Does that mean that all the old marketing fundamentals are obsolete? Of course not! Architecture like other professions is still about building client relationships. And Architects still do this by speaking at conferences, publishing in professional journals, joining country clubs, and attending their college reunions.

But even traditional marketing strategies for making contacts have their counterparts online, today. For conferences think webinars, an increasing widely used and effective means of converting clients. For publishing in journals think blogs, now a feature of virtually every firm’s website. And for country clubs think Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram (among others).

Are the 21,000 or so architecture firms in the US, with their 130,000+ employees, on top of this digital marketing revolution? Many firms seem to be. But commentary from architectural professionals keeps asking why so many Architects are still doing business the traditional way and if that is by choice, from inertia, or failed initial online attempts.

Boosting Your Architecture Business

Let’s look at three promising ways for architecture businesses to boost their business and impact their financial bottom line. All of these to some extent relate to digital marketing strategies—or to implications of the world of online marketing.

Search Engine Optimization

Overwhelmingly, customers for every product and service–from a dermatologist to a divorce attorney to a car mechanic—begin their quest online with a typical Google, Bing or Yahoo search. And they pursue that search to websites, where their awareness of what is available begins, and their choices begin to narrow. It is fairly certain that every Architect, knows that (and does it in his or her personal life).

But one implication is that firms coming out on top of the search have a huge advantage. Of course, every business tries to achieve that by search engine optimization (SEO), but the firm already in a narrower niche category can be further ahead. A firm that conceives its field as “architecture,” and promotes itself as such, may have a challenge competing in search due to the overload of competitors. If your firm already specializes in hospital architecture, urban restorations, retail space, or one of the hundreds of other niches that Architects serve you are more likely to achieve success in search. By working such terms into the core statement of what your firm offers, you will stand out in searches for an Architect—all of which, are for a specific type of project in a specific field.

Niche markets have always given firms (especially small and medium-sized firms in large competitive markets) a certain edge in marketing services, today the strategy could be decisive. Here is a decision not about digital marketing techniques, but about the wider implications of the online revolution. A useful exercise might be to consider “hot” niches and where your projects have clustered, and let that define your “brand” for marketing. It can become a “virtuous” of more clients in the specialty and a stronger case in presenting your services.

The digitalized “sales funnel.” The route that a typical new prospect follows to your firm has changed—and it has changed drastically—the nature of initial contact, of cultivation, and of sales have changed as well. The classic marketing schema—the sales funnel—can be a way to think about this. Expect the majority of your initial contacts to be made online: a search leading to your website (or a response to your email campaign or interest shown in a webinar you publicize). That is our era’s first handshake in the bar of the country club. Then comes the follow-up.

Effective Websites

Competent, well-designed websites today are structured to create an effective sales funnel. The landing page, where the Google search is directed, appeals to initial interest, reinforces the mini-pitch you made in the search-engine entry, and orients the visitor to other pages (more information, how to get in touch, sign up for emails)

An effective website channels the visitor to definite next steps, such as checking out your blog. And your content, including blogs, systematically answers the questions you have come to learn are frequently asked by someone seeking an Architect for a new restaurant, a hotel lobby, a clothing boutique, or a custom home.

Additional cultivation means inviting and guiding your visitor through getting the information they sought (and information they did not know they needed), gaining trust in your expertise and professional integrity, returning to your site for more help, and making contact. Today, Facebook pages, LinkedIn pages, and email all can be tightly tied-in with your website. Above all, email is the next step for both web page and LinkedIn contacts. You want to invite visitors to leave their email contact information or to reach out to your email for more information, a free booklet, or answers to questions. Your role is to continue the cultivation with periodic useful contacts not pushing services but deepening the customer’s understanding of what you offer, the depth of your expertise, and your approachability.

Email Marketing

It should be mentioned that email is likewise a tool for seeking initial contacts. But not, emphatically, by means of what are called “email blasts” or “hitting the whole list.” Any professional email services firm (the best known is MailChimp) will help you to program your email system to make contact that is far more personal and directly relevant to the recipient.

Different approaches should get different email responses, programmed into the system. Mailings should be segmented: for example, blog subscribers, new contacts, etc.

Existing contacts and lapsed contracts get priority attention. That brings up a frequently overlooked or minimized use of systems of digital communication: existing clients, former clients, and, crucially, lapsed contacts. Any existing relationship with a client—in those three categories—represents potential. Follow-up contacts should be as regular and imaginative and even more personalized than new contacts.

The entire process of planning, engaging in the work, ensuring understanding and appreciation of the outcome, and billing the customer lays the groundwork for additional fruitful contact. Fair, well-documented, and understandable bills promote the trust and appreciation your firm has spent so long cultivating.

In architecture, like most professions and businesses, the permanent foundation of success is word of mouth recommendations, clients introducing friends to your firm and services. Today, that can be effectively leveraged by continuing the digital marketing sales funnel into the world beyond the first completed deal. Clients can be kept in touch by follow-up email inquiries, regular useful information applying to their facility, appropriate holiday greetings, and notices of special offers.

