Sending out email newsletters or other email marketing tools is a lot more affordable (and more effective) than sending out printed material. Also, it gets  you moving in the right direction, which is toward a more fully developed digital marketing program (more on that in a later post).

Getting started is easy.

Step One: Choose an online email marketing service and set up an account. Account set-up should be free, so don’t use a service that charges you to set up your account. We always recommend MailChimp because we use it and love it. Another good service is emma, and there are many others to pick from. One thing to check when you are deciding on which service to use is how they charge. Some services charge by the length of your list. Others charge per email sent. Some offer both options. It varies, so choose what’s most appropriate for you. One thing we love about MailChimp is that if your list isn’t too large, you may be able to do your sending for free… which is always affordable.

Step Two: Build email marketing into your firm’s overall content strategy. All of your marketing messaging… all of the content you are producing should be working in harmony. That’s something your content strategy will help assure. It is important to coordinate your marketing efforts, so give some thought to what you hope to accomplish by reaching out to your community.

Step Three: Once you’ve got your head around why you’re doing this and what you want to say, develop the content for your first mailing. The content people out there will understand that quite a bit of thinking should go into this. Things like knowing your audience and what they want to know, because this is about them, it’s not about you. Give them something useful, and try to structure your email content to provide a bit of value, along with the promise of even greater value if they click through to your website. And build that value into your site. Your goal is get your audience to come to your site and engage with you in some way.

Step Four: You now need your email template design. Many services provide stock template designs, but it’s much better to use a custom-designed template. Your email is making a statement about your firm’s brand, and it’s design really needs to match and support that brand. If you don’t have one on staff, you will probably want to work with a professional graphic designer who has experience creating custom email templates. And once they have the template looking the way you want, have them show you how to plug your content into your new template and get your email ready to send.

Step Five: Go over your mailing list and make sure it’s a good one. Every name on the list should be okay with receiving email from your firm. Bring your list up to snuff, because you don’t want to be accused of being a spammer. There are negative consequences to that. So, when you know you’ve got a good list, upload it to your new email marketing service. Actually, this step can happen right after you set up your account, but the point is, it has to happen before you can send anything out, so make sure you allow time to do it.

Step Six: Send out your first email, and start checking your analytics to see who all is opening it. Be happy.

Step Seven: Put an email newsletter opt-in sign-up on your website to add new names to your mailing list.

I’m not trying to make light of how much actual work goes into this process, because there’s a lot effort involved. But in relative terms, getting this particular marketing tool up and running is something you can accomplish fairly quickly and with a limited investment. In return, you will have significantly upgraded your digital marketing infrastructure, and you’ll be in a position to greatly expand the way you think about how to reach out to your online community.

Right out of the box, this presents you with several significant challenges.

First, it seems that nearly every community in America (and beyond) is trying to do the same thing, so you have the problem of being heard. Plus, there is a fairly standard set of data that your prospects use to compare their potential location sites. How do you make your data set stand out? And how do you make your case sufficiently compelling to get you on the short list and perhaps even get a request for more information?

We believe the use of interactive infographics can help you.

The use of this packaging approach will certainly make your content stand out from the crowd. It also will make your information engaging and very easy to use and understand. In short, it will help you make your story far more compelling to the people you’re trying to reach.

Here are several examples that show you what we mean.

In our work with the Kansas City Area Development Council and its partner organization Kansas City SmartPort, we have used a variety of infographics and interactivity to make the work of location advisors a little easier.

KCADC Community Profiles

On the ThinkKC.com website, the KC metro area is presented as a map showing its 18 counties and 50 communities. Clicking on a city or county automatically brings up an demographic snapshot of that location, with the option to click into a more detailed description.

» View project info

KC SmartPort Trade Corridor Network

On the KCSmartPort.com website, KC’s robust distribution and logistics infrastructure is presented as an interactive system of maps that allow the user to interactively turn on and turn off different elements of the regional transportation and logistics infrastructure so they can not only see each element, but also see how the various elements relate to one another.

» View project info

Custom Report Generator

KCADC’s ThinkKC.com website uses extensive text, graphic and numeric data to present in-depth demographic, tax and incentive profiles of the KC metro area. It’s a lot of information for a site consultant to sort through, so site visitors are able to specify the topics they wish to see, and a custom report is generated automatically, which can then be downloaded as a PDF file.

» View project info

Demographic Map System

Imagine collecting data related to your region’s industries, transportation infrastructure, demographics from both a local and national perspective. That’s what we’ve done on KCADC’s ThinkKC.com Map Center. The site visitor is able to select any of these general topics and then click through a variety of data presentations within each section.

» View project info

KC SmartPort Real Estate

Having a strong portfolio of available real estate opportunities is critical to attract new businesses to your community. For the KCSmartPort.com website, we created a an interactive real estate feature that uses graphic icons to distinguish different types of properties (intermodal, logistics, buildings). Each graphic icon provides a rollover data snapshot and a link to a more detailed property profile.

» View project info

Like many clients, this one has a sense of where he wants to get to, as well as some knowledge of who he has to work with to get there. What he hasn’t done is spend any time plotting the course or identifying the milestones he will need to meet along the path to his destination. In fact, he hasn’t even figured out the destination. It’s as if he wants to go to France, but has failed to identify whether he is traveling by ship or by air, and he hasn’t determined whether he wishes to arrive in Paris or Marseille. He just knows he wants to get to France.

I explained to my fellow project manager that she’ll have to determine the true destination (my grandfather once told me that you have to know where you’re going or you won’t know when you get there). And then — to continue the travel analogy — work back from the destination to figure out how to get there. As each step in the process is identified, one more true objective will have been uncovered.

