Website Design and Lead Generation for Residential Architects

When it comes to online marketing, architects excel at posting great looking portfolio websites. Talent comes through with every scroll through and slideshow. The buildings the exhibit are often well-displayed and demonstrate capabilities, yet...how will this generate more leads?

The public who seek services from skilled and talented architects may probably already know you are talented, but marketing experts suggest the focus be put back on the customer if they seek to get more qualified leads. The goal of inbound and content marketing is to capture only those who are actually looking for you and what you can provide to them.

Odds are, your school and experience did not adequately prepare you for the fast-changing online marketing processes that are largely website based. Search, mobile devices, and automated marketing have changed the game. Lead generation is anchored in ease-of-use, ease-of-contact, lead capture, email marketing and providing written website content that helps prospects to understand better how to use your services. Online lead generation is about more than great images of architecture, direct mail, and magazine advertisements. A sales-driven website can be a cornerstone of your marketing efforts provided it gives viewers context and insight into the value you provide when creating homes for real people. 

We recognize the difficulty of allowing carefully crafted and keyword rich text that describes the fine-tuned skill and abilities you offer.  In the hands of the poorly skilled copywriters, website content can become corrupted by overblown or incomprehensible text or can be stuffed with keywords that may harm your efforts. Practical tactics can be overlooked as well. Do you include keywords within the first three words of your titles and subtitles? Are they peppered throughout the articles at a 1-1.5% insertion rate and then appear again in the summation paragraph? Are they in the titles of your page?

The following format is typical for an architectural website.

• Homepage with a portfolio that is absent of people, 
• Services page outlining your specialties,  
• About us page telling how long you have been doing this and where you were trained,  
• Contact us page that tells just how you can reach us and have us work for you

There's nothing wrong with this type of "online brochure", but if your goal is lead generation that turns into projects; you need a website design that's structured to create clients. What is often missing are blogs, landing pages, call-to-actions and an email marketing component that is about the prospect, not just a post and boast about your most recent success.

The problem is that most architectural websites appear to be designed to impress other architects. They are less interested in the needs of the client.  We just need some realism here – unless you are well-recognized as the next Zaha Hadid or the newest Hugh Newell Jacobsen, your prospect places less emphasis on your education and portfolio than you do. It's true that they seek to understand better how your vision will make their next new home unique, but it's done within the context of the way they live their lives. Clients want to be educated, and they enjoy being provided with ideas that will help them better understand your firm's aesthetic. Clients want to imagine how this place you create will make their life better once the new home is built.

The fact is that they care less about your firm than you may think, and they probably aren't interested in where you went to school. You will be lucky if they remember a few of the projects in your portfolio. People care about stories that feed their sense of self. They wanted to feel cared about by you and your company. It is all about them. Not only that, but the public also wants instant rewards. A response, a freebie, a sign that you value their presence and want to connect more.

Means-of-Production uses software on our clients websites because we know that permission based marketing is the best process for encouraging clients to receive ongoing information. If used accurately it can help convey personal and education based information that will attract the right kind of client. Using a content marketing philosophy helps exponentially expand profit margins through storytelling while keeping the design a primary attraction to your site. It also keeps your marketing initiatives current by suggesting best practices and tactical methods to increase website traffic.  

• Social Media Strategies that inspire clients to share your work
• Keyword suggestions that draw inbound viewers
• Image tagging so that your portfolio comes up in image searches
• Blogging strategies that encourage readership
• What not to do so that you don't get penalized by social media and search engines

We know you probably already know much of this. Our job is to help you actualize a strategy of marketing tactics and gain the profit that keeps you in business. We want to help you accomplish lead generation on a scale that expands your popularity and work-project capacity in a unique manner.