Commercial Real Estate Marketing: Strategies to Boost Revenue

I’ve met a lot of commercial real estate agents and brokers in my day, based on my personal experience, I can safely assume you’ve done approximately ZERO commercial real estate marketing in the past. I’m going to start at the beginning and work my way up to expert level, so stick with me on your marketing strategy journey, you won’t regret it!

#1 Target Audience for Commercial Real Estate Marketing

Don’t move forward until you’ve defined your audience. After you target an ideal audience, make sure every message, marketing effort, and design revolves around the question, “What would my target audience prefer?”

Targeting your audience keeps your marketing budget from spiraling out of control, so it’s important to not skip this step.

Target audience in commercial real estate:

Choose a Service Type:

Investor Representation
Landlord Representation
Tenant Representation

And / Or an Industry Specialty

Retail
Industrial
Office
Medical Office
Multifamily
NNN
Land / Development Opportunities
Other

For instance, your audience might look like: Landlord representation for retail properties in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

PRO TIP: The more competitive your market, the more niche you should become to stand-out. For instance, if you’re in Dallas, I suggest a service type + industry specialty combination.

But if you’re in a rural area, there might not be enough potential clients to target a specific niche. In this case, concentrate on highlighting your local expertise.

“If I target my audience, I’ll lose deals!”

I only agree with this statement if you’re in a rural area with under 200 potential clients. When your audience is ridiculously small, you’re likely going to be doing all the NNN deals AND leasing the a dry cleaning space.

However, most of you will be in competitive markets where you’re looking at thousands of people in your audience, even when you niche down. The more competitive your market, the more niche you will need to be to stand out.

Targeting your audience is only for NEW clients.

You do NOT have to get rid of all your industrial clients if you decide to focus your marketing on land deals. Instead, you are trying to get more deals that you enjoy. You do NOT have to turn down that retail lease just because your branding is geared towards land sales.

Take whatever deals come up now, but focus on your future by branding for the deals you want. Eventually, you can send clients to other agents for a referral fee, but there’s no rush.

#2 Sales Vehicles (Freebies) for Commercial Real Estate Marketing

You’ve decided on a target market, this is the most important part of commercial real estate marketing. Now let’s think of some marketing materials they would find interesting.

I’ve seen agents and brokers get nervous at creating sales vehicles (AKA freebies) because “giving away free info” could lead to do-it-yourself behavior. I’m going to counter this with – quality information leads to TRUST. If you’re giving someone a constant stream of amazing content, there will be zero chance they will go to any other commercial real estate agent.

Sales vehicles that overcome client objections convert like gangbusters! If you’re hearing, “No one can sell office buildings in this city,” or “There are no good deals right now.” Build a sales vehicle to quell those objections.

Also, the more variety of sales vehicles you have, the better they will perform. For example, don’t rely only on PDF reports. Throw in some videos, online courses, and podcasts to keep it fresh.

Free Consultation

Free consultation used to be a powerful sales vehicle in the commercial real estate marketing toolkit. However, when everyone offers a free consultation, it loses it’s effectiveness. It should NOT be your ONLY sales vehicle. There are too many potential clients out there that aren’t ready to hear your sales pitch, but they want to learn more about you and your knowledge. It’s important that your free consultation is just one of your sales vehicles.

Use a service like Calendly.com to make your free consultations automated.

Broker Opinion of Value

While a powerful sales vehicle in commercial real estate marketing, like the consultation, still depends on potential clients being very close to signing a deal. In which case, you may not get has high a conversion on this as a lower touch sales vehicle. It’s important that your broker opinion of value is just one of your sales vehicles.

Use a service like Calendly.com to make your broker opinion of value more automated. You can setup a series of questions like, “property address” and “condition” fields to get a good idea of a property’s value before the consultation begins.

Market Reports

If your brokerage offers market reports, these are a great low-touch way to get engagement. If your brokerage allows it, add a page to the PDF of your specialty and services offered to make this a great piece to bring in sales.

eBooks

Are you ready to write a short eBook (can be a few pages, nothing fancy) on a topic your target audience needs information on? eBooks are a great way to showcase your knowledge and specialty and work great to establish trust.

Checklists / Cheat sheets

Offer smaller sales vehicles like a single page checklist, “To-do before you sell your land” with short checkboxes to follow along with. These pieces work great for prospects that are thinking about selling, buying or leasing, but they’re not quite ready for a consultation.

Webinars

Back during the pandemic, live webinar attendance and conversion rates were sky-high! Now that everyone’s off their computer and back to life, we’re seeing that pre-recorded webinars are still doing great.

Webinars are a great way to go over a complex problem and showcase your expertise. Best of all, you can automate these with a pre-recorded video so you can reach people whenever they are ready to watch.

