Internet Marketing Rules for Commercial Real Estate Agents
In commercial real estate agency today the impact of the Internet is significant and real. This then says that every agent should have a specific Internet Marketing strategy that applies to their promotional activities.
There are two specific elements to be considered when it comes to property promotion and commercial real estate agency. Consider the following:
- Every property should be directly marketed in a specific way to attract the enquiry that is required. When you can optimize the inbound enquiry, you can do more with inspections and negotiations.
- At a personal level, you should be promoting yourself on the Internet as a specialist in commercial real estate agency locally. It is not sufficient to offer similar services and solutions as those that are offered by other agents. You need to stand out as relevant and highly qualified to the point that you are the agent of choice when it comes to selling, leasing, or managing quality listings.
In many respects the Internet can help you with both of these issues. It comes down to your understanding of the process and the commitment required implementing some key points of focus on a regular basis. Every day of the week you should do something on the Internet to improve your profile.
The Internet is not something that you can start today and forget about for a few weeks. Building a successful agent or agency profile on the Internet is an ongoing and regular daily process. Those agents that are quite successful in doing this will be seen by the search engines and that will help when it comes to the right people finding you and recognizing your relevance in the local area. For this to be effective, you do need a plan.
Here are some ideas to help you:
- As a general rule, present and pitch your services on an exclusive listing basis. Over time you will start to see some greater conversions towards exclusivity. That will occur when the market recognizes you as real and relevant to the property type and location. At the start of your career, open listings may be the only alternative when it comes to attracting new business. That being said you should maintain a focus on exclusivity and build your relevance for that process. Exclusive listings will come to you when the market recognizes that you are a top agent specializing in a property type.
- Every listed property should be promoted on the Internet and most particularly your agency website. Select the key features of the property that should be consistent across the marketing campaign. Choose the keywords from the search engines that are likely to attract greater hits and enquiry conversions.
- The industry portal on the Internet should also be incorporated into your marketing efforts. That being said, you will have alternatives when it comes to priority placement and listing display. It is a known fact that priority listings and banner listings achieve much better rates of enquiry. A vendor or client should pay for this priority placement. You can show them the benefits of the process through giving them samples of the internet hit results and averages that apply when you compare an open listing, an exclusive listing, a banner listing, and a priority placement. That will give you the leverage to attract the priority placement. Always seek vendor paid advertising as part of the process.
- Create a matrix of daily action on the internet involving listings refreshing, fresh photos on listings, blogs, editorials, and online articles. All of these things should occur with a focus on the keywords that apply to your property type and location. You can find out what those keywords are by using a keywords search tool. There are a few available on the internet. All are of high value to building your online profile as well as in promoting particular properties.
The internet will help you build a professional profile as a top agent. Develop your system and take the required action.
