From blueprints and renderings to digital construction and augmented reality, the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry has constantly evolved. As a result of rapid technological advancements, digital marketing has become an essential piece of the puzzle to make any AEC business successful.
This guide will explore many digital marketing elements for the AEC industry, including the history of marketing for AEC professionals, why digital marketing is essential, AEC branding, websites for AEC firms, digital marketing strategies to consider, lead generation tactics, building brand awareness, as well as future technology considerations for AEC marketing and beyond.
If you’re an AEC professional looking for a comprehensive guide to growing your business, this one’s for you.
Fun Fact: Bizop Media was originally a digital marketing firm only for AEC professionals. Although we have expanded our niche at this point outside of the industry, our foundation was built on AEC marketing principles. Keep reading to gain insights from our years of experience working with building industry companies.
Summary
- What is the AEC Industry?
- The History of Marketing for AEC Professionals
- Why Digital Marketing for AEC
- AEC Branding
- Websites for AEC Pros
- Digital Marketing Strategies for AEC
- Lead Generation for AEC Firms
- Building Brand Awareness for Building Industry Firms
- Future Tech for AEC Marketing and Beyond
- Ready to Grow Your AEC Company Digitally?
What Is the AEC Industry?
The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is a complex sector that encompasses a broad range of disciplines. AEC professionals include architects, engineers, designers, and contractors who envision projects from concept to completion. Their expertise spans the entire life cycle of construction – from pre-planning to project management and execution, and ultimately seeks to create viable buildings for end users at affordable costs.
The History of Marketing for AEC Professionals
The use of marketing has been significant in developing AEC professions; from ancient Greek artisans and Roman architects to seventeenth-century plan makers and surveyors, it is clear that products have long been advertised to potential customers. However, it was not until the industrial revolution that today’s form of marketing began to take shape, and even then, there was a lot up in the air, such as ethics and legality of marketing.
AEC Marketing History: Print Marketing
We saw advances in printing technology, allowing for advertisements disseminated on a much grander scale through publications such as newspapers and magazines, companies started customizing messages specifically targeting particular audiences – creating modern advertising practices still employed by marketers today.
In fact, Public Relations (PR) strategy still holds significant marketing shares in the building and design world, although it still supports mostly print publications. PR can play an essential role in helping boost the brand of AEC companies. By communicating the company’s story and mission to the public, PR can help generate interest and excitement about the company. This, in turn, can lead to increased sales, investment, and growth. In addition, PR can help create a positive reputation for the company, which can attract top talent and help with employee retention.
While commercialization flourished at the same time as print marketing in history, with billboards erected throughout cities’, it was still challenging to measure results or find a deep connection.
Land Better Construction Projects.
Learn how SEO can help you get better leads and increase sales.
READ MOREAEC Marketing History: Trade Show Events
Without proof of efficacy with print-based marketing, AEC professionals were forced to seek other alternatives to get their names out there. Trade shows and events began to pop up, and their core purpose shifted from one-way communication to face-to-face interaction between prospective buyers and sellers – pioneering what we now know as branding strategies within architecture engineering design consulting (AEDC).
Trade show events are not only great for industry professionals but for marketers as well. Our team at Bizop attended Wanted Design in 2019 and wrote an entire blog on the Role of the Design Student. These in-person events do a great job of building relationships that leave lasting impressions.
AEC Marketing History: Digital Marketing
Today, there’s no shortage of ways AEC professionals can launch effective marketing campaigns; most of these tactics are handled digitally. This has allowed firms to expand their reach beyond borders and impact audiences globally.
Why Digital Marketing for AEC
Digital marketing is essential for architects, engineers, contractors, and other AEC professionals to remain competitive in their industry today. It not only helps them reach potential clients more quickly but can also open up new markets and avenues of growth with strategically crafted content; by engaging current customers through email campaigns or creating an online presence on social media, they are empowered to connect better with the public and grow their firm.
Moreover, digital marketing offers unique opportunities for designers and construction workers alike to showcase their talents as well as join up-and-coming conversations related to the built environment – from sustainability projects that bring awareness about energy efficiency goals or new trends in architectural design via video series or virtual tours of buildings under renovation. These activities provide insights into a professional’s capabilities that cannot be captured simply through resumes alone. Thus, providing invaluable insight into possible collaborations both professionally and creatively driven by forward-thinking innovation in architecture today.
AEC Branding
AEC branding is a unique opportunity for AEC professionals to create an identity tied directly to their professional work. This can help building industry teams stand out from competitors and showcase their services’ value. It also offers the potential to inspire clients by presenting visuals that accurately reflect aesthetic preferences, ultimately building trust and boosting your online presence.
