James Dooley:
So if I am looking to grow a architect business what do you recommend.

Kasra Dash:
So if you've got an architectural practice and you're looking to grow I would first and foremost start with looking at lead generation companies. Okay so I would go over to fatrank.com that provide architect leads that you only pay on a back end and go through the qualification process. If you get accepted then that's a great first start for you to get a consistent flow of inquiries coming through. I would also go out to one or two other lead generation companies and then be frugal. Make certain you're checking your return on investment and make certain that the leads that you're buying you are obviously converting into paying clients. That would be my first play because you're going to get leads pretty quickly.

After that my next major play would be SEO. The reason why I want to do SEO is mainly for branding purposes but also to try and rank my own website to generate leads so I'm not relying consistently just on lead generation companies. I want to try and generate my own leads as well. Then after that probably social media. I would be trying to connect with potential clients that I want to work with. Then you've got traditional marketing and PPC. For me I think they're a bit expensive and I don't think I would do it for an architectural practice. What would you do. Would you do billboard ads, TV ads, radio ads, any sort of traditional marketing or would you do pay per click.

James Dooley:
I would avoid traditional ads. PPC like what you just mentioned can be expensive. You've got click fraud to worry about. You've got your competitors clicking on your ads. Then you also have what I like to call window shoppers where they will just click two or three ads and they just won't even inquire. So if for example it's costing you fifty or sixty per click you’ve burnt two or three hundred just on that every single day. If you don't know what you're doing on that that's obviously the negative.

The pros are you can start generating leads instantly. What I would look to do if you are going to try to run PPC yourself is work on building a good negative keyword list. That's very important for any PPC campaign. If you are bidding on architects and someone searches architects jobs your listing might show up for that and you're not looking to hire anyone. But that’s just how PPC works. It's pay to win so I would avoid that.

One thing I would look to do is start to generate my own inquiries. I wouldn’t just Outsource to lead generation companies. In some cases I might get switched off. I want to focus on my own SEO so I'm generating my own inquiries. I'm not relying on another platform. I would build out pages for single storey extensions, 3D planning, CAD planning, stuff like that where I would look to get some architectural work.

Something on that regarding CAD drawings and walkthrough videos of what an architect can do. I would strongly recommend getting copies of all images of what you've created and videos of the walkthrough. Blur out who it is for and what location. Start uploading those walkthrough videos onto YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn and other places. You want to rank those videos with certain keywords of what that drawing is. If someone is looking to have that type of project done they can see your walkthrough and enquire. Same with architectural drawings. Try to upload them. Try to rank them on Flickr and Pinterest and share them on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Try to get the image rankings because it can be visual. You could have a before photo, an architectural plan and an after photo and say I designed this and this is what got built. So for that reason SEO is a major play but leveraging social media can supercharge your SEO efforts.

Kasra Dash:
Definitely. On the social media side let's say you go down the route of Facebook and Instagram. I would publish consistently. Don't think if you publish one post you’ll generate tons of inquiries. It's probably going to take you about ninety posts. Have that aim. For the next three months publish a photo, a video or even a quote every day. That keeps your social media accounts active. If you get an enquiry it also helps convert that enquiry into a paying client because people might fill your contact form and then research who you are. If you have that presence they’ll trust you.

I would also work on the Google business profile. Make certain you're ranking your business profile and getting as many reviews as you can. If someone searches for architects near me you’ve got a much higher chance of ranking.

James Dooley:
If any architectural practice is looking to grow and you want a consistent flow of inquiries I mentioned going to fatrank.com. Something important from what Kasra touched on is the different types of work and services that you might be wanting to specialise in. You’ve got playground architects. They design specific playgrounds. If you're a playground architect come to us and make sure you're telling us that you specifically want playground architect work. Or if you're brilliant at planning permission for extensions, garage conversions, loft conversions, cellar conversions we need to understand that information. It's important for your own SEO efforts to understand your target audience and niche down. Don’t just be an architect who does everything. Become an expert in one or two areas so people say these are the car park architects or playground architects or sports pitch architects to use. Try to niche down. That’s a big part of growing an architect business.

Kasra Dash:
You've also got new builds, bespoke projects, home extensions. Pick a sub industry within architects and stick with that. A lot of architects already know the jobs they make the most money on. You might say I make the most on new build projects. I don't care where it is. Just get me more of those and we can start working together. If you want a consistent flow of inquiries check out fatrank.com.