Author: Sergi

From building an integrated marketing stack to embracing the accelerated uptake of interactive tools, digital marketing materials, and AI, several trends have begun to establish themselves that will influence how companies approach commercial real estate marketing in 2024.

In this article, we’ll cover six of the most significant marketing trends that will impact the commercial real estate industry and how CRE firms operate as we continue through 2024 and the following years.

Here are 6 marketing trends happening right now that all commercial real estate teams need to consider:

1. Print Collateral Continues to Phase Out

The trajectory is clear: the digital wave is reshaping CRE marketing. Embracing this shift toward digital platforms allows for a more dynamic, cost-effective, and environmentally conscious approach to property promotion. As the industry evolves, the dominance of digital marketing over print collateral in real estate marketing seems inevitable.

The creation of digital assets is now simplified and different marketing platforms allow for fast set up and publishing of high quality property websites, digital presentations, virtual tours and other assets that keep potential clients engaged.

Print collateral, once the cornerstone of property promotion, is steadily making way for its digital counterpart. Here’s why:

• Instant Accessibility: Digital platforms offer instant access to information. Property listings, high-resolution images, virtual tours, and comprehensive details are available at the click of a button. Unlike print materials, which have limitations in space and time, digital avenues allow potential buyers or tenants to explore properties at their convenience, from anywhere in the world.
• Cost-Efficiency: Printing and distributing physical brochures, flyers, or catalogs incur significant costs. On the contrary, digital marketing significantly reduces these expenses. With the proliferation of social media, email marketing, and dedicated property websites, the cost-effectiveness of digital marketing surpasses that of print collateral.
• Enhanced Engagement and Interactivity: Digital marketing allows for dynamic and interactive content. High-quality videos, virtual tours, 3D renderings, and immersive experiences captivate audiences far more effectively than static print materials. The ability to engage potential buyers or tenants on a more personal level amplifies the impact of digital marketing strategies.
• Measurable Analytics and Targeting: Digital platforms provide robust analytics and targeting capabilities. Real-time data on user engagement, website traffic, click-through rates, and demographic information enable marketers to refine strategies, target specific audiences, and optimize marketing campaigns for better results—a feature print collateral cannot offer.
• Environmental Impact: As sustainability becomes a focal point across industries, the reduction in printed materials aligns with eco-friendly practices. Embracing digital platforms minimizes paper usage, reducing the environmental footprint associated with print production and distribution.

2. AI Becomes a Dominant Force

As AI (artificial intelligence) continues to evolve, its role in reshaping the commercial real estate marketing landscape will become increasingly significant. Embracing this technological shift is crucial for industry players aiming to stay ahead in a rapidly changing market environment. AI is not just a trend; it’s a transformative force that will redefine how commercial real estate is marketed, bought, and sold in the years to come.

AI will revolutionize the way commercial properties are marketed, creating efficiencies, enhancing decision-making, and providing a competitive edge. Here are a few use cases:

• Data-Driven Insights: AI algorithms can process vast amounts of data and generate actionable insights. By analyzing market trends, demographics, consumer behavior, and property-specific data, AI empowers marketers to make informed decisions. This data-driven approach enables more targeted and personalized marketing strategies, optimizing the reach and impact of campaigns.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are reshaping customer interactions in real estate. These intelligent systems can engage with potential tenants or buyers, providing instant responses to queries, scheduling property viewings, and offering personalized recommendations based on preferences. This not only streamlines the customer experience but also frees up human resources for more complex tasks.
• Predictive Analytics: AI algorithms can forecast market trends and property demand with remarkable accuracy. By analyzing historical data and identifying patterns, AI can predict future property hotspots, investment opportunities, and potential risks. This empowers real estate professionals to make proactive decisions and adapt their strategies accordingly.
• Optimized Marketing Campaigns:  Machine learning algorithms can analyze audience behavior and preferences, optimizing ad placements and content delivery for maximum impact.

3. Utilizing ChatGPT: The CRE Marketing Trend of 2024

In 2024, ChatGPT will revolutionize CRE marketing by offering extremely efficient and personalized engagement. With its advanced AI capabilities, ChatGPT can handle a combo of tasks such as generating compelling property descriptions, creating tailored marketing campaigns, and providing instant responses to client inquiries. This not only saves time for brokers and marketing teams but also ensures a consistent and professional tone across all communications. As the demand for digital transformation in the commercial real estate sector grows, using ChatGPT will become a key trend, enabling businesses to enhance their marketing efforts and stay competitive.

4. Adoption of Fully-Integrated Marketing Software

Another trend that commercial real estate is experiencing is the increased use of specialized “all in one” commercial real estate marketing tools and its integration with other tech tools, creating an API-driven tech stack that helps you optimize the marketing processes throughout the property lifecycle.

The ability of integrating distinct technology into one stack has allowed for a streamlined flow of listing data from a CRM to content management systems, enabling listings to be published in seconds, syndicated to listing portals with a click of a button and sent out as an email campaign to clients.

What’s more important this synergy has greatly accelerated the speed of dissemination, ensuring up-to-date information is available 24/7.

Tips:

• Consider adopting marketing tools that offer open integrations with other technology
• Reevaluate your current tech stack considering inefficiencies and tools that don’t play well together
• Improve workflows and processes that work, making your efforts repeatable and scalable

5. Rise of Interactive Tools

The ability to engage, empower, and facilitate informed decision-making through interactive tools will not only enhance the customer experience but also set forward-thinking CRE firms apart in a competitive market. As technology continues to evolve, embracing these interactive tools will be pivotal in shaping the future of commercial real estate marketing.

As we continue through 2024, the integration of interactive tools into marketing strategies is poised to reshape the industry.

