Ways to Establish a Niche Marketing Campaign in Commercial Property
In commercial real estate brokerage, you can and should focus your prospecting and marketing efforts specifically within a niche segment of investors and business owners. You do need to work with both groups given that they are impacted by property change and churn.
(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)
If you are to achieve a reasonable level of market domination for your town or city, consider the following questions:
- Why would some people consider you as the agent of choice currently to service their property needs?
- What value do you bring to the business owners for the location?
- What opportunities and advantages do you provide to the property investors for your location?
- How often do you connect with the people in your database currently?
- Who are your clients?
- Who are your prospects
- What is your target market?
- Do you have a segment of VIP business owners and investors to focus on when it comes to property opportunity?
So these questions are quite important when it comes to your real estate business and where you are headed over time. In most towns and cities there will always be people needing your help in property ownership, occupancy, redevelopment, and change.
If you make enough telephone calls and canvas your area comprehensively, you will find the people that you need as clients. From that point on, relevance and frequency of contact will be important to underpinning your niche marketing program. It takes months and sometimes years for a client to move to the next level of property activity.
Your Future Market?
Here are some ideas to help you consider your niche market and develop the program of contact to grow future property opportunities:
- Look at the property trends in your area over the last five years. Some property segments will be more active than others. How will that activity change in the coming years? You need to be part of the current property opportunities and the future changes. So make some careful decision when it comes to the territory that you work, the tenancy to connect with, and the property investors that you know.
- Some particular business segments will be more active than others. Look at the industry segments and assess them for growth and opportunity. Get to know the business owners in each case and watch the local newspapers and the Internet for relevant information about business growth, relocation, and industry mergers. A simple article in the local newspaper can give you plenty of ideas when it comes to prospecting and client contact. From a simple newspaper article, you will generally have the names of the people to contact, and the background behind their business activities and changes.
- Monitor all of the property prices and rentals for your location. When a listing comes onto the market, assess the time on market applicable to listing, and the levels of inquiry. Soon you will see how the levels of inquiry are currently shifting and changing within precincts and property types. That information will then help you with future marketing campaigns and deal conversions.
- In developing a niche market, you should also have some very specific marketing strategies behind the process. Given the particular property types and business types are unique, your marketing efforts should be similarly structured. Avoid the generic approach when it comes to both personal and property marketing. Identify the niche audience you are endeavoring to attract, and choose the right channels of marketing to connect with them frequently and directly.
Given all of these facts, there are special groups of people that you should be connecting with regularly, and they will all require special levels of approach and relevant information. It is one thing to connect with a person for the first time; it is another to attract their interest and retain the communication for the future.
Your Relevance?
Carefully consider how you can be relevant and real to your targeted property market segments. Carry with you some specific information relating to the location, the property types, and the statistical results of sales and leasing. Be prepared to use that information comprehensively in both formal and informal meetings.
So the niche marketing approach really does work in commercial real estate brokerage. Choose the right segments that works you and build your relevance in a comprehensive and real way that allows you to grow market share.
(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)