Video Series

Breaking down a complex problem with several 3-5 minute videos is a great way to keep engagement and showcase your expertise. These video series can cover a wide variety of topics that would interest your target market, so feel free to addon additional video series in the future.

Audio Series

Podcasting has become mainstream. and if you’re worried about appearing on camera, audio can be a great way to showcase your expertise more comfortably. People love a good podcast! You can make a whole private series that people can only access after they’ve joined your email list.

Need help with your sales vehicles (freebies)?
Lead Magnet Hero has easy templates.

#3 Sales Funnel Setup for Commercial Real Estate Marketing

The whole point of making the sales vehicles (freebies) is to get leads.

We are going to use those sales vehicles to get people to join your email list.

Having a large contact list is the number one predictor of sales.
Building your contact list is your number one priority.

Naming your Freebie Offer

If you have multiple sales vehicles, you can make one landing page that advertises EVERY sales vehicle that’s included in the “freebie package”. It’ll be easier if you need to add or change a sales vehicle if they’re all in one spot.

Here are some fun naming ideas:

Dallas Landlord Toolkit
Landlord Essentials: Dallas Edition
Dallas Property Success Pack
Dallas Rental Resource Bundle
Lone Star Landlord Freebie Pack
Dallas Property Power Pack

Website Landing Page

If you don’t have a website, do you not like money? It’s time to buy a .com. Start with “fullname.com” or “firstnameCRE.com” “lastnameCRECity.com” Whatever combination is most memorable.

1. Build your Landing Page.

Don’t get cute, be direct. Put the title of the freebie pack up at the top. A short description, and a contact form with at least full name, email and phone number.

2. Build your Download Page.

Title each of your freebies, short tag-line of what it’s about, a screenshot, and link to download the freebie /or click to watch the video.

3. Setup Contact Form.

When someone fills out the form on the Landing Page, they are automatically redirected to the Download Page. This is the easiest way to make your lead generation automated.

NOTE: If you want to prevent your downloads from getting “into the wrong hands” you’re in for an uphill battle. I don’t suggest you only send your downloads through email, as it complicates the process unnecessarily.

4. Ingrate your Contact Form. (OPTIONAL)

You can get plugins for contact forms that will integrate into Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or even a Google Form. This will automate your lead collection so all your emails collected will go into a database hands-free. This is the easiest way to build leads, as it requires no additional work from you after setup.

BTW, our website design packages comes with a made for you website + sales funnel setup.

5. Drip Welcome Email. (OPTIONAL)

After your contact has entered your email list, you can send a “thank you for joining!” email along with a link to the landing page with all the downloads – so they can find it again.

Continue every 2-3 business days with a series of emails:

Thank you for joining! (link to download page for reference)
Email, Address a problem your target market faces and how you solve it.
Email, “Here’s what others are saying” – Testimonials
Email, Overcome an objection you always hear.
Email, “You deserve better” – Sales pitch

You can make drip marketing campaigns run for a week or two, or stretch for a year.

I know someone with a 14 emails in a drip campaign that sends bi-weekly, because it’s less work than an e-newsletter. It goes automatically for six-months, and it requires little changes since none of the subjects are time-sensitive (emails are about properties, not the market itself).

6. E-Newsletter. (OPTIONAL)

Keep your email list engaged with monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly emails from you. Give helpful tips and market updates. E-newsletters are the best wat to stay top-of-mind when your potential client is finally ready to sign a contract.

#4 Outbound Commercial Real Estate Marketing

Outbound commercial real estate marketing is where you are initiating contact with potential clients. The goal is to reach your audience by interrupting their daily activities to capture their attention. Outbound is usually the preferred method of commercial real estate professionals because it puts you in the driver’s seat.

Cold Calling

Reach out directly to potential clients by phone, offering your sales vehicles or setting up a free consultation to discuss their needs. Learn to automate cold calling with Cold Call Hero.

Cold Texting

Reach out with a mass texting platform to your list. You can offer your sales vehicles and showcase your new listings, virtual tours, and closed listings.

Cold Emailing

Sending cold emails is easy with WoodPecker.co. Personalize your subject lines and email messages to your list. Offer your sales vehicles to get engagement.

Direct Mail

Send brochures, postcards, or flyers directly to the offices of potential clients.

Make a pitch to your client to pay a portion of the cost of advertise their property with a postcard. You can advertise their property directly to potential clients – getting both your listing advertised and your business.

For Example:
You have a stubborn office space that won’t lease. Ask the landlord if they’ll fund half of a postcard campaign. You send this postcard to insurance agents within 5-miles asking if they want to upgrade their space. The back of the postcard can showcase your leasing services.

Mailers are great for double duty advertising.