There are a range of interactive tools that commercial real estate firms are incorporating into their daily marketing schemes:

• Interactive Property Sites – Replacing brochures and flyers, teams can build interactive listing presentations created for the optimal client digital experience. These sites allow user tracking and visitor reporting as part of a digital suite and can be easily shared on other digital channels to generate visibility.
• Interactive Maps – Instead of visiting a site in person, a client will be able to interact with a base map of the property, exploring and gaining insight without having to leave their home.
• Virtual Tours – Long gone are the days of scheduled tours. Now, a client can navigate through a property on a virtual tour, gaining all the information they need through this digital platform.
• Document Portals – All the information a client will need is in one, easy-to-find location, this interactive element allowing clients to download any documents they may need right onto their device.

The movement to these digital futures is a shift that underpins the majority of commercial real estate marketing trends, allowing clients to access information faster than ever before, browse in their own time, and for CRE firms to streamline virtual communication by using interactive elements.

6. Emphasis on Data Privacy and Security

As the digital landscape continues to expand in the realm of commercial real estate, a trend set to dominate strategies in 2024 is the prioritization of data privacy and security. With increasing reliance on digital tools and data-driven decision-making, safeguarding sensitive information has become paramount for establishing trust and credibility in the industry.

Here’s why data privacy and security will shape marketing endeavors in commercial real estate in the coming year:

1. Evolving Regulatory Landscape: Regulatory frameworks around data protection are continually evolving. Compliance with standards such as GDPR, CCPA, and emerging local regulations is imperative. Marketing strategies will emphasize adherence to these guidelines to build trust among clients and stakeholders.
2. Consumer Expectations: Clients and tenants are becoming more conscious of how their data is handled. They expect transparency, ethical data practices, and assurances of data security. Real estate firms that prioritize and communicate robust data protection measures will gain a competitive edge.
3. Risk Mitigation and Reputation Management: Data breaches and mishandling of sensitive information pose significant risks. Real estate marketers will focus on showcasing stringent security protocols, encryption measures, and data handling procedures to mitigate these risks and safeguard their reputation.
4. Trust as a Competitive Advantage: Trust is a cornerstone of successful business relationships. Highlighting strong data privacy and security measures will be a key differentiator, fostering trust among clients and setting businesses apart in a crowded market.
5. Investment in Cybersecurity Infrastructure: Real estate firms will allocate resources towards robust cybersecurity infrastructure. From encrypted communication channels to secure databases, these investments will not only protect sensitive data but also serve as a marketing point of assurance.

7. Harnessing Data and Analytics

The landscape of CRE marketing is being transformed by the power of data and analytics in 2024. By harnessing advanced data tools, CRE professionals can gain insights into market dynamics, tenant behaviors, and property performance. This data-driven approach allows for more strategic decision-making, enabling businesses to optimize their marketing efforts, tailor campaigns to target specific audiences, and predict future trends with greater accuracy. As the industry moves towards a more analytical framework, those who adopt these technologies will gain a significant competitive edge.

Real-time data analytics enable CRE marketers to track and adapt to market conditions as they evolve. This ensures that marketing strategies remain effective, enhancing the ability to attract and retain clients. By leveraging comprehensive data sets, companies can identify opportunities for growth, improve ROI on marketing spend, and provide clients with insights. The integration of data and analytics into CRE marketing is not just a trend but a fundamental shift towards smarter, more efficient business practices that will define the industry’s future.

Final Thoughts

As we navigate through 2024 and beyond, the commercial real estate landscape is undergoing significant transformations driven by digital innovation and evolving consumer expectations. From the gradual phasing out of print collateral to the emergence of AI as a dominant force and the integration of interactive tools, the marketing strategies employed by CRE firms are evolving rapidly.

By understanding and focusing on complying with marketing trends, commercial real estate firms are able to deliver exactly what their clients are seeking – no matter how complex.

With 2024 underway, CRE professionals can look forward to new opportunities for networking, honing their skills, and generating leads. Whether you want to attend or be an exhibitor, mark your calendar now.

Here are the top CRE events slated for the coming year complete with links so you can find additional information and register to attend in 2024.

IMN Winter Forum On Real Estate Opportunity & Private Fund Investing

January 17 – 19, 2024, Laguna Beach, US

IMN is excited to once again host the largest event of its kind on the West Coast: 19th Annual Winter Forum On Real Estate Opportunity & Private Fund Investing, January 17-19, 2024, The Montage Resort & Spa, Laguna Beach, CA.

Attracting 1000+ registrants each year this three-day event is renowned for its history of delivering critical market information, strategic insights and unmatched networking opportunities.

Event information

ICSC@WHISTLER

January 21 – 23,  2024, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

This event provides the best source for high-level interactive discussion of key trends, challenges and opportunities facing the open-air shopping center community, including landlords, retailers, capital market participants, brokers and advisors.

Event information

ICSC@RED RIVER

January 31 – February 2, 2024, Dallas, TX US

Create connections and catalyze deals with the innovators, dealmakers and changemakers driving the marketplaces industry forward in your region. Advance your business goals and experience the latest trends shaping the spaces where consumers shop, dine, work, play, and gather.

Event information

The Multifamily Investor Network Conference

February 17, 2024, Houston, Texas, US

The Multifamily Investor Network Conference (MFIN) is a one-day event for multifamily investors, operators, vendors, and individuals interested in learning more about how to build wealth through real estate.

The goal behind The MFIN is to facilitate an environment that will assist to further educate individuals on multifamily investing from the industry’s top players while helping their attendees build valuable relationships that will propel their success in real estate.

