Different architects attract different clients
How architects attract clients depends on the market they are targeting, as of the type of marketing they do. Obviously, a young couple who want to build a house has almost nothing in common with a corporate staff. Also, a business owner who wants to build an office building has a different behaviour than an experienced commercial developer.
So, depending on specialization, different architects target different clients. The future homeowners act differently than local developers who build dozens or even hundreds of houses. Although designing a house is the same, winning a contract from one of them is not the same as in the other case. But, for both of them, the customers’ journey is also, crucial.
Exhaustively listing all the cases is almost impossible, but we can simplify it. However, a proper marketing strategy must differentiate between those cases as much as possible. Designing a commercial building for a local business or a national retail corporation is more or less the same. But nothing can be more different from getting a commission from one client than the other one!
Clients’ buying process
Also, all project owners (potential architects’ clients) go trough a process. Novices’s paths are longer. Professional clients usually know what to do.
Nevertheless, for each project, they undergo more or less the same stages. During the first stage, potential clients don’t have a project yet. They only have an idea. They are exploring the option to build. Most likely, they don’t know exactly what to build, how large the building has to be. Also, they don’t have a plot of land; they don’t know the costs, etc, etc.
The market where architects attract clients
Imagine we can convince all architects’ potential clients from a certain region to get together, forming a circle. They might want to build in the foreseeable future.
Most of them, are future homeowners-to-be. They decided to build their own homes. Well, maybe not all of them. Some might buy a house as they would find out is easier. Others will get discouraged, or they will not have the proper budget. So they give up!
Nevertheless, in this strange-looking image, there are other types of potential clients. For simplicity, let’s assume they are potential clients for commercial and residential developments.
The market is more complicated. Residential developers are either individuals, professional developers, or corporate level. But we’ll neglect this aspect. Let’s assume they are future homeowners, residential developers, and commercial developers.
We can’t see the architects who try to attract them.
This is how they look. Some of them are looking for an architect or architecture firm as we speak. Some are not yet convinced they have a feasible project.
Architecture market segmentation: Buying stages & Market sectors
2 Directions of analysis
We can look at client acquisition by architects in two ways:
- Firstly, it’s the customers’s journey, the buying stages.
- Secondly, it’s a sector analysis.
Architects attract clients in all buying stages, and all sectors
Although the buying process of potential customers differs greatly from one sector to another, we will start with it.
Homeowners-to-be have little knowledge about construction and architecture. Although, for many, this will be the biggest investment of their life, they start the journey quite casually.
Professional developers are, nevertheless, savvy. They know the process. It’s not their first time. Almost as well-educated are the public investors: national and local government bodies. Trained project managers lead their investments. We all met them.
Between those extremes, in other sectors, we meet the businesses. The decision persons vary, from factotum entrepreneurs to boards of executive officers. They might also have project managers, but often they are not construction professionals. They might be as impulsive as the regular homeowners.
Learning curves of potential clients for architects
After they realize that building solves a perceived problem, all potential clients start a documentation process. We can name this an informal feasibility study. They learn about construction volumes (how big the construction is), costs, land, zoning, codes, building permits, etc.
Both the construction industry and the architecture sector are asymmetrical markets. Professionals hold the largest part of the information needed to build. For our potential clients, this is an important handicap. They can hardly estimate the whole endeavor. This is why so many poor designed constructions are built all over the world.
Also, many potential clients give up during the buying process. They either choose to buy an existing building or lease one.
Their projects are feasible, so they are a step deeper into the buying process.
During this phase, they limit themselves to technicalities. But their learning process continues. Now they have precise questions, mostly technical.
When their documentation phase ends (the first two stages of the buying process), they are ready to take action. They learned already that they need an architect. Also, they have a general idea of their project. More or less.
So, all customers enter into the hot spot of the circle. This is the moment when they know what they want. They have solutions. They are ready to hire the architect.
Ready-to-buy clients
As they know what are their projects’ guidelines and limitations, they are actively looking for architects. They are shopping now!
Some say that during this stage, about 90% of architects get their projects. I don’t know if this statistic is true or not. What is true is that most of the architects compete in this stage.
Nobody can truly know how clients decide to award a contract to a particular architect or architecture firm. For sure, many are word-of-mouth recommendations.
Though, others are pure luck, the architect is a relative, a friend, or an acquittance. Many professional clients have short lists with architecture firms, known from previous projects.
The heat is higher in the center of this graph. Potential clients in the epicenter are ready to hire architects for their projects. Therefore, this is where the vast majority of architects struggle to attract the clients in this stage. They are a sure bet. But they play hard to get.
How architects attract clients during their buying process
Our analysis will focus on interactions between architects and potential clients based on market segmentation. We’ll focus first on the client’s buying process. From idea to acquisition, there is a journey. Potential clients have different behaviors along this path. But we have to always keep in mind that architecture services are a stage acquisition, not a goal by itself.
The next image combines market segmentation with the buying process of the market’s potential clients. It is a hypothetical representation of the same visualization. Nevertheless, we must never forget that potential clients from any market never gather in the same place, at the same time. They are evenly spread among the general population. Therefore, the obstacles that architects encounter to attract clients are even greater.
Potential clients of each market segment are different. Market segmentation is the marketing technique that allows business to effective tailor unique proposals to each individual segment.
Architecture’s Market Segmentation & Heat Map
The future homeowners are the majority of this potential market. They are marked with red.
The green section represents other residential potential clients. They will build apartment blocks.
The blue circle sector includes the commercial potential clients.
The gradient in each case symbolises the customers’ journey. From left to right:
- first (exploratory) stage, documentation.
