Communicate as Well as You Build: Five Habits That Boost Your Reputation
Most firms would never let a drawing leave the office half-finished. But those same firms may not apply that same level of detail to their written content, including press releases, proposals, and posts. While their work for clients may be sharp, their words may be fuzzy. As a result, they’re often hard to understand and even harder to follow.
In a competitive field where people cannot always differentiate one firm from the next, words can play a major role in decision making. The good news is that clear communication is not a talent you were born with—you have it or you don’t. It’s a set of habits, and any firm can build them. Here are five that make the difference, whether you are pitching an editor, writing a proposal, or posting on social media on a Tuesday.
- Decide what you stand for before you say anything.Before you write a word, know the message or messages about your firm that you want people to remember. Firms that skip this step say something different in every proposal, every post, and every conversation, and the market never quite learns who or what they are. Pick your message and repeat it until you are sick of it. That is usually right about when your audience starts to remember it.
- Trade your jargon for words a human can understand.Every field has insider language, and the AEC industry has more than most. Words like datum, tectonic, and massing earn their keep in the studio and lose most everyone else. Many of the people who hire you never went to architecture school, so don’t assume they get it. If your neighbor would not understand what you’re trying to say, rewrite it with the words that she would recognize.
- Lead with the why, not the what.This habit changes everything, and it’s the least obvious. Anyone can list what they did on a project, its square footage, its materials, and its systems. But the WHY of a project is much more compelling than the WHAT. Facts are boring, stories and outcomes are compelling. Whether you are writing a project description or a media pitch, start with the why and let the details back it up.
- Grab people with great visuals, not just text.You work in a visual profession, so make sure your imagery is top notch. One strong image will hold people way longer and make them much more curious about your work than columns on a page or a wall of text. Wherever you communicate—on your site, in a pitch, or on social—give people something to see. Make it clear what they’re looking at and explain its impact. The image pulls them in. The words add more depth.
- Start a conversation instead of giving a speech.
The best communication is engaging. Think of it as a dialogue not a monologue. Firms often treat every channel as a megaphone to shout statements about themselves, announcing what they won and what they built. That gets old fast. Instead, you should share what you learned, ask what others think, and offer solutions or examples of lessons learned. If you talk about yourself all the time, you’ll lose your audience fast. Give people something useful and they remember you.
Get these five habits right, and your words will flow easily and effectively.
If you want help building them into your communications strategy, reach out. We would love to hear from you.
Keep building influence!
