Meet
Rachel Moses
Pride Road’s Technical Associate
Rachel Moses is Pride Road’s marketing guru. She works on the strategic communications and marketing for the brand as a whole, which means she works closely with Lisa. Her work is based on her past career of 20 years, working in organisations of different sizes within different industries of marketing and communications.
If someone were setting up a practice, what is the first thing they would have to think about in terms of marketing?
Planning. The reality today is that there is a great opportunity for you to manage your own marketing, as a lot of it is down to what’s available on social and digital channels. Because of the diversity in channels, there’s a sense of the task being a bit overwhelming- being not sure where to start, so it’s really important to plan and to go back basics. You do this by starting off with your 5 ‘W’ questions: who you want to talk to, what you want to tell them, why, where, and when. From those basic principles, you can build up to decide which channels to use, and who to say what to, so you can get the targeted and relevant communications that can help your marketing.
Currently, in September 2020, what channels are useful for architects?
This depends on the kind of market you are trying to reach, so in the Pride Road example, where you are trying to reach homeowners, you should use Facebook. If you are trying to build awareness amongst your peers, LinkedIn is really useful. You could always use Twitter to promote marketing events such as webinars. These are the more established channels, there are newer channels that come and go, and there’s always room for flexibility and growth, which should be built into your plan.
A lot of people are underconfident and unsure about having an online profile. Should we be taking photos of the food we’re eating and posting it on Instagram?
It depends on what your brand values are – brand values are really important to understand from the beginning, and to communicate with your marketing. It also depends on whether there is a connection between food and your business- as an architect there isn’t the strongest connection with food, but you could create models of buildings out of food.
It’s important in general to show people what your life is like to build authenticity, so non-work-related posts are useful as they build up a personality and a character. To those who aren’t comfortable on social media, Rachel explains that you could think of yourself as a character, and try to embody this character, that isn’t quite yourself, when you perform online.
That way, you get some separation between your life and social media to create some privacy, but it allows you to produce interesting and seemingly authentic content. At the end of the day, people buy people so it’s important to get personal content out there, but you have to remember to link it back to what you are selling.
How important is PR in marketing a business?
It’s important to maintain a balanced marketing mix, which could include PR, through your plan. PR, as a business owner, is harder to earn but is useful as it increases your brand awareness, which is important for building trust with clients.
In this age, a client may Google your business, and them finding content that’s in the print/ published media adds a layer of authenticity and trust. But PR isn’t the be all and end all; you need to think about where you place it in the marketing mix, and while there are always opportunities to buy print coverage, there are lots of things you could do for free, so it’s not something I would rush to use.
Last thoughts?
Be authentic, be yourself, show yourself. Work out what you’re happy to share because it’s all about building a resonant message- you want your message to echo through everything you do, from what you write, to the images and videos that you publish. If you can make it resonate with your audience, it’s a great way to build connections with clients, and people that can help your business to develop and grow.