Gone are the days when a newspaper ad would bring in plenty of leads and not break your bank. Now-a-days, we have to think about different ways to do our commercial real estate marketing, get in front of our target audience, without going over budget. Here are seven ideas on how you can do commercial real estate marketing without spending a lot of money on your marketing plan.

#1 Local Searches

Did you notice that Google shows you the 3–5 businesses closest to you when you search for a business? Google pulls this information from Google My Business. Don’t miss out on search traffic happening near your location by signing up for this. While you’re at it, put your business on Yelp and Bing Places.

#2 Press releases.

Spend a day Google searching for your local magazines, newspapers and business gazettes. Most editorials will have a list of contacts. With this information you’ll be able to email your press releases. Send these contacts a simple email containing property details, how much it sold/leased, property photo and information on seller, buyer or leasing business. Some press releases will be picked up while others won’t. The likelihood of your stories being printed will depend on the news flow for that week.

#3 Joining organizations.

Because commercial real estate is so specialized, I never recommend that you sponsor, attend, or join generic organizations for the “you never know” value. However, well-known organizations like the Better Business Bureau and your local Chamber of Commerce can be great resources. If nothing else, showing that you’re a member of either organization gives clients a feeling that you’re more established than a non-member. Sponsoring webpages and events may be an inexpensive way to bring in new clientele, especially for tenant representation.

#4 Sponsoring a charity.

Volunteering and sponsoring under your company name can be a good way to bring in tenant representation clients. Donating t-shirts with the event name on the front and your company logo on the back can be great for long-term advertising. The average shelf-life for promo items like shirts and coffee mugs is approximately 3 years. Consider donating high quality promo items that people will keep. Sorry but, low-cost notepads, stickers, mini calendars and low quality giveaways have the lifespan of a fruit fly.

#5 Pay-per-click advertising.

If your website is new or struggling for high rankings on Google, Bing or Yahoo, you may want to consider adding pay-per-click advertising to your commercial real estate marketing plan. It’s not easy, so be sure to test out ads and measure your funnel’s conversions rates before increasing your ad spend.

#6 Blogging / content creation.

Start a blog if you plan on providing quality content on a regular basis. One paragraph entries or generic content won’t help your cause. Using AI like Chat GPT can be a little tricky if you’re going for higher Google rankings, since searches are cracking down on fully AI written content.  But using Chat GPT or other AI platforms for the first draft, an outline, or just a list of blog ideas can get you started without a lot of time and effort.

#7 Targeted mailers.

Investments in services like Reonomy and CoStar tenant, will help you gather mailing information on potential clients. Gathering a mailing list and sending them a series of sales letters and postcards with a clear call to action can be an easy way to gather leads. You can also use email marketing to get your business and listings in front of investors.

If you want to kick start your advertising, the first step is getting a website.  Your message is easily scaled when you have one, single hub for all of your services and offerings.

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

I’m the only one offering the CRE Sales Funnel Masterclass to give you strategies on how to drive traffic to your website, create lead magnets that work, and nurture your leads so you can bring in more sales.

A website without the ability to be used as a sales funnel is just jewelry.  Pretty to look at, but not useful.

Without a sales funnel, you won’t get long lasting results, period.

If you’re nodding along, 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 ready?  Schedule a call or zoom.