APPENDIX E
Marketing Your Services
IN AN IDEAL WORLD, YOUR business would grow so successfully that you would not need to focus time, energy, and resources on marketing your services. In the real world, however, such success usually only comes with time. How much time, obviously, depends on such things as the quality of your work and your general business savvy. But equally important is your ability to market yourself. Though good work sells itself, it only sells if someone knows you’re selling. The next few pages discuss some of the key elements you should consider when marketing your services and offer some suggestions that can help make you successful in this area of business management.
Your Clients
It seems that with every year that goes by, more people become aware of and fascinated by 3D technology. Everyone knows the success Hollywood studios have had with animated films. Beyond these movies, however, the general public is not keenly aware of how this technology has been integrated into the world of architectural visualizations. One of the most common questions I’m asked when I tell someone what I do is, “Who do you sell to?” Before you market yourself in any business, you should know the answer to this question. Let’s discuss some potential clients and some of the keys to successfully marketing to these clients.
Developers
A developer can be a single person, a large firm, or anything in between. A developer’s primary goal is to acquire land and build, or develop, on that land, and the 3D visualization services you offer can be an invaluable marketing tool in helping developers make those sales.
You will probably find developers to be the best source of large projects with the greatest profit margin. This is because their projects usually entail more than just a single residence or office building. If you’re fortunate enough to land a large developer as a client, you may find yourself working on a large golf course community, a stadium for a metropolitan city, or a skyscraper—any of which may have a $500 million price tag. This type of client may be more inclined to offer payment for visualization services of this scale, knowing the marketing value of your services and understanding the small drop in the bucket that your service fees are when compared to the overall price tag. Take the $500 million golf course community, for example. A five-minute animation for such a project may require months of work for several people at the cost of $50,000 to the client. Even at $50,000, the total cost for your services would be no more than 1/10,000th or 0.01% of the project’s cost. A developer probably understands, more than any other type of client, the ability of your services to produce sales. For these reasons, developers should comprise a good portion of your marketing effort.
As a freelancer or a small business owner, you might find it difficult to complete a large project typically available through a developer, and even more difficult to land such a project. Usually, the only way to do so is to create a good network of sub-contractors, which is my #1 production tip discussed in Appendix B.
Architects
For many 3D visualizers, architects are the most typical type of client, especially for freelancers or small businesses that are not willing or able to work on the large projects possible through developers. Whether or not this is true for you, you should consider a number of things when marketing to architects. First of all, most projects you work on will require the services of an architect. Even though some states and countries don’t require construction documents to be certified by a licensed architect (and you should know if yours does), an architect will usually be used for structures of any significant size and complexity. In addition, when hired by any client who is not an architect, you will almost certainly be required to deal with the architect who is designing the project for your client.
Depending on the complexity and scale of your project, you may be required to work closely with the architect for a long period of time. Helping you in any way possible to make your work a success is usually in the architect’s best interests. An architect would be unwise to upset his client (who may also be your client), because he or she failed to communicate the design to you either verbally or in drawings. Because of this, the architect is usually willing to give you whatever is necessary for you to complete your work.
During the course of your dealings with the architect, you have the opportunity to win him or her over as a future client. By providing quality work and professional service, you will have made a great impression and given yourself unhindered access to one of the greatest potential clients in our industry.
Continuing education
Many states and countries require architects to undergo a certain amount of continuing education each year to maintain their licenses. In my home state of Florida, for example, architects are required to take 20 hours of instruction in state-certified courses. These courses range from Waterproofing Exterior Walls to Soundproofing a Residence to Changes in the Building Code. The lengths of these courses can range from one hour to 20 hours or longer. Some architects choose to attend formal classes to receive their training while others choose to receive the majority of their training at informal seminars or even in their own office.
If you have ever worked in an architectural office, you have probably witnessed some of these informal courses. Architects will receive a call from a firm asking if the architect would be willing to receive a catered lunch for his office in exchange for allowing the firm to give a presentation on their product. Although an architect might normally want employees to do something more viable than listening to a sales pitch from an unknown company, the architect might be willing to yield the time if the sales pitch is actually a state-certified continuing education course.
This continuing education requirement gives you a great opportunity to get your foot in the door of any architect’s office. By becoming a certified architectural continuing education provider, you will be able to establish great relationships with people who will be one of the greatest sources of future work.
