Today’s guest post is by Sandra Bekhor, President of Bekhor Management a marketing and management consulting practice for professional services.
You Tube searches have surpassed Google. Seriously, Google. There is no higher mountain. So architects, what are you doing to do about it?
Ironically, architects – deliverers of the most evocative, dimensional product out there – are trailing behind other professionals with respect to employing video in their marketing campaigns. It’s time for architects to tell moving stories (pun intended) about their craft. But, let’s be clear, that’s not a call for more talking heads telling the world how great they are. Sorry, but that doesn’t pull any heartstrings and, simply put, without emotion marketing is pretty insignificant. That’s not to say that video shouldn’t be driven by point of difference. It absolutely should. But, in a manner that captivates interest, attention and imagination. Nobody is your captive audience.
Here are five ideas to get your creative juices going about video marketing:
1. Documentary style – What’s your favourite documentary? And not about buildings, but ever? March of the Penguins? An inconvenient truth? Is there anything about those movies that gets you thinking about your views on architecture? Or yearning to get behind an architectural cause and build advocates from the ground up?
2. Source of inspiration – Just because it’s your video, doesn’t mean it has to be about your work. Learning more about what inspires you could offer prospective clients tremendous insight into your approach as an architect. Imagine filming from some fabulous church in Europe or even a housing project in your hometown. Remember why you went into architecture in the first place.
3. Express your firm’s culture – What’s it like at your office when there are no clients around and everyone’s in the zone, just focusing on the work? Bounce of the wall high energy? Peaceful classical music? Discussions and debates? Think about how sharing some of this would help your audience understand how it would feel to work with you.
4. Educational – Information for the sake of it just won’t do. We’re beyond the information age now. We’re in information overload. But there’s still a place for educating with a fresh perspective, process or approach. Think about it. What do you share with clients at a first meeting?
5. Entertaining – Let’s face it, much of what’s watched on You Tube is for entertainment. Don’t rush to dismiss entertainment as not being serious enough for architects. If it gets people to care, it’s serious enough. There are lots of fun and interesting ways to showcase buildings that just aren’t being done today. Which one gets you to smile?
Architects are positioned like no other professional to leverage video in their marketing campaigns. The firms that grab hold of this tool to do something as exciting and innovative as their firms’ work? They’re next year’s winners. Life moves by pretty fast on the internet.
So, architects, you need to decide if you want to emerge as leaders in your field and communities. If you do, take the time to consider the opportunity to influence with video.
It’s there for the taking.
