Commercial real estate is a tricky market nowadays, with everyone complaining about the skyrocketing prices of housing – and businesses sure save on renting office space by working hybrid or remotely. How do you win the marketing game in that kind of playing field?
Most guides address things like target audience, email campaigns, and listings features, so today we bring you 5 tips that might help you rise above the competition.
Get into video
Any real estate listing has to include smart, high-quality photos if it wants to have any chance of success, but that’s not enough for the modern customer, especially not for young professionals. If you want to reach the new generation of tenants (or business space renters) you have to join the world of video content.
Videos have a dynamic element that lets your prospective clients immerse themselves in the space, rather than being passive recipients of someone else’s static (photo) perspective. A well-made video gives a realistic sense of the layout and size of the property, and highlights its best features in context. You can get a similar effect with a good 3D virtual tour as well.
The point is to make your listing look “alive” so people will be more interested more quickly and make their decision sooner. As a bonus, video content is highly shareable, which improves your chances of landing a deal even outside your primary advertising platforms.
Diversify your online presence
One of the most common strategies for increasing your leasing rates is to have a professional website, and it’s a good tip, but a commercial property owner needs more than just a solid site. First, branch out onto relevant third-party platforms like CRE portals in your area, listing services, and Google My Business. Further, split your marketing channels into owned, paid, and earned.
Owned means your assets: your website, social media profiles, blog, mailing lists, etc. Paid channels are performance-based, as well as banners someone hosts for you, cost-per-click ads, and other paid advertising.
Earned marketing channels are free: social media word-of-mouth, SEO, and unpaid brand advocates (i.e., satisfied customers who recommend you of their own free will rather than you prompting them to do so).
Invest in proper maintenance
This is more of an ongoing backstage task than a typical customer-facing marketing tip, but it’s an essential strategy nonetheless. Keep the property in top shape, or you risk losing prospective renters and incurring major expenses down the line. Stay on top of the cleaning, inspections, repairs, and upgrades. Pay special attention to property-wide systems that people don’t usually think about day-to-day, such as:
- Plumbing
- Ventilation
- Heating and cooling
- Electrical installations
- Fire safety installations
- Roofing and attics
- Foundations and basements
- Various insulation
- Void filling and sink holes
Consider collaborating with local plumbing services, electrical services, and similar entities for long-term maintenance. Most businesses have favorable rates and conditions for steady regular customers, so ask about your options. See if you can arrange regular inspections, annual preventive maintenance, emergency repair scenarios, etc.
Get involved in the industry network
Your connections will mean the difference between successfully marketing your commercial properties and fading into obscurity. There are a few ways to forge them. First off, attend conferences, panels, and other events. These get-togethers let you create massive numbers of leads and professional relationships quickly. Different marketing channels aren’t that effective that quickly.
Next, start advertising in trade journals, both in print and online. Appearing in these publications dramatically improves your credibility. It also expands your reach since trade journals are read daily by industry peers, brokers, investors, etc.
Your business will be exposed to a broad (national or global) audience or a regional target group. Choose the publication you advertise in based on your overarching marketing strategy at the time.
Don’t forget about remarketing
Display advertising might be the most commonly recommended tactic here, but the key to the game is to make the most out of your cookies. As a brief reminder, a cookie is placed on a person’s computer (or their phone, tablet, or whatever other device) when they visit your website. By crafting an exemplary sales experience, you increase the likelihood of generating many word-of-mouth referrals, a potent marketing tool for marketing your commercial properties, particularly for real estate agents. Ensure your sales plan seizes every opportunity to close and cultivate future sales.
This little crumb of data lets you identify them later, allowing you to target them for future advertising. In a way, the cookie becomes a “tag” that “labels” this user as being interested in your content or service.
This tells the rest of the web that they might want to see advertisements for such services, and that way; you can serve them relevant ads for your business when they visit different websites. It’s an effective method to remind past visitors about your listings and nudge them to revisit your pages – to make a little pun here, it’s a discreet way for you to live in their heads rent-free.
To wrap it up, we’d like to remind you that you shouldn’t disregard all those classic pointers that other marketing guides will give you. They’re classics for a reason. You need a robust website, effective audience segmentation, and all that.
But it would help if you complemented those strategies with these practical tips to cover all your bases and empower your CRE business to thrive in any context.