One of the first things I did after starting my own business was to apply for such a certification. I was required to create a one-hour course of instruction with a detailed outline and slide-show presentation. I submitted the outline and a copy of the slide-show presentation along with an application (to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation), and two months later, I was given certification to teach a one-hour course entitled 3D CAD for Architectural Visualizations. Upon receiving this certification, I updated all of my marketing tools to make it known that I was a state-certified architectural continuing education provider. This became a great marketing help, because it offered something useful to architects, and lent credibility to my business.
If you would like to receive the certification offered by your state, go to your state’s official government website and search for “architecture continuing education.” For more information about continuing education, refer to Appendix I.
Individuals
Perhaps your most frequent calls for work will come from individuals who request your services for a one-time project. These can range from a couple who are building a dream home to an entrepreneur who wants to build a small office complex, to a doctor who needs to move his practice into a larger building of his own design. This type of client should be given no less attention than any other, if for no other reason than that they may refer others to you down the road. If one of your long-term goals is to run a 3D visualization business without having to devote much effort to marketing, you will almost certainly have to rely on referrals to procure enough work, and the smallest of clients can refer the largest of clients. The doctor you are providing an animation for may have a brother who runs the largest development firm in your area. Such a situation presents another opportunity in which you are given unrestricted access to a great potential client.
Contractors
Another source of business for those of us in the architectural visualization industry comes from construction companies, or more simply, contractors. Contractors often design and draw plans for structures without the assistance of an architect. Some states and countries don’t require an architect to approve the plans of a project. Even when the certification of an architect is required, the contractor may still perform all of the work (including designing and drawing the structure and coordinating with owner and subcontractors) and submit the plans to an architect for review and certification only. In these types of scenarios, contractors are just as likely to require your services as an architect.
Sometimes an architect or contractor will offer the option of your services to a client at an additional charge. The contractor may arrange a meeting with you and the owner, although this usually only happens when all three of you are in the same local area. When a meeting is not possible, you must usually rely on the architect or contractor to sell your services. Utilizing your services is usually in the best interest of architects and contractors, because having your 3D visualization for their project can significantly increase their client’s certainty in the design, facilitate the bidding process and reduce the overall bid prices, and provide them a sample project to use as a marketing tool for future projects. Architects or contractors who can offer 3D visualization services to a potential client may gain an edge on their competition; it may ultimately be the factor that separates them from the others.
Real estate agents
For many years after starting my own visualization firm, I did not believe real estate firms to be much of a source for potential business for those of us in the 3D visualization industry. But when I started looking for a new office and contacted a few realtors, it occurred to me that I had stumbled upon possibly the greatest marketing strategy those of us in the visualization industry could employ. I had initially contacted three realtors about three different offices I found while driving around town. While talking to them over the phone, each asked what type of business I was in. After I told them, each seemed enthusiastic about meeting with me to discuss the possibility of me doing work for them. I arranged a face-to-face meeting with each agent, and in each meeting we spent more time talking about my business and what I could do for them than talking about the office I was interested in purchasing.
Although commercial realtors are not in the business of buying and developing property, they usually have long-term partnerships with developers, in which they act as selling agents for the developers’ projects. In this situation, the real estate firm may be very willing to support the use of your services, whether you are paid directly by the real estate firm or the developer. In either case, the real estate firm is responsible for selling the developer’s property, and anything that helps is worth investigating, especially something as interesting and eye-catching as 3D. Realtors have a vested interest in making their clients happy, and introducing a developer they work for to a great 3D visualization firm can make them very happy. For all of these reasons, real estate firms should never be overlooked as a source for potential business. I highly recommend contacting a few realtors and telling them you’re interested in purchasing a new office. You might be amazed at what it leads to!
Your Tools
Now that we’ve discussed some of your greatest sources of future visualization work, let’s look at some of the marketing tools with which you can reach your potential clients. Even on a limited budget, you have numerous tools at your disposal. In the remaining pages of this appendix, we will look at some of the tools available, and some of the tricks to making the most out of them.
Websites
A website is easily your most important and ubiquitous form of marketing media. Unless you are a well-established firm with little need for marketing, an effective and eye-catching website is an absolutely critical tool to your business. With a website, you can show your work to anyone, anywhere in the world, at a minimal cost. But no matter how well-designed, a website will not be a marketing tool that brings in a large number of cold calls that lead to contracts. For this reason, I firmly believe spending a large amount of time and money on specific website marketing is not a good idea. What makes a website highly effective and important is that it serves as an electronic brochure that anyone can access anywhere and anytime. This electronic brochure is the best way to follow up a conversation with a potential client. Whether the potential client is someone you ran into on the street, someone who saw your advertisement in the phone book who calls to investigate your services, or someone you just had a meeting with, your company’s website serves as the ultimate marketing tool.