Automating Time and Billing

Continue to grow your bottom line by accurately keeping track of client and project time and billing throughout the client relationship. Time Tracker from eBillity is an outstanding choice to save time and money by automating your employee time-tracking with software that gives you the data you need, in the form you need it. Try Time Tracker for free for 14-days and automate your time and billing. 

The post Boosting Your Architecture Business and Growing Your Bottom Line appeared first on eBillity.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, architects get paid an average of $ 38.16 per hour and given that the projects they deal with may take months or years to complete, this amount is substantial and calls for proper billable utilization management. Here are some tips that can help you manage your billable utilization.

Give Your Employees a Conducive Working Environment

The belief that failure to achieve a higher billable rate means your employees aren’t working hard enough is just a myth. You may have the best employees in the world but if they aren’t provided with a conducive environment and with the right tools, they can’t achieve the target set. 

Once you provide them with such an environment, give them access to billable utilization results so they can gauge themselves or to motivate them to achieve the company target.  This will leave them with no excuse and will make it easy for you to hold them accountable in case they fail to achieve the set target rates. 

Track How Your Employees Utilize the Non-billable 

There are reasons your employees could be missing their targets that do not concern their motivation or effort. This boils down to how your organization defines billable hours. It’s important to know how each of your employees spends all the 40 working hours in a week (both billable and non-billable hours). You can employ labor utilization analytics to determine how time is spent in your organization because this process requires effective documentation of all employee activities and the time taken to complete these activities. Here are common types of non-billable hours. 

Pre-sales hours

These are hours spent to earn new business. The pre-sales activities may involve your employees engaging the potential client, explaining and even demonstrating to them the services offered. It is the pre-sales activities that generate billable hours if the client finally agrees to hire your firm. This stage utilizes technical resources but it does not generate any revenue. You should minimize pre-sale hours to increase the time that employees spend during the actual project implementation. So, you need to track time for the purposes of true job costing and resource utilization. 

Support Contract Hours

Support contract hours are hours spent during support activities. During these activities, technical resources are usually utilized but the hours spent  are not billable. To reduce support contract hours, ensure everything is clear  from the beginning. 

Undocumented Change Orders

If your project manager or your salesperson decides to throw in some extra services without the formal process of changing orders, they will spend non-billable time but they will utilize technical resources. To avoid this,  encourage your employees to always follow the right procedure used in  order variation rather than making a decision on their own.

Competency Training

A new project may require that some employees get retrained to handle the project successfully. Technical resources get utilized during retraining. If  these resources end up taking longer in the training activity, time will go to  waste because this time is not billable. It would be better if you reassign such  activities that require employee retraining to employees who are more  proficient and comfortable with the activities in question.

As you can see, is it important to track time whether billable or not so you can maximize the billable time but reduce the non-billable time. This will also enable you to allocate the technical resources in a manner that optimizes their use for maximum profitability. All hours count, not only the billable hours, and all 40 hours of the week contribute to the success or failure of your organization. 

Provide Proper Resource Forecasting to Avail the Right Resources

You should not wait until a client places an order before you start focusing on billable utilization. Many organizations start managing task efficiency and work schedules once the task or project starts. Relying on your experience, you should be in a position to forecast the manpower and resources a given project may need and the total time it will take to complete it. 

When working on multiple projects concurrently, resource forecasting will help you in proper resource allocation to maximize billable hours. Poor resource allocation may lead to the following drawbacks.

• You may have to abruptly move resources from one project to another thus wasting time 
• You may have to work overtime which is costly and may also lead to un-billable hours
• You may have to hire new employees in a hurry to ensure you complete the projects in time. These new employees will be inefficient and may require some retraining. This is time-consuming and the hours spent training them will not be billable

Do Not Set Uniform Billable Utilization Targets for All Resources

Resources are not the same, so it’s not advisable to set uniform targets for all services resources and then demanding accountability from your employees to achieve such a target. The aim of a billable utilization target is to ensure each resource gets optimized to achieve the company goals. A uniform target can’t achieve this. Ensure each resource has a reasonable billable utilization target to motivate your employees.

Final Words: Think About the Quality of Services You Offer, Not Just the Billable Utilization Rate

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, architects get paid an average of $ 38.16 per hour and given that the projects they deal with may take months or years to complete, this amount is substantial and calls for proper billable utilization management. Here are some tips that can help you manage your billable utilization.

It is the quality of your services that drives profitability. When the quality of service is high, you will attract a high billable rate. Some clients are usually willing to pay more to get quality services. Doing less work but of high quality and charging more can yield more profit than delivering many low-quality services at lower rates. You also need to implement best practices to optimize billable resources. Using short-cuts or low-quality materials leads to shoddy work which will eventually make your clients run away. 

To help you track billable utilization rates quickly and easily you need time tracking software for your billing, payroll, and productivity. With great new features, free support and a 14-day trial, try Time Tracker today and increase your employees billable utilization rate.  

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