Should We Include A People Section In Our AEC Firm Website?

Should We Include A People Section In Our AEC Firm Website?

Come On In

Having a “People” section on your website is essential. People do business with people they know. So it continues to surprise me that there is any question about including your people on your website. AEC marketing is built on relationships. While client prospects can have a relationship with your brand, this best occurs after an introduction by your people. In this digital age, prospects want a human connection before considering hiring your firm.

Including People on your website inspirers a lot of questions. In this post, I’ll answer those I’m asked most frequently.

Who should we include in our People section?
Those in your firm with client contact. Typically this means Project Managers and above, plus everyone in Marketing and Business Development.

What if these people leave our firm?
Then you take them off your website using your content management system. This is trickier if you have group photos. If the group photo is of 4 or more people, and one of them leaves, then keep the photo. After all, the person leaving did work at the firm at the time of the photo.

Won’t our competitors steal our best employees?
Your competitors already know who your best employees are. Seeing your staff on your website isn’t going to make them any more desirable. Your employees are already on LinkedIn. They should also be visible in the industry by developing relationships. Keeping employees off your website to prevent them from leaving the firm is a myth. Trying to hide staff from competitive predatory poaching does more harm than good.

Should we include people’s photos?
Yes. Human beings like to look people in the eyes to get to know them. Adding a face to a biography makes that person real, more authentic and approachable when a prospective client sees that person at a networking event. Nobody expects your staff to be supermodels, so don’t worry about people being them photogenic enough.

People section on an AEC Firm Website

Corporate headshot or casual friday photos?
Both. Provide several photos to communicate a person’s diversity. Ultimately, photo style depends on the culture of your firm. Or even more importantly, the culture of your target clients.

What about video?
If a photo is a thousand words, then video is 10,000. Video is a powerful way to communicate what someone will be like to work with. It provides a great opportunity to tell that person’s story. Not everyone is comfortable speaking on camera like Ron Burgundy. But there are other options. Try voice-over with project photos or favorite things combined as a slideshow. Stalwart PR, cleverly used video of employees talking about the strengths of their co-workers. Think video testimonial, but instead of coming from a client (which isn’t bad either), the praise comes from co-workers.

Should we include a bio?
I prefer a short introduction to the person with the ability to “Read More” or download a PDF Bio. The download can be helpful for teaming scenarios. Simply listing a person’s achievements like a resume is dull. I recommend a story with more of a narrative arc to make an emotional connection. Another technique I’ve used effectively is an interview format like you’d see in a magazine. You include custom questions per person, and feature their best answers (as seen below in the Randall Lamb site we designed).

Q&A For People Section

What should we call this section?
Call it something consistent with the culture of your firm. You can be clever, but not cryptic. It should be easy for visitors to find this section as part of your top-level navigation. I’ve seen this section titled as People, Team, Staff, Leaders, About Us (I’d reserve this title for about the firm), Leadership, Talent, Management, etc.

Having a People section on your website is another great tool for prospects to get to know, like, and trust your people, and thus, your firm.

Email Marketing 101

I’d like to share with you a few tips and techniques that make e-mail marketing a successful part of the LecoursDesign promo mix.

1. Have a Strategy
It’s wise to have a goal for the overall campaign and for each individual e-mail blast. For example, my overall intent is to position myself as a marketing thought leader in the A/E/C industry. I do this by consistently sharing actionable knowledge and success stories. My goal with this particular entry is to share specific expertise so that you will consider hiring us to create your next e-mail marketing campaign.

2. Building Your Mailing List
Dedicate time to building a mailing list of readers within your target market. It’s best to ask people to opt-in before you show up unannounced in their in-box. I do this by having a link in my e-mail signature to our website that has a sign-up form. Also, when I meet potential clients, I’ll ask either in person, or via e-mail, “may I send you free marketing advice on a monthly basis as an e-mail?”

3. Getting People to Open Up
In an in-box full of messages, a compelling Subject line entices the reader to open your e-mail. Six to ten words and 35-55 characters is best. For continuity I always include “LecoursDesign:” as the first part of our Subject lines and the topic of the e-mail as the second part. Using “David Lecours” for the From field lets readers know this e-mail is coming from an actual person. A good e-mail service provider will provide you with metrics to measure how many people open your e-mail. According to MarketingSherpa, good open rates are 20% and higher. I’ve found that sending e-mails on Tues. or Wed at mid-day improves our open rates. I always send a test to myself and my Office Manager to check spelling, formatting and links before sending to our entire mailing list.

4. Juicy Content Creates a Connection
The first 4 vertical inches of an e-mail often gets shown in a Preview Pane which can determine the fate of your message. I include a branded The Marketing Voice masthead for credibility and a headshot to let the reader know this is written by a real person. If readers only view a sea of lengthy text, then it feels like work and thus decreases open rates. My goal is that our e-mail content offers something of value. The more actionable the content, the more value we are providing. I want to continually be making deposits in our relationships with past, present and future clients. I make the content personal and I’m not afraid to let people know what I believe. I try to keep our messages brief but if more than 800 words, I’ll include a bridge link like “read more on our blog.”

I hope you’ll consider e-mail marketing as another tool to connect with your audience. Let me know if you need assistance in creating a custom, branded e-mail campaign for your firm.

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Recommended E-mail Marketing Providers: Emma, Constant Contact. We use:Vertical Response

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* A / E / C = Architecture, Engineering, & Construction (but you already knew that)
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