Effective Marketing Strategies for Building Product Brands to Win More Specifications

For building product brands, earning an architect’s specification can be one of the most valuable outcomes of a marketing and sales strategy. A successful specification can open the door to a project while creating opportunities for inclusion in an architect’s master specification and future projects.

But earning that specification is increasingly competitive. Architects are navigating a growing number of products and solutions while balancing performance, design, budget, code and project requirements. Simply putting a product in front of an architect is no longer enough.

Winning the spec isn't about one great sales conversation. It's about creating a marketing ecosystem that makes your brand visible, useful, and credible throughout the architect's decision-making process.

Here’s how it works.

1. Continually Educate the Architects

AIA-accredited Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are the gold that motivates an architect to meet with a building products brand. And the “lunch & learn” is the acceptable vehicle to get the meeting.

AIA-accredited CEU

An AIA-accredited CEU must be educational, not promotional. The most effective CEU presentations focus on a specific problem architects face, demonstrate why it matters, and explore technical or innovative solutions. The best building materials brands use CEU’s to establish expertise in the problems their products solve. Rather than asking for a specification, they become the trusted resource architects turn to for education and insight.

Lunch & Learn at Architect’s Office

The goal of a lunch & learn is to provide valuable education while establishing the brand as an authority on the subject. Once that credibility is established, follow-up conversations about the brand’s products and solutions become easier. It is a core responsibility of the building product brand’s sales team to develop relationships with the architectural firms and schedule lunch & learns. Make the lunch & learn stand out by considering the following:

• Bring lunch from an unexpected restaurant
• Lead with failure points and how to avoid them
• Focus on macro trends to cement your industry authority
• Bring functional samples
• Engage the junior team - this is who is typically responsible for the product research
• Stay on time and dedicate 10-15 minutes for Q&A

Marketing’s Role with Lunch & Learns

Marketing can help the effort two ways:

• By providing hyper-targeted digital advertising, PR, and social media to elevate brand awareness.
• Partner with targeted trade publications that host and promote accredited online CEUs, giving brands access to larger architect audiences and generating leads from attendees.

2. Create a Powerful Digital Marketing Ecosystem to Reach and Maintain a Presence

Reaching architects requires a combination of marketing initiatives, working together as a digital ecosystem. This includes a mix of the following:

Paid Media

• Programmatic Digital or “persona-based targeting” that utilizes campaign optimizations to reach audiences most likely to convert.
• Traditional Media Partnerships to allow for both lead generation and the ability to “waterfall” content (including online CEUs).
• Google Campaigns to target “low hanging fruit” and support SEO efforts.
• Paid Social Media to support organic efforts.

Content Marketing

• Case Studies
• News Releases
• Media Relations
• Video
• Blogs/Articles
• Emails
• Social Media
• Website pages and sales enablement material dedicated to specific commercial segments – education, healthcare, office, etc.

Motivating Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

The goal is to motivate the architect to engage, and ultimately provide their contact information. Valuable, downloadable content can help motivate the conversion, including:

• Inspirational Look Books
• White Papers
• Case Studies
• Performance Reports
• Macro Trends

A priority for the digital marketing is to reach architects and drive them to the brand’s hub – a website or a campaign landing page. At BLD, we call this a “hub & driver” approach.

3. Become a Trusted Resource Center for Architects

Architects are continually researching new product performance and design solutions. Creating a rich website experience is a key opportunity for building product brands. And a big part of that experience is providing resources that make it easy for them to learn about the brand’s products in a fast, inviting manner that reduces the architect’s workload. Building out design and decision resources for the architect also helps a brand's distributors, who often directly sell the product, make the specification process easier.

Two types of resources aid in easy discovery:

Design Resources

• BIM/REVIT Files
• CAD Details
• CSI Specifications
• Product Data
• Installation Details
• System Assemblies
• Color/Finish Libraries
• Sustainability Documentation including EPDs/HPDs
• LEED Contribution Information
• Performance Testing & Certifications

Decision Tools

• Product Selector
• Assembly Selector
• Performance Comparison Tool
• Code/Compliance Lookup
• Specification Generator
• Detail Configurator

4. Focus on Project Solutions, Not Products

Architects think in terms of applications and design problems, not SKUs. Content for a building products brand should consider:

• Product website pages that describe product benefits, performance data, spec sheets, and links to design resources and tools.
• Case Studies – both long-form and short – provide a narrative stating the design challenges, product selections, technical solutions, and design choices that prove performance results These narratives include photography, architectural drawings, and quotes from architects, building owners, and general contractors.
• Digital Advertising – ensure that messaging focuses on differentiators and product benefits, while featuring finished products or architect testimonials.

