10 Strategies to Make Signboard Marketing Work in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage
If you want to be known as a top commercial real estate agent for a given region then you will want to get plenty of signboards into your local area. Local based marketing is always effective both with business owners and property investors.
As we market more properties today both online and through newspapers, the traditional signboard remains highly effective in so many different promotional ways; that is both for a location and a property type. Every quality property should have a specially designed signboard created as part of the marketing budget.
So why do this? It is a highly effective local marketing strategy that reaches out to so many people that you may not be able to connect with initially and quickly.
Local Area Marketing
You could say that the signboard is more ‘location biased’ when it comes to attracting property interest. When you put a signboard on any quality property, inquiries will generally start flowing from local businesses and investors.
Track and measure all inquiries as they come in you so you know what is working when it comes to the marketing campaigns and signboards that you have placed. Understand the signage regulations that apply in your location so you are ‘getting the best value’ for the spend and the strategy. Size and placement always matter.
The greater the number of signboards that you have placed in your property market on exclusive listings, the greater the amount of inquiry that should come to you. So how can you make this a stronger component in your personal marketing model? In simple terms you can have a business process that you apply to all signs place on key exclusive listings. Treat your quality listings in a special way.
Signboard Profiles
By comparison check out all your brokerage competitors; your signs need to be in greater number across your territory and placed on exclusive listings wherever possible. If your numbers a lacking when compared to your competitors then it is time to look at your prospecting model, listing presentation, and client recommendations.
Most clients want results as fast as possible when it comes to resolving a property problem. A high quality signboard is a small cost to pay when compared to other marketing strategies. How can you make your signboards more effective and direct? How can you lift signboard enquiry? Now is the time to look at what you are doing with your local marketing initiatives.
Initiatives to Help Market Presence
You can put in place a set of clear promotional initiatives to boost inquiry in this way. Here are a number of ideas to merge into your signboard strategies with your good listings, quality clients, and exclusive appointments:
- Location specific references – Any property location will have specific points of attraction to the local investors and business owners. Put those strong points of attraction into your property sign and promotional copy.
- Use carefully selected words on the boards to promote features – Some words sell and communicate better than others. It is also well proven that certain words and phrases drive readership and interest. Get away from standard generic terms that you see on all typical and ordinary property promotional material.
- Property specific messages – Create a headline for your listing that is impacting and tuned to the target market for the location and property type. If you are marketing something specific like a ‘medical suite’ then frame the promotional copy with a bias to doctors and dentists. What do they look for in a property? What words can you use that will pull in their interest?
- Exclusive listing for control of inquiry – Exclusivity allows you to focus your efforts. More importantly the exclusive listing process helps the client get more momentum with inspections and inquiries; everything in linked.
- Vandalism solutions – Stay on top of any signage vandalism. It is not uncommon for signs to be vandalized or removed, especially if you are located in a town or city with lots of agents and brokers competing in a precinct of activity.
- Signboard counts monthly – Over a period of time set some targets of getting more signs into locations. A sign growth plan of 5% per month is not unreasonable to target if you have an active property segment. The important thing here is that the signs that really matter are those that you place on exclusive listings. Check your numbers on those listings now and determine the ratio between those listings and generic ‘open listings’ that you may have.
- Just listed brochures in area – When you get a signboard into a good location or on a top quality property, circulate brochures around the adjoining properties and talk to the property owners. One good listing can create a lot more interest in a prime property location.
- Success letters from any closed transaction – From the previous point of brochures in a location, the same rule applies to a closed and completed transaction. When you complete a sale or lease transaction (that is not confidential), talk about it locally and put some ‘success letters’ into the surrounding business owners, tenants, and property investors. One good transaction will lead to further momentum with other local property people if you do things correctly.
- Time on market tracking – Given that some listings are very special or perhaps applicable to a specific target market, watch the time on market factors that apply to all your exclusive listings. Unless there are special circumstances with any particular property, most listings should be moving within 3 or 4 months. After that point things get a bit stale. It is better to remove a property from the market after 4 months and refresh it for a later return to the market later in the year.
- High traffic locations – Whenever possible get high quality signs on main roads and on key corners or road intersections. Push your branding in high motor vehicle traffic locations.
So there are plenty of things that you can do when it comes to signboard placement on commercial real estate listings.
