When a Real Estate Agent is preparing a commercial property for sale, the marketing program really needs to be comprehensively structured, and most particularly towards the end target market.
Each town and city will have their own levels of enquiry relative to property types and locations. This is where the high value of commercial real estate agents really stands out.
Marketing Strategies Today
Limited enquiry or competition for some investment properties today means that every advert and promotional initiative should be carefully planned. Some investors are holding their assets for longer.
As the local agent, you can structure the right connection processes given the levels of enquiry coming in at the moment. Build on what you have and how you connect with your listing stock.
Marketing Strategies to Use with Good Quality Listings
Here are some tips and ideas for commercial property agents to incorporate into marketing campaign design and implementation.
- Start the campaign on Wednesdays of each week given that most property enquiry from advertising occurs between the days of Wednesday and Saturday.
- In preparing to release the property detail through various channels of advertising, take time to identify the qualified people in your current database that may have the interest to inspect the property prior to public release.
- It has been shown that most buyers of commercial property come from the same general location. On that basis, there will be high value in placing a signboard on the property. The sign should feature the unique facts of the property together with appropriate photographs.
- Market the property by direct mail into the local property investor community. These will be people who have spoken to you before regards property opportunity. This is where the database is again of high value to the marketing process.
- Local business owners within a radius of 500 meters should be approached directly to identify any interest they may have in the property or indeed in any property purchase at this time. Every property listing is an opportunity to talk to other people and gather information.
- Most properties are today advertised on the Internet (plus other marketing channels). Whilst the process is critical to the marketing campaign, you need to get your property to the top of the search engine results for the location and property type as quickly as possible. The only way to do this is to arrange for some premium listing position in the commercial property websites. This will cost more than a standard listing but the process should be funded by the property owner and will help your overall enquiry rate.
- To devote maximum effort to advertising a property, you should really have vendor paid marketing funds together with an exclusive listing for a reasonable period of time. Any property owner that prefers an open listing approach is really not genuine in the sale process and on that basis should not receive a large part of your time and effort. Clients that openly list their property are highly likely to be talking to many agents at the same time. On that basis you have no control over the listing and any potential sale is really a product of luck. Strive to get an exclusive listing. Talk to many people until you achieve that.
Start every marketing campaign with the end in mind. Decide who will have the most interest in the property based on improvements, location, cash flow, and future opportunity. The local businesses and property owners are going to be high on that list so you should start there.
