Recently, I was looking for the phone number of a small engineering firm in Virginia. I only had the basic info— the firm’s name and location were mentioned in an online article from a regional newspaper— but I figured that should be plenty to work with. In this day and age, who doesn’t have a web site or at least an accurate listing in the Yellow Pages? Or so I thought that would be a given.

As I looked around online, the firm’s name did come up a few times in project descriptions and some county documents. Also, there was a listing in the Yellow Pages, but the number was disconnected. So despite a few hits, I still couldn’t find what I needed to get in touch with them. Twenty minutes into my Google search, I simply gave up.

What made this search so frustrating for me is that this isn’t the first time I couldn’t get in touch with a firm or find out more about them, no matter what Google tricks I tried. This recurring situation makes me wonder how many project opportunities A/E firms lose out on, not for a lack of qualifications, but because they neglected to make sure people could find them. I’m certain that busy potential clients wouldn’t have invested those 20 minutes digging around— in that same amount of time, they would have been able to come across five other readily available firms they could work with.

It blows my mind that A/E firms could sometimes forget this basic rule— they can’t work with you if they can’t find you! This rule extends well beyond getting projects. In the industry’s intensely competitive hiring market, top employees won’t work for you if they can’t easily get accurate contact information or find out more about your firm. It’s unfortunate that firms sometimes take themselves out of the game from the start by being inaccessible. A lack of accessibility speaks volumes to prospective clients and employees. In fact, inaccessibility may be perceived as a reflection on a firm’s qualifications, professionalism, experience, and reliability to the market.

Take the firm I described earlier. It’s pretty likely that if I were a potential client researching engineering firms in Virginia and I came across that one as well as another firm with a strong web site, I’d go with the latter. The firm’s accessibility would make me feel it is more established and reliable— and more confident in the value it could offer me.

So how can A/E firms avoid being lost in the crowd and overlooked by potential clients and employees? Here are a few suggestions to make sure your firm is out front and ready to get work

Get listed. This probably seems obvious, but, based on a number of experiences like the one I described earlier, there are a bunch of firms out there in need of a reminder: Make sure your contact information is listed— and accurate— in the Yellow Pages and online directories! People shouldn’t have to do detective work to find your firm’s phone number. 

Pay attention to your web site. Having a web site is one of the most critical marketing tools a firm can employ— it’s one of the first places people go to learn about your firm and, oftentimes, the first impression they get. That said, it’s critical that the web site looks professional.

But simply having one isn’t enough, and the best graphics in the world won’t make up for poorly organized or non-existent information. I’ve visited a number of A/E firm web sites where finding the phone number or information on the firm’s services or experience was next to impossible. Instead of hiding this basic information deep in the web site on an obscure contact page, put it prominently on every page in the bottom banner or along the side. Another pet peeve (and potential turnoff) is out-of-date information— seeing “Last updated: June 2001” is not encouraging.

They found you, now what? This accessibility issue is only the start. After making sure your firm is accessible to those who want to find you, are you capturing— and holding— their attention? When a potential client or employee is spending time looking into your firm, it is a golden opportunity to take advantage of that first impression and make him want to learn more. One way to do this is by tailoring your marketing messages to address the distinct needs of the various clients your firm is targeting— rather than sending a one-size-fits-all message. Take the web site, for example— consider having a section dedicated to each of your target markets and focus the content of each section on them and things that matter to them.

Be confident you’re on the right track. After all this, are you confident you are sending the right messages through your marketing communications? Conducting a marketing audit— or a comprehensive and critical review of the entire marketing system, tools being used, and messages being sent to the marketplace— can tell you. Bringing in an outside perspective adds significant value to this process by allowing someone out of the trenches to interpret your message and let you know if what you are trying to say is really coming across. This analysis will also reveal strengths of your marketing program as well as areas in need of improvement, enabling you to refine marketing and business development strategies and better connect with those you want to work with. Boiling it down, what does this mean? It means you can get a higher return on your marketing investment.

Now is the time to make sure you are on the right foot and making the most of your marketing dollars. And why not start with the basics? As the example of the engineering firm in Virginia shows, there are sometimes simple, small changes that can make the difference between getting inbound project and employment inquiries, and getting lost in the Yellow Pages.— SUSAN DELL ORTO (sdellorto@zweigwhite.com)

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