Over the previous two days I’ve introduced you to two types of Architects you could be marketing to. Firstly there is John, the traditionalist, whose preferred communication method is phone and print. Then yesterday you met Geoff, the transitionalist, who uses a ‘mash-up’ of communication channels to obtain information about your company and products and is slowly moving towards a fully paperless office and managing to get online a little more than he did 5 years ago. How will you market to these personas? Do you even know what type of Architects you are marketing to?
Let’s meet our final character.
The Transformationalist: Joanne
Meet Joanne.
I love Joanne. She’s the same age as me, she’s 32. She’s just recently joined a new architectural practice as a Senior Residential Architect. She doesn’t read much printed material, never subscribed to Architects Journal or Building Design and certainly does not use product directories to find out about new products. She’s web-savvy and knows how to get her news in other ways for free rather than paying subscriptions. Joanne gets all of her product related information online via Google (she is a heavy user of Google Images) and manufacturer websites. Joanne has a very popular architectural blog where she writes about successful projects and all things technical. She’s popular in the social sphere.
Joanne is passionate about getting more younger budding architects into architecture and women too. She uses her blog to educate others on how she’s made it into architecture, she loves telling stories and she loves those who also tell stories.
Joanne subscribes to a variety of online sources, especially RSS feeds and then uses Flipboard app on her iPhone to scan through all articles, news stories, project case studies and blogs written by other architects, engineers and some product manufacturers. She consumes this information in 30 mins whilst she’s on the the train to work or on the way home. She then shares content which she’s found useful or of value on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for others to read. Joanne will only attend a CPD course if someone in her network recommends it in person or suggests it to her via Twitter or Facebook. She loves photography and is a heavy user of Instagram and Pinterest. She uses Pinterest for inspiration and idea generation. She loves communicating to other architects around the world and locally, that’s how she gets clients, via online and was one of the first Architects to join ‘Architects Map‘. Joanne is really keen on BIM.
She spends a lot of time on her iPhone and iPad consuming information, communicating with others via Twitter and LinkedIn and Skype. She heavily relies on clicking on content that has been shared by others in her network and by people she knows or has heard of. Joanne will visit a website on her mobile or iPad to browse your products or even request a product sample, all done online without having to speak to any sales rep.
Joanne has got all employees in her practice to share good information and save PDFs on the company Dropbox folder which all employees can access whenever, wherever and however. She’s a big fan of cloud storage and paperless offices. She’s very ‘green’ like that which is why she prefers using Skype rather than driving 80 miles to meet with a Product Sales Manager.
Joanne has ‘Liked’ the Facebook pages of all the well known product manufacturers using her work Facebook account so that she can keep up to date with all the latest developments for each company. She actually wants more information via Facebook as she can then choose what to read and when. When it comes to email, Joanne can spot a ‘low value, spammy, salesy’ type email just by scanning the subject line as she’s grew up with email as the number one comms method. Again, if she’s familiar with the brand or person, only then will she open the email. 99% of her emails are read on her iPhone.
Joanne doesn’t really do hospitality events and exhibitions as she doesn’t play golf or drink beer. She much prefers to network online via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and knows that if she’s ever got a question regarding a product she only has to send a tweet and send an email to a LinkedIn connection and she’ll get a trustworthy, valuable and accurate answer in a matter of minutes or hours. She trusts her online connections. The only way Joanne will find out about a new product or event is online. More recently, she’s started to present project information and visuals using her iPad and wants to try and dabble in a bit of Augmented Reality. She’ll turn up on site armed with just an iPad and satchel. Joanne bought herself a Kindle over Christmas and likes to share books with other readers who have a Kindle device also.
Oh by the way, Joanne has just set ‘Homes of the Future’ on Channel 4 to record using the Sky+ app on her iPhone whilst she is waiting for her client to meet her.
You know this: From surveying your database of Architects you have realised that 80% of them are like Joanne. They specify your product EVERY single time when the project is right and they work damn hard at trying to keep your product on the spec.
Think about this: Joanne is your ideal Architect who hopes you spend majority of your budget on improving your website so that’s mobile friendly and you connect with her via Twitter and LinkedIn. She hopes you feed her good content through Facebook and provide her with good use of imagery to give her ideas for her next project. Joanne will trust what others recommend in her network particularly those who she’s met online and face to face.
So, you’ve now met the 3 characters and I’m sure you can relate to one of the three in some shape or form. Next up, we’ll take a look at some tactics and scenarios if you were creating campaigns targeting one or two of the 3 characters.
Have you conducted an audit or survey of your customer base? Can you relate to the 3 characters or have you found another type of character? How have you formed your marketing strategy around your customers? Or are you guilty of conducting random of acts of marketing hoping to hit one of your thousands of customers with the right message at the right time?