AEC branding involves more than selecting fonts or colors – it’s about crafting a meaningful story that captures who you are and what you bring to the table. You’ll need to consider the following:
- What is your value proposition?
- How do I maintain brand relevance?
- and What are the brand elements that make up my company?
With thoughtful consideration of format style choices and strategic use of imagery through webpages, social media platforms, and beyond, AEC teams can communicate ideas clearly while furthering their brand visibility within relevant markets.
But you must not forget one crucial element distinguishing AEC companies from other small businesses: their portfolio. Be sure to check out our article on how to boost your brand with more engaging project pages.
Websites for AEC Pros
Websites dedicated to AEC professionals can be valuable sources of information, inspiration, and education. We like to call it your online storefront!
Some common things to include on your building industry website:
- Company Highlights Page
- Project Portfolio
- Services/Products Page
A blog is another great addition to a website, where you can provide up-to-date news and industry developments;
- innovative product/service reviews and case studies;
- reference materials outlining theories, techniques, and regulations;
- Thought leadership pieces interviewing influencers of the company;
- And generalized topics that can help your audience make a decision.
Including this kind of content on your website can significantly benefit architects, designers, and contractors in terms of staying abreast with changes taking place in their respective fields while providing the invaluable tools they need to succeed. Furthermore, they can also provide construction workers with essential safety tips or key facts about building processes and serve as an avenue for networking opportunities within the building community!
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Our Favorite Interior Design Websites.
Find inspiration with these well put together websites for interior designers.
VIEWPlanning a Website for AEC Professionals
Building industry professionals should start with a clear plan for their new website. A well-planned website will help ensure the site is practical and attractive to potential customers. It can also save time and money in the long run. Check out How To Plan a Website for Interior Designers to apply healthy planning principles to your firm’s site.
Website Design & Functionality for AEC Professionals
For architects and designers, a successful website design can be the difference between an influx of clients and your business fading away into obscurity. An effective web design starts with the basics: the who, what, when, where, and why.
Why Web Design Matters for the Building Industry
Web design is an essential element of any business’s digital presence, and it has the power to inspire, inform and engage your target audience; architects and designers can use the platform to differentiate their services. It provides a foundation on how end users formalize their perception of your business to drive decisions.
By simply conveying purposeful content with intuitive navigation throughout a website, designers can create seamless user experiences that foster trust in customers, eventually leading to long-term relationships between the company and each visitor. With strategically planned layouts, aesthetically pleasing visual elements, and consistent branding across all sections of web design lays out a great impression for people visiting websites. This is imperative in forming essential factors when making decision-related purchases or earning a loyal customer base online.
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Top Architecture Websites
Explore these well-put together websites of architecture firms from all over the world.
VIEWWhat Is UX?
UX, or User Experience, measures how enjoyable, efficient, and effective a website is for its intended users. Achieved through understanding their needs and preferences, UX strives to create desired outcomes each time someone interacts with a website.
Regarding design in the 21st century, architects and designers are constantly challenged by meeting users’ expectations. Whether it’s an app on your phone or an office building being constructed – UX must be considered around every corner to navigate visitors to a particular outcome.
What Is Bounce Rate?
Bounce rate is the percentage of incoming visitors to a website or page who “bounce” and leave without engaging further with the content. This metric offers insight into how effective the site structure, design, and content are in providing an engaging experience for users; it is an important indicator for architects and designers looking to optimize their work.
Analyzing bounce rates on individual pages, it helps identify areas that require improvement. This could involve analyzing user engagement metrics such as form fills, download starts/completions, viewing specific elements on-page or off-page, etc., and giving insights about what works best in a given situation. Additionally, leveraging personalization techniques can help target your audience more efficiently, leading to improved UX and, inevitably, higher conversions.
If you are looking for ways to improve your website’s bounce rate, be sure to check out our article: Improve Bounce Rates for Interior Designers.
Digital Marketing Strategies for AEC
Digital marketing is quickly becoming an integral part of the building industry. With the advancements in technology and its ever-increasing reach, digital marketing allows building professionals to reach wider audiences with custom-tailored campaigns easily; thus, making it a powerful tool to inform and raise awareness about their projects effectively.
By leveraging this new form of communication, professionals in the building industry can gain greater control over their message while getting valuable insight into market trends by analyzing customer feedback. Digital marketing provides these professionals gain access to a larger pool of potential clients and increased visibility, leading to more successful projects and improved profitability margins.
