How does an established mid-sized architecture, engineering or construction firm compete against the big boys, the low bids and emerging firms? The competition is fierce. How can your marketing arm bring in new business and keep the business you already have? These are questions that are on the forefront of everyone’s mind, whether it’s employee or senior management. As you know marketing isn’t what it used to be. Brochures, snail-mail marketing, tradeshows, ads in trade publications, lunch and learns, and still the most effective, tried and true method of networking all have their place.

The chief method that new clients are going find you is the internet. Your marketing team ‘must’ be internet marketing savvy, if it isn’t, chances are high that you’ll be out gunned by the big boys or those that ‘are’ savvy. If your team is already savvy, or is becoming so, they know that internet marketing was once a game of keywords and SEOs to fool the search engines into natural rankings. With the ever changing, ultra sophisticated algorithms used by the major search engines the game has given way to science.  To gain natural listings, harvest qualified leads that turn into business the new science of marketing is ‘inbound’. The discovery and implementation of strategies that have qualified potential clients reaching out to you!

A primary step towards getting a qualified lead that reaches out to you is differentiating your firm. An element to being different is touting your firm’s ability to design and/or construct sustainable, performance buildings. We have to acknowledge that there’s still a great deal of myth and greenwash out there. The first and foremost myth is the belief that green building costs more. This is simply not the case. In fact green, sustainable buildings can cost less. It’s now pretty much established that performance, sustainable, green buildings cost less to maintain and operate as well as have longer lifespans. I’m referring to initial costs. Yes, a green building can cost less if done correctly.  To design and build correctly means only that you have to embrace three concepts.

Engineering and architectural firms can improve their return on investment (ROI) on marketing by highlighting why thier approaches to design that don't follow the status quo. One such approach is designing vent-less or Non-vented attic spaces.

Non-vented attic space design is far superior to traditional vented attic design. The costs for non-vented design is only slightly higher and achieve rapid return on investment in new construction and renovation scenarios. Not to confuse anyone, I'm drawing the line between offering clients superlative design, setting yourself apart and effective marketing, inbound or otherwise. 

How do you as an architectural, engineering, or construction firm effectively harness the power of inbound marketing and get your message (and unique skill set) in front of a qualified audience, that will seek out your services? As an experienced & certified inbound marketing firm, we suggest that one of many roads that help propel your inbound marketing strategy is to differentiate your firm by drawing attention to proven design strategies that foster performance green building and sustainability. Properly designed attic spaces are just one of many designs that reduce energy consumption while improving a building's durability and indoor air quality.

Need some guidance? Download and read these free "how to" guides that will let you put more power behind your online marketing efforts:

• How To Attract & Convert Internet Traffic
• Guide To Effective SEO, From The Experts
• How To Unlock The ROI In Your Marketing

Non-vented, efficient attic system design has a proven rapid return on investment with the energy alone. Ensure you write blogs and content explaining how and why your firm's attic space design is so much better and why designing vented attic design is so antiquated.

The key to creating an efficient attic system is to include as part of the weather-proofed, conditioned spaces of the building. When consulting with building science professional you'll quickly discover why vented attic spaces is simply incorrect for mechanically conditioned buildings. Vented attics are a practice that is out of date by around 70 years. For what ever reason, when buildings began incorporating conditioning systems designers seem to have forgotten the reason why attic systems were vented in the first place. They were vented to promote natural ventilation. With air conditioning equipment natural ventilation has essentially gone by the way-side. (Which is also not a good thing. Hybrid systems are optimal, incorporating passive and mechanical design.) When it comes to attic spaces, we’ve been left with is insulation on the top of a ceiling with outside air filling the space, which is by no means airtight.

Try our "ROI Calculator" to help you determine traffic & lead goals that must be reached.

Through roof and soffit vents comes of course temperature but that’s just ‘one’ of many elements you allow into your home or building. Because of this poor antiquated design practice, you’re forced to be energy ‘inefficient’. In essence a vented attic has you paying twice as much for energy. (Depending stories of the building.) As I said, temperature is only one of the bad things about a vented attic. Humidity, or lack there-of is something you want to control. In humid regions that’s where air conditioning expends most of its energy.

Why in the world do you want to allow hot humid air into your home or business? By designing a ‘correct’ efficient attic system for a new building or renovating an existing attic you will see a dramatic reduction in your energy consumption instantly and the easily realized rapid return on investment. However, you must consider that your return on investment is not measured solely in dollars. Your return on investment comes in the form of:

• Energy cost savings
• Improved indoor air quality
• Improved disaster preparedness
• Reduced or eliminated susceptibility to ‘flying’ termite infestation
• Reduced or eliminated susceptibility to rodent and bird infestation
• Increased roof durability and lifespan
• Increased structural integrity
• Added storage and/or living space. (Depending on roof pitch.)

I’ve written about benefits of efficient attic system design as a way to differentiate your firm and add traction to inbound marketing. Here’s the fundamental and simple elements to efficient, performance, sustainable attic system design.

The key is ‘spray foam insulation’. The typical type of spray foam used in attic spaces is ‘open cell’ because it’s less expensive and generally there’s space for it, but it always depends on the specific project. Closed cell may be appropriate for some projects, such as those where the attic space will be utilized for storage or occupancy.

