Tami Hausman, Ph.D., founder of Hausman LLC, is a strategic advisor on communications, branding, and external outreach to architects, allied professional services firms, and non-profit organizations. She is chair of AIA New York’s Oculus Committee.
“I’ve always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific,” said Lily Tomlin.
This statement is not just humorous, it’s also true: Tomlin perfectly encapsulates the way architects need to approach communications. You must start with a strategy. Then you need to embrace that strategy and communicate it clearly.
It sounds incredibly simple, but it’s not always easy. Unfortunately, if your firm doesn’t have a strong or distinct message, you’re about as effective as a car without a driver. You’re not going in the direction you want to go. In fact, you’re not even going to get out of the parking lot.
Further, if you don’t communicate your intentions, you’re missing opportunities to build durable relationships with clients and potential clients, consultants and other collaborators, and media and industry contacts. All these are your target audiences. It’s part of your job to tell them what you do, how you do it better than anyone else, and what value you bring.
To maximize your firm’s relationships with decision makers, bolster your reputation, and win more clients, focus on honing your content as much as your image. Every day, you communicate through emails, social media posts, and phone calls. Potential clients learn about your firm and its work through your proposals, on your website, and by the awards you win. Your messages should be clear, no matter the audience or medium. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to have a point of view. It’s important to build key messages that encapsulate your strengths, define your value proposition, and articulate the benefits your firm uniquely brings to its clients. You can do this through workshops or strategy sessions with the leadership, your marketing team, or an outside consultant who can help draw out the essence of your firm in ways that will resonate with people you want to reach.
Differentiation can be prickly for professional services firms. Perhaps you tell your clients and potential clients that your firm does great design, is technically proficient, or provides excellent service. Hopefully all three of those are true, but I bet many of your competitors can (and do) say the same thing.
Clients may or may not be able to articulate what they seek in terms of desired outcomes, which often represent the less tangible or qualitative features of a project—not the metrics, although those matter, too. That’s where your message becomes so critical. Your messaging needs to reflect your mission, passion, and expertise while also responding to the needs of the decision makers who you most want to draw into your orbit. To communicate effectively, you need to define your clients’ needs and what problems you are uniquely qualified to fix—and then find the alignment. That could be the support of socially minded causes, wellness design, historic preservation, 3D-printed buildings, technical innovation, risk-taking design, or a combination of the above.
Design and technical proficiency matter, but so do your ideas, problem-solving abilities, and creative edge. In fact, you are not selling buildings or even services: you are selling a promise that you can meet your clients’ goals and overcome their challenges. Instead of describing the what of your work—size, typology, pro-gram, and relevant experience—talk about the benefits you provide, how you provide those benefits, and your methodology for helping your target clients tunnel through their proverbial mountains.
Next, you need to use the right pathways to proactively reach out to clients who share your goals and vision. Digital spaces such as websites and social media, print publications, in-person meetings, personal correspondence—there are many opportunities (too many) to disseminate information about your firm and its knowledge. I call these tools; some call them channels. Think strategically about your goal of building relationships, and then work your way backwards. Consider whom you are trying to reach, how they get information, and the types of content you are deliver-ing to determine how to implement your communications program. You can’t—and shouldn’t—go after everything at once.
For example, some decision makers may read The New York Times every day, while others might be on Instagram. Others might attend a key conference every year. A written note to an editor might be more effective than sending out a press release. Or a key award might get your ideal client’s attention. You can also double up your efforts by sharing the same content in different ways—as a social media post, a bylined article, and a newsletter story, for example. Use written content to enhance your visual language, and always try different channels to see what works best.
Finally, remember to communicate internally with your team as much as you communicate externally. Develop a cadence that makes sense for you, and stick with it. It’s essential that your messaging is as consistent as it is continuous. Using these methods, you’ll be able to communicate effectively, frequently, and persuasively for a big impact.