B2B2C Marketing for Building Product Manufacturers
Marketing for building product manufacturers has quickly shifted from B2C and B2B marketing into B2B2C. This is because these building products are specified by architects and designers, who then work them into their client scopes.
Tailoring your messaging and marketing to your direct target audience while providing helpful language for their clients is the best way to increase sales for this type of situation.
Personalizing your AEC Marketing Strategy
Whenever you can, you can benefit from tagging other companies and networks to add more personalization to your marketing campaigns. Today, people prefer this type of content, helping them gain an “inside view” of your company and its operations.
Emotional Marketing Strategy
Emotional marketing strategy has emerged as a powerful tool to bring awareness, educate and inform building industry professionals on how they can engage more effectively with their customers. By targeting consumers based on their unique needs and preferences, brands can establish deeper connections and keep up with the dynamism of the marketplace.
Engaging users on an emotional level helps build loyalty and trust over time; incentivizing consumers with rewards such as discounts or exclusive access to new products makes them feel valuable, which leads to greater ROI in terms of brand recognition and customer engagement.
Finally, leveraging storytelling strategies using real stories from influential people who endorse your product enables marketers better capture user attention since stories tend to remain memorable due to their ability to trigger psychological responses within audiences.
Get Creative With Digital Marketing To Get Your Design Work Noticed
Standing out from the crowd can be difficult in today’s oversaturated building industry. A strategic approach to marketing using novel and alternative methods of communication can help you rise above the competition and attract new clients.
To get the juices flowing, check out our article: Clever Ways of Getting Your Design Work Noticed.
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Content Marketing for AEC Professionals
Content marketing is one of the most important digital marketing strategies for building industry professionals. It helps them connect with their target audience, communicate their message more effectively, and build trust and credibility with potential customers.
Building a blog is the best place to start, where you can share your thoughts and begin ranking in search engines. If you don’t know where to start, check out these helpful posts:
- Top 5 Interior Design Blogs to Follow
- Content Marketing for Architects (Ways to Boost Traffic)
- Top 10 Best Blogs for Architects
- Owned Media: 10 Ways to Build Your AEC Blog
- How to Establish Content Goals For Your AEC Firm
- AEC Marketing: 5 Tools to Level Up Your Writing Skill
You should also consider a podcast! If starting your own podcast is too much work, don’t fret. Here are 21 design podcasts that you could try to land an interview on, instead.
SEO for Building Industry Professionals
Content marketing goes hand-in-hand with SEO. You will start to gain attention from search engines by simply posting evergreen content on your blog.
Unfortunately, posting content is not enough today to get you on the first page. There is a lot that goes into a strong SEO strategy. Here are some helpful resources to consider based on your needs and expertise:
- How Can Architects Rank High On Google? SEO
- How to find the best SEO Keywords for Architects
- SEO for Interior Designers [10 Quick Tips to Boost Traffic]
- SEO for Architects: The Ultimate Guide
- Design Savvy: 4 Overlooked Aspects of SEO for AEC Firms
- Landing More Jobs as a Contractor with SEO
Social Media for AEC Firms
Social media has quickly become one of the most important tools for AEC firms to reach their target markets. AEC firms that use social media effectively can connect with potential clients and customers, share project updates and new content, and create a connection with their brand and audience.
As an essential part of any integrated marketing strategy for AEC firms, many tactics can save you time to keep your social media active, such as scheduling your posts and repurposing blog content across social platforms or hiring an agency.
Here are some helpful articles to consider when it comes to your AEC social media marketing strategy:
- 10 Interior Design Instagram Accounts to Follow
- Interior Design Social Media [Top Channels]
- Pinterest Marketing for Architects
- Why Social is a Powerful Marketing Tool for Architects
- How Social Media is Failing Interior Designers and How to Build it Back Up
- Social Media for Architects [Top 5 Platforms]
- Best Social Platforms to FInd Office Design Inspiration
- Building Identity: How Social Media Is Reshaping Design and Storytelling
- How Influencers Can Help You Grow Your AEC Brand
- How Social Media Influences Latest Trends in Architecture?
Email Marketing for AEC Firms
The last digital marketing strategy we want to highlight specifically for AEC firms is email marketing. And no, we don’t believe email is dead – in fact, we can prove it!
Email marketing can be a powerful tool for building brand trust and relevance. You can stay top of mind by sending relevant, targeted emails to your customers and prospects and position your brand as a trusted resource.
