Posts Categorized: Marketing and Brand Identity

Five Guiding Principles from a Guiding Principal

Michael Green, architectural thought leader and principal at MGA, shares some thoughts on marketing.

The Online Marketing Train is Leaving the Station and AEC Firms Aren’t Onboard

AEC professional services firms have traditionally relied on RFPs, proposals, and referrals to acquire new business, but online marketing needs to play a significant role a firm’s new business strategy if they seek improved growth and profitability. Don’t get left behind.

How to Pick and Choose Clients. 7 Tips for Professional Services Firms

In recent economic times, Professional Service firms struggled alongside other businesses. Firm owners had to tighten their belts, so to speak; cutting back on employees and reducing company spending. The net result was, and continues to be, that firms are operating in an ever more competitive environment. All signs point to us entering a period […]

Your company is your baby. Learn to let go.

All of us can find articles peppered with generic advice like this: Develop your brand identity. Stay true to your business model. Push the boundaries. Stick to your core competencies. Allow for growth and innovation. Don’t lose track of who you are. Let go of your initial ideas of what you should be doing. Think […]

Ask Clients Or Prospects What They Want

They came. They saw. They left. You might think you know what your customers and prospects want. So many companies and firms operate under assumptions that have worked for them in the past. If you want to change something, have you asked your customers about it? I am not talking about big changes like adding […]

Are Social Media and Blogging Worth Your Time?

Online strategy can be a confusing topic. Here are eight tips for engaging your online audience.

How to Blog Harder and Smarter

Some tips to arm you with some basic knowledge you will need to blog smart and successfully in 2013.

Is it time to take your name off the door?

What’s in a company name? Does yours accurately reflect what you offer? Or is it time to take your name off the door?

Content on your website doesn’t just write itself

Clients often come to us for a new website. But a new website doesn’t invent itself. People think about design and layout, and how they want it to look and feel; however, the content is a very important piece of the puzzle, which is why it’s all the more damaging when it gets left behind […]

Think Before You Tweet… Or You Might Just Get Fired

Oh, the almighty Internet. How we love and despise thee. As we’re all Facebooking and Tweeting our lives away, it’s out with the days of freedom of expression and in with the days of online community surveillance. Okay, maybe that’s a bit bleak. But as we see again and again, you better be careful about what you do and say on the Internet. It might just cost you your job.

Architects spending one out of every six minutes online using social media

Yes, you read that correctly. According to expert sources like PRweb.com, this is the current state of affairs in social media and it is gaining momentum in the architecture sector. The key takeaway here is: If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. When it comes to marketing and social media, if the only thing you […]

Brand Management 101: Styleguides

Imagine you’re a prospective customer or client. You saw a pretty damn sexy poster for a phone company, and it just so happens you’re in need of a new phone contract. You type their URL into Safari, eagerly expecting to find out more… only to find that the colour scheme differs from the poster, the typeface is off, the logo is inconsistent, and the whole thing feels like an entirely different company. Would you still want to trust this company with your money and rely on them for service?

Too often, this inconsistency is the result of forgotten brand standards. It can be tricky to remember all the little things that make your brand what it is, and after some time, the details will start falling through the cracks. That’s why it’s important to invest in a brand manual, or style guide.