Creative Business Development Strategies

[Lime Green]

I am wondering what strategies some of the members here have pursued to develop business outside of what I would consider traditional outlets, ie newspapers and trade mag advertising, websites, and mailers?

 

I live in a small community and have been playing with some ideas and wonder how successful others may have found these to be:

 

1. Writing an article on design/strategy for local publication, ie newspaper, weekly.

2. Unsolicited concepts (to local govt/towns)–presenting stakeholders with alternative solutions to existing problems without RFP or advertisement. I have heard of larger firms ‘stealing projects’ via unsolicited work with some success and wonder how practical this might be in a less aggressive sense, ie the redesign of a streetscape.

3. Unsolicited concepts (to developers)

4. Direct marketing to local architects and engineers

5. Donating time/services to local non-profits, ie mapping for a local open space advocacy group.

 

Any thoughts ideas? What have you done? What has worked/hasn’t?

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Build relationships with other professionals in your community – architects, engineers, custom builders, landscape contractors,… That is where my good work comes from – they introduce me to their clients. I supplement with homeowners who find my webpage.

[Lime Green]

I appreciate that, but would consider what you mentioned a more traditional means of networking, not necessarily a specific marketing effort, though likely a successful strategy with time and patience.

 

My situation is that in which I am relatively new to the community. I’ve done a few lunches with architects and other consultants, but the conversation more or less pietered out.

 

I find it hard to believe that no one here has written anything thats ‘stirred the pot’ so to speak in their community put forth some free work in order to get their name out.

 

I thought it might be nice to interject a constructive discussion in the midst of all this bickering, complaing, and in-fighting here.

 

Thanks for the response.

[Tanya Olson]

We have successfully done a number of these and they are WAY more worth the time and effort than the $$$ to advertise. I consider every time I show my face outside of my office to be ‘marketing’. 

#1 best for us – Creating relationships with architects, engineers, other designers. A huge proportion of our work comes through them. It is direct marketing, but definately not passive – don’t send a postcard, call and make and appointment. A great reason never to bag on architects – they understand the value of design and will often go to great lengths to preserve  landscape architecture on a project.

#2 Volunteer work. A lot of work comes from entities that you have volunteered for – they know you and the kind of work you do. That goes a long way and people who volunteer are often well-connected throughout the community – these are the movers and shakers of most small communities. I think you should feel free to volunteer for groups for their potential connections – thats the true meaning of targeted marketing.

#3 At times unsolicited concepts, but usually if we hear through the grapevine that the entity has a design problem. This might start with a phone call for us “I heard about this problem, I have some ideas, could I stop in and talk about it with you?” 

We happen to be working on an unsolicited concept to a developer. Low chance of getting the work, but we’re on a fun  multidisciplinary team doing charette-style design, so strengthening our working relationships, which is worth it in the end.

I’ve also hosted a garden I designed on a garden tour in a fairly large city and got a big fat 0 out of it. It seemed like a sure bet with 300+ walk-throughs and lots a fantastic compliments on the garden. I’ve put out yard signs at residential projects and gotten limited work, but mostly calls from people who want to know what you can do for $100.

I have presented restoration projects at an ecology and biology workshop with most attendees from the state or federal govt. No work from that, but several of the biologists let me know that they always have me in mind in case they get funding (hardeeharhar!)

Other ideas – join your local chamber of commerce. That is a great way to make contacts. I cannot stress enough how dependent we are on word of mouth.

Never done mailers, postcards, etc. I hear from other firms that for purposes other than address changes they are pretty worthless. 

[Lime Green]

Wow, great feedback! Thanks for sharing the successes and the ‘failures.’

 

 

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Attend public hearings in your community for conservation, zoning board of appeals, and anything else that is discussing a project that is yet to be built.  .. then directly engage the individual, or developer, or architect, or attorney, or engineer, … The key is to get in front of people before they have nailed down the LA.  … great way to build relationships with those ahead of you in the pipeline.

 

Maybe traditional, but is anyone else doing it in your community?

[Lime Green]

Thats a great idea that I’ve begun to explore to a limited extent. We have quite a bit going on for such a small community. One project which is already in schematic design with an LA on board I have been participating in. I’ve made a fair amount of criticism (constructive/positive and substantive) on the project design and I think I’ve gotten the attention of some of the stakeholders and design team. I’m finding that its a very fine line between being proactive and becoming ‘that annoying guy..’ or sticking ones foot in ones mouth so to speak..

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

When you say ‘participating in’, do you mean you are involved in the project, or giving public comment on at hearings?

