Do you struggle with archviz marketing? You don’t know where to start and feel overwhelmed? Our marketing manager Pavla shares some basic tips on how to start once and for all.
Whether you are a freelancer artist, an eager student, or a starting studio – you want to be seen, and marketing is a great tool, for archviz industry included. Today, to be seen for many means to be present and active on social media.
So let me stop here for a second – social media are only one of many digital channels you can use in digital marketing. I am sure I don’t have to remind you there are these things called websites, but what about SEO (search engine optimization)? Other channels are e-mail marketing (simply newsletters), paid advertising (not just on social media), video marketing, and content marketing.
What do you want to use for your marketing in archviz?
So when, struggling with social media, meaning you naturally don’t enjoy using it, you should start by evaluating if there is any other channel you could use instead.
If you start building your e.g., Instagram with slight disgust over the feeling that you don’t really want to do it, but you feel pressured, the only outcome is that you will fail to post regularly and postpone publishing that one post you promised to yourselves. This, can very easily lead to frustration and blaming yourself. At the end of the day, you still have no social media, plus you are angry at yourself. And that is definitely not the way forward.
🧠 #1 Think what you are okay with, what feels natural, select one way and dedicate to it
How do I know what is right for me?
There is no 100 % right or wrong path. I always say that the best marketing strategy is the one you can carry and execute the longest (while helping to your goal of course). We can call it “sustainable marketing”. Choose a path you feel okay with, something you can sustain with your resources (time, money, will and energy) for the longest time.
Are you more introverted? Maybe talking in Instagram Stories or making Youtube videos is not the best option for you. Do you personally think websites and newsletters are over? Fine, focus on social media. You have plenty of time to add the other channels later on.
🏆 #2 Set ambitious but realistic goals
I will use social media as an example: There are so many of them! Social media are not Pokemons; you don’t have to catch them all. Monolot has a dedicated person to marketing, and we still have two active social media accounts (Instagram and LinkedIn). For an archviz freelancer or a small studio, an ambitious but realistic goal is to have one channel but post regularly (meaning having a plan) and have good quality content (in the eyes of your potential followers).
🙏 #3 Worship regularity, eliminate chaos
Select one channel and think how much time you can dedicate to it. That includes not only posting but creating the content (texts, graphic design, or communication with the client for approval) as well. Can you do one post per week? Fine, that is enough! Could you do three, but you are unsure? Go for two per week, and you can add the third later.
Set the days in your daily planner, put a repeating event in Google Calendar…, or anything that will make you remember. Will the world stop when you do not post on the planned day? No. But you should do the absolute maximum to meet the set day. That is the only way you get into the habit of incorporating marketing activities into your regular work.
Posting on social media is not “an extra.” It is an integral part of your job. Same as hitting a render button.
It happens to us that we have “busy” days on social media – we are releasing a new project, a client has won a competition, somebody from a team has a birthday, and we have a party in the studio. Should you post everything on the same day?
If you would, that would mean that one day, you will have, for example, two Instagram posts and four Stories… and for the rest of the week, nothing. Strategically speaking, the planned content should have a priority. Show off your planned and carefully prepared post first. The success of your client can wait at least until the afternoon, maybe till the next day, when you can dedicate more space (and care) to the announcement. And no one knows that the party you posted on Wednesday was indeed on Monday. Try to eliminate chaos, and always have a plan and schedule.
🚀 #4 always prefer quality over quantity
Put yourself in the position of your potential follower (how to define who your follower and/or client is a whole different topic we plan to write about on our blog in the future). Why should they care what you post? Is there any added value?
In archviz, there is the tendency to post only the final images or videos, often without adding any extra information. While this can be a great inspiration, maybe your followers would want to have more insight. And same goes for a client, they want to see your portfolio, but maybe they want to know more about you, how you work and etc.
Take time to prepare the content you post. Are you simply posting an image, not writing anything, and then you are disappointed that no one engages with it? Imagine you are a selfish follower and ask, “what’s in it for me?”
Rather than posting an image without any information just for the sake of checking it off your to-do list, take the time to write what the project was about, what the challenges were, and what you learned. Quality over quantity.
💡 Do you have any questions? Comments?
We plan to write more articles like this, and we would appreciate your feedback. You can reach out to me on my LinkedIn or via e-mail at marketing@monolot.studio
This article is part of our effort to support and help the archviz community. The knowledge we share is based on our experience; yours can differ, and we would love to hear your opinion and feedback at marketing@monolot.studio.
