15
Sep
Real Estate

How To Market Commercial Real Estate

I
December 23, 2021

Digital disruption is making commercial real estate more competitive than ever before. This disruption is also proving beneficial for commercial real estate marketing.


2020 presented new challenges with e-commerce and shifts to remote work. It also required adapting to social distancing, government directives, and other changes. This has also significantly impacted investments, leasing volume, and overall CRE operations.


These changes are essential to ensure that commercial real estate marketing plans continue to be effective.


Investors and tenants demand a quicker and frictionless user experience when looking for properties or investment opportunities in today's tech-savvy market. As a result, commercial real estate property marketing plans require more than static flyers and LoopNet listings.


These key points will show how commercial real estate can be marketed to grow your digital footprint.


Define your objectives and audience


Your target audience and available resources will play a significant role in how you market commercial properties—start by defining your objectives and who you are targeting.


  • What are the top criteria for your most successful target clients?
  • What are the buyer personas?
  • What is your audience doing online?
  • What are your methods to get them?
  • What creative assets should you have to create?
  • What tools and resources will you need?
  • What's your budget?
  • How can you measure success?


Consider your competition to get some ideas. First, do a brief study about their marketing and see how they market themselves. Then think about what you can do to differentiate yourself and stand out.


Commercial real estate marketing strategies must include how your business stands out from the rest. This is also known as your brand.


How it works


There is no commercial property firm without staff, agents, or clients. Likewise, there is no commercial real estate firm without a brand. Simply put, branding is crucial for your practice's success.


It is easy and enjoyable to brand your business. Additionally, your business can be more agile and prepared for future challenges.


What to Do


Establish a unique selling proposition: Find out what distinguishes your firm from others and appeals most to your clients. It is essential to highlight your unique selling point in marketing for your company.

Your outreach should not reach everyone. This will result in few potential clients being interested. You can start by looking at the qualities of your ideal clients. Create a list of these characteristics and use it as a guide to creating a profile for your perfect client.


Develop a Commercial Real Estate Marketing Plan


What is a marketing plan for real estate?


A marketing plan is a detailed overview of your overall mission, unique selling proposition, target audience, and strategy. It also includes metrics to measure success.


Make sure to include your:


  • Business summary
  • Audience and target market
  • Budget
  • Marketing channels
  • Marketing materials
  • Metrics


A balanced marketing strategy for commercial real estate should include a mix of earned, paid, and owned media.


Earned Media: These are marketing activities that you usually "earn" from people who support your brand. They include channels like SEO, Social Media, and other free media.


Paid Media: Refers to performance-based advertising channels such as cost per click, banners, and paid advertising.


Owned Media: This includes your company website, blogs, or social media profiles, as well as email marketing lists.


This mix of marketing should be distributed through multiple channels to reduce any potential adverse effects in the event of a marketing failure.


Now, you can plan the elements required to implement your strategy.


Marketing property will vary depending on the type of asset and the target audience. Therefore, plan what content you will use to highlight them. For example, marketing industrial property is different from marketing multifamily property, and budgets for content production can differ.


Think about the Software and Tools You Need


A marketing strategy that works is only possible if you have the right tools for commercial realty. Your "marketing stack," also known as the list of tools you use, can cover a wide range of uses and requirements—all things related to contact management, email marketing, direct mail marketing, listing presentations, and other marketing materials.


Technology selection should be given the care it deserves. This will ensure that you don't have to switch platforms constantly. Switching between commercial real estate marketing platforms can lead to lower productivity, impacting your ability to perform at 100% while managing the transition.


Companies that streamline and optimize their marketing processes will experience more sustained growth and overall success.


Get a new website for your company.


Your website can often be the first impression you give to potential clients. This is a critical factor for instilling trust and confidence in prospects.


It can also be used as a marketing platform, allowing company news, thought leadership through research studies, and promoting your properties using commercial search engines.


Experienced commercial real-estate marketing agencies can help make your dreams come true. Here are some questions to ask before you establish a working relationship.


Design Feature-rich Property Sites


Your competitors will be eating your lunch if you don't have a solid digital presence for your properties by 2020.


Interactive property websites are an excellent way to show off your commercial properties. In addition, these websites can serve as a digital hub for commercial property marketing efforts and be used to engage and convert visitors more effectively.


High-performing properties sites have feature-rich content like:


  • Professional photography
  • Video of property
  • 3D virtual tours
  • Information on available options
  • Floor plan PDFs
  • Interactive maps


Segment and Create a Targeted Email Marketing Campaign


Email marketing is a cost-effective way to reach prospects, engage them in discussions, and convert them into sales.


It is the single most crucial marketing activity you can do to boost your sales and leasing efforts.


Your website, blogs, and lead generation pages are just a few of the many ways you can start building yours. Whether you are using a CRM or email marketing software for real estate, you should have a strategy to nurture and grow your users.


Add your Listings on Commercial Real Estate Portals


Listing services and portals for commercial real estate effectively advertise commercial property for sale and lease.


There are many other commercial real-estate listings websites that you can use to market your properties and generate leads, including LoopNet and Costar.


