Commercial Real Estate Agents – Use Your Cheapest and Most Effective Marketing Tool Today
I am a great believer in the use of a business card as a primary marketing tool for commercial real estate agents. You really do not need other fancy and complex marketing brochures; just have a great business card and start distributing it every day to new people.
If you look at real estate agent and brokerage marketing from a simplistic or basic level, you can really focus the promotional process down to two things; they are prospecting, and the use of a business card. One thing leads to another.
Business Card Marketing Rules
Expensive brochures are ‘binned’ faster than you can imagine in our industry and they can waste a lot of your hard earned money. A business card on the other hand is cheap, professional and effective; it is most likely to be kept by a client or prospect for future reference. Here are my rules for using business cards in this property market:
- Paper stock – The paper used for your cards should be quite rigid. Small and thin cards send the wrong message (e.g. cheap and nasty) and can be bent and torn; with any quality business card it is very hard to do that. You can ‘feel’ a high quality business card.
- Gloss lamination – The front of the card should be ‘gloss laminated’ to help make it stand out as the ‘top side’.
- Size – A good card size to work with is 9 cm by 5.5 cm. Many cards are slightly smaller and do not give a good marketing story due to lack of size.
- Logo – If you have a logo or recognizable brand for your business, then use it. Place it in the top left had side of the card.
- White space – The trend in marketing today is for business cards to be simple and clean with the use of plenty of ‘white space’.
- Double sided – The front of the card should be for name and communication information such as telephone numbers, email, and website. Make it easy for people to find you 24/7.
- Reverse side – The back of the card can feature dot point descriptions relating to your skills and property speciality.
- Writing space – On the reverse side of the card, ensure that there is a place for you to write one or two lines of comment or a message. That then extends the value of the card and its longevity.
- Handout – Give out 20 business cards per day to new people as a target distribution.
- Photos – It is questionable whether photos are useful although some agents like to put their photo on their business cards.
- Letters and Brochures – Put your business card loosely with all correspondence relating to listings. Do not staple the card to anything that could be discarded. If the business card is loose, it is likely to be retained.
Use your business card as the main marketing tool in your promotional toolbox. It will greatly assist you to spread the message about your skills and relevance as a top agent.
