Building product manufacturers are challenged to ensure the design community knows their products. Traditional marketing approaches and conventional digital marketing strategies are ineffective when attempting to tap into the specification market. An ideal path for marketing to architects and design professionals should find architects where they find products to specify while they are actively working on projects.

Traditional Marketing and Architects

Print magazines can be sleek and inspirational. They can provide useful information coupled with stunning images. For a time, they were a mainstay of marketing to architects. Having your project featured in a glossy magazine was prestigious, and as a building product manufacturer, you could advertise alongside these inspirational pieces and try to capture the attention of the design community. However, there has always been a fundamental weakness with printed publications when it comes to getting your products specified. 

Where did you last read a print magazine? Was it somewhere like a waiting room, or relaxing on a couch? Magazine reading tends to be done when we are somewhat at rest, or at least not actively working. Architects in the middle of drafting specifications or planning a project are not typically flipping through a magazine to find the right product for their projects. The digital space is far more likely a place to find the products and accompanying technical documents needed to properly specify a product into a project. Magazines can simply never offer the flexibility and resource depth required to efficiently aid the specification process. Even online digital editions and buyer’s guides fail to offer building product manufacturers an effective path to specification.

Trade shows have better evolved with the digital space than printed publications. Tools can help scan business cards and collect leads at a show. Unfortunately, shows are incredibly limited in time, with building product manufacturers having only a few days at most to try to make face-to-face connections turn into sales. Architects will often visit a show floor between various educational sessions required to maintain their professional licenses. They may gain product knowledge and information while on the trade show floor, but there is very little chance that they are actively specifying products while at the show. Product selection will take place in their office rather than while traveling and out of touch with their resources.

Digital Marketing to Architects

Digital marketing to architects and design professionals also has potential pitfalls. Take Google AdWords for example. AdWords advertising is based on keywords and budgets. Given various parameters, the concept is that if your advertisement is relevant to a Google search, your ad will be displayed, and you are charged if the ad is clicked.  However, AdWords can fail to target the right audience. Google provides the option to use broad keywords or longtail keywords. Longtail keywords are more specific. Thus the advertiser needs to find a balance between using broad keywords that reach many people, or narrow words that reach a more specific audience. Unfortunately, either strategy leads to waste. Either you are reaching people with no interest in your offering, or you are excluding potential specifiers because their search does not match the assumptions you made when purchasing your Adwords. Google Ad Words. An effective AdWords campaign likely involves seeking the help of experts to maintain the campaign and adjust as needed.

Market Where Architects Go When They Specify Products

For over 25 years, CADdetails has been dedicated to getting products specified. We make it easier for architects and designers to find products and technical design files from a wide range of building product manufacturers on a single platform. Over the years, we have expanded our offerings and changed with the design community. 

Since 1997, architects have relied on CADdetails to find high-quality CAD and design files. We are available to specifiers all year and around the clock. We have grown to a user base of over 645,000 registered design professionals in North America. This means building product manufacturers know that when their products are on CADdetails.com, they will be available to be specified by the design community. Our Enhanced Project Gallery inspires designers while also providing coordinated design documents to ensure the practical aspects of getting specified are addressed. 

CADdetails’ partnered manufacturers access an audience that is focused on the early design process, where product selection is heavily influenced. 

We offer manufacturers the flexibility to share their product information anywhere online with our Design Hub (LINK). Our expert technical teams offer high-quality project-ready design files for BIM, CAD, 3D models, and Specifications. CADdetails’ Analytics keep you informed about the activity on your profile and provide valuable insights into how architects interact with your products. Our plans are designed to help you access North American architects and design professionals to get your products specified. 

Book a call with CADdetails today to learn how we can help you get your products specified.