Google My Business Page


Google My Business, a free service, helps local businesses market themselves online through digital marketing. Searchers can find the right results for their location and search what they're searching for.


Your property can have a Google My Business listing to give it more visibility. This will ensure that your property is visible on Google Maps as well as the first two-thirds of Google search results. In addition, this allows searchers to locate your property and explore the surrounding area before visiting you for further details.


Your online marketing business profile allows you to upload photos, respond to reviews, and even post your latest offers. You can also use it to keep your business information updated so searchers will always contact you.


Optimize Your Website With Search Engine Optimization


You should start developing a real-estate SEO plan as soon as you can. Your business can be found on Google search engine results, which can help you attract tenants, brokers, investors, and other potential customers.


SEO is a long-term endeavor and can take several months before you see any results.


Keep your contacts happy with helpful content


Content marketing is a crucial strategy to keep your prospects informed and encourage them to engage with you.


But, many commercial real estate companies don't know where or how to begin.

Content marketing is not about being part of the noise.


High-quality content should be helpful, informative, or entertaining. This can be accomplished in many ways, such as blog posts and market studies, infographics, videos, or even videos.


Social Media: Share Your Content


Social media marketing is a cost-free way to increase brand awareness and traffic to your website. Experts in commercial real estate use social media to start conversations and build relationships with potential clients and partners.


LinkedIn can market real estate or Twitter, Twitter, and Facebook when used correctly. These social media platforms are particularly relevant to commercial reality and should be used by your company.


Create a Paid Social Media Advertising Strategy


A performance-based campaign on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn can also be used to raise awareness and attract visitors.


These platforms allow you to create very targeted campaigns.


You could, for example, launch a campaign targeting high-ranking executives in a specific region if you lease a life sciences property.


Regularly publish a press release.


Press releases can be a powerful way to connect people interested in adding your business to a periodical.


Before you issue a press statement, do your research to determine who is responsible for the commercial realty section in the publications you target. It is essential to send information to the right people to get the response you want.


Many of them will request that you send them content. For example, they'll add your email address to their social media bios or beneath other articles on commercial real estate.


Over time, you will build your own "Blackbook" of influencers. This could be a significant asset to help you save thousands of dollars on PR agency fees. Many agencies spend their time on outreach.


While your initial press release may not be received well, you should keep sending them. You never really know which one will be read.


The rewards of building relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers can be huge. While outreach is not easy, it can make a big difference in your brand's visibility and impact your marketing efforts.


It is an asset to have your own "black book" that includes influencers. This will save you thousands of bucks in fees from PR agencies who spend most of their time outreach.


Start a Google Keyword Campaign


Google performs 500 million searches every day. Your clients could be looking for keywords related to your business or commercial property.


Google AdWords, a powerful acquisition channel for commercial real estate ads, can help you set up real estate keywords. But real estate keywords can get very costly depending on where they are being targeted. Google AdWords' most significant feature is the ability to set your Ad budget at whatever level you are comfortable with. You can also stop at any point.


Create Paid Real Estate Ads through Display Campaigns


Display advertising is available in different formats. They can increase brand awareness and quickly reach thousands (or millions!) of people.


Ad networks like AdWords will help you advertise commercial real estate. You can get precise targeting and choose which websites your Ads should appear on.


Remarketing can help you target your visitors.


Remarketing extends beyond display advertising. Cookies are placed on the computer of users who visit your site. They allow you to target them with relevant ads and present them on other sites.


This can be a powerful way to remain top of mind and drive previous visitors back to your property listing.


Take part in industry events and conferences


Commercial real estate events provide a great way to meet other commercial real estate professionals, develop relationships, generate leads, and learn about real estate market trends.


Other marketing channels cannot offer the same opportunity to create many relationships and interact in person in such a short amount of time. But, it is crucial to have an event marketing strategy. Attendance and participation are often expensive.


Manage Your Reputation


Reputation matters in the digital age.


According to one study, 86% go online to get local recommendations. In addition, 78% believe that online reviews are as trustworthy as personal referrals.


It doesn't matter if you're well-known or strong, everyone won't have an ideal experience. One negative review could cost you a lot.


How it works


You can boost your business's sales through reputation management. This involves determining what people love and hate about your services. Once you have a clear understanding of what makes clients disregard your services, you can make necessary improvements.


To manage your reputation when marketing commercial real estate:


  • Professional website design
  • Claim online listings
  • Encourage customer feedback
  • Demonstrate testimonials
  • To keep your reputation in check, use tools
  • Make sure your blog is a priority, along with some of your social media channels.


How to Measure Success


Remember this simple adage. "If it's not possible to measure it, don't mess with it."


Measurement of the success of your activities is the critical component of a commercial real estate marketing plan. You should establish essential metrics for each channel, create a real-estate marketing report and use data to make informed decisions about how you can improve your efforts.


Don't let your strategy get stale. To see which ideas and tactics work, you should constantly be testing them.


Do not lose sight of your marketing strategies' impact on your business objectives. If you don't know how your marketing strategies impact your sales, lease-up, tenant retention efforts, or other business goals, then it is time to start over.


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