When a potential client calls you to get information about your company, they generally ask the same questions: What do you do? How do you do it? What do you need from me to start? How much does it cost? Rushing the conversation by simply saying, “Check the website; everything you need to know is there,” can be a big turnoff for a client. Instead, you should attempt to feel out callers; answer some questions, and ask some of your own. But you can end conversations by informing the callers that they are welcome to visit your website to view your portfolio and find some additional information about your company and what you do.
What should your website contain, and how should it be designed? Without a doubt, it should contain the best work you have ever created. Your website should be easy to navigate and not contain an enormous number of large graphics or introductions that take excessive amounts of time to load. Your potential clients may be impatient and choose not to sit through fancy graphics or take the time to figure out how to navigate your site. More importantly, your company is being evaluated by the viewers at every moment, and an inability to create an efficient and effective website may give the viewers doubt in your ability to create an efficient and effective product for them.
I suggest creating a navigation menu with as few buttons as possible, just enough so that the viewer doesn’t have to go through several pages to get to a particular point. My recommendation for the minimum page navigation buttons you should include follows:
• Home: This link, which takes the viewer back to the homepage, is an essential link that any website in any industry should have.
• About Us: This is a standard label for a link that takes the viewer to a description about your company. This link is important, because not revealing at least the basic information about your company cannot help but give the viewer doubts as to your company’s candidness.
• Gallery: Display the best of your company’s work here. For each category of content, I suggest creating a separate link. For example, on the gallery page of my website, I created three separate links: one for animations, one for renderings, and another for imagery.
• Contact Us: Another standard link, it should include at least one email address and phone number.
Brochures
Brochures are another type of media I consider a must for those of us in the visualization industry. Brochures give you the ability to show your work to others during face-to-face meetings, tradeshows, or anyplace you run into potential clients. Your brochure can serve as your resume and is often the very first look others take at your work. Just like your website, your brochure should show off your best images and make a clear presentation of your company’s services. If you offer animation services, state it clearly. If you offer unique services, state each clearly—don’t expect the viewer to know about them automatically. Like your website, your brochure is a demonstration of your presentation skills and a poorly designed brochure can kill your chances to receive work from the viewer.
I highly recommend using a professional printing service for your brochure, even for freelancers who only need a small number printed. But when and how should you distribute your brochures? If you believe only one thing in this discussion on marketing, let it be this—do not mass-mail your marketing materials. From my personal experience and that of many others I have spoken to, mass mailings waste time and money. A very small percentage of the brochures will ever make it to the person who actually has the influence to supply you with work. Those few that do make it to the right person, which could be as little as 1%, will likely be treated no better than the mounds of junk-mail you receive at home. This marketing strategy sends the message that whatever you had to say was not important enough for you to say in person or with at least a phone call. You would be better off saving your money, printing fewer brochures, and handing them out as a follow-up to a phone call or a face-to-face meeting.
Phone books
If you can afford to splurge in any marketing area, an advertisement in the phone book would be a good choice. Many cities have more than one phone book, with one often being much more expensive than the others. In this situation, some caution should be taken and some research conducted, to determine which one to advertise in, or whether to advertise in more than one. In my hometown of Sarasota, we have two phone books, the Verizon Yellow Pages and the Yellowbook. The first year I was in business, I decided to splurge and advertise in both. I placed two ads in both phone books under the headings of “Architectural Illustrators” and “Graphic Design.”
In the Verizon Yellow Pages, my ads cost three times as much as in the Yellowbook, even though their size was half that of the Yellowbook ads. I believed at the time that the circulation numbers justified spending more on the Verizon ads, but after more research, I learned that the greater circulation Verizon claimed was in residences. I realized in my second year that my primary focus should be on readers in businesses rather than in residences, and since the Yellowbook claimed to deliver to every business in the area, I didn’t believe advertising in the more expensive book was justified. During that first year, I made it a point to ask people who called where they heard about my business. I received just as many referrals from the less expensive Yellowbook as I did from the more expensive Verizon Yellow Pages, which justified my decision to drop the Verizon ads.
