AEC Marketing Communication in the New World:
Low cost strategies
that really work
By Mark Buckshon
What are the best techniques
and methods to find new business
in the current era of rapidly devel-
oping technologies and intensified
competition? The answer to this question
combines some new approaches
with long-standing traditional and
effective marketing strategies. You
need to build on your brand - and
that is primarily based on your ac-
tual client experiences and their
genuine enthusiasm and enjoyment
in working with you.

Then you apply technological in-
novations to accelerate and en-
hance your positive reputation, with
effective client-focused editorial
and visual marketing content, a
solid website, and some easy to
manage social media strategies. Fi-
nally, if you wish, you can package
these qualities, combining current
technologies with future-looking
concepts including Building Infor-
mation Modelling, virtual/aug-
mented reality, and – looking
forward – the powerful potential of
machine learning and artificial intel-
ligence. At root, the basics of effective
AEC marketing haven’t changed in
decades. People (and business-to-
business clients are of course indi-
viduals working for companies) like
doing business with organizations
where they feel good about their
experience. Clearly, your actual
work/service/product must be com-
petent, but if your clients’ overall
experience isn’t at least satisfac-
tory, you will have a one-time rela-
tionship. However, your goal should
be to make their experience super
great, by anticipating needs, com-
municating frequently, and where
4 – WINTER 2018 — New York Construction Report
you can, providing value added ex-
tras that don’t cost much money
but make the process more enjoy-
able. Why is the client experience so
important? Consider the fundamen-
tal data that I’ve gathered over the
past decade through an ongoing
poll on my constructionmar-
ketingideas.com blog. At least 71
percent of the contractors, archi-
tects and engineers who have re-
sponded over the years say that
repeat and referral business is their
most important source of revenue.

(It breaks down to 41 percent from
word-of-mouth/recommendations and 30 percent from repeat clients.)
Advertising (at 13 percent) and
leads services/open RFPs and pub-
lic tenders at 11 percent are signifi-
cant business builders but don’t
really move the needle as much. Ir-
ritating and intrusive techniques
such as telemarketing and door-to-
door canvassing work for only a
few contractors (at five percent).

The point in these numbers is
that anything you can do to im-
prove your repeat and referral busi-
ness will have disproportionate
impact on your bottom line. So you
need to do everything you can to
connect with and deliver value to
your clients.

Your goal: Win sincere testimoni-
als and recommendations – so you
can make it easier for other clients
to say “yes” - and of course, to de-
velop additional repeat or recurring
business. Please note: While it is essential
to provide great client service, you
must never assert that your market-
ing/business strength is providing
“great customer service”. This is in-
effective. If anyone asserts this fact
(assuming it is true), it should be
your customers themselves,
through their actual experience and
testimonial statements, either writ-
ten (or even better) in video format.