Real Benefits of Local Area Marketing for Agents
There are so many channels of new business to investigate in commercial real estate. That can be good or bad for agents, so clarity is needed. Too many prospecting channels can create confusion about what to concentrate on.
Finding listings in commercial real estate today is all about an agent doing just two or three prospecting activities consistently and comprehensively. Top agents track the results and the market intelligence they come across.
It is all change-related
Of course, the property market is going through more changes now, but that is to be expected because a healthy property market is all about change.
The investors and the business owners are looking for property opportunities, solving problems, and creating growth. That is where real estate agents can always help.
We are solution providers, which should be the focus point for all agents.
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Finding the business
Where are the transactions now, by type and location? Off-market transactions are now more common and will be so in the ongoing twelve months of change.
Matching people to property situations and opportunities is a big part of winning listings and/or creating transactions. This is where local area marketing has a significant impact and advantage for agents today.
Local area connections
The advantages of local area marketing are proven and simple. Here they are:
1. People connections
When you investigate a location defined as your ‘local area’ or territory, you will see reasons to connect with certain people. That is where the research can start.
The research does take time, so organisation is needed as you progress an idea or property situation to the next level.
Consider these questions as you connect with local people. What are your preferred client types? Who are the ‘bigger players’ of the property market? What services can you offer those people by groups or locations?
Remember that real estate connections made today with local people should be expanded over time. Today is only the beginning, and relationships are built from ‘day 1’.
2. Property changes
What are you looking for? Try these: the property changes with empty buildings, vacant land, local business movement, re-zoning activities, and redundant facilities.
The best way to find and tap into the property opportunities is to walk the streets of your territory daily; use a map to stay organised as you proceed. That is a planned prospecting process, taking notes as you go and allowing you to observe any property and building changes.
You have something to tap into and investigate when you find some active property change. That is where the research starts.
Use your online note-taking system to capture photos and take notes about the current property situation as you see it. Google Keep is a good software tool for that. At a later time, you can follow up and investigate things.
3. Pressure points
The pressure points in the real estate market are always there, and finding them is as simple as observing and asking questions of property owners and business owners.
They are the two groups most closely related to property use and performance. The central property pressure points are vacancies, intense property use, space ‘overflow’, business change, and property degradation.
As pressure points, they are easy to see; that is where the research starts.
4. Building your brand
From an agent’s perspective, building a real estate brand is all about active signboards, plenty of online listings, and a local database of clients and prospects. All three channels of activity help you build your real estate brand.
The tools to develop and use as you build your real estate brand are marketing-related. That can be advertising material and layouts, brand colours, market updates, case studies, and success stories from sold or leased listings.
Every successful real estate transaction is a story to be shared with the property market and with all the people in your database.
5. Listing bank growth
Every agent wants more listings. The fact of the matter is that the types of listings are more important to the situation of real estate listing growth. Open listings are a waste of time in most cases.
If you want more listings, move to a bias of ‘exclusive’ listings and ensure that every property presentation features that strategy as necessary to your services and the outcomes that the client seeks.
Local marketing simplicity
As simple as these things seem, they are the leverage points to growing a real estate business from an agent’s perspective. Concentrate on these situations, and your real estate business will be easier from a growth perspective.
Most of the real estate business you find will come from the real estate conversations you create with key people and how they remember you in the future. Focus on creating those conversations.
