Brand Building for Architecture Firms
Building a Brand For Your Architecture Firm
Tips For Making Your Architecture Brand Stand Out
How would you describe your architecture firm's brand?
If you can't answer that question, it's time to talk. Your brand is your vehicle to success. If it isn't fine-tuned, it's not going to travel as far as it should.
Building a brand that establishes your business's expertise, niche, and reputation takes work. With our guide, you'll be able to outline a process specifically catered to companies within the architecture industry.
Every Good Brand Starts with a Story
Whether you're starting from scratch or refreshing an old image, step one begins with the story behind the business. It's an important narrative, and one that gives your target demographic a way to connect with your brand.
Think not in terms of individuals within the company, but rather the firm itself.
What values does your firm stand for?
What is your firm’s purpose?
Dig into the unique aspects of your company by considering your niche. If there is a theme within the types of architecture you design, then optimize on it. Make your story attract the kind of clientele you're looking for.
If you haven't chosen a name for your business yet, this is an excellent opportunity. Don't miss it by choosing a name that follows the same basic formula as your competition. It's easy to fall into what we call the "alphabet soup" of architecture firms.
Establish a brand name that sparks curiosity and provides some clarity so people begin to think you might be the solution to their needs.
The Alphabet Soup of Architecture Firm Logos
Make Your Architecture Firm Stand Out
No two architecture firms are the same. Make your brand noticeable by highlighting what sets your architecture firm apart from its competition in a noticeable way.
Ask yourself, "Why should a client choose your business over the rest?"
What do you provide your clients that other firms don't?
Make your bestselling features part of your identity. The more original you are, the more recognizable you'll become.
Consider Frank Lloyd Wright, who became a household name by breaking the mold. His innovation made a name for himself.
Your brand holds the same mission. What do you want your company to be known for?
Identify the answer to that question, then capture it with your brand.
Dress to Impress
Does your logo, marketing collateral, and content match the impression you want to give?
Your architecture firm's image speaks volumes long before potential clients ever pick up the phone or shake your hand. Make your business stand out with a cohesive look and feel that aligns with your narrative.
This includes your:
- Logo
- Brand Colors
- Brand Font
- Brand Voice
- Social Media Presence
- Website
- Marketing Collateral
Consistency is essential when establishing or reestablishing your brand's identity. If only part of your business wears the brand properly while other employees do not, it can lead to confusion for your clients and a bad overall impression.
Create a branding guide for internal and external use so everyone in the company is representing the brand cohesively across all contacts and channels. A brand guide should include logo formats, color palette, typography, imagery, examples of branding used on various documents and digital platforms. Make a point to communicate and enforce your guidelines to your team. This will ensure everyone is on the same page.
Echo That Brand in Your Process
As you work with your clients, make sure their experience aligns with the image you presented them from beginning to end.
What is your process?
Is it different from the way your competitors do things? More importantly, is it better?
Your brand should reflect the impression you leave on your clients. This is crucial to your business. As clients share their testimony by word of mouth or online reviews, it will build upon the identity you're trying to establish.
Keep in mind no brand thrives on word alone. You must feed its growth through your finished projects, your deeds, and your marketing.
Create a Marketing Strategy for Your Architecture Brand
Every company should have an ongoing marketing strategy for their business, especially within the digital landscape. Start by understanding where you want your brand to take you — that means setting goals and making a plan!
Those goals and plans should include your firm’s online presence. Now, more than ever, digital marketing is crucial to helping your firm establish credibility and finding new clients.
This includes:
- Designing and maintaining your website
- Establishing and managing a social media presence
- Building and maintaining your SEO
- Creating and implementing e-mail marketing campaigns
- Distributing press releases
- Consistent, quality blogging
Your brand plays a pivotal role in all of this. Digital media is a platform for your brand, giving you an opportunity to establish your business as an expert in the architecture industry.
Make sure your online presence looks the part. Brand building is just as important online as it is through traditional avenues:
- If your website needs a refresh, have it redesigned.
- If your social media channels are housing crickets, create a consistent plan to bring it back to life.
- Utilize Adwords and social media advertising to build campaigns that boost your ROI. This avenue is extremely profitable these days, especially on high dollar conversions like architectural services.
Beyond that, it's about creating and maintaining brand consistency, and building long-term relationships with your client base.
Make your brand a living entity your target audience can communicate with and develop a connection to on the platforms they're active on. You'll find this to be quite profitable for your business and its brand as you reestablish your architecture firm and foster its growth. Learn more about How to Find Architecture Clients
here.
Try the Archmark Approach to Rebranding
Archmark works with architects to help them build a strong brand foundation for business growth, establish authority to take a leadership position in their market, and create awareness that attracts qualified leads and better clients.
We focus on how to build up your business, so you can focus on leading your firm. It starts with a free 30-minute architecture marketing strategy review call to help you:
- Get clarity on why your current digital marketing efforts aren't working
- (re)Define your competitive advantage
- Discover insights into your ideal clients that you never would have thought of on your own
learn more about How To Build a Strong Architecture Brand, and to Find out how we can help you, Schedule your strategy review call today to see how we can help your architecture firm go even further.
