Current circumstances have required companies to create and execute contingency plans to support their employees and overall business, as well as make significant adjustments – and adopting a work-from-home policy is chief among these changes. Working from home translates to increased screen time for our clients, both current and potential, and thus, an opportunity for us to enhance our marketing strategies to even better position properties in the online space. Following are tactics to maximize listings’ exposure and reach – digitally, virtually and remotely – while remaining mindful of our clients’ needs and concerns during this time.
1. Create Digital Brochures Designed for Screens
Designed with digital viewing in mind, these attention-grabbing and creative digital brochures can be sent via email, viewed on mobile or desktop and shared in virtual meetings. Interactivity can be added to these documents for added engagement.
2. Feature Neighbourhood Overviews and Interactive Maps
Emphasize transit routes, nearby amenities and neighbourhood features with an interactive document that highlights each element upon request. This approach can be especially important as property imagery may be hard to commission.
3. Elevate Your Listings with Virtual Tours
Virtual tours and videos help you bridge the gap between speaking about a property and showing the actual space. As physical tours are not currently possible, the value of being able to communicate the realities of a property is higher than it has ever been. These tools give you the capability to market to key audiences like remote decision-makers and international investors. Videos produced using existing photography, drone footage, Matterport walkthroughs and AR/VR vendors allow for varying methods of creating these tours to suit any budget.
4. Get in Front of Clients Through Virtual Meetings/Receptions
Held in lieu of in-person broker receptions, these meetings, whether hosted via Zoom, Skype or Teams, is a way to gather a group of interested parties and walk through all the promotional pieces created for the property. The landlords/property owners can also attend these virtual gatherings to provide their comments and get a sense of the property’s reception in the market. This option lets you engage with a highly qualified audience and gives you a platform to bring all the property marketing pieces to the forefront.
5. Create Thoughtful Content for Your Web Listings
Ensure you have all your listing portals covered – look for sites that give you the most targeted exposure. As Canada’s most visited commercial real estate website, ColliersCanada.com provides an essential service by delivering a qualified audience for your property listing. A robust listing page offers a better visitor experience and increases the listing’s searchability on Google and other search engines. Talk to your local marketing team to get your listing elevated to premium status.
6. Design a Custom Website for Your Property Listing
A dedicated website, tailored to the property’s identity, can be built and tied to a desired website address. Offering a fully branded profile of the property, this element accurately conveys to potential tenants the type of experience they can expect as occupants of the space.
7. Get Wider Exposure with a Thoughtful Social Media Strategy
Using social media marketing for commercial real estate is an effective way to build brand awareness and drive visitors to your listings or profile. Savvy commercial real estate professionals are also using social media to spark conversations and facilitate connections with potential customers and partners.
The use of personal professional accounts with established and growing audience bases is a smart and free way to reach your networks. Additionally, there is the option of paid advertising on social media platforms, should you look to expand your reach beyond your existing network, targeting specific segments of the population.
8. Generate More Awareness with a Digital Ad Campaign
Performance-based commercial real estate advertising campaigns via Google Ads and publisher-direct deals are an effective way to raise awareness and acquire leads. These platforms offer laser-targeted campaigns, allowing you to select when, where and to whom your ads are displayed.
9. Highlight Your Property with Exterior Photography and Drone Aerials
Showing actual external visuals of a property in the context of its area gives future tenants a sense of reality in the absence of a site visit. This photography can also be used in all visual collateral, elevating the material.
10. Communicate with Clients Through Email Campaigns
A curated series of messaging focusing on the property’s most compelling features can be used as an educational communication method. Links within the emails can direct to further content, while continuously encouraging the recipients to contact you.
Above all else, it is imperative that you communicate with empathy. Ensure your messaging conveys new information and is in line with your target market’s current needs. Having sensitivity and recognizing the concerns of your audience are the most vital aspects of communicating during times of uncertainty. Review your copy and revise it as needed to ensure it is current and your audience knows it has been updated to reflect the current situation. Consider date-stamping collateral.
Now is the time to assess what your target market is looking for and how you can best position Colliers’ services and properties to them. It is important to remain thoughtful with messaging and communication methods as you discover the most effective way to reach your clients in this shifting environment.
Learn more about Colliers’ Property Marketing.
