time to work their magic.