Episode 7: How AEC Firms are Solving Today’s Difficult Lead Gen, Recruiting, and Marketing Challenges, with Judy Sparks and Katie Cash

Oftentimes, when we talk about digital marketing with our clients and prospects—that is, principals of AEC firms and their teams—we see an immediate glaze go over the faces of the people in the room. Why? Because there is a widely held assumption within the AEC industry that digital cannot solve real business challenges like lead gen, driving sales, or recruiting top talent.

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While we agree that it is unlikely any of your prospective clients will send you an electronic check online as a way to engage your engineering services, we also know that digital strategies have been proven effective for reducing cost per acquisition, driving biz dev, and attracting highly qualified candidates for hard to fill senior-level positions within firms.

We often hear complaints from within an organization that the leaders of the firm are slow to adopt digital marketing strategies because they don’t understand the technology.

The reality is, most of the leaders in our industry are technically trained and operationally focused. They did not grow up in the digital age. Many of our clients are CEOs of architecture, engineering, and construction firms in their 50s, 60s, or older.

They did not have the Internet when they were working their way up through the ranks, and they certainly didn’t have social media.

But, they’re not old fashioned by any means. They simply need somebody to explain how any strategy—digital or not—is going to make a difference to the firm’s bottom line.

It has been our experience that once we are able to make a tangible connection, they are not slow to adopt. It is actually quite the contrary.

The very first time they see a lead come through their website as a result of a digital campaign, they are eager to do it again because it’s cheaper and it takes less time.

Our goal for this episode is to share some tangible examples for how you and your team can use digital marketing strategies to advance your brand visibility, engage with an audience, influence buyers, and convert those buyers into leads that your business development or seller-doer team can connect with.

We are going to share three real-world case studies where AEC firms used digital strategies to solve significant business challenges and drive ROI as a result.

Our hope is that the ideas will help you and your team to start thinking about how digital marketing can play into your overarching goals and strategic initiatives.

What You Will Learn:

• How a properly structured webinar series can accelerate lead gen while dramatically reducing cost and time of the traditional lunch and learn
• How digital strategies can provide similar benefits to PR
• Why organic visibility of social media content is dead and Facebook is the dominant ad platform for B2B audiences
• How radio was used to attract high-quality candidates for senior-level positions within an AEC firm
• Why you cannot have a successful digital media application run by people who do not understand your business

Solving Lead Gen Challenges

Challenge 1: the time and cost of providing clients and prospects with in-person “lunch and learns”

Engineering firms, architectural firms, contractors, fire protection contractors, etc. often propose an educational “lunch and learn” session. In most applications, there’s someone within the firm who is tasked with preparing the materials, getting it approved for continuing education, and sent office to office seeking out potential clients.

It is a time consuming and expensive process. Katie shares a detailed example of how one AEC firm decided to forgo the traditional, door-to-door lunch