At any one time, there are millions of square feet of commercial real estate space being marketed for sale or lease. With as much competition as there is for clients, it’s more important than ever to make sure your commercial real estate listing stands out from the others on the market.
Here are 10 top tips to make your CRE listing absolutely great:
#1 Determine your unique selling proposition
Your unique selling proposition – or USP – is that one thing that makes your CRE listing different from the competing space that’s on the market. Your USP might be that your property has a nationally-known anchor tenant or that it’s a new transit-oriented development project. Whatever it is, determine the unique selling proposition that will be emphasized throughout your entire property listing.
#2 Tell a story that prospects want to read
The majority of commercial real estate listings are boring to read and don’t grab the prospect’s attention. Great story ideas usually come right from the property itself. Your building may not have the history of the Chrysler Building in Midtown Manhattan or the Wrigley Building in the Near North Side of Chicago, but every property has something unique about it – and prospects love to read about what makes the building they’re going to invest a lot of money in different from all of the rest.
#3 Highlight the best features of your commercial real estate listing
Each piece of real estate is uniquely different from another. Your CRE listing should highlight the best features of your property. Not only does this make your listing more desirable in the eyes of the prospect, but it also helps to distract from any less desirable features.
Highlights of a commercial real estate listing might include items such as:
- natural light,
- view from space inside the building,
- location of in-building and neighborhood amenities,
- reserved drop-off and pick-up locations for ride-sharing services like Uber, Lyft, and Lime,
- day-care, pet-sitting, and concierge services for tenants and guests.
#4 Devise a comprehensive plan for SEO and keywords
Search engine optimization – or SEO – is a plan that makes it easy for people to discover your CRE listing online when they search for specific terms – also known as keywords. One of the easiest ways to determine what keywords to use is by putting yourself in the prospect’s shoes. For example, if you’re looking for office space for lease in Portland, ask yourself what words or phrases you would type into your browser search bar.
#5 Declutter and stage
Decluttering and staging property is something that non-commercial real estate agents do all the time. Top CRE listing brokers use this strategy too. Decluttering means cleaning your property up so that prospects can focus on the space and not the stuff inside. Staging is when items such as work areas or furnishings are added that help prospects picture the proportion of the space.
#6 Include floorplans
Floorplans also help prospects visually understand how the space is laid out. They may be old school, but floorplans are also a tried and true method of showing prospective tenants and buyers how the property flows and how it can grow.
#7 Invest in good commercial real estate photography
Outstanding photos of your commercial listing can give you a significant return on your marketing dollars. The better the commercial real estate photography is, the more traffic will be generated for your CRE listing. Selling and leasing commercial property is oftentimes a numbers game. The more activity you have, the more showings you have, and the faster the space gets leased or sold.
#8 Create a property-specific website
Single-property websites act as a one-stop site for potential clients to get all of the property listing information with just one click. Include items such as photos and videos, floorplans, downloadable property brochures, and up-to-date market reports.
#9 Take videos of your CRE listing
CRE listings that include video can give your property marketing an extra edge in a competitive market. The pros know that using video marketing for commercial real estate is:
- immersive,
- offers unlimited content options,
- easy to share on social media,
- people love watching instead of reading,
- measuring the effectiveness of videos is easy,
- videos on CRE listings help convert traffic into prospects.
#10 Include drone photos and videos in your listing
Drone videos and photos in your CRE listing give prospects a bird’s eye view of the property they’re buying or leasing. Footage from drones in commercial real estate help emphasize the expansiveness of your listing, and showcase neighboring property and amenities. Drone videos are also a perfect way to keep prospects and stakeholders updated on the progress of projects under development that are being pre-leased or pre-sold.
Great CRE listings are multifaceted
The best commercial real estate listings combine the best of older, proven tools with today’s cutting edge technologies. They cut through the noise that competing property listings create and make it easy for prospects to quickly and easily understand what your space has that the others don’t.
Great CRE listings always include:
- unique selling proposition,
- attention-grabbing story,
- highlights of the property’s best features,
- the right keywords for successful SEO,
- floorplans,
- professional commercial real estate photography, perhaps even drone photos and videos,
- links to property website or a dedicated property page.