Give architects every document they need on each product page, offer continuing education that teaches, answer technical questions within a day with an expert, run LinkedIn campaigns to architects and specifiers at the firms that design your project types, and back every claim with a document. Count specifications won and the orders that follow.
Our building product specifications guide covers the specification itself in depth.
What architects need from a manufacturer
An architect specifying a product takes responsibility for it. Make it easy to check. Each product page should carry:
- Product data: performance, dimensions, finishes and limits, in a data sheet with a date and revision.
- Specification support: guide specification text written in your own format; CSI's MasterFormat FAQs note that MasterFormat itself holds no specifications or templates.
- Drawings and models: CAD details and BIM objects for the systems you sell.
- Evidence: test reports, an ICC-ES evaluation report if you hold one, and a published EPD through a program operator such as EPD International if you have one.
- People: a named technical contact who answers within a working day.
Continuing education that teaches
Architects must keep learning, and AIA's continuing education program is where many of them do it, earning HSW and AIA LU credits among others. On its CE provider page, AIA says 83% of architects report CE and webinars as their most widely used source for staying updated on new products and material trends, and that AIA members earn 1.35 million hours of CE a year. AIA has also opened product-specific CE, so providers can now teach the performance and application of their own products. A good CE course teaches a design problem fairly and lets your product appear where it fits; one that reads like a brochure loses the room. Write the course with your technical team and record it for on-demand viewing.
Content architects will read
Architects search for solutions to design problems: a detail that meets a fire rating, a facade that handles thermal movement, a finish that survives coastal air. Write content that answers those problems with drawings and evidence, named by the expert who wrote it; Google's helpful content guidance asks the same of any page. Case studies help most when they show the detail, the constraint and the result in the architect's terms, with the project named only with permission. Our content marketing service writes this with your technical team.
LinkedIn campaigns to architects and specifiers
LinkedIn's ad targeting reaches members by job title, company, industry and seniority, so a campaign can reach architects, specification writers and design directors at the firms that design your project types in one region. Lead with something useful: a CE course, a detail library, a guide specification. Ask for as little as possible on the form. Our LinkedIn ads service runs these campaigns.
Answer fast: the moment specifications are won
A technical question from an architect is the strongest signal you will get. Answer it within a working day, through a person who knows the product, with the document that settles it. Track every question and sample request to a project, follow the project through design stages, and offer a review of the specification section before it is issued. Sales teams that wait for the tender have usually already lost.
Claims that hold up
Architects check claims, and a claim that fails a check costs more than one never made. Environmental claims follow the FTC's Green Guides, which say marketers should not make unqualified general environmental benefit claims; state the specific benefit and link the evidence. Name evaluation reports by number and link them, give the scope and validity of each EPD, and list only certifications you hold today.
How to measure marketing to architects
Count by source: technical questions and sample requests from architects, CE sessions delivered and attendees who later asked a question, projects where you are specified, and orders from those projects. Track the time from first question to specification. Downloads alone mislead; a download tied to a named project means far more.
What we do and do not do
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. We write product pages, specification support content and CE material with your technical team, and run LinkedIn and email campaigns to architects and specifiers. We do no events and no printing; AIA runs its own conference and CE program. Building products clients we have worked for include Viva Composite Panel and Crescent Foundry. That work was for their business in India and was delivered by our team there. Our building products marketing service page describes the work. This guide is general information, not legal advice.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.