5 Marketing Strategies to Land a Winning Tenant

2017-06-07

A vacant property can be a drag on your portfolio unless and until it is occupied by a quality, paying tenant. Effective marketing bridges the gap between potential and actual income, loss and profit.

When it comes to marketing a commercial property, simply put, exposure is key. The best way to find the best commercial tenants is to promote your property and/or company in places where desirable commercial tenants are already looking.

While the first step to effective marketing is to make a plan, the strategies for actually promoting a commercial property vary dependent on each property’s size, use, and location. Nevertheless, the following strategies can be customized to fit most commercial properties.

  1.  Websites

Create a property website or, at least, a dedicated page/section using a distinct URL within the company website. Then, use listing websites like LoopNet, CCIM, CityFeet to link CRE tenants back to the property website. Helpful metrics can be gathered from the property website, which also helps boost CRE companies’ internal marketing databases.

  1. Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are not just for teens anymore. Major brokerages leverage social media to bring exposure to their company, listings, and events, as well as to the company’s CRE professionals.

“The industry’s demographic is welcoming more Generation X and Millennials into key real estate decision-making roles, and they depend heavily on social media, particularly LinkedIn, to source colleagues, partners, jobs and insights to help solve their real estate challenges” (Source: Colliers)   

  1. Email marketing

This strategy is most effective when a brokerage has developed a large in-house marketing database. Using applications like MailChimp and Constant Contact, for example, or through email programs like Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail, CRE professionals can send out email blasts and newsletters promoting their properties and/or property websites.

  1. Traditional marketing

There remains a place in the heart of marketing for cold calls, direct mail, display advertising, print brochures, and other traditional marketing strategies. Even with today’s technological advancements, the human component of finding commercial real estate tenants cannot be overlooked. Attending broker meetings, local trade associations and chamber of commerce events can also expose properties to the marketplace and work toward finding good commercial tenants. Property Metrics points out another added advantage to attending local meetings: “In addition to the marketing, these events can also be a great way to stay connected and in tune with the local market.”

  1. Virtual Reality (VR) and other high tech

Virtual reality tours provide prospective tenants with an immersive experience of how a property can suit their needs. In addition, 3D video footage of a commercial property can be gathered from drones, making the property’s location, its surrounding community, and its exterior attributes come alive. The technology allows for easy upload onto a property’s website as well, which again serves as an all-access point to attract strong potential tenants to a property.

Working together to increase a commercial property’s exposure, these five strategies are being used in the marketplace by industry leaders such as JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, and others. The key is to work the marketing plan on various levels for each property and build a network of tenant prospects and CRE professionals with which you can connect when future properties need filled by quality tenants.