28 Actionable Property Marketing Ideas to Generate Free Visibility

If you find yourself asking the following questions:

“How do I create more visibility for my property listing?”

“What are some effective property marketing strategies?”

“How do I generate more leads for my property?”

Then you’re not alone.

These are questions a lot of commercial real estate professionals have a tough time answering.

The most common mistake CRE professionals make is that they spend a lot of time creating their listings or property websites, and then launch it hoping to get great results.

The truth is that once your property listing is online, you need to actively promote it to help you attract brokers, tenants or investors.

This does not necessarily mean you need to make a large marketing investment, there are plenty of effective strategies help create a steady stream of visitors, new leads and potential clients for free.

Whether you’re looking for marketing ideas for new leasing assignments or investments sales listings, below is a list of free or low-cost tactics you can leverage today.

1. Publish Across Multiple CRE Platforms

Have your property listing on CoStar/Loopnet? Great, but you should also consider increasing the footprint of your property by publishing on several other commercial real estate portals to expand visibility and reach new audiences. Make sure to include a link back to the original source listing (on your own website) to retain as much traffic for your own brand.

There are plenty of free alternatives to consider:

• CommercialSearch
• CommercialCafe
• Brevitas
• Crexi
• etc.

View a comprehensive list of CRE listing sites to publish on here: commercial real estate websites

2. Feature on Your Company Website

It’s important to feature your property listings on your own website because it allows you to control the branding and messaging of your listings, as well as gather leads and data on potential buyers. Besides your Property Search Engine, you can highlight your new property listing in a Featured Property section on your Home Page.

3. Publish Dedicated Blog Post

If you have a company blog, publish a dedicated a blog post to highlight your property and include the link for your readers to view more details. Having your listing included in a blog post can improve your search engine optimization, making it easier for potential buyers to find your listings.

4. Produce Low-Production Videos

Create a short low-production video to allow potential customers to visually see the property and get a sense of its layout, amenities, and location.

Low-production videos often have a more authentic and relatable feel, which can help to build trust and credibility with potential customers. Best of all it can be embedded and shared all across the internet.

5. Get Links in Press Mentions

Make sure any press mentions about your property always include the website URL to allows readers to easily access and view the website, increasing traffic and potential customers. If a publication comes out without a link, contact the journalist and ask them to retroactively include it.

6. Publish LinkedIn Posts

Share status updates on LinkedIn with relevant updates highlighting interesting market data or updates related to your property and always include your property website link.

7. Promote on LinkedIn Groups

Engage in relevant LinkedIn groups relevant to your market or your client’s target industry and make a mention of your property.

8. Update Your LinkedIn Profile

Similar to your email signature, you can easily include the property website URL in your LinkedIn profile under “websites” allowing potential clients to easily access information about your listings, and can help you connect with people who are interested in buying or leasing a property.

9. Tweet

Get busy on Twitter (share photos, relevant news, updates, etc.) and always include your property website link.

10. Facebook Updates

Share status updates on Facebook with relevant news and always include your property website link.

11. Email Your Tenants

Email your tenants and let them know there is a website for the property. Often times, they will share and link to it from their own website to help generate visibility.

12. Contact Project Team

Contact the project team (brokers, architect, property management, etc.) to let them know an online presence for the property exists and encourage them to share it.

13. Add to Your Email Signature

Leverage your email signature for a short while and include a link to your property(s). Ask the same of your colleagues.

14. Send Targeted Email Blasts

Email is the highest value marketing channel in commercial real estate. Period.

Send a sequence of targeted email blasts to a segmented database of potential prospects with relevant news and include a link to your property website.

15. Feature in Your Company Newsletter

Include your property as part of a bigger company newsletter. Keep the property in the spotlight and share updates or key highlights.

16. Publish News Items

Make sure any news items or press release on your company’s own website that mentions your property always includes a link to give visibility and drive visitors to the property page.

17. Personal Emails to Peers

Send a personal email to close industry peers and colleagues and ask them if they could circulate your property to relevant prospects and share on their social media channels.

18. Leave Comments

Engage in comments section of social media and news sites that are relevant to your market. Comments that mention your property listing can not only boost your online presence and help increase engagement but also help drive traffic to your property listing.

19. Pitch Local Press

Contact local press media and pitch them exclusive news about the property before announcing it yourself.

Local press outlets often have large readership in the area and strong relationship with their audience, which means that they can help to build trust and credibility for your property.

20. Write a Guest Post

Ask bloggers in the industry if you could write a guest post for them and share your expertise, then include your property website URL in the byline.

21. Citations on Wikipedia Page

Create a Wikipedia page for your property and cite your website as one of the sources. Adding a backlink from Wikipedia back to the original source will have a positive impact for SEO and help improve your rankings in Google search result.s

22. Google My Business

Get your property verified on Google My Business and make sure you include a phone number and website. Your listing on Google My Business will increase the visibility of your property on three massive platforms used by the vast majority of your potential prospects: Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+.

23. Facebook Business Page

Create a Facebook Business Page for the property and let your tenants and colleagues know about it and ask them to share it.

24. Add URL on Print Materials

Make sure your property’s URL is displayed in all print materials, such as the property brochure, flyer or offering memorandums.

25. URL on Building Signage

Always, always include your property website URL  as part of your building signage whether it’s a property for lease or for sale.

26. Tenant Video Testimonials

Ask existing tenants to provide a quick video testimonial about the property. Publish on YouTube, LinkedIn and across other marketing channels to attract other tenants.

There are tools that help streamline collection of testimonials for you. For example, check out testimonial.to.

27. Yelp Profile

Create a Yelp profile for the property. This works especially well if you have any retail establishments at the property.

28. Share Vacant Space for Events

Use your vacant space to host events or temporary “pop up” shops to get people through the door and talking about your building. Platforms like Storefront and thisopenspace can help facilitate this to connect your property to a community of brands looking for pop up space.

Conclusion

There are plenty of ways to generate visibility for your online listing or that don’t require any marketing spend. It just requires some of your time and hustle.

What strategies are you using for marketing your commercial properties? If we’ve missed any ideas, take a second and leave a comment below.