Event information

March 12 – 15, 2024, Cannes, France

ICSC@CAROLINAS

March 19 – 20, 2024, Charlotte, North Carolina, US

At ICSC Carolinas create connections and catalyze deals with the innovators, dealmakers and changemakers driving the marketplaces industry forward in your region. Advance your business goals and experience the latest trends shaping the spaces where consumers shop, dine, work, play and gather.

Event information

ICSC@MONTEREY

March 25-27, 2024, Monterey, California, US

At ICSC Monterey create connections and catalyze deals with the innovators, dealmakers and changemakers driving the marketplaces industry forward in your region. Advance your business goals and experience the latest trends shaping the spaces where consumers shop, dine, work, play and gather.

Event information

RETCON New York City

April 1-3, 2024, New York City, New York, US

RETCON brings together industry leaders, professionals, and enthusiasts alike to explore the latest trends, strategies, and technologies shaping the future of real estate. Located in NYC – the global epicenter of real estate – connect with experts from all over the world to assist your search for success.

You’ll find extensive opportunity in a networking environment and have the chance to learn more about the industry from professional guest speakers. RETCON has all of the tools you’ll need to elevate your game.

 

Event information

CCIM Annual Governance Meetings and Conference

April 14-17, 2024, Nashville, TN, US

CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member) Institute’s annual global conference brings top CRE professionals together to shape the future of the industry.

Event information

GlobeSt.com Multifamily

April 18, 2024, Aventura, Florida, US

GlobeSt. MULTIFAMILY SPRING, formerly APARTMENTS, may have a new name, however the high quality networking, deal-making, and insights you have come to expect over the past 30 years will continue, making it one of the most influential events in the US Multifamily real estate market.

Event information

SIOR’s Spring 2024 Event

May 6-9, 2024, Fernandina Beach, FL, US

When you connect with other top commercial real estate professionals from around the world, you create greater possibilities—possibilities that advance your business goals.

SIOR brings leaders from every facet of industrial and office commercial real estate and across the globe together to share tactical knowledge, hear different perspectives on emerging market trends and form strong relationships that facilitate business deals.

Event information

CRETech London

May 8 – 9, 2024, London, UK

Experience the largest trade show, most strategic networking opportunities, and world-class content covering every industry food group including office, multifamily, single-family, construction, retail, logistics, and hospitality in a fast-paced, electric environment.

Event information

NAIOP National Forums Symposium 2024

May 8 – 10, 2024, Minneapolis, MA, US

NAIOP’s National Forums Symposium brings together prominent industry professionals from across North America to share best practices, strengthen relationships with fellow Forums partners, and identify how best to capitalize on business opportunities.

Event information

BOMA International Medical Real Estate Conference

May 13 – 15, 2024, Orlando, FL, US

BOMA International’s Medical Office Buildings & Healthcare Real Estate Conference is the industry’s largest and most respected education and networking event. Each year healthcare real estate executives from across the country come together to discuss current issues and trends in developing, leasing and managing healthcare facilities in the new age of healthcare delivery.

Event information

ICSC 2024 LAS VEGAS

May 19 – 21, 2024, Las Vegas, Nevada, US

ICSC Las Vegas is the premier ICSC event and takes place annually in May. It is a two- to three-day gathering of dealmakers and industry experts, who are driving innovation and evolution in the marketplaces industry.

Event information

I.CON East

June 5 – 6, 2024, Jersey City, New Jersey, US

The premier event exclusively focused on the development, operation and expansion of industrial real estate, I.CON is the nation’s largest gathering of industrial real estate professionals.

Hear the big ideas, trends and new technologies in industrial development from the best in the business, and make new professional contacts in the enthusiastic networking environment.

Event information

WorkX Conference

June 24 – 25, Dallas, Texas, US

WorkXConference combines expertise from corporate and commercial real estate, workplace, and facilities operations, strategies, acquisitions, technology implementations and planning. Whether your goal is to step up your workplace technology, renovate your existing assets, enhance your utilization of space and resources, or design and create environments to maximize employee productivity, Future Offices Winter will connect you with the stakeholders to make it happen.

Event information

BOMA International Conference

July 13-16, 2024, Philadelphia, PA, US

Flexible work practices, incredible innovation and new occupant expectations are changing the form (and function) of commercial properties—and for CRE pros ready to make a difference, the opportunities are endless.

Join the event that is backed by the strength of the leading CRE organization, and let’s open the door to our industry’s next phase.

Event information

CREW Network Convention

September 25 – 27, 2023, Vancouver, BC, Canada

At the CREW Network Convention and Marketplace, attendees will expand their network, be inspired, and hear the latest on what’s happening in commercial real estate.

In addition to a strong lineup of sessions, speakers and learning excursions, the convention also serves as a platform for 1,200+ commercial real estate professionals from all over the world to network.

Event information

Exporeal

October 7 – 9, 2024, Munich, Germany

EXPO REAL is Europe’s largest real estate and investment trade fair. It represents the whole supply chain of the international real estate sector from conception and design through investment and financing, realization and marketing to operation and use.

Event information

NAIOP CRE.Converge

October 8 – 10, 2024, Las Vegas, NV US

There’s no better opportunity for you to touch base with your peers and seize the opportunities you’ll find at our fall conference. More than 1,500 attendees are expected including developers, brokers, owners, investors, architects and engineers.

Event information

2024 CoreNet Global Summit

November 1-3, 2024, Washington D.C

CRE summit that includes over 700 corporate real estate executives with a particular focus on effectiveness and value creation.