Here are a couple of email marketing articles to help you get started:
- 6 Email Marketing Tips for Interior Designers
- Seven Crucial Email Marketing Best Practices for Architecture Firms
Lead Generation for AEC Firms
For AEC companies, lead generation is essential to staying competitive and successful. Understanding how digital marketing can be used to generate leads and build a targeted funnel for AEC industry audiences is key to increasing profitability.
With the effective harnessing of data-driven insights, companies can effectively reach potential customers, building relationships and trust before making an offer. Through monitoring customer behavior and trends, digital marketing increases brand exposure to get specific prospects in front of meaningful content and personalizes audiences more accurately than ever before with advances such as retargeting across multiple channels like mobile, email, and social media platforms.
This capability empowers businesses with the extraordinary ability to quickly identify areas where leads are most likely generated — enabling them to explore new avenues that optimize targeted market segments. Furthermore, by implementing tracking codes on any online medium (websites or ads), businesses can better measure their ROI while incrementally refining strategies across various campaigns aimed at generating leads from different demographics worldwide– helping maximize efficiency and be smart about investments into lead-generating efforts.
Building A Lead-Gen Funnel for AEC Audiences
Funnel building is critical for businesses operating in the AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) sector. Companies can maximize their ROI on marketing efforts by understanding their target audiences and converting prospects into clients or customers.
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One way to do this is by creating an effective funnel that focuses on specific stages of customer acquisition: Awareness; Consideration; Intent; Action. At each stage, targeted content should be crafted to engage prospects and encourage them to move further down the sales pipeline. This may include providing useful information such as case studies, white papers, and other educational materials that help frame how your product or service can solve buyers’ problems.
In addition to content creation and delivery strategies, an efficient data management system should also be established in order to capture leads at every stage of the buying cycle. Tools such as analytics platforms are essential for tracking website activity and capturing critical metrics like leads generated versus lead converted rate over time so companies can better understand where improvements need to be made in terms of messaging or design elements.
Building Brand Awareness for Building Industry Firms
Gaining brand awareness in the AEC sector can be a daunting task, however, leveraging the expansive reach of technology and digital marketing tools can make it much easier. With every touchpoint providing an opportunity to inform, educate and give inspiration, there are multiple ways to increase your visibility in this highly competitive space.
These range from content creation tailored specifically to industry trends on social media channels such as LinkedIn or Twitter to deploying creative outreach programs designed for optimal audience participation – think webinars or individual interviews – through effective Search Engine Optimization techniques and with budget-friendly online advertising campaigns targeting potential customers by their interests or job functions. All these tactics should be used together in tandem if you really want your presence across the board (and beyond) to give you optimum results and ensure that wider levels of brand recognition are achieved with sustained growth!
Future Tech for AEC Marketing and Beyond
The future of technology in AEC marketing is endlessly exciting; creative professionals have access to a revolutionary blend of tools that can transform how they strategize and execute solutions. AI-driven technologies, such as chatbots and virtual agents, can be used to offer customer service that is personalized yet efficient. Meanwhile, beacons–enabled with interactive animated designs–can provide potential customers with innovative information about properties or products.
Moreover, Augmented Reality (AR) provides users with helpful 3D visuals for projects; this makes it much easier for AEC professionals to visualize their designs from any angle before construction occurs. AR-driven applications give designers more ways in which they can collaborate on remote jobs by virtually simulating real workspaces without ever leaving the comfort of their home offices As these cutting-edge techniques become even more expansive and accessible over time, there’s no limit as to what kind inspiring results architects or contractors might produce in the future.
When it comes to digital marketing, however, using tools such as Jaq n Jil to generate high-quality messaging that can take your firm to the next level. The saying goes: AI will not replace a human, but a human using AI will replace a human. Try today for free: at www.beta.jaqnjil.com, to generate full blog articles in seconds to help you grow your website traffic.
Related Articles regarding Future Tech and AEC:
- The Metaverse and Interior Design VR: A New World of Opportunity
- How AI Is Making Construction Safer
- Top Technology Innovations Influencing the AEC Industry Today
- How Artificial Intelligence Will be Used in Interior Design
- How Artificial Intelligence Is Improving The Architectural Process
Ready to Grow your AEC Company Digitally?
As an AEC professional, you must stay ahead of the curve regarding digital marketing techniques and strategies. Combining everything mentioned in this digital marketing guide ensures that your business succeeds in this ever-changing landscape.
However, we realize you have another job to fulfill. That’s why most AEC companies hire a marketing agency to fulfill this work instead. We are happy to build custom scopes for you to take your building industry firm to the next level. Email alex@bizop.io to learn more today.