What to review before you plan your 2026 marketing & BD strategy
2026 PLANNING SERIES (4 PARTS)
This article kicks off a four-part series that leads to a practical, downloadable framework for building an AEC marketing and BD plan for 2026. We’ll start with the inventory (today’s article), then move to choosing what to focus on, budgeting, and finally pulling it all together into a strategy and working calendar.
Series Roadmap
What to inventory before you plan your 2026 marketing and BD strategy (you’re here)
From Inventory to Focus — How to Prioritize 2026 Initiatives (October)
Budgeting for 2026 — Fund the Work That Moves the Needle (early November)
Putting It All Together — Your 2026 Strategy, Calendar & Launch (late November)
At the end of the series, we’ll publish a detailed framework (checklists and worksheets) to make running the process inside a practice straightforward.
Fall is planning season—and your first move isn’t to write down new goals or draft a bigger budget. It’s to take a clear-eyed look at the plan you already have. Before you chart a course for 2026, you need to know what you’re working with: what’s in place, what’s working, and where the gaps are. That means stepping back to review your systems, your spend, your positioning, and your pipeline, so you can see with honesty what delivered in 2025—and what didn’t. This article introduces a practical framework for that inventory, giving you the structure to make smarter decisions about what to fix, where to focus, and how to grow stronger in the year ahead. And if you’re short on time, we’ll also share a faster path: a focused two-week sprint that provides clarity without the overwhelm.
WHY START WITH AN INVENTORY?
AEC firms are full of activity: proposals get written, websites get updated, people attend conferences and panels. But activity doesn’t always equal progress. An inventory forces you to pause and ask some tough—but essential—questions:
What did we actually do this year?
What did it cost us—in both money and staff time?
What kind of results did we see?
Where are we putting in energy with little or no return?
Without those answers, planning can quickly become guesswork. One firm might think LinkedIn is “working” because they’re posting weekly, but when they actually check, the posts aren’t reaching decision-makers—or converting into leads. Another might spend heavily on sponsorships because “we’ve always done it,” only to find the visibility is minimal compared to the cost.
Answering these questions helps cut through the noise. It highlights the difference between “being busy” and “making progress.” And it’s what transforms a hopeful 2026 plan into a strategy grounded in evidence.
THE THREE-PART FRAMEWORK
A proper marketing and BD inventory has three parts: the mechanics of your systems, the visibility of your assets and activities, and the strategic alignment of your positioning. Together, they reveal whether your firm is not only working efficiently—but working in the right direction.
1. Systems, Tactics & Assets
This is the nuts-and-bolts layer—the tools, processes, and habits that support your marketing and business development. It’s often where firms discover that what worked five years ago has quietly stopped delivering.
Consider proposals. If your hit rate is slipping, it might not be because your design work is weaker—it might be that you’re chasing too many unqualified opportunities. Or maybe your proposals are inconsistent, with outdated project sheets and staff bios that don’t align with your positioning.
This layer of the framework helps you answer questions like:
Opportunities overview. Do we have a reliable system to track pursuits, proposals, and conversion rates—or are we still relying on spreadsheets, inboxes, and memory?
Proposal quality. Are submissions polished, consistent, and reflective of our positioning—or rushed and repetitive?
Hit rate analysis. What is our actual proposal win rate, and how has it changed over time?
Go/no-go discipline. Are we being selective about the pursuits we chase— with a clear go/no-go process—or defaulting to responding to every proposal that comes in?
Client ownership. Who owns key relationships, and how are they managed across the team?
CRM effectiveness. Is a CRM in place and actively used—or is data scattered across silos?
Time investment. How much staff time goes into proposals and BD relative to the results?
Core materials. Are our bios, case studies, proposal templates fresh and aligned with current positioning?
Why it matters: when systems and assets are out of date, even the best strategy falls flat. By taking stock, you can decide what to fix, what to streamline, and what to stop—freeing up bandwidth for the initiatives that will matter most in 2026.
