7 Profitable Marketing Strategies for Commercial Real Estate

I’m going to be brutally honest.

Soon, cold calling, cold emailing, cold direct messages, cold text messages are probably not going to be the most profitable use of your time.

Before you get mad, let me explain!

I can’t get incoming calls from one of my clients because he is an avid cold caller. My phone kicks him to voicemail immediately because he’s been tagged as “spam”.

As technology improves, reaching people via cold outreach (without getting kicked to spam) will become more challenging.

Which is ironic because it’s getting easier to do cold outreach at scale.

I’m not telling you to kick cold calling to the curb entirely. Instead, start thinking about other ways to generate leads without traditional cold outreach.

#1 Google Display Ads.

I’ve been playing around with Google Ads, and I’ve been losing money on Google Keywords left and right. In my personal opinion, Google keyword ads (when you’re targeting search keywords like “commercial real estate” etc.) are too expensive for anyone who wants to spend less than $5k a month on ads. I’m more of a $500 per month gal. I stick with Google Display Ads.

You can choose website categories you want your ads to show on, like websites that show commercial real estate listings, and target your ads to only show to a specific location, like “Houston” or “Southern California”.

Advanced level – you can connect Google Analytics to your Google Ads and only show ads to people who have visited your website. This is a remarketing campaign, and these are traditionally the best at converting website visitors into sales.

You can build your own ads with Canva templates. Note, they have ad templates, but they’re labeled as Facebook ads – same sizes as Google, so you can use them. They have both graphic and video templates. You may have to upgrade to Canva Pro ($15/mo) to get the video templates.

If you want Google Ads training, Loves Data has some great free videos and the online course training is worth every penny.

#2 Networking.

I hate to offer this as a suggestion, because mentally I’m a cheapskate that hordes toilet paper, but joining a country club could be your best networking opportunity.

The members are local, most invest regularly, and I’ve witnessed many people get enough clients out of a country club membership to make an easy career. It’s how attorneys, dentists, residential real estate agents, and financial advisors get their clients – why not you?

You don’t have to skip ahead to the $100k a year club (those are usually “invite only” anyway). There are plenty of smaller clubs, especially in master planned communities, that cost no more than a car payment. Even if you don’t golf, participating in the club’s social events can get you in front of investors.

#3 Email Marketing.

I define email marketing in three categories:

Welcome Sequence Emails. This can be as simple as one email welcoming someone into your email list with a list of helpful links. You can add additional emails (usually up to 6) where you discuss a problem your target audience is facing and how you solve that problem. End each email with a way to get in touch with you.
Email Newsletters. Staying top-of-mind is KEY. If you can put the time and effort into a regular newsletter (even if it’s just 1 per month) you’ll get results. In commercial real estate, we deal in large dollar amounts, and we all know, the larger the transaction, the longer it takes to decide on who to hire. No one has time to send a personal email to everyone on their list. Sending a newsletter will scale your follow-up game.
Promo Offers. I know what you’re thinking, “I can’t do promo offers!” Yes, you can! You can offer a free webinar, free eBook, free video series, free assessment, free online course, free slide deck, free audio training… you get the idea. Promo offers don’t HAVE to mean you’re giving away a free TV to the next person who buys a multifamily property. Educational products make for great promo offers.

TIP: No one wants to write a newsletter every single week! I suggest writing a few newsletters at a time, in chunks. I used to do mine quarterly, but now that I’m focusing on long-form content, I break them into monthly chunks. I’m always about 3 months ahead, so if I get sick, injured, or life happens, I have plenty of content scheduled ahead of time.

#4 Content Marketing.

You don’t have to get super fancy with your content marketing. You can reuse your newsletter. I read my newsletter on video for YouTube and add the same newsletter as a blog post! Long form content can be reused in a variety of different ways.

I like to spread it out by (1) email, (2) blog, and (3) video. When you email it, you’re following up with your leads list. The blog post will be searchable and improve your website rankings. The video is also searchable and will drive traffic to your website.

One newsletter can hit a lot of goals.

#5. Local SEO.

Make sure your business can be found on Google My Business and Yelp. Do an email campaign asking previous clients to write reviews. You can incentivize this with gift cards.

Making sure your website is mobile friendly will be a big boost to your local search, as websites that are not responsive are shoved to the bottom.

If you’re doing content marketing, make sure to add your city and state to blog and video titles. The more content you have regarding commercial real estate in <City> will be a defining factor in your search results.

“Should I hire this out?” If you do hire a local SEO company, make sure you don’t get stuck in a yearly plan. What usually happens is they’ll work hard the first 3-months and then move onto other clients. Leaving you stuck with months left of payments for little work on their part. Start with short contracts. It’s easy to re-instate a contract, but it’s hard to leave a contract.

#6 Social Media.

My view of social media has changed over the years. I used to suggest blasting out scheduled content over all platforms with a social media calendar service. However, the algorithms have changed so much over the years, that my suggestions have changed. Posts scheduled ahead of time are no longer getting reach.

Now, I suggest you focus on one social media platform and use it the way its intended – being social. Post regularly, respond to comments, share and like. When it’s one platform, you can handle it, but trying to juggle all of them is a recipe for disaster.

#7 Hosting Seminars & Workshops.

These are your promos! I suggest you start online and work your way up to renting a space. You want to have plenty of time to test your promotional headline and message before you spend money on an actual event.

If you’re not sure what your subject should be, write down all the objections you’re hearing from clients.

“There are no good deals in <city> anymore.”

Create a seminar where you have highlighted neighborhoods and make a pop-out of some comps of what’s sold / leased in the area. Your goal is to prove there are good deals in THESE areas. You can offer a handout of this information when they show up to the seminar or webinar.

“It’s not a good time to sell property.”

Create a workshop on how a sale/leaseback, off-market sale, or 1031 exchange might be the answer (or whatever service works best in your area). On arrival, they can receive a checklist to make sure they have everything ready for a fast transaction.

“It’s not a good time to buy property.”

Create a workshop on how to evaluate the purpose, location, condition, and projected growth of a property. On arrival, they can receive a Google Sheets document on how they can calculate profit potential.

Use client objections to create great seminars or workshops!

Getting a website can make advertising your specialty and promos easy!

Let’s attract new clients with a lead generating website!

Anyone can create a beautiful website, slap buttons on it and call it “lead generating.”

I’m the only one offering the Ultimate CRE Sales Funnel Masterclass to give you strategies on how to drive traffic to your website, create lead magnets that work, and follow-up with your leads on a larger scale.