By Marina Copeland
Generating leads is key to establishing and maintaining a successful commercial real estate business. Whatâ's a lead you may ask? In real estate, it's the buyer or seller you're going to assist with selling or purchasing commercial property.
For agents, lead generation goes hand in hand with marketing. It allows you to target your desired farm, and collect crucial information about prospective buyers or sellers. From here, you can tailor your offering to meet your client base.
Lead generation is the glue that binds a real estate agentâ€'s business together. Agents who utilize a strong lead generation strategy can constantly attract a steady stream of clients, while those that neglect this area will spend their time scrambling from one deal to the next.
If you want to stay ahead of the pack, follow these tips for generating commercial real estate leads online:
1. Optimize Your Website
One of the easiest ways to generate commercial real estate leads is to use your existing tools. Every agent should have a fully functional website, and this site must be SEO optimized.
If your site is SEO optimized, potential customers should have no problem finding your business. It will rank well on search engine results pages, and come up near the top. To make the most of your SEO optimized site, think of every landing page as an opportunity to present your business, and convert visitors into a lead.
A successful landing page will combine design and copy elements in a way that best establishes your value proposition in the reader’s mind. The more they know about your business, the more comfortable they’re likely to feel about utilizing it. If your business is presented well online and has a strong digital presence, potential customers may feel more inclined to reach out.
2. Send Out Email Newsletters
Newsletters are a fantastic way of letting people know about any developments happening in your business. In fact, they’re one of the easiest ways to generate leads, given that those receiving them have willingly signed up. Recipients are already interested in what you have to say about commercial real estate, so they’re likely to read the content you send them.
Use your newsletters as a way to keep in touch with customers. Include details about any new developments in your business, the commercial real estate sector, or properties that are newly on the market.
As an added plus, it’s easy to track the metrics of a newsletter. You can ascertain what’s working well, and which areas of communication or operation could use improvement.
3. Use Your Social Media Channels Wisely
Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools in this day and age. Commercial real estate agents can use their social media channels to connect with potential leads, and keep them up to date with current trends and happenings. Social pages are also a great space for posting online reviews, which can give your business a boost too.
However, to generate commercial real estate leads you need to be smart about what you post on your social platforms.
Posting random content just to fill up the page won’t do your business any favors, and you need to be aware of the many potential pitfalls social media brings. It takes a great deal of work to get leads flowing, and a business’ social strategy requires planning, work, and time.
If your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts have quality content and a distinctive voice, you’re off to a great start. Be sure to research what your competitors are doing to get a sense of how the market is responding to their strategies. You can then adapt your own accordingly, and make it unique to your brand.
4. Harness The Power of Video
Video content is an excellent way to engage with your audience, and it offers multiple benefits. Videos are engaging, as they provide an audio-visual insight into what businesses have to offer. This method of content production is ideal for real estate, as you can create walk-throughs, virtual property tours, and other content related to commercial property development.
Videos can also be uploaded onto multiple online platforms, including social media channels and websites, which can be shared with clients privately too.
Particularly now, when we’re living in a more socially distant time, videos work well from a marketing perspective. Instead of clients coming to view properties in person, they can simply view the video of the property they’re interested in. This makes the entire process more convenient, efficient, and streamlinedâ€"all of which can help to generate leads.
5. Build A Following On Your Blog
The great thing about blogs is that they provide an excellent platform for curated content. Like with most marketing channels, the best place to start building your blog is with a strategy. Blogs provide high value content to prospective clients, and create an avenue for them to explore and evaluate your properties and services.
Articles pertaining to the area properties are located, what the current market is like, the general state of commercial real estate, and local or financial news make for great topics. The more in-depth, useful information you publish, the more you’ll grow your reputation as someone buyers and sellers can trust. By establishing yourself as an industry leader, you’ll be able to generate leads from being a reliable online voice.
Offering visitors a simple way to subscribe to your blog is keyâ€" make sure it’s easy for them to sign up, and to keep coming back for more. You’ll build valuable relationships this way, and be the go-to for all commercial property related matters.
An Ongoing Process
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to generate commercial real estate leads online. All you need is a solid strategy that connects your platforms together, and content that’s engaging and informative. Once your strategy is implemented, your followers will become familiar with the services you offer, and this should lead to continual lead generation. Lead generation equals sales, and sales equal success and satisfaction.