I’ve been working in the commercial real estate marketing game for a long time. Here are the main mistakes I see brokers and agents making repeatedly.
#1 No transitional call to action.
Listen up! Not everyone wants to schedule a consultation today. Offering a freebie in your commercial real estate marketing plan is a great way to keep-in-touch and establish trust with the “just looking” buyers.
Offering ONLY Consultations will Lower Your Sales
It’s a big leap from “just met” to “consultation.” You need a warm up offer to get commercial real estate prospects to take you seriously.
Offering a freebie in exchange for contact information is the one thing that will build your warm list fast.
Freebies to Offer
- eBook
- Checklist
- Cheat Sheet
- Video
- Podcast
- Online course
- Webinar
- etc.
No idea what to offer? Check out Lead Magnet Hero for templates to easily create a library of commercial real estate freebies to up your sales game.
Driving Traffic to a Freebie Gets Results
When you have a freebie that you can drive traffic to, you have a lead magnet.
Driving traffic to your freebie is a great way to begin automated, easy lead generation and strengthen your branding.
For example, you can buy an eblast or ads in an e-newsletter, magazine, or website that showcases your freebie.
Freebies are a great way to make leads come to you in your commercial real estate marketing strategy. Be sure to advertise in places where your target market frequents. If you specialize in multifamily, consider finding a multifamily investor newsletter (or similar). Spend money where you’ll have the best bang for your buck.
Create a landing page with a form and picture of the freebie. Ask visitors to, “fill out the form to receive [ Freebie ].” Make the form either redirect to a page where they can download the item or setup an automated email that sends it immediately. Your lead receives your freebie and you have their contact information! Hello, warm contact list!
Once you know your freebie works and you get a solid amount of conversions, consider running ads to your freebie to increase your sales.
#2 No sales funnel.
A well-structured commercial real estate funnel guides your prospects from curiosity to commitment, filtering out the tire-kickers and focusing your efforts on genuine prospects. It’s an essential part of marketing strategy when you’re looking to go bigger.
“I AM my sales funnel.”
In the beginning, we can follow up individually. We make calls, individual emails, send text messages because our list is maybe 100 people, max. When you get past a list of 100 contacts, it’s time to start thinking bigger. You need to enable some technology and marketing strategy to hit your prospects at scale.
What is a sales funnel?
You’ve probably been shoveled a lot of jargon on sales funnels over the years. I’m going to break it down for commercial real estate purposes.
Top of Funnel = Eyes on your Services.
Are you in front of enough people?
How many people have been exposed to your offers (I.E. free consultation, free ebook, webinar, etc.)?
- Count how many offers you have made.
- Count how many people were exposed to your offer.
- How many of those people became paying clients?
- What percentage became paying clients?
- Can you improve that? How many eyes do you need on your offers to hit your sales goals?
Middle of Funnel = Warm Prospects to Make Sales.
Do you have a warm list but no one is “biting”?
Once someone has entered your warm list, you need to be in contact with them consistently for your branding efforts to work.
Welcome Sequence Emails. A welcome sequence is a set of emails you’ve created to automatically run when someone enters your warm list. Remember, we run in large dollar amounts, so it can take months for someone to become a paying client. If you decide on an automated welcome sequence only, be sure you have enough email content to run for several months. Add branding to your emails (logos & color scheme) to ensure you are immediately recognizable.
Newsletters. If your game is investments or valuation, you might have an even longer time span between the lead to sale process. Consider sending your list a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly email correspondence. This will keep your audience engaged and will keep you top-of-mind when they are ready to purchase a new investment property or move to a new location. No idea what to write? Check out Newsletter Hero’s 100+ email prompts to help be consistent.
Warm up an Abandoned List. Haven’t been sending much correspondence? It happens! Content marketing is difficult to kick into gear. Don’t apologize, instead, send a few freebies your target audience will love having and you’ll see an uptick in engagement. You can start your newsletter or welcome sequence after a few freebie warm ups.
Bottom of Funnel = Turn around sales fast as possible.
Do you have paying clients and properties to sell, buy or lease?
Focus on delivery.
Marketing Plan for Properties. Get those listings out to as many people as possible. Use mass email blast systems like Big Boys Blast and Property Campaign. Hire a local company to create virtual tours for your properties. Use press releases (PR Underground) to get on major news outlets. Put your listings on social media to get engagement. The more people see it, the more likely it’ll sell or lease quickly.
Keep On Top of Your Listings. Use a project management system like ClickUp to organize your listings, keep a checklist of what you’ve done for them, and set it to remind you when it’s time to follow-up with the client or take the next steps.
Focus on improving your delivery, and you’ll be able to take on even more clients than before!
#3 Focusing so much on cold calls you forget warm leads.
This absolutely kills me because warm leads are much more likely to convert by almost tenfold. Warm leads close rates are at 15% and cold leads close rates are 1%.
Warm Leads = Money
In recent studies, 94% of calls from unknown numbers were redirected to voicemail, making cold calling less effective than ever before.
My suggestion is simple. There’s ten times more money in a warm list than a cold one.
Warm Up Cold Lists
If you insist on cold calling or have neglected your list, direct them to download your freebie instead of asking for a return call.
It’s a lot easier to call someone up and tell them you want to send them a free eBook, no strings attached. People are much more likely to fill out a form to download a freebie than they are to engage with you directly, so don’t lose out on warming up cold leads.
#4 Falling Short on Digital Marketing
Did I say 3 mistakes? I’m adding one!
Don’t neglect your digital presence and be active on social media. Effective online engagement can dramatically improve your reach and attract new clients. Taking the time to optimize this aspect of your marketing strategy will pay off in the long run.
Outdated Website
An old, slow, or hard-to-navigate website can turn potential clients away. Make sure your site is modern, mobile-friendly, and easy to use.
Lack of Social Media Activity
If you’re not active on social media, you’re missing out on a huge audience. Regularly post updates, share industry news, and engage with your followers. You don’t need to post on every platform. Pick one platform to focus on.
Poor SEO Practices
If your website isn’t optimized for search engines, potential clients won’t find you. Use relevant keywords, create quality content, and ensure your site loads quickly.
Ignoring Online Reviews.
Reviews can make or break your reputation. Respond to reviews, both positive and negative, to show you care about your clients’ experiences.
Zero Email Marketing.
Email marketing is a powerful tool to keep in touch with clients and prospects. Send regular newsletters with valuable information and updates.
Need help with commercial real estate marketing?
If you want my help in expanding your marketing game and creating a working sales funnel, check out the custom website designs.
Anyone can build a website.
Anyone can put buttons on a website and call it “lead generating”.
I give you access to my Sales Funnel Masterclasses, giving you strategies to drive traffic to your site, bringing you more leads, and making you more money.
If you don’t have a sales funnel, you won’t get long lasting results, period.
If you’re nodding along and agreeing that it’s time, let’s get started! Schedule a call or zoom.
I’m out to take the “broke” out of commercial real estate brokerage.
I want to start with you.
You coming? Schedule a call or zoom.