Networking Events

Attend industry conferences, trade shows, or local networking events. This allows you to meet potential clients face-to-face and build relationships. NAIOP, CCIM, Better Business Bureau are great places to start.

Joining a Country Club can be a great source of deals. It’s how attorneys and financial advisors find their clientele, you can too. No need to start with the fanciest club. You can join a modest Country Club in a masterplan and work your way up overtime.

Door-to-Door Outreach:

Especially in commercial real estate, visiting potential clients’ offices or properties can make a strong impression. You can have a sales vehicle professionally printed as a leave behind. eBooks are great for this.

Press Releases:

Distribute press releases about new listings, closed listings, and any achievements with PR Underground to make this easy on you.

If you’re advertising your new listings with PR Underground, they will provide a PDF with clickable links to your press releases over all major news networks. Sending this to your client will leave them in shock and awe!

Podcast Advertising:

Advertise on local radio stations or relevant podcasts that your target audience listens to. Or apply to do an interview on a subject your target market would find interesting.

Paid Advertising:

It’s really easy to lose your shirt with paid advertising on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.. Make sure you have tested your sales vehicles on your warm audience, and you know which one(s) work best.

If you have a sales vehicle that coverts, you can test ads for that sales vehicle. The ads should go to your Landing Page for your freebies. Track how many people have downloaded your freebies through the ads, and track if any become sales.

Once you’ve tested your funnel, and you know it works, you can increase your ad expenditure to get more sales.

Referral Programs:

Create a referral program where existing clients can earn rewards for referring new clients to your business.

Also have a referral program for other commercial real estate agents to send you deals.

#5 Inbound Commercial Real Estate Marketing

Inbound commercial real estate marketing includes creating and distributing valuable content that attracts potential clients and encourages them to engage with you. Inbound marketing focuses on drawing clients to you organically through high-quality content.

Content Marketing

Create articles, blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, and other content that addresses the specific pain points, answers questions on investments, and addresses the needs of your target audience. When potential clients search for information online, your content can help them find your services.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

You can SEO your website until the cows come home, but unless you have unique content added regularly, optimization-only will be a moderate boost at best.

Most commercial real estate agents and brokers put SEO on the backburner, so simple adjustments to your meta tag title and description might be enough to outrank most brokerages in your area.

Social Media Marketing

I suggest choosing one platform (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to focus on. Social media marketing in commercial real estate is about building relationships and providing value, so ensuring your posts are high quality will be the only way to rank in the platform.

Share industry news, market reports, updates on new listings, and insights into the commercial real estate market. You can use a service like Canva.com to create videos and graphics easily.

Blogging

Maintaining a blog on your website is a great inbound strategy.

If you are in a competitive environment, try going after long keyword strings that are easy rank in search engines. For instance, “Industrial Real Estate in Houston” may be out of reach but, “How to Sell my Vacant Warehouse in Houston” might be an easier to get.

The more long-tail keyword strings you rank in, the more traffic your website gets, the more leads you’ll receive.

Video Marketing

Utilize platforms like YouTube to share educational videos, property tours, testimonials, and market analyses.

You can start very simple by taking your cell phone around a property like a live virtual tour.

Use a service like Canva.com to create videos and social media reels easily.

Email Marketing

In commercial real estate, we have a long lag time between when someone becomes a lead to when they sign a contract. Keeping top-of-mind is a primary concern.

You can email your latest blog posts, listings, closed listings, market reports, and insights.

Webinars

Webinars are a great way to go over a complex problem and showcase your expertise. Best of all, you can automate these with a pre-recorded video so you can reach people whenever they are ready.

Case Studies and Client Testimonials

After a transaction is complete, encourage your client to send a review for your business. If you pre-write the email and keep it handy, you’re more likely to do this extra bit.

Don’t skip it! How many businesses have you tried based on their reviews?

EXPERT LEVEL STRATEGIES:

#6 Driving More Traffic to your Sales Vehicles

Google My Business pages

If you don’t Google My Business setup for your real estate business, now’s the time. This might take a while. If it can’t verify you, it will send you a postcard with a code to type in for verification. It’s worth the wait if you want better local SEO results.

Yelp profile page

Get your business a Yelp Business page to increase your chance at gathering local leads and website traffic.

Linked In profile page

Create a LinkedIn profile page for your business.

Bing places page

Get on Microsoft’s maps with Bing Places for Business.

Social media profiles

Setup your social media profiles on different platforms, but only choose one platform to focus on. Facebook Business Page, Twitter Professional Accounts, TikTok, etc.

Facebook groups

Commercial real estate groups to join:

Commercial Real Estate Multifamily
Commercial real estate (more discussion based)
Commercial real estate (mostly posts properties for sale)
Commercial Real Estate Investor Network

Linked In groups