[Forrest Richardson]

Sales? Probably not. But a website can certainly serve to lay out an array of work and a few philosophical paragraphs.

[Brad Klein]

One of the great advantages of architecture-related Websites is that golf writers like myself don't get bombarded as much by slick promotional brochures and elaborate files with photo spreads. I used to have to add a file drawer every few months to accomodate all the stuff I was sent but the surface mail overload has slowed down dramatically of late, allowing me to keep my home office space manageable.

[Forrest Richardson]

With all that newfound space you should buy a sulcata.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Hey, I recently had a high school friend and two old girlfriends google me, find my website and then find me......so it kind of replaces Classmates.Com membership, albeit a bit more expensively.

Brad is right - more and more, people just go on the web, reducing the need for fancy brochures - of which I have plenty left.  For a while, they were necessary, because so few people had the band width to download large photo files.  Now, most businesses do.  I am wondering now whether to add the inserts for my most recent work at a few thousand bucks, or just forget it altogether.

[Jim Nugent]

From the little I understand, it seems unlikely to me that the websites of top-level golf course architects bring them any business.  Does Nicklaus get any design work from his website?  Does Doak?  Fazio?  Brauer?  Any of the architects who take part in this forum?  

My impression is you get your work from referrals/history (people knowing your reputation), combined with personal interviews.  Is that right?  If so, I doubt your websites serve much of a selling purpose.

If you want to turn your websites into selling tools, you follow the principles of direct response marketing.  Those principles are very well established.  Not sure how well the tool will ever work.  But I'm sure you could strengthen them from what they are now.  

 

[Jeff_Brauer]

Jim,

You are right. Its the old 80-20 rule - 80% of your business comes from 20% of your past clients or their referrals.

A web site is just one of those things you have "just in case" and because everyone else has one these days.  BTW, they can have special password protected areas just for clients, and FTP sites for transferring big files, etc. so they have some use.  And I think some gca's sell their books and whatevers off them.  

At some point, I believe some enterprising young gca will probably design or copy and sell green designs off a web site for a fee. It has been tried before, with small ads in the back of magazines, but the web would make that much more possible.

[Forrest Richardson]

Jim — Ours serves best when we meet with a club and members of a committee need to follow up and make their decisions. We often create special access pages where our presentations can be downloaded. We have also posted referrals so committee members can access credentials and such references. In this sense, it is a good tool.

[Steve Burrows]

If you really look at them, most websites within a given industry are pretty much the same.  In this one, they generally have a very similar physical appearance, with links to past projects, company philosophy, and an image of the designer holding some plans and pointing his finger.  But ultimately, no one really separates themselves with a website.  They are too trite and banal.  Websites don't sell product.  People sell product.  The product itself (in this case, previously built, tangible golf courses) sells product.

[Brad Klein]

The real reason to have Website is because others have them.

Those who are already celebrities don't need them. The 99% of working architects who aspire, work hard and rely upon referrals and indirect references have more to lose by not having a Website than they have to gain by having it. And the costs of starting one up and operating it are pretty low overhead compared to everything else at the office. In other words, it's inexpensive marketing that provides a service without being aggressive.

[Ryan Farrow]

I watched my mom run her own business for over 15 years and she always seemed to be advertising. In your industry where is the best place to advertise, if anywhere? You have such a small market I assuming spending advertising dollars on something other than a website would be a complete waste.

Do you think Tillie ever got business from his ads in Golf Illustrated?

[Jeff_Brauer]

Ryan,

I seriously doubt it. There are some industry mags that constantly solicit advertising, but since mostly only industry folks read them, I have never bought into the theory of advertising.  A small ad in the back of GD would be cost prohibitive and again, not cost effective.  

For that money, 99% of the people who look at it are not target customers.  I have gotten calls after someone saw an article on me, but have never gotten a response from any ad (I usually take ads out in the local superintendents chapter, for instance, but more to support them)

Most people doing a golf course develop a list of 3-6 gcas' usually getting names either from overall publicity (you gotta get Fazio in here!) or from nearby projects who went through the same process.  Some cities broadcast for a bigger list - using NGF or ASGCA lists as their basis for soliciting proposals.

In any case, I doubt an ad does much other than promote general brand awareness, if such can be achieved by a small gca firm.

[Jordan Wall]

This site has been awesome, and I have met many great people!

So far because of this site I have been able to play a lot of great courses.

Overlake (which I am playing again today with a GCA'er!), Sahalee, Aldarra, Seattle GC, and various other courses.
Now, I am going to be heading to Bandon with a GCA'er whom I met with last March.
That is the same GCA'er I talk with every few days and see every week.

They really do serve a purpose.
So far for me, its been to meet many cool people!  Tom Doak!

[Jeff_Brauer]

Jordan,

Didn't the Bears whup the Seahawks last night making them 3-1?

[Ian Andrew]

If you have a good solid easy to use web site, you direct people to it. When you’re on the road and someone is interested in working with you – it helps to have a place for them to go to - before you get back home and follow up from the first phone call.

I have taken to writing a lot in the last year and all my articles reference my web site. I have had a few calls from perspective clients (one’s that I did not know were interested) that enjoyed the web site, often they didn't realize I was the project architect, and often want to sit down and discuss the possibility of working together.

Web sites are an excellent and subtle form of advertising that seems to suit golf well. Like Jeff said, advertising seems to be far too expensive and very unproductive, so we are forced to look for other more effective means. Web sites seem to be far more effective than you would have initially thought (or at least mine has turned out to be more effective than I thought it would).

[Chris Cupit]

For whatever it's worth, as an owner who went through the hiring process 18 mnths ago, I never considered even looking at the web for an architect.  

I asked courses and people I knew whom they would reccomend and went from there.

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