When it comes to the marketing of commercial property today, the process needs to correctly tap into the local area and the opportunities that exist with business proprietors and property investors. Most of the properties that are sold or leased today are transacted with those groups and people that understand the local town or city. Unless the property is quite unusual and unique, a full 75% of the standard property marketing campaign should be directed into the local area.
Set the strategy and define the solution
Given that most property markets have an abundance of competing properties, every marketing campaign for a commercial property for sale or for lease requires specific strategy and definite solutions. The days of the generic marketing solution are well gone. Exclusive property listings are required with dedicated marketing alternatives. If you take a serious look around your local property market, you will see that those people looking to purchase or rent have specific criteria relating to prices, rentals, location, and improvements. These are the essential trends of the market and that is what we tap into when it comes to property promotion and marketing. As agents in the local area we are the specialists to work that opportunity today.
Exclusivity works
The three keys to marketing commercial property today are quite specific and should be fed into every property promotion. That being said, the listings that you obtain as an agent today should be exclusive by type, and for a fixed medium term of approximately six months. The exclusivity and the term of the appointment should provide you with the necessary time to penetrate the target market.
Open listings are generally a waste of time and should only be worked on where you find that you have a qualified prospect to introduce to the property. We are the property experts when it comes to commercial real estate, and the experience and knowledge that we can provide should be focused to those clients that trust us with exclusivity.
The three keys to marketing
Here are the three keys that should be tapped into as part of every exclusive listing property promotion.
Work the local area surrounding the property and include all of the property owners and businesses as part of that process. This is a direct marketing approach and should be undertaken personally by the salesperson working on behalf of the client. Generic advertising and listing on the Internet will not achieve the necessary penetration that we need with property marketing today. Walk into the area and door knock every business and property owner for at least 500 metres in every direction.
There will be certain features of the property that are relevant to the target market. As to what those features are, they will differ from property to property and location to location. Importantly, you should seek to understand the requirements of the target market when it comes to improvements, and match the property into those requirements. Every piece of advertising should reflect the same key elements of the target market. Create a very focused marketing message relative to the specific property.
Use professionally prepared marketing material so that each advertisement, listing, and Internet profile will catch the eye of the potential prospects. Given the status of the prevailing property market, in most cases we have fewer qualified prospects to work with. That means we should specifically focus on the quality of the marketing material, the layout, and the digital photographs. There is a cost to this process, and in the case of an exclusive listing, this cost should be borne by the property owner as part of marketing funds paid in advance and based on established marketing program.
When you market your property well, you create the right type of inquiry for potential conversion to an inspection and negotiation. When the property market slows, it is the quality of inquiry that really matters. Every marketing dollar spent has to be well thought through and planned.
The real estate agent brings expertise and market knowledge to the property promotion process. A client or property owner brings the required money to fund the marketing program. Simple efficient rules like this should apply in each exclusive listing today.