Event information

CREtech New York

November 13 – 14, 2024, New York, US

CREtech New York will bring three days of the most exciting in-person event in the world of real estate technology and innovation.
No other event brings together so many landlords, asset managers, brokerages, construction companies, tech startups, venture capitals, thought-leaders, and more all under one massive roof.

Experience the largest trade show, most strategic networking opportunities, and world-class content covering every industry food group including office, multifamily, single-family, construction, retail, logistics, and hospitality in a fast-paced, electric environment.

Event information

MAPIC

November 26-28, 2024, Cannes, France

MAPIC is the leading event to showcase and discover the best of the international retail property market with over 8,600 participants from 78 countries, over 12,000 m² exhibition space and 100+ conference and pitching sessions.

Event information

Bisnow Events

From January through November 2024, national and international locations

Bisnow Commercial Real Estate Events are all about networking and hosting expert speakers who discuss trends in multifamily, office, retail, industrial, mixed-use.

Event information

Connect Conferences

Connect Conferences are part of Connect Commercial Real Estate, your one-stop shop for all things CRE, from daily news, to marketing solutions, live events and more. The Connect Conferences bring together the industry’s most active owners, investors, developers brokers and lenders for half-day afternoon events which combine panel sessions, special presentations, networking, exhibitors, award presentations and a closing cocktail reception.  Make the most of your time and meet with the industry’s best.

Event information

 

Ready to elevate your commercial real estate marketing game and propel your business to new heights?

In today’s competitive market, a well-crafted marketing strategy is crucial for standing out from the crowd and capturing the attention of potential tenants and investors that are are increasingly demanding speed and frictionless user experiences when searching for new properties and investment opportunities.

Today more than 80% of buyers and tenants begin their property search online. That means that in order to effectively market your property listings and stand out from the competition, it’s vital to establish a commercial real estate marketing plan that extends beyond mere flyers, brochures, and LoopNet listings.

Below are 20 key strategies that’ll show you how to market commercial real estate to expand your digital footprint and grow your business.

1. Set Goals and Identify Your Ideal Audience

Creating a successful commercial real estate marketing strategy requires a clear understanding of your objectives and audience. Without these, it’s difficult to create a plan that resonates with potential clients and drives business growth.

Before diving into next steps, consider answering the following questions:

• What are the key decision making criteria of your best target clients?
• Where does your audience spend its time online?
• What methods will you use to reach them?
• What creative assets do you need to create?
• What tools and resources do you need?
• What is your budget?
• How will you measure success?

Your competitors can provide some ideas, so do a short study on how they’re marketing themselves and their properties, then think about how you can differentiate and stand out in comparison.

Spending the time to clearly define your unique differentiators will help set the foundation for your future marketing communications and materials.

2. Develop a Commercial Real Estate Marketing Plan

What is a real estate marketing plan? And how do you write one?

A marketing plan provides a comprehensive overview of your overall mission, unique selling point, target audience, strategy and metrics you’ll measure success on.

When creating your plan, make sure you include your:

• business summary
• target market and audience
• budget
• marketing channels
• marketing material
• metrics

A healthy commercial real estate marketing strategy should have a well-balanced marketing mix and leverage Earned, Paid and Owned media.

Earned Media – Includes marketing activities that you typically “earn” by advocates of your brand and include free channels such as SEO, Social Media.

Paid Media – Refers to any performance-based channels or paid advertising like cost-per-click, banners, remarketing and paid advertising.

Owned Media – Typically includes your own media assets such as your websites, blogs, social media profiles and email marketing lists.

This marketing mix should be distributed across different channels to help mitigate any downside risk in the case things don’t work in a specific marketing area.

With this plan in mind, start mapping out the elements that will be needed to implement your strategy.

Property marketing will depend on the asset type and the target audience, so plan what kind of content will be needed to showcase them. Marketing industrial property might be different from marketing a multifamily property and the budgets to produce the content for its presentation could vary.

3. Consider the Tools and Software You Need

To execute an effective marketing strategy, you need to make sure you have the right commercial real estate marketing tools in place. The list of tools you use – often referred to as a “marketing stack” – covers a variety of different uses and requirements. Everything from contact management, to email marketing, to listing presentations, and more.

It’s important to give the technology selection process the attention it deserves so you don’t have to keep changing platforms. The switching cost from one commercial real estate marketing software to another can decrease productivity, and hinder your ability to operate at 100% as you manage the transition.

Companies that streamline, and optimize, the various marketing-related processes in their operations are more likely to experience sustained growth and overall success.

4. Upgrade Your Company Website

Your company website is often times the first impression you give a potential client and a key factor to instill trust and confidence to prospects.

It can also serve as an important marketing outlet allowing you to feature company news, demonstrate thought leadership through blog posts and research studies, and promote your properties with the help of a commercial property search engine.

An experienced commercial real estate marketing agency can help turn your ideas intro reality and before you start a relationship with one, here’s a list of questions that will help you gauge their experience and level of professionalism.

5. Create Feature-Rich Property Websites

In 2020, if you don’t have a strong digital footprint for your properties then your competitors are going to eat your lunch.

Interactive property websites are a great way to showcase your commercial properties. Not only do they serve as a digital hub for your commercial property marketing efforts but can also add “wow” factor to help engage and convert visitors much more effectively.

High-performing property sites include feature-rich content such as:

• Professional photography
• Property video
• 3D virtual tours
• Availabilities information
• Floor plan PDFs
• Interactive maps

Here’s a list of 40 best commercial real estate websites for your inspiration.

6. Segment and Build Targeted Email Campaigns

An effective commercial real estate email marketing strategy is one of the most cost effective strategies to reach prospects, engage them in conversations, and convert them into deals.

