How to Improve Your Commercial Real Estate Agency Marketing
A commercial real estate brokerage needs to implement a good marketing plan if it is to succeed in market share and dominance. That being said, the agents and salespeople in the team should do the same. Effort and focus is required.
Answer this question:
‘Why should a client or property owner appoint you to list and market their property?’
When I ask this question of some agents they come up with a variety of statements like some or all of the following:
- We know what we are doing
- We have market share
- The team of agents are the best
- The brokerage has been in the area for many years
- We have sold (or leased) other properties in the area
- We have the enquiry
- We have a marketing system that gets the message out
So the list can go on, and you may have some issues you can add. If you are to use any of these ‘points of difference’, understand that all the other agents are doing the same thing. You will need to ‘prove your relevance’. That proof will need to be real and specific to the client and the property. In that way your presentation or sale pitch will stand out.
Don’t present and pitch your services ‘generically’; it doesn’t work anymore. The clients and the prospects that we serve need special help and focus. Drill down on what you can do and how it will be done. Be specific.
Here are some tips to help your marketing stand out as very desirable to a client:
- Ensure that you have a solid ‘signboard presence’ in your area. The client will know that your signs attract attention and inbound enquiry.
- Use your inbound enquiry to build a quality database of leads and contacts. Use the database as part of your listing or pitch process. Show the client the size of the database and how you have already ‘short-listed’ some people to take to the property as soon as it is listed.
- Quality property listings will help you with inbound enquiries. For this reason stay away from open and poor quality listings
- Create adverts for the internet that are fully optimised for the internet. Use the keyword search tools to grow hits and enquiries for each property.
- Optimise your website with quality content (not just listings). The search engines like to see content that can help them serve their readers.
- Write blogs about your local area and property type. Integrate those blogs into your marketing processes and social media.
- Set a specific target market for each listing. Drill down on the target market so the client can see how you are going to reach it and activate it.
- Give the client 3 alternatives of marketing with each ‘exclusive’ listing appointment. Allow them to choose what they can afford.
It is easy to improve your relevance to a client or prospect in listing a property. Be specific and not generic. Show them that you know what to do to attract the inbound enquiries.