Your decision to advertise in your local yellow pages should also depend heavily on your local area. If you live in an area like Sarasota, Florida, which is exploding in growth, advertising in the yellow pages should be a given. In areas with little growth, advertising in your local phone book might be a waste of money. If you decide to advertise in a phone book, I recommend placing an ad in the two separate locations I mentioned before, “Architectural Illustrators” and “Graphic Design.” An ad placed under ‘“Architectural Illustrators” is likely to be seen by all of the architects listed, because their ads will appear right before yours. A listing under “Graphic Design” is a viable choice, because a large percentage of people think of the word “graphic” when looking for someone to provide visualization services. Other terms such as “architectural illustrator” or “visualizations” are not as well known outside the architectural world, but “graphic” is a generic word that describes our type of work better than any other word or term found in a typical phone book.
In addition, a listing under the category “Graphic Design” will draw the attention of those who are not necessarily looking for your type of business but may decide to investigate hoping to find a better product than what they were looking for in the first place. For example, if a developer wants to create a brochure for a condominium being sold and needs a graphic image of each floor plan, he or she might call you to ask if you provide that type of service, and find that you can provide much more than the ordinary floor-plan graphic common in any brochure of that type. That developer may decide to spend a little more to have you create a 3D floor plan from a perspective view and, down the road, possibly an animation.
Finally, I have received many calls over the years from graphic designers who saw my listing next to theirs and called for help producing work for their clients. I received these calls, only because they were checking out their competition.
DVDs
If your company provides animation services, then DVDs are an essential component of your marketing strategy. DVDs provide your potential clients with the only true representation of what your animation services entail. Animation on your website can only provide a small glimpse of your company’s capabilities, because even faster-than-normal connection speeds take too much time to download videos shown at DVD quality. Smaller resolutions allow you to put an entire demo DVD on your website, but even they are not as compelling or revealing as the full-size DVD resolution.
Going back to the discussion on mass mailing, DVDs should only be sent when preceded by a phone call, so someone of authority expects to receive it. DVDs take a small amount of time to load or set up, but sometimes that’s too much time for some people. A face-to-face meeting will allow you to combine both the best of what you have to say and the best visual imagery you have to show. A portable DVD player offers a great way to show your DVDs (outside your own office).
Phone calls
Nobody likes receiving a telemarketing phone call, but when done with a certain style, placing a cold-call can yield tremendous results. The main goal is to speak to someone with authority. For small companies, those with approximately 10 staff members, you might try asking to speak to the owner or manager directly regarding visualization services. For larger companies, speaking to the owner will be much more difficult, but you might find a marketing division that is willing to meet with you to discuss your services.
Another approach I have found successful for larger companies is asking to speak to human resources. Employees in human resources tend to be more receptive to meeting with outsiders, because it’s their job to do so. Even though human resources personnel are not the decision-makers you need to speak with, they can arrange a meeting with the right ones.
Because of the unique nature of your services, and the fact that a quality visualization is fascinating and entertaining, the people you’re meeting with can be hooked the moment they see your work. Above all, arranging a face-to-face meeting with someone in a firm is the critical first step.
E-mails
Under no circumstances should emails be sent when any other form of marketing is a viable option. E-mails should never be used locally, that is, within driving distance, when a phone call or face-to-face meeting is possible. Clearly, if you wish to market to prospective clients at great distances and you cannot afford the time and cost of phone calls or brochures, e-mail is a reasonable option. But e-mails must be exceptionally eye-catching and extremely brief to be considered by the viewer longer than the split-second it takes to find the delete button.
Spam is generally viewed with hostility, so you should be careful not to make a nuisance of yourself. Your e-mails should appear to be written directly to the company you’re contacting rather than appearing as spam. Include an image or two of your best work, use a polite introduction and closing such as “Dear Sir” and “Sincerely,” and include a link that takes the reader immediately to a page with eye-catching images that beg for more exploration. You should provide an easy mechanism to take addresses off your mailing list if people so desire, and respect their wishes.
As an aside, my best two overseas subcontractors actually contacted me with advertising e-mails. I was impressed with their work and knew immediately that I wanted to work with them in the future.
Summary
Marketing a 3D business can be tricky. You can be the best animator in the business, but if the right people don’t know your business exists or aren’t introduced to your business in the right way, your business can’t be successful. For most of us, building up the right clientele will simply take time, but the concepts discussed in this appendix should help speed up the process and also help you avoid some common marketing pitfalls. With every passing year, your business should only grow stronger.