Supercharge your marketing by getting your design/build projects featured
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Corey Halstead
Owner, HALSTEAD.
As a remodeling/construction firm, Your work is your best advertising. If you're among the many design/build professionals who take pride in their work and want to increase awareness of your business, this article is for you. Here, we cover four tips for getting your projects to the pages of magazines and design websites.
Many high-end architectural design firms and interior designers have a unique marketing approach seldom found in the greater design/build industry. Broken down into its simplest form, it goes like this—design and build amazing projects, commission professional photography and videography of the finished project, capture background on the client’s life before and after they live in their new spaces, create a professional story and case study, and submit the complete package to local magazines, newspapers, and appropriate websites. Now let’s dig a little deeper on this construction marketing strategy and apply it to the landscape and design/build industries.
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1. Create Amazing Projects.
Let’s be honest. Not all construction companies do great work. I know, I know, it’s a shocker. If you’re not sure exactly what great work looks like, log on to Houzz.com and browse the highlighted photos. The first 10-15 pictures you see are perfect examples of what we mean by great work. Amazing projects come in all shapes and sizes so don’t focus on things like the scale of the projects, the design style, or the quality of the project photography. Just be sure to ‘quality check’ your completed projects in your portfolio to make sure you are creating spaces worth talking about. At HALSTEAD, we typically work with established firms who do leading work so project quality is rarely an issue. Invest in your team, pay attention to detail, and prioritize craftsmanship.
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2. Prioritize Professional Photography and Videography of your Finished Work.
It’s simply mind-blowing the high number of companies completing amazing work, day in and day out, that are yet to learn the value of project photography and videography. When architects and interior designers complete great projects, cataloging that work through photos and videos, complete with background story, is of upmost priority. The same should be true for pool builders, kitchen and bath remodelers, landscape construction firms, masons, and list goes on. Years ago, photos of projects were enough. At this time of this writing, that is no longer true. Social media has created a drastic increase for the need for video. Videography for the construction industry is no longer going above and beyond, its’ the standard. Either way, committing to shooting all of your best projects professionally is a foundational effort to your overall marketing system. Without high-quality photos and videos, your website, social profiles, postcards, and blog will not appeal to the luxury homeowner.
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3. Capture the ‘Story’ Behind the Project.
Every amazing project needs a great story. Sometimes this comes easy and sometimes it requires digging deep for elements that will strike an emotional cord with readers. Perhaps the project was a special gift. Maybe the job site posed special challenges that your firm had to overcome? Whatever the case may be, chances are pretty good that there is an underlying story that could be developed into something interesting or unique. One easy way of streamlining the gathering of this information is to use standard questionnaires. Provide the client with a list of 10 or so questions to answer before you begin and then again after you’re done. Proud homeowners love to talk about their homes—it’s a fun activity for them and its crazy valuable to your company. When it’s time to shoot the video for your project, these homeowners will feel more comfortable on camera, explaining the process and value they received from the work you delivered. Capture all of this emotion in 30 and 60 second videos designed for Facebook and Instagram. In addition, be sure to capture all the fundamental details of the project such as products and manufacturers used in the design, other design or installation companies involved in the process, the overall size of the project, and the length of time it took to complete. Let’s call these your project resources and you should file this information for all the major projects your company completes.
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4. Submit a Project Overview to Media Outlets.
So now your company has a completely awesome project captured through high-quality, professional photos and videos. You have dug up the juicy details to bring a story to the incredible look of the spaces, and you have complied your ‘project resources’ information. Now it’s time to put together a one or two page case study for the project. Include a few of the best images and a short synapsis of the story. Be sure to use professional graphic design principles to design the presentation. It would be a waste and a shame to cheap-out on the package that the local magazines and websites will use to make their decisions. Reach out to your local area magazines, home design magazines, websites that feature your type of work, and even the manufacturers of the products you used in the design. You will be pleasantly surprised by how many businesses need your type of content.
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Will this always work?
Of course not. Magazines and websites have constantly revolving content focuses and hot topics of interest they want to pursue at that time. But even if the project isn’t right for the near future, they will log your information for potential use later on down the road if the project is noteworthy. Working with the media is about building credibility and relationships that will foster over time. Start treating your construction company’s body of work with the ‘free media coverage’ treatment, however, and you will be positioning your company for great things.