[Heather Smith]

I am interested in this thread as we are also in a small community. I am not sure how creative we are in regards to marketing but I will document a few things we have tried that seem to have worked and those that have failed. I should also note that we do design/build, in some ways, I think this has actually been the creative approach that has actually enabled us to survive during a time period when we could/cannot be hired.

1) Volunteer work- My dh designed a Wisescape for our local municipalities water department and was able to be involved in the installation. That was pretty cool as a newbie to see something installed and it has been really fun to see it mature over the last three years. Honestly, though I don’t think we have gotten one job from that and I know that the woman at the City does tell people who designed it. However, it is a great portfolio piece and also has given us some credibility when we can give clients a list of installed projects they can drop in to check out.

2) Writing articles- My dh has written articles in our local papers spring edition of what is essentially a Home and Garden month on the importance of careful planning. I also have not heard any clients saying they heard of us through this method.

3) Our local paper does a segment for their weekend paper called, Business, and Slice of Life. My husband has been interviewed twice for articles with large images of his designs. Now this has garnered phone calls from us and name recognition around town and the best part was that it was free. See if you can find a slant in your own local paper and suggest a story…our paper in an effort to solicit advertising from us actually approached us as they do all new businesses and did the front page Business section interview and photo, for free.

4) We are currently business partners with our local food co-op and we have had one person take us up on the discount for design that we give our business partners. We also have an advertisement in the stores monthly newsletter. I am not sure yet if this is an efficient form of advertisement but it does align us with people that are the most likely to be interested in hiring a landscape architect.

5) We are invited every year to come to the Garden Expo here in town…and every year we turn it down. Word of mouth has made us think it wouldn’t be worth it. I have heard of some of the larger ones such as ones in Seattle and Portland being very successful for marketing.

6) Fliers- Strange but true. We designed cheesy little fliers when we first got started and tacked them up around town near coffee shops, Farmers Market and the Food Co-op. Our first year we lived off of a client that got our name from a bulletin board.

7) Create relationships with your local university- Jon was contacted by a conservation group at the university that needed a designer to apply for a grant to restore a wetland educational center. Sure there is an LA department, but students weren’t going to cut it at this point.

8) We have donated design time to a local organizations silent auction we belong to. That has not garnered more work.

9) My husband has introduced himself to local architects and engineers. Fortunately for us, we have a former professor that likes us and has referred us for work with a local land surveyor. This has led to one small project at this point.

10) Be involved in multiple things, including things unrelated to landscape architecture- Chances are if you attend meetings for the City, etc. you are going to run into the same people…over and over and over again. I have children and this offers a natural opportunity for me to meet new people through school, play co-ops, library, Food Co-op, church…etc. These are not only all potential clients, they may know someone that needs your services. I don’t hand out business cards but everyone knows what we do.

The challenge for a designer is being in the right place at the right time. It doesn’t matter if you purchase advertisements in the local paper if the message doesn’t reach clients that actually need or want your services. Our best asset in finding work has been a congenial manner and ability to communicate respectfully with others around town at all times. The downside of a small town is a small pond, the benefit is that you have a chance for people to get to know you on a personal level and in some cases, for them to want you to succeed. I know that sounds odd…but we have had some fantastic clients that keep coming back for more work.  Wow, I wrote a lot. 😀

[Heather Smith]

Oh and I have done unsolicited concepts…well a concept…haha. A local orthodontist has deplorable landscaping!!! I found an image of their online and photoshopped new plantings. 🙂 I didn’t get a call…yet.

[Lime Green]

I’ve only participated as a member of the public giving written comment..which seemed to be well-received. I will attend a charette for the same project later this month..

[Andrew Garulay, RLA]

Pay attention to the demographic that you market to. While we all appreciate that good design is worth the investment at any size or budget project, the reality is that your ability to get paid to design inreases as its percentage of the budget decreases – in other words, you won’t get much out of a low budget/ medium budget prospect. Put your resources where your liklihood of return is higher. The negative of getting the worg out to the lower end prospect is wasted time chasing dead leads.

 

Some communities simply don’t have a good demographic for making a living as a landscape designer, never mind an LA. If that is the case, nothing is going to work effectively to market landscape architecture. You’ll have to adjust your business plan to something that will work such as design/build landscape contracting. It is a lot more about being a landscaper than being a landscape architect. Landscape architecture education does very little to train landscape contractors, so it is essentially starting over.

 

Lime, you need to look at your community and learn whether it has the demographic to support the work that you want to do in it. If it does not, you’ll have to adjust by either changing communities or changing what you plan to do. The first thing to look at is whether anyone else is successful doing what you want to do in that community. If not, it may be an opportunity, but it may just be non-viable. If someone is doing it, look at what they are doing and try to learn how they are going about it – work for them for a while, if you can.

 

What do you currently know about this particular market?

[Author]

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