Brands are built through powerful, authentic stories. Whether you’re a designer or manufacturer in the AEC industry, investing in quality content drives engagement. Keeping clients and partners engaged begins with understanding the best ways to share your work with the world. As social media and firm websites have quickly become the primary forms of brand communication, it’s worth investing in how you create case studies and project pages alike.
Showcasing work through project pages begins with understanding your goals. Whether trying to show how a building product is easily maintained and installed, or how a design approach solved a complex problem, you should have a clear idea of a project page’s purpose. This extends to what a project means to potential clients. Consider the audience, what are you trying to communicate, and what are the best ways to tell that story. Run-of-the-mill project pages are informative, but lack inspiration.
The following tips outline how you can build a brand through engaging project pages. They combine visuals and quantitative information with more qualitative, authentic ideas and values. You can utilize multiple tips to tell a powerful story of your brand and share your best work.
Use Smaller Blocks of Text
It’s often harder to edit than to write. Too often this step is skipped, and the result is an overload of information that’s visually distracting and hard to read. As content has been produced at greater and greater scales, we consume information through scanning instead of deep reading. The best web writing allows readers to quickly find out more.
Think images with short, explanatory captions, compelling headlines, and paragraphs with five sentences or less. Keep this in mind and you can replace lengthy blocks of copy with shorter, concise blocks.
Share Your Values Through Headlines
As AEC companies are wading into the waters of brand building and digital communication, accepted standards and norms are being challenged to tell more captivating stories. While firms and manufacturers previously created project pages that led with a client name or project title, you can also make this secondary. Instead, use a headline to share a value, like opening up a building or space to nature.
The beauty here is that you’re leading with the value you provided to a client. Value-based headlines can be quite short, almost like a tagline. These descriptive titles not only allow readers to quickly pick up the brand story, but also the added value brought to a client through a specific challenge or problem solved.
Invest in Images & Include People
In a world increasingly defined by images, it’s worth investing in high-quality photography. This serves many purposes, from showcasing your work in the best light to helping tell a story to future clients. Moreover, try to include people in photographs of a space or product. The AEC industry is increasingly moving away from spaces or buildings devoid of life. Including people humanizes your work and can show how it is used and enjoyed.
Feature Short Client Quotes or Stats
Celebrate your collaborations with clients and partners alike. Testimonials are very impactful ways to showcase how your work resonates with the people you work with. Short quotes ground your project page and make it relatable, providing an outside perspective through the lens of an external partner or client. At the same time, short stats can tell the story of how a design provides a return on investment. From a web design standpoint, these can also help break up blocks of text or images.
Celebrate the Process
Your process is often what makes your product or service unique. The final product is just as important as the way it was made, and you should take the time to showcase this. Project pages can provide the opportunity to give clients a behind-the-scenes look at how a project was created, as well as what it is like to work with you. This may also give you the opportunity to link to related content, such as other projects, articles or pages on your site similar to the one they just viewed.
While these few tips are straightforward, they can help you create a more engaging project page that will show off your ideas and work in the best light. Try combining design ideas and tips with your website approach to create an integrated marketing plan for your work.
Are you looking for a partner to help build your brand? Contact us to find out more.
