I just read a very nice article from Rena Klein on AIA’s website, “Get Your Firm Ready for Recovery.” She does a great job of explaining the benefits of sharing project management responsibilities across firm staff through a matrix management approach. It is generally very easy to get staff to take on additional responsibilities and even be excited about it, if your firm’s culture is one that notices people’s contributions and rewards them (whether through professional growth, financial compensation, recognition, etc.).
Aside from operations or project-focused changes, marketing is obviously a crucial part of protecting your firm from the ebbs and flows of the market. In a small to mid-size firm though, there may be only a handful of team members with marketing responsibility (if it’s even more than one). How can people that don’t typically market, become Brand Stewards for your firm? How can we share the burden of marketing across multiple team members?
1. Treat marketing as a part of professional development
Although the licensing exams don’t have anything about marketing in them, becoming well-versed in marketing is just as crucial for a Principal-to-be as good project management. Allow team members some wiggle room on their billable goal if you have a marketing-related task to tackle and get them involved.
2. Be sure your message is consistent
Before allowing members of the team to head up projects one at a time, make sure that everybody knows the firm’s message platform or some variation. i.e. If your goal as a firm is to be THE luxury residential design firm, your team should know how to say that consistently regardless of who is doing the talking.
3. Play to your team’s strengths
If you already have one or two social media guru’s in the office, tap them to develop/monitor a social media campaign. As long as you’ve done number 2 above, your firm can benefit from additional outreach and you can ask the person(s) to present regular results or updates on your online presence.
4. Build on previous experience
Each person you hire brings with them unique experience. If you’re trying to break into a new market, see who you have on your team already that may have a relevant background. If their up for the task, work with them to develop a plan to tackle the new potential client list; they may have good marketing ideas from their previous firm.
Creative problem solving almost always benefits from a team effort, and marketing is just that. Just as you sit down to embark on your next marketing endeavor by yourself, think about your entire team. There may be somebody worth pulling into your brainstorming session.