Building and segmenting a database of potential prospects for sending targeted email communications is one of the single most important marketing activities you can do to help fuel your sales or leasing efforts.

There are plenty of ways to start building yours through your website, blogs and lead capture pages. Whether you use a commercial real estate CRM, a real estate email marketing software or simply store your contacts manually, make sure you have a game plan in place to grow and nurture your user base.

7. Add your Listings on Commercial Real Estate Portals

Commercial real estate listing services and portals are an effective way to advertise commercial property for lease or sale since they allow you to generate exposure and target a highly relevant audience.

Besides Costar and LoopNet there are many other commercial real estate listings sites worth considering to promote your properties and drive leads.

8. Create a Google My Business Page

Google My Business is a free service which helps local businesses promote themselves online. Searchers can instantly find results relevant to their location and what they’re looking for.

Creating a Google my Business listing for your property gives it additional visibility, ensuring your property appears on the first half of Google search as well as on Google Maps. Searchers can then see where your property is, and investigate the neighbourhood, before visiting you for more details.

A business profile also provides an opportunity to post photos, your latest offers, and respond to reviews. And you can use it to keep your business information up to date, so that searchers always know how to contact you.

9. Optimize Your Website for SEO

Make sure you develop a real estate SEO plan as early as possible. Visibility from search engines can have a powerful impact for your business and help drive tenants, brokers and investors to your website.

However, SEO is a long-term process and requires can take months to start seeing impact.

10. Nurture Your Contacts with Useful Content

Nurturing your contacts with content is one of the key tactics to stay top of mind and nurture your prospects until they are ready to actively engage with your business.

However, not many commercial real estate companies know where to start or what to do.

The key to content marketing is this: don’t just be part of the noise.

Create high-quality content that is useful, relevant or entertaining. This can be done in many different ways including blog posts, market studies, infographics and videos.

11. Share Your Content on Social Media

Using social media marketing for commercial real estate is free and an effective way to build brand awareness and drive eyeballs to your website. Savvy commercial real estate professionals are also using social media to spark conversations and facilitate connections with potential customers and partners.

Using LinkedIn for real estate, or even Twitter and Facebook to get more attention for your listings can be a very effective tactic when used properly. The three mentioned social media networks are  most relevant for commercial real estate, and where your company should be most active.

12. Create a Paid Social Media Advertising Strategy

Another way to raise awareness and acquire visits is through performance-based commercial real estate advertising campaigns on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

These platforms can offer very laser-targeted campaigns, allowing you to select who, when and where your Ads are displayed.

For example, if you are leasing a life science property you could launch a campaign targeting C-level executives in the bioscience industry in a specific geography.

13. Regularly publish press releases

Press releases can be an effective way to connect with people who can add your business’s details to a periodical.

Before sending out a press release, make sure you do some research to find out who’s responsible for the commercial real estate section of the publications you want to target. Sending information to the right people is key to getting the response you want.

Many of them want you to send them content, so they’ll include their email address either on their social media bio, or underneath other commercial real estate articles they’ve published.

Over time, you’ll be able to create your own “black book” of influencers. This can be a key asset which will save you thousands of dollars in PR agency fees, who often spend most of their efforts on outreach.

Your first press release may not get much of a reaction, but keep sending them – you never know which one will get picked up.

Building relationships with influencers, journalists and bloggers can pay off big. Outreach takes time but press mentions can help propel your brand awareness and have a massively positive impact on your marketing efforts.

Having your own “black book” of influencers is a key asset and will save you thousands of dollars in PR agency fees who essentially spend most of their efforts around outreach.

14. Set Up a Google Keyword Campaign

There are 500 million searches on Google every day and chances are that your clients are searching for keywords related to your commercial property or business right now.

Google Adwords is a very powerful acquisition channel to help you set up commercial real estate ads but real estate keywords can be very expensive depending on your target market. However, what’s great about Adwords is that you can specify your Ad budget to whatever you feel comfortable with and stop at anytime.

15. Set Up Paid Commercial Real Estate Ads Through Display Campaigns

Display advertising comes in different formats and can help raise brand awareness and impact thousands (or millions) of people very quickly.

Working with Ad networks like Adwords can help you with advertising your commercial real estate and will provide you with very granular targeting and allow you to decide what websites you want your Ads to appear on.

16. Target Your Visitors through Remarketing

Remarketing goes beyond simple display advertising. When a user visits your website, a cookie is dropped on their computer so you can target them and show relevant Ads when they browse on different websites.

This can be an effective way to stay “top of mind” and drive visitors that engaged previously back to your property listing or company website.

17. Attend Industry Events and Conferences

It goes without saying, commercial real estate events are a great opportunity to network, build relationships, generate leads and expand knowledge about the industry and market trends.

The possibility to build many relationships and in-person interactions in such a short period of time is difficult to achieve through other types of marketing channels. However, it’s critical to have a well-defined event marketing strategy because attendance and participation usually comes with a hefty cost.

18. Advertise on Trade Journals

Commercial real estate trade journals and online publications are read daily by thousands of potential investors, brokers and other industry peers.

Almost all industry journals offer advertising opportunities to help with advertising commercial real estate in front of a large, national audience or a more focused regional segment.

Overall, advertising on trade journals in commercial real estate can help increase visibility, credibility, and lead generation for commercial real estate firms, making it a valuable part of a marketing strategy.

19. Leverage Video for Your Properties

Video is a powerful marketing strategy for commercial real estate because it allows potential buyers or tenants to visualize and experience the property before visiting it in person.

Video tours can showcase the property’s unique features and provide a sense of its size and layout, helping to generate interest and accelerate the decision-making process. In addition, videos and 3D virtual tours can be easily shared on social media and other online platforms, expanding the property’s reach and increasing its visibility to potential clients.

