Comprehensive Marketing Checklist for Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

When you have a commercial property listed for sale and release to the local property market, there are plenty of things you can do in attracting the right buyers and business people to the listing over time.  Defining the target market early in the campaign planning process is quite important.  From that point on, there are plenty of other things you can do.  The effectiveness of the campaign will help with enquiry coming in and the inspections to be undertaken.

Exclusive listings should get a lot more ‘personal’ attention than ‘open’ listings; plan your promotions accordingly.  Ensure that your promotional processes reflect that ‘exclusive’ bias and choice. 

Your time as an agent or broker in promoting listings is quite important; your success rate with listing and sale conversions will depend largely on the marketing processes you have initiated.

Checklist for Property Marketing

Here is a checklist of marketing ideas and controls that can help you with your exclusive listings:

1. Appointment to act signed and correct for use – Ensure that you have the ‘legal’ side of your brokerage appointment correctly completed. Protect your commissions and client relationships with this ‘basic’ rule.  Don’t act on any property unless you have the ‘paperwork’ correctly in place.
2. Advertising monies paid by the client – Get the money for vendor paid advertising from the client and paid the bank account. Do that before any promotional activities are started.
3. Setting the target market of people to attract in your marketing campaign – Know who you are trying to attract to the listing and how that will happen. When you know who the people are and where they are located, your advertising campaign can be far more successful.
4. A staged campaign of adverts and internet placements ready for actioning – Every exclusive listing can be promoted comprehensively on a local basis to other businesses and investors in the location. A simple letter and or flyer is the best way to do that at the earliest stages of the marketing release.
5. Professional photos are taken inside and outside of the asset – Professional photos will always help when it comes to attracting enquiry and property inspections. The photographic process should be vendor paid.  Get the photographs done at the right time of day when the property is visually appealing; that will usually be at sunrise or sunset depending on the frontage and the direction that the property faces.
6. Signboard designed and ready for locating on the property – A signboard placed on the property should occur at the beginning of every campaign and should coordinate with the release of your local area marketing flyers and letters. Make sure that you have the necessary coordination in place for the signboard at the time of the campaign commencement.
7. Advertising copy drafted for client approval – Always get the clients approval to the advertising layouts and advertising detail; this strategy then helps when it comes to proving any errors and or disagreements relating to property detail and advertising display.
8. Local area marketing and flyers ready for distribution – As mentioned earlier, the strategy of local area marketing is important when it comes to most properties for sale. Most property buyers come from the local area.  Understand the target market, and then focus your local area coverage and promotion activities into the streets and buildings surrounding your listing
9. Editorials are written for newspapers, websites, and blog articles – With any exclusive listing, there should be editorials written for release both online and offline. The editorials can also be enhanced by a professional writer engaged by the brokerage to work on exclusive listings and the associated marketing campaigns.
10. Internet adverts are written for release to the portals and websites, and the final newspaper adverts are written for use – There should always be a checking process applied to the advertising layouts and content of all your listings before they are sent to the portals and newspapers. Errors made in advertising content can be embarrassing for the brokerage, and frustrate the client relationship.  Remember that the client should be paying for the marketing activities undertaken.
11. Database calls – get together a shortlist of qualified people within your existing database to contact as soon as the property is released for marketing and promotion locally. Direct mailings and direct emails should also be ready for release at the right time.
12. Social media links to adverts and editorials – When you start the property marketing campaign, the links and despatches can be integrated into your social media channels across the brokerage and personally.

You can add to the list based on your property type and location.  Your property market and the targeted audiences will also have some influence on just what you do with these promotional factors. 

Get some real momentum in marketing your exclusive listing promotions.  Your effectiveness in the process will help you greatly with enquiry and inspections.  That can then enhance your commission opportunities and your database over time.