2. Marketing Assets, Channels & Activities
This second layer is about visibility and engagement: the ways your firm shows up in the marketplace. Most AEC firms are inconsistent here—marketing happens in fits and starts, or only when there’s spare time. The result: a weak or uneven presence that doesn’t support BD.
An inventory should document what exists, assess how it performed, and decide whether it’s worth continuing. Key areas include:
Website health. Is it up to date, visually current, and reflective of the work and services we want more of? How is it performing in terms of traffic, engagement, and conversion?
Content library. Do we have thought leadership, sector-specific material, videos, and project photography to draw on—or are we always scrambling?
Social & digital. Are we maintaining a consistent presence through LinkedIn, newsletters, and our website—or posting and sending updates sporadically, if at all? Do we have a plan for how we use these channels? If we’ve invested in SEO or paid search, is it still working as intended?
Promotional tactics. Are PR, sponsorships, and advertising placements generating visibility and credibility—or draining resources with little return?
Event participation. Are conferences, trade shows, and symposia yielding meaningful relationships—or are we just showing up?
Partnerships & alliances. Did we co-host events, join panels, or build strategic alliances that produced opportunities?
Measurement. Are we tracking ROI on channels and campaigns—or relying on anecdotes and gut feel?
Why it matters: visibility without impact is wasted effort. By looking at channels and activities holistically, you can determine what’s producing leads, credibility, and relationships—and what’s not worth repeating in 2026.
3. Strategy & Positioning
The third layer zooms out to ensure your firm is actually pursuing the right opportunities. Even flawless execution won’t help if you’re chasing markets that are cooling or services that no longer reflect client needs.
AEC markets shift fast. Residential demand fluctuates, healthcare and industrial surge in some regions and stall in others, and new technologies—from prefab to AI-driven design—are changing what clients expect.
An inventory should ask bigger-picture questions like:
Revenue concentration. Is too much income tied to one client, sector, or geography? What’s our risk exposure if that work disappears? Do we have a contingency plan if a key sector cools or a major client consolidates?
Service relevance. Do our services reflect what clients actually need today—like sustainability, speed, or integrated delivery models?
Differentiation. Does our messaging clearly express what makes us different—or could it describe any firm in the industry?
Brand perception. Do clients and staff share a consistent sense of what we’re known for, or is our reputation fragmented?
Trust factor. Do clients see us as a partner who adds value, or as a vendor competing on price alone?
Competitor landscape. Who are we really competing against today—and how do we compare?
Emerging opportunities. Are we positioned to respond to trends like adaptive reuse, student housing, industrial/logistics, or healthcare investment?
Why it matters: this layer ensures that effort and investment are aimed at the right markets, services, and messages. Without it, even efficient systems and visible marketing will push you in the wrong direction.
WHAT FIRMS GAIN FROM AN INVENTORY
Completing an inventory—whether on your own or through a guided sprint—delivers immediate benefits:
Sharper focus. You’ll stop spreading effort across tactics that don’t matter and double down on the ones that do.
Smarter spending. Budgets can be set with confidence, because you’ll know what actually produced results—and what didn’t.
Stronger positioning. Outdated messaging, stale content, and misaligned pursuits will surface quickly—and can be fixed before they hold you back another year.
More accountability. Instead of anecdotal “we think this worked,” you’ll have evidence your whole leadership team can align around.
Actionable next steps. Instead of a wish list, you’ll leave with a prioritized roadmap for 2026.
A SMARTER PATH TO PLANNING SEASON
If you’re worried this sounds like a lot of work—you’re right. A full marketing and BD inventory takes time and focus. But there are ways to do it that don’t overwhelm your team.
Some firms take the long route: a structured process that digs deep into every system, asset, and strategy. Others choose a sprint approach: two weeks of focused workshops and reviews that surface the most important insights quickly, without getting bogged down in detail. Both paths work. The difference is deciding how much time you can realistically invest before January rolls around.
What’s non-negotiable is the need to pause, reflect, and assess before you plan. Skipping this step is like designing a building without a program—you can produce drawings, but you’ll likely miss the mark.