20. Measure Your Success

Always, always remember this basic adage:

The most critical component of a success commercial real estate marketing strategy is measuring the success of your activities. Define key metrics for each of your marketing channels, setup a real estate marketing report, and make data-driven decisions to continuously improve your efforts.

Don’t let your strategy get stale. You should constantly be testing ideas and tactics to see what works and, more importantly, what doesn’t have any impact.

Most importantly, don’t lose sight of how your marketing strategies impact your business objectives. If you can’t quantify the direct or indirect impact on your lease-up, sales or tenant retention efforts (or whatever else) then you need to go back to the drawing board.

Marketing Strategy Template (Bonus)

If you want to create an effective commercial real estate marketing plan, you need a systematic approach and a set of commercial real estate marketing templates that will help define the objectives and key metrics and implement the overall campaign.

Why do some commercial real estate email marketing campaigns succeed while others fall flat?

It can seem like email marketing is a hit-or-miss mystery, but there is a tried-and-true way to harness this powerful tool: you must constantly recalibrate your campaigns and always personalize your messages with a human touch for optimum results.

As technology enables great advances in the commercial real estate industry, every email campaign must be adapted and innovated to meet the moment.

Drawing on this intelligence, email campaigns can be thoughtfully and strategically developed by utilizing smart subject lines, send times and specially designed commercial real estate email templates.

Sounds like a tall order? Worry not. In this comprehensive guide to commercial real estate email marketing, we’ve compiled all the top commercial real estate email marketing tactics you need to create and implement a successful campaign from start to finish.

1. Define Your Audience

Email is a powerful tool that can re-engage lapsed contacts, build relationships with new prospects, and get a deal within feet of the finish line before a sales conversation. All of these benefits, however, are dependent on your understanding of your audience.

Broad, generic messaging broadcast out to a massive list of diverse contacts won’t work, so it’s vital you take the time to better understand who you’re contacting and what they need.

How do you define your audience? Here are some questions you should be able to answer:

• The Demographics – Step one is the basics. What kind of job titles, seniority, age, and general characteristics do your target prospects share? Nothing is universal but try to get a snapshot of what the group looks like.
• What Are Their Problems? – What issues, concerns, or questions do these individuals share? Are they focused on location? Price? Condition? Are there other factors that come up frequently in sales conversations? Know these questions and your emails will better reflect your business to the target audience.
• Where Do They Get Answers? – Where do these people go online to get answers to those questions and solutions to those problems? Get a sense of the commercial real estate websites they use, social media platforms they are members of, and blogs they read.

By knowing the three things above, you can paint a more detailed portrait of your ideal prospect, and your emails will be much better for it.

2. Segment Your Contacts

Broad, generic messages that are broadcast out to a massive list of diverse contacts doesn’t work anymore, so it’s vital you take the time to better understand who you’re contacting and what their interests are.

Segmenting your contact list is by far one of the most powerful things you can do.

Unfortunately, it can also be the most difficult and time consuming. Done right, however, segmentation of your contact list can help you to pinpoint key targets within segments of your list with messages that resonate.

Your giant one-size-fits-all email list could have hundreds or even thousands of prospects who all have specific needs that are unique to their situation. Sending every one of them an update about specific properties doesn’t work as well as segmenting and sending targeted messages.

To segment your list effectively, break it up by specific categories including:

• Location
• Organization Type
• Job Function
• Interest Level
• Target Property

A good list might look like “Retail Buyers – Warm Prospects – Boston”.

The naming conventions can vary depending on your system and how you like to organize things, but the key here is breaking things up to be easily searchable and super targeted.

The goal of list segmentation is to adapt content and messaging to match each segment. Prospects in Boston and Washington DC deal with different issues on a daily basis and will respond to different messages in your emails. The same is true of people in different types of organizations, job functions, and levels of seniority.

3. Manage Your List

A good email list is not necessarily large – it is targeted, primed, and maintained.

It’s better to have 500 contacts who have opened your emails, engaged with your content, and actively sought out your expertise than a list of 5,000 contacts who have never heard of you, or who haven’t opened an email in more than a year.

To maximize return on your emails, keep your delivery rates high, and ensure you know exactly what to expect when you reach out to your list, list management is vital. Here’s what it entails:

• Clean Your Lists Regularly – When an email address changes, your messages will bounce. Those emails often remain in the database for months or even years past the point at which they can be reached. Remove them when you spot a bounce.
• Purge Unsubscribes – If someone unsubscribes, remove them from your email list. As spam and privacy laws tighten, it’s more important than ever to clear these people out and not attempt to contact them.
• Remove Inactive Contacts– No contact is ever truly gone, but there are certain thresholds you can watch. If someone hasn’t opened an email or engaged with your content in more than 12 months, consider removing them, or setting up a cold-nurture campaign to attempt reengagement one last time before deletion.

4. Elements of a Great Email

An effective commercial real estate email template for your property marketing efforts should contain the most important elements that help create impact, quick to digest and drive your prospective tenants or investors to take action.

Subject Line

The subject line is the first impression you make with prospects and the initial call to action delivered to subscribers when trying to improve open rates.

Strong Images

Visuals are hugely important to driving engagement with any content online, especially for property listings blasts. A strong lead image at the top of your newsletter will capture attention and drive readership down the screen.

Headline

Your headline will make it immediately clear what your email is about, like for example, recent property listings, tips about the local market, general information about a building or a specific location.

Sub-header

Sub-headers in an email break up content and keep it from being overwhelming. If you plan on including several property listings, multiple articles, and calls to action, it should be broken up for easy scanning, especially on a mobile device on which there will be a lot of scrolling.