For example, by sea or by air? Is there a deadline that requires more speed? Is there a budget that limits what can be spent? Is it important to be in one city (Paris?) or will any city provide the same benefits? If you travel by air, which airline? Do you already have a ticket, or will you need a ticket? Where do you get the ticket? How much will it cost, and how do you get the money to buy the ticket? I’m sure you get the drift.

Basically, figure out what you want. Then start working backwards through the process of getting there. This won’t always be an easy task.

Maybe the end goal is to influence a legislative agenda. One would have to identify who can have impact on that agenda, what type of impact each has, what each person needs to know (or needs to understand), how to educate or inform the influencers, how those people prefer to receive information, what media need to be prepared to communicate with them, how to create and finance those operations, etc.

Maybe the end goal is to rebrand a company. Once again, start with the vision of what you want to be. Then start working back to where you are now. You are creating the roadmap that will define your journey.

Clients often don’t want to spend the time doing this work. That’s why strategic marketers and project managers exist… because we enjoy doing it. It’s fun to create all the puzzle pieces and then put them together in a way that makes sense.

Establish a Solid Foundation

Make sure your website looks good and includes all basic information about your firm and its capabilities. Everyone sees your website. When they see it, they form an opinion of you. Your site should accurately reflect your firm. It should portray the level of quality you offer your clients.

From a basic content standpoint, as a minimum your site should provide information about your firm’s services, capabilities, experience, people and culture. And don’t hide your contact information.

Make Sure Your Site Can Be Found

Your site needs to be optimized for search engines. This process is somewhat complex, but the individual page set-up is fairly straightforward though time consuming. It involves coordinating your page titles, text and content tags, and getting cross-linked as effectively as you can. The process can, however, be a bit more challenging if you have a Flash site. If your site was built well originally, it may already be optimized. If not, you’ll benefit from getting it done.

Provide Content Useful to Your Clients

Your clients hire you for your information, insights and solutions. Your website should be an extention of this type of thinking. Look for opportunities to add value to your site by including content your clients will find useful.

Traditional value-added content includes technical papers, white papers, presentations or similar demonstrations of expertise. These features are still effective and should not be discounted.

A simple way to provide quality information is to highlight the challenges and solutions for your projects. This sounds simple, but if you take the time to distill useful information from your site’s existing content, you will increase the amount of time visitors spend on your site.

You also can provide value through the use of interactive content elements that allow site visitors to study a subject in their own way. This can be a very effective tool, especially if the subject matter is somewhat complex.

If you’ve been considering a blog, you may want to go ahead and add it. Blogs provide an informal means of keeping clients up-to-date on developments of all types… economic, regulatory, technical, whatever. You can avoid creating too much of a writing burden by having multiple principals or technical professionals provide content.

Bring People to Your Site

Now that you’ve done the work and made your site as good as you can get it, you need to market it.

Put your web address on everything. Make sure your key staff are using networking tools like LinkedIn, commenting on blogs, participating in online discussions, and generally taking advantage of as many opportunities as possible to network and reach out electronically. Start sending out your eNews on a regular basis.

You don’t want your electronic newsletters to be self-contained. You want them to bring people to your website. Make them short and link them back to the latest bit of value-added content you just posted.

Never underestimate the value of your website.

Developing and designing marketing and communications materials for A/E/C firms is fascinating. And since both Lisa and I spent a number of years working in the A/E/C industry before we began our own firm, we bring both an insider’s and an outsider’s view to the work.

One thing we have found to be true, regardless of whether we are working for architects, engineers or builders, is that the most effective communications keep the message clear and accessible. The key to achieving this objective is understanding exactly what you want to say and to whom you wish to say it. You already know what you do really well. We’ll help you find the best way to tell people about it. That’s what we’ve done for our current A/E/C clients.

Bridging Past and Present || The firm Yulan Studio has been working with the longest – and the largest A/E firm we work with currently – is WSP SELLS (formerly Chas. H. Sells, Inc.), an East Coast firm with offices that stretch from New Hampshire to South Carolina. We have been working with WSP SELLS – which is well known as one of the Northeast’s premier bridge design firms – since the days when we were still managing HNTB’s New Media Group. And after forming Yulan Studio, WSP SELLS became our first client.

Over the years, we have helped WSP SELLS with services that range from identity and branding to interview support to public participation. And of course, websites and interactives. The firm’s most recent version of its website began life as a multimedia CD. We had developed the business card-sized CD for WSP SELLS to use for tradeshows and marketing. Then, they decided they would like to have it adapted to become their website.

Providing the Needed Solutions || Other A/E/C firms we’ve provided marketing communications solutions to include Missouri’s Larkin Group, an environmental and aquatics engineering firm and Kansas’ Affinis Corp., a transportation engineering firm. In addition to designing websites for both Larkin and Affinis, we have worked with them to develop tools such as direct marketing materials, proposal templates, brochure systems, award submittals and several public information websites.

One of our most recently completed A/E projects was our work with Stroud Engineers, a civil and mechanical/electrical firm located in North Carolina. Stroud needed a website that told their story – reputable firm, good projects, and a chance to live on the beautiful North Carolina coast if you choose to work for them. Actually, Stroud made it clear that one of the main reasons they were doing a website was to attract employees, and they wanted it very clear that they were located in coastal communities. That’s why the beaches are so prominently featured in the homepage design. The client liked the end product, but, sadly, no trips to said coast were in the project budget.