The word on the street from a new generation of Zoomer marketers
Sam Watson of The Agenzy is Gen Z, and he is not impressed by your digital marketing strategies. What do young Zoomer professionals working with architectural clients, fresh on the scene, have to offer old heads like us? New ways of thinking, technical savviness and fresh confidence? Let's hear him out...
I’m Sam, I’m Gen-Z, and I think your marketing is boring. Like… seriously boring.
My business, The Agenzy (a Gen-Z led marketing agency) has worked with many award winning residential architects on their social media. This often leads to an unlikely mix of minds; us, creative marketers in our 20s, and our… ‘more experienced’… architect clients. Initially, they don’t always see the potential of maximising their online presence, so we hear the *same* statement, time and time again:
‘We get most of our business from referrals’
Even reading it gives me the heebie-jeebies. And the worst thing? I’m sure that many of you reading this article would tell me *exactly* the same thing. Reliance on referrals as the sole source of new business is problematic for several reasons.
Referrals are unpredictable. Tying business growth to the activity of your client network is never a good idea. ‘Feast or famine’ referral cycles cause your workloads to fluctuate wildly, and cashflow, project management and staffing soon become hard to keep control of. Any marketing strategy that’s inconsistent… is a bad one.
And because your clients are referring similar projects, who are in turn referring *more* similar projects… you never get to really diversify your portfolio. You’re left with limited market reach, where you’ll end up struggling to expand into new project types.
‘*What Customers Crave*’ by Nicholas J. Webb splits the lifecycle of a client into 3 distinct parts, 2 of which are relevant here.
1. Pre-Touch: Anything your client interacts with before working with you. For example, your website or your social media.
2. In-Touch: Anything your client interacts with while working with you, essentially your client experience and the project outcome.
To summarise the book, the perceived value of your in-touch is only as good as the impression given by your pre-touch.
In layman’s terms, if your online presence is poor, people will think the same about your service. You’re basically handing commissions to your competitors on a silver platter.
We always ask prospects the same question: ‘Is your social media a revenue-generating marketing machine?’ Not one person has ever said yes, and there are two reasons for this.
Firstly, many businesses utilise platforms (primarily Instagram) as an extended portfolio of work. This looks very pretty, but will never generate any level of engagement, or help you discover new clients.
Secondly, residential architecture firms are often over-reliant on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, the algorithm of which simply isn’t set up for organic discoverability. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, where content from your network predominates your feed, platforms like TikTok serve content based on user engagement and interests.
I believe that TikTok is grotesquely underutilised by the whole of the architecture industry.
People seem to forget there’s a whole new generation of first time house buyers, all of whom are totally addicted to TikTok.
In 2023, the average age of a first time buyer in the UK was 35. And the fastest growing age group adopting TikTok in 2023 were those aged 35-45. And the second fastest growing age group were those aged 55 and older.
The notion that TikTok is just a platform for young people? Simply not true.
A quick search for ‘architecture firm’ on TikTok reveals a poor selection of content, focused on architecture careers and breaking into the industry. There’s virtually nothing from residential architects utilising TikTok for client generation activities. The TikTok Ads Library (paid advertisements placed on the feed) tells a similar story, showing only a few firms running TikTok ads. By a few, I mean I could count them on one hand.
So, TikTok has:
1. An audience representing a target market for architects.
2. Low organic content competition.
3. Even less ad competition.
And the TikTok algorithm works in wonderful and mysterious ways. However all iterations of the algorithm have all had one thing in common: boosting organic reach (far more when compared to other platforms).
It’s 10x easier to grow a sizable following when compared to Instagram or Facebook. TikTok is just waiting for an architecture firm to pioneer a strong content strategy.
Running ads in an undersaturated market also has its advantages. Ad campaigns are blessed with lower bids and higher conversion rates, resulting in really healthy ROAS (return on advertising spend). This makes it easy to kickstart serious sales from the get-go. For this reason, TikTok is an untapped market for residential architects, specifically those who are looking to innovate and engage with a new generation of clients. The space is waiting for a firm to lead the way.
My advice? Embrace TikTok, and be fast, before the opportunity disappears.
Sam Watson founded The Agenzy as a young marketing student aged 17, “because not enough brands were able to mobilise digital natives”, and was shortlisted for the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2023. He has worked with over 50 clients and partners including architectural studios, has ten “awesome” team members based globally, and offers over 35 services, designed to drive revenue: “The Agenzy is a group of 20-somethings who just love marketing, creating flawless digital campaigns, and helping to build amazing businesses. We love seeing happy clients.”