Marketing your small business isn’t simply a matter of promotion- it’s also a method of connecting with your consumers in a meaningful way and forging a relationship with them. One method of reaching out to your target demographic is to utilize the literal brick and mortar of your business. By fostering a connection between your architecture and your marketing, you can make a place for yourself in the local landscape in terms of business and culture.

Promoting a Local Identity

Many business owners undervalue what their company can do for their city. Not only do they sustain the economy, but their successes also reflect in the city’s overall wellbeing. 

One method of incorporating your city into your marketing is to make a splash in a storefront by hiring local artists to provide a mural or sculpture to draw attention (and admiration).  If you’re lucky enough to work in a building with a long history and architectural interest, consider partnering with a local historical society to give tours and campaign for city-wide preservation of historic sites. This will support a local cause, educate denizens of your city, and also get potential customers through your doors.

In a more direct sense, if you’ve got a distinctive arch or piece of architectural grandeur on your building or in your business’s primary location, incorporate it into your branding materials or logo. It gives customers a sense of context within your area and signifies that your company identifies itself with the city. 

Visual Branding

Creating a cohesive brand personality has become essential to making a company relatable and recognizable in a sea of competitors. You, as an entrepreneur, need to formulate and communicate your message concisely and effectively. An underutilized element in brand marketing is the workspace. One way to cement your hard-earned brand personality is to ensure it’s espoused in your architecture.

Whether you’re designing a storefront or a trade show booth, the architectural elements you utilize will underline your brand’s message. There’s an extraordinary element of psychology in architecture, from the height of ceilings to the angles in a room, that can influence the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. 

Drastic remodeling is a huge burden on productivity and on a budget, so utilize some creative function of color and furniture to do things like make an impression of high ceilings. Such cunning fixes will keep costs and inconvenience to a minimum during the process. 

Publicizing Values

A common tack for marketers is to promote a business’s strongest positive traits. Increasingly, this includes a campaign to promote an ethical agenda. For example, companies will choose to focus on their eco-friendly efforts to campaign for stronger support and more customer loyalty. 

Savvy marketers know that the most effective marketing is the emotional component, so broadcasting your company’s core values is an excellent way to identify emotionally with passers-by and spark larger, profound conversations about deeper issues. For optimal results, make sure to take the pulse of what issues are important to your city as well as your employees.

Becoming a leader in your community when it comes to ethical concerns is a noble goal, and a profitable one. To show your commitment, explain to prospective customers the strides you’ve taken towards a green-running building. Alternatively, to truly make the most of your architecture, use a column out front as the visual thermometer to measure how much money your company’s raised for a specific cause. 

Viral Marketing

Getting creative with marketing in architecture requires a discussion about viral marketing. First, allow a clarification that viral marketing and guerilla marketing are not the same thing. Viral marketing is a wily use of social media, architecture, and “found” materials to catch the interest of consumers without demanding it. Its core principle is that its popularity spreads by word of mouth, on its merits of being interesting, rather than being artificially circulated by marketers.

Benches, fences, or bollards are common objects that can be used for the somewhat uncommon purpose of marketing by acting as a host to clever marketing materials. Crosswalks, light posts, curb grates, doorways, windowsills- these are all excellent places to consider a splash of marketing that feels both adroit and homegrown.

Especially for owners of small businesses, there’s a limit to the marketing budget. This makes viral marketing a perfect choice, though you may have to take care about where you’re allowed to place your marketing in the city. Always be respectful. 

Develop all of the opportunities you can to use architectural materials in your marketing strategy. By being mindful and creative, you can take advantage of your surroundings and boost your brand into the spotlight. For a successful campaign built around the personality of your city and the people in it, investigate what architecture can do for your business.