Advertising for the AEC Firm: Does It Work?

There has always been lots of discussion about the value of advertising for design and construction firms. Some principals have felt advertising to be too expensive and unnecessary. That is a common response when you can’t see any measurable results that can be tied to the advertising.

The ultimate purpose of advertising is to win clients. It is to position the firm so that clients call us and not the orher way around. Successful advertising efforts are integrated and leveraged with your P/R activities.

Most failed attempts at advertising fail because they are poorly planned, have a weak message and don’t ask prospects to take any action. Yes, many large corporations engage in "image advertising" to build brand awareness in their mass markets. Professional services firms are different. We are not trying to reach mass markets. Most firms are highly-focused and aimed at a handful of narrow market segments.

Here are some things to consider when developing an advertising program.

1. You will need to have a well-conceived marketing plan in place with specific goals and objectives in place. This will provide the basis for the whole program.

2. Target your markets. Who are you trying to reach? Are they decision makers?

3. Determine your prospects’ current level of awareness about your firm? Conduct a pre-advertising image survey to establish a benchmark to measure against after your advertising is in place.

4. Select the best medium to reach those prospects? What do prospects read? Where do they look for their consultants? Should you use direct mail? Email? Trade shows? Magazines? Newsletters? Trade journals? Etc... Ask media reps to give you a readership profile for their publication and match that profile against your prospect profile.

5.. Develop the advertising message and piece itself. Be careful to clearly define the purpose of each piece of advertising you do and what you can reasonably expect to get out of running that ad-what action do you want prospects to take. Ads designed to improve awareness are expensive and difficult to track. The message needs to be simple and relate to some benefit the client will receive by hiring your firm. Some effective ads reply on coupons/requests or some other call to action as part of the message. Often, these reply requests will include a free report or study that relates specifically to the prospects’ business. They frequently require a number for a fax back info sheet, or filling out a form on your website. They have to give you a name, number, e-mail, etc to get the piece. The trick is to make sure that the fulfillment piece is only used in that specific ad. By keeping track of the requests, you have an instant indicator of the interest and effectiveness of the ad.

6. Remember, no ad program can stand alone. All your P/R activities, speaking, seminars, writings , publications, printed materials, brochures, etc all need to be compatible and reinforce the basic message.

7. Implement a post-campaign survey to show you how much your firm moved up in the client's awareness in the short term. You can spend lots of money and move awareness no more than a percentage point or two. You may be better off looking at smaller, more specific changes to give you the best market response to your advertising.

While some firms advertise because "everybody's doing it" and there's a lot of that still going on. To soothe the concern that "we have to be there, everybody else is". The reality is that the ultimate purpose of advertising is to win clients. It is to position the firm so that clients call us and not the other way around. 

In the design and construction industry, our clients and prospects are not "masses." They can be easily identified and targeted. Trade shows, for example, can be a highly effective medium for meeting and interacting with clients and generating good leads. Trade shows combined with powerful direct mail messages to targeted clients or prospects are even better and can yield significant immediate results.

Final note: Developing effective advertising programs involves an element of risk. Do it wrong, have the wrong message or an unimportant message, and it can backfire. You may have the opposite result from what you intended. Hire a competent ad agency to give guidance and focus to your effort. There are boutique ad firms in almost every city that are affordable can assist you. 


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