Enticing Content

Your copy needs to be more than just a summary of the property, but a highlight of specific benefits that property has to offer.

Drive traffic to your property listings with enticing copy that offers a reason for someone to click. Keep it short and concise with a clear purpose and you’ll drive much greater engagement out of inboxes.

Call to Action

Include a call to action button or link that stands out from the copy and directs potential tenants and investors to act. Buttons perform better than text links in visual emails while factors like size, design, and color can all attract more attention and get the click throughs to your property websites you’re looking for.

Contact Information

Make it easy for your contacts to get in touch by provide a name, title, phone number and email.

Also, include headshots wherever possible to provide a personal touch to your communications.

5. The Perfect Subject Line

Whether you want to make a good first impression with a new prospect or encourage a long-term client to re-engage, your email need enticing commercial real estate subject lines that stand out in crowded inboxes, pique interest, encourage the recipient to open, and prime them to take the desired action.

By reviewing the open and click rates of your recent campaigns, you can get a better idea of which subject line approaches work best for different segments of your audience and different types of CRE emails. However, there are also several other best practices that can boost the odds of your emails being seen and opened.

Be Specific, Relevant, and Detailed

While brevity is recommended, particularly for mobile-optimized campaigns, it is also important to include concrete, specific details that will communicate exactly why your CRE email is of interest or benefit to the reader:

• Size – When sending property-specific emails, including the square footage in the subject line can immediately appeal to recipients looking for spaces around that size. Pair this approach with a targeted list to enhance its effectiveness. One caveat: Don’t lead with the numbers as this dry intro might turn readers off.
• Location/Area – If the property is in a particularly hot area or one that doesn’t often have spaces available, including that in the subject line can convey the sense of an unmissable opportunity.
• Interest/Competition – By indicating scarcity (e.g. “X spaces left”) or high levels of interest (e.g. “X leases signed just today”), you can create a feeling of urgency to drive engagement.
• Progress/Updates – Mentioning exciting new renderings, before and after shots, or visual progress updates can be highly engaging and build anticipation. This is particularly useful if you have a targeted list of prospects who have shown interest in a property undergoing renovations or a new property being built from the ground up.

Shorten Your Subject Line

Another common factor that directly impacts open rates is subject length.

Specifically, subject lines with 1-3 words perform better than shorter, succinct headlines.

Why? There are a couple of reasons.

First, shorter usually means more personal. When was the last time you wrote a 7-word subject line in capital case to your mother? You probably wrote something like “checking in” or “pictures of kids”. This is how people communicate and it’s the type of emails people respond to.

Source: Yesware

Another factor here is the mobile component.

People read 40% of their email on a mobile device first, and most mobile devices can only display 4-7 words of the subject line.

Go too long and it’s not clear what an email is about. A surefire way to get dumped in the trash.

Source Marketo

6. When to Send Your Emails

There are several bits of “common knowledge” when it comes to email send times. After all, if you can get your email in front of prospects at the right time, they are going to be less busy and more likely to open.

But how do you know when the best time is when there are so many conflicting bits of advice out there?

Here are two things to consider when evaluating the send time for your email:

Avoid the competition

Conventional wisdom says that business emails should be sent between 9am-6pm Tuesday-Thursday.

Avoid Mondays when people are overwhelmed and Fridays when people are checked out. But in reality, because everyone does this, the vast majority of business emails are delivered between 11am-4pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. That’s a lot of volume in the middle of the week.

Interestingly, a recent GetResponse study on global data suggests that the best time for sending emails was between 4 am and 6 am (based on the open and the click-through rate).

However, always consider what you would like your recipients to do upon opening the email. If you would like them to take a specific action such as get in touch by phone or email, the best bet would always be to send emails between 8am and 5pm.

The same study suggests that there’s no major difference globally in open and click through rates between workdays, whereas during the weekend those rates decrease.

For US and Canada based audiences, Fridays have the best open rate and in terms of clicks Thursday and Tuesday lead the pack.

Source Get Response

7. Improve Deliverability

Nothing is more frustrating than preparing an email, finely tuning it for your audience and then seeing that a high percentage of people didn’t even receive it.

There are plenty of things you can do to ensure your emails get where they belong, including some simple, non-technical steps you can take right now to reduce the likelihood they are seen as spam and boost the number that get into the right inboxes.

Check your Sender Score

Did you know every email you send can be seen and tracked by ISPs to ensure you don’t represent a high spam threat level? This is a good thing, though, because it means we can see that data.

Sender Score offers a tool that will share with you your performance when sending emails and then provide a score from 1 to 100. Some of the stuff they use to calculate this score includes:

• Blacklists
• Recent complaints
• Infrastructure (how your emails are sent)
• Message filtering levels
• Sender rejection notices
• Spam traps
• Unknown users

While some of this can represent technical issues you’ll need outside help to address, checking your Sender Score can ensure you are aware of the issues and do your best to address them.

Improving Your Deliverability Rates with Smart Send Strategies

There are several things you can do to improve sender ratings and deliverability based on when you send emails, who you send them to, and how those emails are validated. Some of the simple things you can do right now to address these issues include:

• Sending Consistently – When emails go out in erratic spikes, you might see higher rates of rejection and a lower overall sender score. Sending consistently over time is an important way to avoid this.
• Use the Same Sender – Make sure to keep the sender name consistent for your email. If your sender name switches all the time, you will increase the possibility of getting flagged by spam filters and make it less likely that your emails will be delivered.
• Ensure Your Contacts Are Opted In – The last thing you want is for someone to flag your email as spam. If someone isn’t sure why they’re getting an email from you, that’s a bad sign as it can quickly lead to high spam rates and eventual blacklisting. Only send to people who have requested information from you, and use a double opt-in and email confirmation process to avoid this issue.
• Clean Your List Regularly – On a regular basis, remove bounced emails, unsubscribes, and other non-deliverables from your list. When you send to these and they bounce back, it can trigger a block or filters on your emails to all addresses. Use an email validation service that will check for inactive accounts as well as duplicates, old domains, records that have requested no messages, honeypots designed to catch spam bots, and other issues that could hurt future deliverability rates.

