“Get more project enquiries” sounds clear until the first enquiries arrive. A small refurbishment, a request for a public tender partner and an invitation to price a funded development call for different responses. To judge progress, a goal needs to specify the outcome, project type, period and evidence that counts.
That matters for architecture practices, developers and property owners because decisions can take months. Someone may read about planning constraints long before a project is approved or a design team is appointed. The question is whether the right people are moving towards a useful decision, not simply whether page visits have increased.
Start with a decision marketing can influence
Identify the decision behind the activity before choosing a metric. A developer marketing space in a new building may need discussions with suitable tenants. A practice entering healthcare may need invitations to relevant early-stage conversations. A public-building team may want procurement officers to find evidence of comparable work. All three might publish case studies, but they are aiming for different outcomes.
Keep the final business result separate from the steps marketing can reasonably affect. A signed appointment also depends on fees, capacity, procurement rules, funding and proposal quality. Marketing can help a prospect find relevant experience and make contact; it cannot take sole credit for a contract signed after a long selection process.
One way to write the goal is: increase or reduce a defined outcome, for a defined audience or project category, from a documented baseline to a target, by a stated date. For example: “Increase qualified enquiries for occupied-building refurbishment from six in the previous two quarters to ten in the next two quarters.” That target is defensible only if the team can define “qualified,” verify the baseline and handle the extra enquiries.
Make the unit of measurement unambiguous
Two people reviewing the same records should reach nearly the same count. Agree on the definition before the campaign starts. A qualified project enquiry might need an identifiable organisation, a property or site, a stated scope and a realistic next step. An anonymous request for a price per square metre is still an enquiry, but it may not meet that test.
Write inclusion and exclusion rules for each metric:
- Qualified enquiry: A new contact whose project fits the stated service, geography and minimum information requirements.
- Relevant proposal invitation: A request to submit a fee or tender response for work the organisation can deliver and is eligible to pursue.
- Case-study engagement: A specified action, such as a download or a contact-page visit after viewing a relevant case study, rather than any page view.
- Property viewing request: A request for an available unit attributable to a particular listing or campaign, excluding duplicate submissions.
Keep the rule beside the metric rather than in one employee’s memory. Decide how to count repeat contacts and existing clients, and how to exclude spam, recruitment messages and enquiries outside the service area. If someone phones after reading a website page, a brief “How did you find us?” note in the enquiry record may capture information web analytics misses.
Count stages, not just final wins
Completed contracts alone make a poor monthly measure when projects take months to develop. A few defined stages offer earlier evidence without treating a click as a sale. A team might track relevant case-study visits, qualified enquiries, discovery meetings, proposal invitations and appointments, with a definition and date for each.
Those stages are not interchangeable. Ten contact-form submissions might yield three qualified enquiries, two meetings and one project postponed because the client’s funding changes. Submissions alone conceal the difference; appointments alone may provide no useful feedback for months.
Choose measures that match the project and channel
A metric earns its place if it can inform a decision. Page views show whether a technical article is being found, not whether its readers have projects. Email opens can be distorted by privacy features, making replies or requests for information more dependable. Social reactions may indicate reach without revealing whether anyone in the audience has a live brief.
Choose one primary outcome measure and a few supporting measures for each goal. For content about planning permission, the primary measure might be qualified conversations about projects at the appropriate stage; visits to the service page and enquiries mentioning planning risk could help explain the result. For a completed commercial building, suitable viewing requests might be the primary measure, while listing visits and brochure downloads help locate a drop-off in interest.
Allow for the project’s decision cycle. A residential sales campaign may generate enquiries within weeks. A school or clinic commission can depend on budgets, governance and formal procurement, so invitations and shortlist decisions may take much longer. The same monthly lead target would judge the slower campaign before its buyers could act.
Distinguish leading and lagging indicators
Leading indicators are observable activities that may come before an outcome: relevant visits to a service page, event registrations or capability-statement requests. Lagging indicators are later results, such as proposal invitations, agreed leases or appointments. Check periodically whether the early activity has a plausible connection to those later results.
Suppose posts about healthcare facilities attract students but no relevant project conversations. The traffic target may be met, while the business objective is not. Publishing more is not necessarily the answer. Check search queries, page content, distribution and the service description before revising the target.
Set a baseline before a target
Start with a period that reflects normal work: perhaps the past year for a low-volume architecture practice, or several months for a property campaign with frequent enquiries. Record where each figure came from and where records are incomplete. If phone enquiries were logged inconsistently, say so rather than presenting the historical count as precise.
Break down the baseline where it matters. Twelve annual enquiries might comprise eight domestic extensions, three commercial refurbishments and one educational project. The total of twelve is not a useful starting point for a goal focused on educational commissions. If the aim is to reach new organisations, separate them from existing-client work too.
Then ask whether the proposed change is plausible given past variation, budget, publication schedule, sales capacity and external constraints. A team that has received two relevant invitations a year would need a substantial, identifiable change in market access to justify a target of twenty next quarter. For very small samples, a range may be more informative than a single number; it can be paired with evidence such as meetings with eligible project teams.
Put the goal on one measurement sheet
A short measurement sheet can settle counting questions before the review. Include the owner, date range, baseline, target, data source, counting rule and review frequency. Note what the team will consider doing if results rise or fall.
| Field | Example for an occupied-building refurbishment campaign |
|---|---|
| Outcome | Qualified first-time enquiries about refurbishment projects |
| Eligibility | Identified owner or representative, existing building, defined scope and serviceable location |
| Baseline and period | Six eligible enquiries in the preceding two quarters |
| Target and deadline | Ten eligible enquiries over the next two quarters |
| Evidence | Enquiry log with date, project type, source and qualification decision |
| Review | Monthly check of records; formal comparison after two quarters |
These figures illustrate the method, not an expected return from a campaign. Use your own records and document any change in the rules. If the minimum project size changes midway through, compare results under a consistent definition or mark the break clearly.
Track sources without overstating attribution
Building clients seldom follow a straight path. A contact may hear a recommendation, inspect completed projects, attend an event and return through a search engine before calling. Crediting only the last website visit would erase the earlier research and recommendation. Alongside the first known and most recent sources, ask which materials helped the contact decide to get in touch.
Use consistent campaign labels for emails and other links you control, and check that contact forms pass relevant page information into the enquiry record. Add brief notes for telephone conversations and in-person events. Collect only the personal details needed to respond or measure the goal, and limit access to staff who need the records.
Attribution will still be approximate, especially with few enquiries and long delays. Report “known source,” “reported influence” and “unknown” separately rather than assigning every appointment to one channel. Otherwise, a useful activity may be cut simply because its contribution is hard to observe.
Review what changed, then decide what to do
Match the review rhythm to the data. A weekly check can catch a broken form or missing campaign tag. Monthly reviews can examine enquiry quality and response times. Quarterly or six-month reviews are better suited to judging whether project opportunities have developed. Checking data often does not mean changing strategy whenever a small count fluctuates.
When a goal is missed, inspect the stages before lowering the target. If relevant traffic rose but enquiries did not, check whether visitors can find project criteria, services and a clear contact route. If qualified enquiries rose but meetings did not, look at response times and availability. If meetings rose but proposal requests remained scarce, compare incoming scopes with the team’s expertise and capacity. The issue may lie in marketing, qualification or delivery.
Begin with the last ten project enquiries. For each, record the date, project type, whether it met the written qualification rule, how the contact found the team and what happened next. If a field cannot be completed reliably, fix that gap before relying on the next target.