SBA Consultation Insight
When Referrals Work Too Well
An architecture firm had grown entirely through relationships. Their website reflected that assumption, and it was costing them opportunities they never knew existed.
By Doug Mansfield | President, Mansfield Marketing
Home > SBA Consultations > When Referrals Work Too Well
The Relationship-Dependent Business
An architecture firm came to me after eight years of steady growth. They'd expanded from two founders to a team of nine. Revenue had climbed. Projects had grown in scope and complexity. They'd added higher education work to their original focus on hospitality and custom residential.
All of this happened without meaningful marketing investment.
Their business development model was simple: relationships drove everything. Early clients came from personal networks. New work came from people who'd worked with them before. Referrals compounded. The flywheel turned.
Then COVID hit, and the pipeline froze. Projects that should have closed stalled indefinitely. The trajectory that pointed toward doubling revenue flattened to marginal growth. Suddenly, depending entirely on existing relationships felt risky.
The Website That Assumed Too Much
I pulled up their homepage during our consultation. The largest text on the screen was the name of a winery. Their spotlight feature showcased a beautiful project, but visitors landing on the page had no immediate indication they'd arrived at an architecture firm's website.
The firm's name appeared in a logo tucked into the corner. The word "Design Studio" sat beneath it in small type. Nothing explicitly stated what services they provided or what made them different.
When I raised this, the response was familiar: "Nobody visits our website without already knowing who we are."
I hear this reasoning frequently. And it's partially true. Most of their traffic probably did come from people who already knew the firm through referrals or prior work. Those visitors didn't need the website to explain the basics.
But that assumption created a ceiling. Anyone who heard the firm's name in passing, anyone researching architecture options before making contact, anyone comparing firms during a selection process landed on a page that expected them to already understand what they were looking at.
The website served existing relationships well. It did almost nothing to create new ones.
The Missing Tagline Problem
I asked if they could summarize what made them different in five words or less.
The answer: they could write a good paragraph. Maybe even a compelling page. But distilling it to a phrase felt impossible. Their work was too nuanced. Their approach was too sophisticated. The short version would lose everything important.
This resistance is universal among technical and creative firms. Engineers say it. Architects say it. Specialized consultants say it. The work is complex, so the explanation must be complex.
But the complexity argument actually proves why brevity matters. If you can't communicate your differentiation in a glance, you lose everyone who isn't already committed to learning more. The paragraph exists for people who've decided to invest attention. The tagline exists for everyone else.
Five words that capture something distinctive. That's the goal. Not comprehensive. Not complete. Just enough to signal that further investigation is worthwhile.
The Higher Education Opportunity Gap
The firm had successfully expanded into higher education work. Laboratory projects. Campus food service facilities. Feasibility studies. A growing portfolio with institutional clients.
None of this appeared prominently on their website.
Visitors researching architecture firms for university projects would find hospitality work and custom homes. The higher education capability existed but remained invisible to anyone who didn't already know to ask about it.
This gap represented more than a website problem. It represented a positioning decision they'd made passively by not making it actively. Their online presence told one story while their actual capabilities told another.
Building for a New Market Segment
I suggested creating a dedicated landing page specifically for higher education prospects. Not buried in the navigation. Not mixed with other project types. A distinct entry point designed for that specific audience.
The page would need different messaging than the general site. University decision makers face different pressures than residential clients or hospitality developers. They're spending institutional money. They're accountable to committees and administrators. They're extraordinarily risk-averse because a bad vendor choice can end careers.
The messaging for that audience needs to address those specific concerns. Experience with similar institutions. Understanding of campus processes. Track record of projects delivered without the problems that create political exposure for the people who approved the contract.
A portfolio page showing pretty pictures isn't enough. The page needs to speak directly to the anxieties and priorities of that buyer profile.
Remarketing for Relationship Building
Here's where digital marketing becomes useful even for relationship-dependent businesses.
The firm mentioned an upcoming visit to a university campus. They were pursuing feasibility study work. The traditional approach: send emails, make calls, show up for meetings, hope the decision makers remember you favorably when budgets allow.
Remarketing changes the dynamic.
Anyone who clicks a link to your website gets tagged. For the next thirty days, they see your banner ads on news sites, sports pages, industry publications. The impression forms that you're everywhere. A serious firm with serious presence. When you show up for the meeting, there's already subconscious familiarity.
The setup: create a Google Ads remarketing campaign. Set geographic targeting around the campus zip codes. Send personalized emails to target contacts with links to your higher education landing page. When they click, they enter your remarketing audience. Now every dean and department head who showed any interest sees your firm's brand repeatedly in the weeks before and after your visit.
Cost runs about $5 per thousand impressions. Trivial compared to the contract values at stake. And it works because you're not competing for expensive keywords. You're simply staying visible to a hand-selected audience.
Brand as Risk Reduction
For institutional buyers, brand recognition serves a specific function: it reduces perceived risk.
Nobody gets fired for hiring the firm everyone's heard of. Unknown firms require justification. The procurement committee asks why you're recommending this company nobody recognizes. Now you're defending your choice before the work even begins.
A firm that appears everywhere creates the impression of established credibility. Whether that impression comes from genuine market presence or clever remarketing targeting doesn't matter. The decision maker feels safer. The recommendation becomes easier to defend.This is why professional services firms invest in brand building even when direct response advertising doesn't make sense. The payoff isn't immediate leads. It's reduced friction in sales conversations that were already going to happen.
The Reset Opportunity
The firm framed their situation as a COVID-related setback. Growth had stalled. They were using the disruption to reconsider how they approached marketing.
But the real opportunity was larger than recovering lost momentum. They had a chance to build infrastructure that would work regardless of economic conditions. A website that communicated clearly to new visitors. Landing pages tailored to specific market segments. Remarketing capabilities that could warm up any prospect list before direct outreach.
Relationship-dependent businesses work well until they don't. Building marketing capability during a slow period means having it ready when the next disruption hits.
