Cold Mailing People

[frog_a_lot]

Ok wierd thread title i know, and i don't know where to even put this.

 

But i am trying to start up doing some freelance work, and to get my name out there i figured i would make a list of a large number of architecture firms, firstly in my area and then maybe outside my area and send them an email with examples of work and a bit about me.

 

Do you think this is a good or bad idea?

 

Do you think many companies would actually look into the email or just skip over it?

 

Have you or your company taken such an approach before?

 

Pros and Cons would be helpful

 

I have also attatched a pic of the flyer i would send out with my email.

[Joseph Petrino]

I'm doing that right now also.

 

I'm not including any images, only brief text and a link.

It's to soon to know how effective it is.

 

Last year I sent out postcards and got a few jobs that way. I plan to go back to that eventually.

[CarlAhearne]

The good thing about doing this by email is that you don't lose anything whatever happens; it doesn't cost you anything so even if you only get a couple of people interested, you've done it for nothing... I think companies have mixed opinions about how effective it is; some people will happily read the email and bear you in mind, other people will be busy and just ignore it. I'd say keep it brief and get the key info in the email. People may be too lazy to open the image/pdf so make sure they can get the important bits without opening it...

 

Do you have a website? I'd certainly say it would be a good idea to have one, even if only very basic so that people can easily find out more.. Put a link in your email to your website and away you go..

 

Play the numbers game; send it out to a lot of people and see how it goes... Good luck and let us know hoe you get on...

[ihabkal]

people aremn't lazy, they're bored or depressed to hunt information.

cold e-mailing costs time so it is not free. you could spend an entire day looking for 50 e-mails.

it is not effective. but it is the cheapest option.

[gem07]

hi,

 

A few suggestions.

 

- try to refrain from using PDFs (people dont really bother opening attachments. You want to recreate the PDF in an email, ideally HTML in Dreamweaver or frontpage and then drop it into outlook or whatever you are using)

- give them a reason to call you ie in marketing terms 'a call to action'. usually this is a promo, but you can say somethign like 'win the job with state of the art visualisations from Camer.....'

- you definitely need a website (yours looks good - images are great but you need some text - waht are the projects? are they high profile? if so, why not mention that? your areas of expertise need to be more visible. and divided a bit better. youve done loads of work, just need to present it better. havendaledesign have a website that is a good example.

- the oz goverment has a bid/tender website (dont know what the site is - its been ages since i was in oz) but that tells you who the architects are working on major projects - at least you'll know they have work.

 

any direct email campaigns that get a click through of more than 10% are considered pretty effective - dont let that deter you, it will work, just gotta keep at it. If you invest in some marketing email software, you'll be able to see who opened the email, who cliked on a link in it etc so you can follow up with a phone call.

 

hope that helps. goodluck.

[ihabkal]

about major projects, let's be reasonable, they get given to major rendering studios. your best bet is to target small firms who you can work with on a personal level.

I worked on major and small jobs, and they both pay the same anyway.

[Jeff Mottle]

From the 2009 CGA Architectural Visualization Survey:

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/Reviews/Review070_1.asp