- second, the technical documentation phase
- final stage (when they hire an architect or an architecture firm).
In the middle of this colorful representation, there is the place where transactions happen. Arriving at this epicenter, potential clients turn into prospective clients. They have a project and they are actively looking for an architect or an architecture firm. Probably up to 90% of projects are awarded in this final phase. This is where most architects compete for most of the projects.
Potential clients of each market segment are different. Market segmentation is the marketing technique that allows business to effective tailor unique proposals to each individual segment.
The most competitive market
These potential clients are the smallest market segment. They are ready to buy, at the end of the buying stages. The only thing they have to do is to pick the ”luckiest” architects. So this is what they do.
Some of them are simply looking for cheap offers! Others are looking for experienced, competitive architecture firms. However, some would award the contracts to other architects, as word-of-mouth recommended architects.
This market epicenter is extremely competitive. It is a buyers’ market. Clients can choose by price, experience, size, or whatever criteria they want. They organize real biddings, comparing each offer, to all candidates. Actually, their biggest problem is to make a short list.
At some point, it’s simpler for architects to prepare for corporate or governmental clients’ demands, with clear criteria, such as business size, staff, experience, etc. This is why many marketers recommend specialization, to keep everything simple and clear. They think a hospitality industry client would only choose a specialized hospitality architecture firm.
Before entering the acquisition phase, potential clients have to decipher technical parameters that can influence their project. They are in the research phase. They are not looking for architects, but for rather technical information regarding their projects. Architects might be or not the source for this information. But more and more architects and architecture firms use content marketing to attract them during this phase.
Intermediary phases
Before going forward, many potential clients still have concerns. Though, they already decided that their projects are viable. But certain aspects still need clarification.
Therefore, they are actively looking for technical solutions. Their questions widely vary from zoning regulations, costs, procedures, etc. What is important for architects, it’s that they conduct this research online.
This is an excellent opportunity! Anticipating such concerns, we can create content to professionally answer. It’s an important, as this is the best chance to get noticed.
In this buying stage, potential clients perceive the authors of this content as reliable sources. The more helpful the information is, the more their trust grows.
Building trust is the best way for architects to attract clients. A content marketing strategy targeting potential clients in this buying stage is incredibly effective.
During the first phase of the buying process, potential clients don’t have a project. They are doing their research to see if their projects are viable. This is an educational phase when most of them get familiarized with the specifics of developing a building. They acquire this information from the most various sources, only rarely from architects. Nevertheless, this is a great opportunity to attract them. This happens mostly by offering quality, up to date, helpful information.
Potential clients in the first stage of buying process
This is the initial phase of potential clients’ buying process. It’s a feasibility research. They test their own idea, to build instead buying or leasing a building, either commercial or residential building.
They try to get confirmation of their instinct. If they thought certain ideas could lead to a more energy efficient building, a cheaper one, a simpler one, they are looking for proof of their hunches. Most likely, they can’t find the confirmation they are looking for.
But, as in the next step, described before, they cherish the sources that either convince them that what they think is wrong, more complicated, or too expensive.
Some of those potential clients just try to educate themselves. They research the projects’ phases, as building permit, codes, zoning, costs, how to find a builder, quality control, etc. Most of them try to buy a plot of land and seek guidance.
Further, the next image chapter is a case study of the individual house projects. Potential customers who would build their own houses themselves are the architects’ marketing target. So they will need an architect, just as architects would want to attract them as clients.
Case study: Individual homeowners-to-be clients
This market segment is the most interesting. First, it represents the largest segment of potential clients. They are extremely different. Some of them are educated and they start by contacting an architect to get guidance.
For all our clients, to build constitutes a series of problems to be solved. So they actively try to identify future obstacles. Depending on the market level of education and personal experience, they are the building permitting process, land acquisition, zoning regulations, costs, contracting a builder, energy efficiency, etc.
Their search for information can start in unexpected ways. Those concerned by climate change or energy efficiency might start documenting some building materials or building techniques, because they identify them as very important. Clients having limited budgets might look as well for some building material they perceive as being cheap to build.
It’s of no importance where these potential clients start their research. In the end, it will narrow down to a few topics: land acquisition and zoning regulations, building permitting, building process, contracting builders, costs, etc. No matter where they start, they finally arrive at the conclusion they need an architect.
If they find this information from an architect, and the architect guides them throughout the process, they will end up trusting the architect. Most likely, they will award him or her their project. If not, they identify their solutions and demand other architects to implement them into design.
So, How Do Architects Attract Clients?
Sadly, most of the time, architects don’t attract clients. Often, they just barely differentiate from each other, so clients could choose.
Clients perceive the building process as a problem. Often, they figure out solutions by themselves, so they perceive architects as mere executors of their solutions. Hence, they are choosing one architect or architecture firms that seem to perform better for this job.
Considering that architectural services are just an acquisition during building development, and both construction and architecture are asymmetrical markets, clients are convinced that they hold the answers. Architects should execute what they ask, as carpenters and bricklayers.
We all know that architects would be the best partners in all building development phases. Some clients understand that. Some can learn it during their research phase.
However, architects can attract clients during this process. Creating quality, up-to-date, and helpful content is the only way. But why should we offer free information?
By helping them figure out how to manage their problems, we make sure they will build easier ad better. Meanwhile, we establish ourselves as experts, and reliable sources. They learn to trust us, and, believe me, they become better clients!
As personal benefits, we either accede to the future shortlist or get the projects directly. For sure, there are instances, where potential clients, getting information from us, could still work with other architect! But this way, we set the market standard. More and more clients will learn to partner with their architects, so we’ll see better and better buildings.
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