The Modern AEC Marketer
By Judy Sparks
For decades, firms have grown through reputation, relationships, referrals, and great work. Those will always matter. But today, the firms that win and scale are the ones that know how to build trust earlier, communicate value clearly, and stay visible long before an opportunity becomes an RFP.
That is the opportunity in front of today’s AEC marketer.
The Modern AEC Marketer is a field guide for marketers, business developers, seller doers, and firm leaders who are ready to elevate marketing from a support function to a strategic driver of growth.
Available exclusively on Amazon.
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Who This Is For
This book is for AEC marketers who are ready to think bigger about their role and lead with more influence, confidence, and business impact.
It is for firm leaders who believe marketing can do more than support pursuits but want a clearer way to understand how marketing contributes to growth.
It is for business developers and seller doers who want a better system for developing leads, building relationships, and creating a more reliable pipeline.
And it is for firms that are ready to better align marketing, business development, leadership, and talent strategy around shared growth goals, with the clarity and accountability to make them work.
If you believe marketing can help shape the future of your firm, this book was written for you.
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"Love this book! As someone who has been in the AEC industry for 10+ years, I appreciate the fresh perspective. Judy does a great job of bringing it all together and giving realistic direction and advice for marketers at any stage in their career. Must read!"
The Opportunity
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AEC has always been a relationship driven industry.
The strongest firms have built their reputations through trust, performance, expertise, and relationships that often span decades. That foundation still matters, and it always will.
But the way buyers form trust is evolving.
Today’s clients are researching firms earlier. They are comparing expertise before they ever make a phone call. They are paying attention to what firms say, how they show up, what they stand for, and whether their people understand the challenges ahead.
By the time an RFP is released, many impressions have already been formed. That means marketing has a much bigger role to play in influencing firm growth.
Modern AEC marketing is not just about supporting the pursuit once it begins. It is about helping the firm create visibility, build credibility, shape perception, support relationships, and influence decisions long before the formal selection process starts.
The firms that understand this shift have an advantage.
The marketers who understand it have an opportunity to lead.
What This Book Does
The Modern AEC Marketer reframes marketing as a strategic growth function inside AEC firms.
It gives marketers and firm leaders a practical way to connect the work marketing does every day to the outcomes leadership cares about most: stronger positioning, better relationships, increased visibility, more qualified opportunities, improved win rates, and long-term growth.
This book helps firms move from disconnected marketing activity to a more intentional, full funnel approach.
It introduces Smartegies’ Scalable 6™ Framework, the methodology we have used with hundreds of AEC firms to connect the six areas most firms manage separately but need to align as one growth system:
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Branding
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Communications
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Account Based Marketing
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Digital Strategy
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Sales Enablement
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Talent Strategy
When these areas work together, marketing becomes more than a collection of deliverables. It becomes a system for creating demand, strengthening trust, supporting business development, attracting talent, and positioning the firm to win the work it wants most.
What You’ll Walk Away With
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A clearer understanding of how AEC buyers make decisions today
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The language to explain marketing’s role as a growth function
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A practical framework for aligning marketing, business development, leadership, and talent
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A smarter way to think about the full funnel, from early visibility to final selection
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A stronger connection between marketing activity and business outcomes
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A path for moving from reactive support to proactive influence
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A renewed sense of what is possible for the AEC marketing profession
A New Standard for AEC Marketing
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The future of AEC marketing is not smaller.
It is more strategic, more connected, more visible, and more influential.
Marketing has the power to help firms decide where to compete, how to position their expertise, how to communicate value, how to support business development, how to attract talent, and how to build trust with the clients they want most.
That kind of marketing does not sit on the sidelines.
It helps shape the direction of the firm.
The Modern AEC Marketer gives marketers and firm leaders a shared language for building that kind of growth system together.
If you are ready to elevate the role of marketing inside your firm, get your copy of The Modern AEC Marketer.
About The Author
Judy Sparks is a strategic marketing leader, fractional Chief Marketing Officer, speaker, educator, and advisor specializing in the built environment.
She is the Founder and CEO of Smartegies, a strategy firm focused exclusively on architecture, engineering, construction, and commercial real estate firms. Since 2008, Judy has advised more than 300 AEC brands across North America, helping firms align marketing, business development, communications, and leadership around measurable growth.
Before founding Smartegies, Judy built her career from the ground up inside the AEC industry, starting at the front desk and rising through marketing, national sales, business development, and executive leadership roles before becoming Chief Marketing Officer of an international design build firm. Over more than 30 years, she has worked across the built environment ecosystem, including construction management, program management, owner’s representation, architecture, engineering, and design build firms. That breadth of experience gives her a rare understanding of how AEC firms operate, how they make money, how they build relationships, and how marketing can create value across every stage of growth.
She is the creator of the the Scalable 6™ Framework, a model that integrates branding, communications, account-based marketing, digital strategy, sales enablement, and talent strategy into one coordinated growth system.
She is also a sought-after speaker, industry educator, former president of SMPS Atlanta, and instructor at Georgia Tech’s College of Design. There, she has developed curriculum and has taught full-semester courses for both the School of Architecture and School of Building Construction, helping the next generation of built environment professionals understand how marketing, business development, and strategy shape firm growth.
The Modern AEC Marketer is Judy’s call to elevate the profession of marketing in AEC and help firms compete in a market where visibility, positioning, timing, and trust increasingly determine who wins.
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