The goal is to further establish authority and demonstrate proof of concept while inspiring the architect audience to see the product as relevant to the types of projects they want to design.

5. Be Present in the Specification Ecosystem

There are several platforms that architects regularly use during their specification journeys. It’s critical that your brand’s products are discoverable on these platforms to better increase the probability of being considered for the specification. A few of the popular tools:

• ARCAT
• BIM Object
• Deltek Masterspec
• RIB SpecLink

6. Offer a Best-in-Class Sample Program

Architects love product samples. They want to touch, feel, and experience a product firsthand, and requesting a sample can be a strong buying signal. For products where design and appearance matters, the sample program can be one of the most effective marketing tools.

Think beyond the sample itself and create an experience that meets the expectations of today’s designers. Showcase the product’s best attributes – colors, textures, finishes and assembly examples – and use QR codes to connect samples to case studies, videos and project photography. Even the sample box can be an opportunity to make a memorable impression.

Make sample fulfillment ridiculously easy:

• Feature a simple request form on the brand website
• Provide a desired sample selection tool
• Require a project to be identified
• Ensure a 24-48 hour sample delivery
• Have an architectural sales rep follow up. Some brands perform a qualification step to verify the requesting source.

A few leading sample fulfillment companies include:

• Swatchbox
• Material Bank
• Sampco

7. Provide a Full-Service Expert Support System Led by the Architectural Sales Rep

Architectural sales reps shouldn’t function primarily as salespeople. They should behave more like technical consultants, material experts, a specification concierge, and a thought leader on industry trends and developments. Architects like to minimize risk and often comes from architectural reps who build trust and confidence as specification advisors.

And the effort is not on the architectural rep alone. The rep is also the quarterback who provides deeper access to the brand’s technical consultants, warranty/service personnel, and the organization’s leadership, when needed. In some cases, a distributor or indirect manufacturing sales rep plays the role of quarterback. Providing tools and manufacturer personnel support to these channel partners becomes even more necessary.

8. Own a Meaningful Differentiator and Build Your Brand Around It

The strongest brands can relate to a specific architectural issue and own a solution. The solution can be a product feature, method, or commitment to a brand’s innovation approach. A building envelope brand may own resilience; an insulation brand might be known for highly performing energy efficiency; and a coatings brand for durability.

Owning one specific differentiating attribute builds reputation as an expert, while also creating a vision for future product innovation.

9. Assess, Prioritize, and Focus on the Best Subsegment Matches for the Brand

Many building product brands have deeper experience and stronger credibility in certain subsegments than others. At the same time, some subsegments offer greater growth potential. Evaluating both the brand's strengths and where market opportunities are emerging allows brands to leverage their expertise while focusing efforts on architectural firms working in high-potential segments.

Building products brands can track the commercial segments through a number of sources such as the AIA Consensus Forecast, which is published bi-annually; and FMI Corp, who publishes a quarterly 5-year forecast on a number of commercial building segments. BLD Marketing also produces a bi-annual analysis on these segments.

10. Develop a Strong, Account-Based Marketing Effort

Building and continually expanding a database of architects is essential to long-term growth. These contacts can come from existing relationships as well as leads generated through digital marketing, tradeshows, lunch & learns, and organic website traffic.

As this database grows, it’ll be most effective to segment and prioritize these leads. Just as a brand should prioritize subsegments, brands should take an account-based marketing approach to email and create segmented lists for each group of architects with common traits.

For example, a brand might segment based on the following:

• Tier 1: 50-100 strategic firms that best match the brand’s profile
• Tier 2: 200-400 high-potential firms
• Tier 3: The broader architect universe

Invest the most resources in the Tier 1 firms with a dedicated architectural rep, lunch & learns, technical support, and CEUs, but have activities reaching all tiers – even if it’s just a monthly email to stay top of mind.

Reaching and impacting architects requires patience as the selling cycles can be long, but persistence pays off when there is a smart plan in place.

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