At Promoguy, we pride ourselves on how we provide extensive, hands-on content marketing services for our clients. This involves multimedia, multi-channel online marketing and promotion packages with a range of prior successes across many industries. In this instance, we’ll look at a content production case that exemplifies this multi-pronged approach and how it boosted the operations of 2 Dutch architectural visualisation firms.

Furthermore, the case study aims to lay out the continuous nature of content planning as we approach it. Our services in content production make use of malleable strategies in planning, requiring an ability to adjust for quick, on-demand changes and seasonal content requests. This meant constant contact with the clients for feedback, approval, scheduling, and future research.

All in all, the partnerships with these 2 clients produced a fruitful outcome. The companies were seeing a sufficient level of growth and making use of existing content for social media marketing. They had more followers than before and better engagement for their brand.

Client Outlook

This case deals with 2 separate clients who are in identical fields. As architectural visualisation companies, they would produce rendered 3D photo simulations of various residential, urban, or industrial design projects. Some of these visualisations would be at the behest of clients or design firms, while others were entrants in competitions. These projects could help firms and architects present their designs in a more pleasing manner, portraying the projects as they would appear after construction.

The clients were both based in the Netherlands, but their services extended to firms and architects in other countries as well. Most of their work was local to their native country and those nearby, e.g. Germany or Belgium. Their work was extensive, with one of the clients having operated for over 2 decades by now.

Needless to say, they wanted to improve their respective online presences, draw in more clients, and show off their older projects. Their main aim was brand-building and, as a visual brand, showing off their past successes to potential clients and stakeholders. Therefore, the companies were both looking for lead generation and increased brand awareness as a means of growing their businesses.

As part of these goals, the content needed to show off the companies’ creativity while focusing on their success and brand elements. The marketing strategy needed to be consistent and required a multi-channel approach. Our experts also concluded that to achieve these ends, the company needed to infuse content with their own distinct identity and formatting. These became the primary guidelines for developing our content strategy.

Content Production & Management

At first, we applied our usual method for handling content production. Mainly, our team would develop a spreadsheet with posts for each channel, organised chronologically. These spreadsheets would allow us to subtly alter the posts for each individual channel, tag the appropriate collaborator accounts, and approve them for scheduling with the aid of the client. This process involved obtaining images from the company, preparing them for posts, writing up the accompanying text, researching the appropriate hashtags and channels, and sending them for client approval.

Image Adaptation

Seeing as how the clients wanted to build up their branding, our approach to the marketing strategy had to adapt for these goals. The images they provided us needed to be edited for the appropriate channel formats, also adding watermarks and logos where necessary. This also meant adapting the images to the format of each platform, with carousels for Instagram, single images for LinkedIn, and multiple image layouts for Facebook.

Similarly, one of the clients made it clear that some images were old and may not represent the image quality the company can provide in recent years. As a result, these “legacy” images had to be edited with a different format (black and white) so it would be clear to viewers that they were not representative of their present work.

We ran multiple versions of post formats for the clients. Some versions consisted of borders/outlines and company insignias in varying styles. Others contained the year of the project, with varying visual effects. These mock-ups gave them a broad range to choose from while enhancing the branding options available.

A/B Tested Content

Both companies wanted their content to be put up on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook for lead generation. This led to the creation of CTAs and ads that made use of them for optimal CTR. Consequently, certain images and ads needed to be A/B tested, fitted with a variety of CTAs, adapted in size for each version, and pre-tested on content publishing sites. Variations of CTAs ran up more than a dozen and A/B testing included potential lead generation posts and targeted ads (as elaborated below).

In terms of tone, we experimented with a variety of styles on different platforms. Compared to Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn content was more formal. This allowed the same post to carry out multiple functions depending on the publishing platform, showing different elements of the company’s brand for different contexts.

SEMrush and Buffer were ideal for scheduling posts beforehand, which often meant weeks in advance. Our project manager kept track of posts and made any last-minute changes to the publishing schedule when necessary. This would make the approval process more adaptive to changes in the client company’s planning or editorial feedback.

Social Media Advertising Services

Aside from scheduled social media content, the company also asked Promoguy to make ads and mock-ups. These sorts of video ads would engage potential clients with company slogans, while pictures of previous visualisation projects accompany the text. Our team would develop the motion visuals first, and then come up with the text to go with it. Together these media elements would provide an easy pitch for interested parties. The ads would go up on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, covering the majority of their online marketing capabilities.

Another form of social media promotion that we developed for both clients was LinkedIn contact forms. These forms would target specific potential clients in the target audience, using a short introduction to the company, their services, and how to get in touch with them. Effectively, they offered an easily accessible, effective sales pitch with all of the necessary information for getting acquainted with the company in one place. They also acted as a more personalised messaging format than a regular ad, as they could be specific to certain occasions (i.e. “happy holidays” messages, New Year’s etc.).

Aside from the forms, we also developed copywriting text for the client’s end-of-year retrospectives for the client’s work and posts aimed at holiday promotion. These forms and seasonal/holiday posts served as a prime way of generating more leads for clients.

Online Content Goals

The online content was able to promote the company’s image and help achieve a greater degree of exposure. While lead generation numbers are confidential, the online engagement metrics show some notable improvements along these lines. The cumulative effect of all these content strategies was displaying higher CTRs and social media interaction.

The companies were fairing much better on more informal, visually-oriented social media channels like Instagram, but overall they were seeing increases across all 3 platforms. This was particularly pronounced in the Netherlands and surrounding countries. In essence, the clients were solidifying their existing market while expanding to new territories such as Spain and Belgium.

More recent strategies are continuously improving statistics all across major channels, showing growth in followers and audience engagement. As the original wave of content was gaining more traction, we increased output for more exponential growth. This entailed more regular posts for driving visibility. As a result, our findings have shown an increase in numbers on a day-by-day basis (as illustrated above).

Overall, the companies were more visible in the relevant search queries and building up their reputation in their respective target markets. Maintaining this has been a matter of pre-planning and setting up a content calendar with a variety of posts. As this case shows, content production requires constant output and the ability to adapt on the fly, which is what we provided.