Ensure there are no vents included in design of roof or soffit. If renovating an attic space ensure vents are removed and/or entry holes are covered securely. Spray Foam Insulation must be applied to the underside of the roof deck and its associated surfaces such as soffit and perimeter sheathings and claddings. One of the biggest advantages of spray foam is that it seals all surfaces and joints to dramatically reduce infiltration. To ensure that there is air exchange in this now tightly sealed, well-insulated space, include return and supply ducting directly from an air handler. Consult with your mechanical engineer for proper sizing. So, there you have it. 

Write about how your firm has chosen to design attic spaces that are far more efficient and how your firm is different because of design such as this. Write about the rapid return on investment that these attics deliver. This is one of many things you and your marketing team can do to propel inbound marketing campaigns, to increase traffic to your site and most importantly qualified leads to grow business.

I hope the detailed information above illustrates our experience working with engineering firms, architectural firms and construction businesses. We can help you improve your marketing ROI by effectively developing an inbound marketing strategy that reflects your unique business and highlighting what differentiates you from your competition. If you would like to schedule a no cost consultation, just use the button below that will take you to our contact information.

Architect Firms & Inbound Marketing:

If you’re part of an architectural or engineering firm and want to differentiate yourself when it comes to energy efficient attic systems or understanding performance green building and sustainability the key method to getting the word out and attracting new clients can be summed up in two words, inbound marketing.

The article below shares some sustainability and architectural ideas related to attic space. The purpose of this article is to share some of our experience in sustainable design and show you how these ideas can be used on your behalf to bring in an interested audience and more qualified & targeted prospects.

Need some more inbound marketing strategies for your architectual firm's online performance? Check out these "How-To" examples from our web pages that offers some great blueprints to improving your visibility online:

• How To Use Lead Generation Fundamentals
• How To Attract More Prospects Using Twitter
• How Architects Should Use Blogging For Business Development

Efficient Attic Systems, Indians, and Sustainability

This is an example of using inbound marketing to attract your architectual firm's target market(s).

How does one design the best possible energy efficient attic system? First you have to take a quick look at human behavior. What? What does the design of efficient attic systems have to with behavior? It seems that an innate basic human behavior is the ‘fear of being wrong’. Another innate behavior is ‘fear of change’. Human sometimes would rather continue to make the same mistakes over and over rather than admit being wrong and/or be willing to change.

Allow me to use ‘Indians’ of the Americas as a quintessential example of how human beings feel about being wrong and about change. When Columbus set sail from Spain on his first voyage in 1492 he was searching for a direct water route to Asia. Columbus could never admit that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies he had set out for, Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands he visited indios (Spanish for "Indians"). For the past 523 years we still erroneously refer to Native American peoples as Indians, because we, the most part, are still fearful of being wrong and making a change.

The same can be said for how we design attic spaces. Prior to mass production of central air conditioning the best way to assist in cooling buildings was venting attic spaces. Vented attics were part of a passive ventilation process to create a flow of cooler air.

Enter central ‘split-system’ air conditioning (and room) for the masses, roughly the early 1950’s. Building designers elected to place main duct systems in the attic space, put insulation (much later) on top of the ceiling, the compressing unit outside and air handler inside. (Generally) They elected to continue venting attics with the thought it would keep attic spaces cooler, which was true, if you consider 120-160 °F cooler. They simply were and still are fearful of change and now nearly 70 years later are fearful of being wrong. If you live or work in a building that is anything but a passively ventilated, the building’s attic spaces design is very wrong on 4 levels, not just the most egregious one of being grossly energy inefficient. A vented attic space is:

1. Energy inefficient

2. Open to humidity, wind driven rain that allows for mold growth.

3. Open to flying insects, namely termites.

4. Susceptible to windstorm damage through uplift

How do we create a new or existing efficient attic system? Firstly, big surprise, do not vent the attic. Secondly, insulate the attic on the underside of the roof deck, not on top of the ceiling. Thirdly, with recommendation from a mechanical engineer, bring conditioned air into the space with a supply and return duct. Not to cool the spaces, but simply to move the air through it.

There are many architects and engineers who understand these design parameters. Maybe you’re one of them?

If you’re part of an architectural or engineering firm and want to differentiate yourself when it comes to energy efficient attic systems or understanding performance green building and sustainability the key method to getting the word out and attracting new clients can be summed up in two words, inbound marketing.

With expertise in both inbound marketing and performance green building I encourage you to spend time here and elsewhere to understand the basics of inbound marketing.

CONCLUSION:

Think about the fear of change in the context of the digital age. If you’re still thinking about keywords and search engine optimization as the way to get noticed organically by the major search engines, you’re about 70 digital years behind. Inbound marketing is a complex set of interwoven strategies you might be able to understand in principle, but when it comes to enacting a ‘truly’ effective inbound marketing campaign, talk to us.

Note: Architects and other contributors to a more sustainable society need to share their expertise and services online. Why is this so important? Look at the numbers by downloading real time inbound marketing statistics and really see the difference a complete Internet marketing strategy can make.