“PR is a tool for new business,” states architectural communications and PR specialist Rob Fiehn. “It is about finding potential clients and potential collaborators.”
“Some people might dismiss PR as an ego trip, but it is not about showing off: it is about making the practice healthier and more successful.”
Now is a good time to enhance your practice’s profile to increase your visibility to new prospects and bolster your resilience should the UK’s economic downturn turn into a full blown recession.
Putting together a communications strategy can achieve that. Fiehn often finds that once architects are introduced to the basic principles of a communications strategy, they realise that it is not a 'dark art'. Marketing your practice to bring in new work is essentially based on common sense.
Are there ‘quick wins’ to bring in new clients?
While setting up a communications strategy takes time, there are some basic, grassroots level activities that practices can do if they really need some quick wins – if finding new clients was an urgent imperative.
“In terms of quick wins, there is nothing quicker than direct marketing,” states Fiehn. “Do you have a contact database - a record of people that you have worked with or want to work with? Then use it.”
Your contact database should not just include previous and potential clients. If you have contacts in larger practices, they should be on the list too. Not all large practices want to scour the internet looking for collaborators.
Let a newsletter do the hard work
The newsletter is a very powerful tool, he points out. It slips directly into a client’s inbox, reminding them who you are and what you do without the hard sell of a cold call.
“It communicates exactly what you want people to see and can definitely lead to inquiries. Perhaps the recipient does not need the service it discusses right now, but they remember that their friend does. It can prompt an opening discussion.”
“Having just completed this project, here are our top five tips for winning planning in a conservation area,” is one example Fiehn suggests as something that might chime with a potential client.
The humble newsletter is a way of ‘making your own luck’. If you can make the topic interesting and, Fiehn suggests, not too self-referential then it stands a better chance of being opened and read.
Direct marketing at its most direct
Direct marketing can be even simpler. It might be as direct as calling people that you want to work with and suggesting coming in to show them your portfolio.
“A lot of architects are scared to do that. But the worst response might be 'not right now' whereas the best might be that they are looking for a practice just like yours right now.”
Make the most of social media
“Many architects have designed fantastic projects but never told anyone: they have not put them anywhere,” Fiehn chastens. “This is a fundamental problem.”
“They might not be on social media at all. The projects might be on their website, but they have not sent them in a press release to anyone.”
Social media is certainly nothing new, yet it is clear that many practices are not even making the bare minimum use of it.
“If you are a small practice carrying a lot of residential work, then a platform like Instagram is ideal. That is where your clients are, looking for ideas. A social media expert could advise on ways to tag and interconnect your posts, but it is easy enough to look around and work out how to make more of it yourself.”
Together with fellow architectural communications specialists Bobby Jewell and Luke Neve, Fiehn has set up comms crits, a service that provides a boot camp of sorts for practices: assessing the current state of their communications strategy and providing suggestions on where to go next.
What are your peers doing?
It can be very instructive to look at fellow practices: your competitors and peers.
“While everyone likes to think they are unique, there are usually huge overlaps in who you are and what you are doing,” Fiehn notes.
“Think about which practices you might be compared to, or who you are competing with for work. What is their communication strategy like? What are they doing that you could learn from?"
Ask yourself whether there is a disconnect between your public face and those you consider to be your peers. He urges practices to ask themselves which practices they aspire to be like.
Think like a journalist
One common misconception is that the architectural press is only read by architects, Fiehn suggests. But being featured in architectural and design media does not just put you in front of other architects: developers, local authorities, housing associations, and landowners are among the readers, as well as individual clients.
There are also, of course, other practices that may require junior partners for collaboration. You know people there will be reading that kind of stuff as well. To give your projects the best chance of being featured, you need to think like a journalist, Fiehn proposes.
“What is the angle? Who normally publishes this kind of story? Do you have any personal connections to journalists or editors? These are the questions to ask yourself.”
“A story that merely states that practice X has recently completed project Y is unlikely to garner attention. But a hook that identifies something unique – perhaps your project is the first instance of something in a particular place – piques the reader’s curiosity. Try to communicate an exciting aspect of the project.”
Thanks to Rob Fiehn, Founder, Robert Fiehn Ltd.
Text by Neal Morris. This is a Professional Feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas.
RIBA Core Curriculum topic: Business, clients and services.
As part of the flexible RIBA CPD programme, professional features count as microlearning. See further information on the updated RIBA CPD core curriculum and on fulfilling your CPD requirements as a RIBA Chartered Member.
Updated: 30 August 2022
