What if the project story you’re writing for your website could also help your firm win work, strengthen client relationships, and attract talented employees?
That’s the potential of a well-developed project story. And it often starts with just two conversations.
The project manager shares the inside story: the challenges, decisions, innovations, and solutions that made the project successful.
The client brings another perspective: why the project mattered, what it was like to work with your team, and the difference the outcome made.
Six Ways to Use One Story
Together, those perspectives give you more than a project description. They give you material that can support your firm’s business goals in at least six ways:
- Website case studies: The full story of how your team solved a real problem.
- Proposals & BD: Proof of relevant experience, with specifics a selection committee can trust.
- Client testimonials: The client’s own words about working with your team and the results you delivered.
- Social media: Short excerpts, a client quote, or a project photo paired with a lesson learned.
- Award submissions: The challenges and results judges look for, already documented.
- Recruiting: A look at the interesting work your people do.
The goal isn’t to create six separate pieces of content for every project. It’s to recognize how the information you’ve already gathered can serve several purposes.
Client comments can add credibility across all six uses, so get permission early. During the interview, ask whether you can quote them in different channels, and note what they approved in your project files.
Save and Reuse Your Valuable Transcripts
Interviewing project managers and clients takes time. Protect that investment by recording and transcribing each interview and saving the transcripts in a shared folder organized by project. When a proposal deadline arrives six months later, the material will be easy to find.
Those transcripts can also strengthen your marketing collateral long after the project story is published. A client comment that didn’t make it into the case study might be the perfect line for a brochure, capabilities statement, or pitch deck. An offhand insight from a project manager might become a social post or the opening of a proposal. Revisiting saved interviews can be like finding buried marketing treasure.
The next time you complete a project story, don’t just ask, “Where should we publish it?”
Ask, “How else could this story help our firm achieve its business goals?”
Need Interview Help?
If your team has more project stories in mind than time to capture them, I can help with the interviews, the writing, and a plan for reusing the material. Send me a message to talk it through.
Which of these six uses does your firm rely on most, and which one gets overlooked? Share how your team handles it in the comments.
Want to learn more about storytelling, case studies and other communications for A/E/C industries? A/E/C Connect is my newsletter. Subscribe on LinkedIn to be the first to see each new entry. If you have a challenge or question you would like me to address, contact me at blaizecommunications@gmail.com.
