Notes for owners · Business growth
A marketing plan for a small architecture practice, on one page
A marketing plan for a small architecture practice fits on one page: the project type you want, the people who refer it, one published project at a time, and a follow-up log. Here is the plan, filled in.
The GullySales team · Updated 28 Sept 2026 · 8 min read
On this page
A marketing plan for a small architecture practice fits on one page. The project type and budget band you want more of. The people who are asked "do you know an architect" before you are. The proof you will publish, one completed project at a time. The two or three places that proof is shown. What happens when an enquiry arrives. And the numbers the partners count. The budget is measured in a partner's hours, with photography the only line that costs real money. Advertising comes last, and the Council's conduct regulations decide how much of it you may do.
Start with the project you want more of, not the channel
Most marketing strategies for architecture firms start with "we should be on Instagram" or "we need a new website". Start instead with the project. A practice that wants more ₹1.5 crore houses, one that wants apartment interiors from developers and one that wants school buildings from trusts are selling to three different buyers. The same plan will not serve them.
| Project type | Who decides | Where they look first | What the plan must do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Independent houses | The plot owner and their family | The broker, the contractor, the neighbour who built last year, then Maps | Be named by the trade, and show finished houses with budgets |
| Apartment and villa interiors for developers | The developer's project head | Their existing consultants and the last project they liked | Publish the finished flat and get the site engineer to remember you |
| Commercial fit-outs | The facility or admin head | LinkedIn, the landlord, the project management consultant | Be on the PMC's list and show the schedule you held |
| Institutional and public work | A trust board or a government department | Empanelment lists and tenders | Be empanelled early, with the documents ready |
| Renovation and extension | A homeowner with a problem | Search, then Maps | Answer the specific question, sanction for a second floor, on a page of its own |
Pick one row as the primary and one as the secondary. Everything below is written for the primary. A practice that says yes to all five rows is marketing to nobody in particular.
The plan on one page
Write these six lines and pin them above the partner's desk.
- Target. "Independent houses on 30 by 40 and 40 by 60 sites in the north of the city, ₹60 lakh to ₹1.5 crore construction budget." One sentence, with the number in it.
- Buyer and referrers. Who signs, and the twenty people who are asked before you are: brokers, contractors, structural engineers, the CA, the vaastu consultant, the bank's valuer, past clients. Names, not categories. Our post on how an architecture practice wins work explains why this list is where most commissions come from.
- Proof. Each completed project photographed and published as a page of its own: plan, brief in the client's words, site size, budget band, year, contractor and consultants named. Nothing published as a render.
- Where the proof is shown. The website page, the Google Business Profile, Instagram or LinkedIn depending on the row you picked, and a WhatsApp message to every person on the referrer list. Four places, the same project.
- What happens to an enquiry. Who answers, and what is asked on the first call: plot, stage, budget band, who referred. When the fee basis goes in writing, and how the enquiry is followed up while the family decides. That routine is set out in how to get architecture projects.
- What is counted. Enquiries by source and type, first meetings held, fee agreements signed, and which referrer each came from.
The budget is hours, and one line of money
Put a number of hours against each line, and a name. A partner spends two hours after each project completes writing the page and sending it to the list. The junior architect photographs the site at each stage for the profile. A partner visits three people on the referrer list whenever a house is handed over. Written down like that, the plan is about six hours a project, which is why it survives a busy year and a plan built on posting does not.
The one line of money is photography, for example ₹20,000 to ₹40,000 for a house by an architectural photographer, as an illustrative range. It is the best money in the plan. A website that carries a page per project is the second cost, paid once. Advertising, if it appears at all, sits at the bottom of the page with a note to read the Council's regulations first.
What the Council says about promotion
The Council of Architecture's conduct regulations restrict how an architect may advertise, solicit work and compete on fee. What the wording permits has changed over the years and is read differently by different practices and chapters. Nothing in this plan tells you what is allowed. Before a paid advertisement, a fee-share with a broker or a sponsored post goes out, read the current regulations or ask the Council. Publishing your own completed work with the client's permission is what practices have always done. The lines around it are for the Council to draw, not for a marketing plan.
Where a small practice's plan goes wrong
The feed fills with renders and nothing built. Thirty projects go on the website with one photograph each and no brief, no budget and no consultants, so a plot owner learns nothing. The practice enters a competition and calls it marketing, and loses six weeks of a partner. Portal enquiries are bought, and every one opens with the fee. Nobody keeps an enquiry log, so the contractor who sent three houses is never thanked, and stops. And the fee conversation is delayed to the third meeting, which is why the family went quiet after the second.
For example: a four-person practice in Kochi
For example, take a practice in Kochi with two partners and two junior architects, doing houses in Kakkanad and Tripunithura, with an occasional clinic interior. The details are illustrative. Its one-page plan reads like this. Target: houses of ₹80 lakh to ₹2 crore construction budget within the city. Referrers: eleven names, four contractors, two structural engineers, a broker in Kakkanad, the family's CA and three past clients. Proof: every completed house photographed and published with the contractor named. Shown on the website, the Google profile, Instagram, and by WhatsApp to the eleven. Enquiries answered by the second partner the same day, the fee basis sent in writing after the first meeting, and followed up at the plot owner's pace. Counted in a spreadsheet the partners open together at the end of each project. No advertising. The whole plan is one sheet, and the practice knows which of the eleven names its last four houses came from.
What to do next
Write the six lines for your own practice this week, starting with the project type and the number. Then check how many of the people on your referrer list have seen your last completed project. If you would like the plan built with the enquiry log and the follow-up behind it, book the free audit.