For a commercial real estate marketing campaign, email is one of the most effective tools at your disposal. Which is why it’s so dangerous to send emails that might spike your spam rate or put you on a blacklist that drops your deliverability rates. Be mindful, carefully prune your list and send smartly to avoid this happening.

8. Develop a Follow Up Strategy

If nothing else, remember that follow up wins deals. Even the most robust and effective email marketing campaigns can be run aground by a lack of follow up.

The average email is opened within a day of sending it 91% of the time. That means only 9% of emails opened are opened after a full day has passed. They get buried in unmanaged inboxes and never seen again.

And while it’s easy to assume these lost emails are intentionally ignored, the simple truth is that the average business user receives between 100-150 emails per day.

If something isn’t deemed important during a particularly busy period of time, it will fall into the abyss quickly. So a strong follow up strategy is a must when prospecting via email.

Yesware has a recent study that shows that more than half of first replies only came after the 3rd email was sent, and more than 30% weren’t seen until the 7th email or more.

It can take several follow ups over the course of several weeks to get a response. Don’t give up so easily.

Some other things you should do to improve your follow up game include:

Using email sequences for outreach automation
When contacting cold prospects or those you haven’t spoken with for some time, automation can ensure better follow up over the long term with scheduled sequences. Those that can be updated based on engagement are even better, escalating prospects that open or click an email vs those that do not.

Vary your outreach times
All the best practices in the world mean nothing if your target doesn’t open the email at the time targeted. Vary your outreach time if you don’t get responses during normal business hours or weekdays. Move to weekends, late nights, or off hours to see if there’s a gap in their schedule that makes response more likely.

Resend to non-openers
If someone doesn’t open your email, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are not interested. They could be out of the office, didn’t see the email, or were too busy to read or reply when it was sent. Most people don’t empty their inboxes, so once it’s missed, it’s unlikely to be seen again. To counter this, resend emails to non-openers a week later with a new subject line.

9. Track Results

Finally, for your email efforts to be effective, you need create a real estate marketing report to know what works and what doesn’t.

A surprisingly large number of CRE professionals rely on that gut feeling of business being better or worse to determine if their efforts are actually working.

But it’s important to know not only what works but why it works, when it works, and what changes had the greatest positive impact.

Specifically, you should:

• Track key metrics for your emails – For each of your email sends, you should know the open rate, reply rate, and click rate on any links included in your message.
• Segment based on email type – The data for personal emails sent from your CRM will be different from marketing emails and newsletters sent via autoresponder or marketing tools. Measure each separately to make smarter decisions based on that data.
• A/B test your headlines – For emails going to larger audiences, don’t be afraid to test different types of subject line. If you are contacting several hundred prospects at once via autoresponder, try a handful of different headlines to see which perform best. Software that supports A/B testing in a single batch is even more effective because you can keep all variables static except for the subject line.
• Measure change over time – Track how your metrics change over time based on the changes you make to your campaigns. If you implement a new template, how does this impact your response rates? A pretty new template that drops your open rate by 15% probably isn’t worth the visual upgrade, for example.

10. Pro Tips

★ Use the CC Field to Improve Response Rate

An effective trick that works well for prospecting is to send your emails to multiple people.

Specifically, by sending the email to one person directly and another via CC, you can improve your open and reply rates by as much as 12%.

That’s a big boost and generally improves your likelihood of someone in the organization you’re trying to reach getting the message you’ve sent.

When speaking with prospects, always ask if there is anyone else that should be included in the email. This will help in the long term.

★ Send Targeted Follow up Messages

Good follow up messages are absolutely key to ensure success of your campaigns. Remember the following principles in your next follow-up emails:

• Mention previous discussion and include context to clearly explain what you are referring to
• Make it personal and avoid cliché and generic phrases like “just wanted to check in”, show people you actually care
• Keep it simple – remind them about who you are and why you matter to them

★ A/B Test Actively to Know What Works

Even if you land on a formula that works effectively and drives good open and click rates, it could be better.

And you’ll never know what would or could work better unless you split test. By running the same email with a slight change to different segments of your list you can see what types of language resonate most effectively with your audience. Here are three things you can test doing this:

• Statements vs. Questions in Your Subject Lines – You’ll see data from both sides on whether a question or statement works best. In reality, it’s all about your audience and what they find most engaging. Test your messages with simple tweaks to the format.
• Timing of Your Messages – While there is a benefit to be had to sending emails in off hours, such as the weekend, you should always test to be sure. Make sure it actually works as intended by testing against a more common time or day.
• Personalization – Test several different formats of personalization in your emails. Specifically, you should test use of merge fields in your subject line, salutation, and the call to action at the end of the body of your email.

Conclusion

Email Marketing Done Right is Immensely Powerful

A well-constructed email marketing campaign that pays close attention to the most effective strategies for getting prospects to open, reply to, or click on links in your emails will almost certainly have a positive impact on your business.

The more prospects you can engage with a simple email, the more robust your pipeline will be and the more active your sales reps will be engaging with those prospects.

And it all starts with understanding what works and what doesn’t and making smart changes to improve your results.