Bringing together many different components to promote your commercial listings can often be the key to a successful marketing campaign.
While print advertising is still a popular choice for many brokers, the digital world can help you stand out from the crowd and reach a wider audience.
The good news is, you don’t need to spend a fortune. In fact, there are many free ways to promote your listings online, including:
1. Use an ILS like CommercialCafe
One of the first places you’ll go to post your listings will be an ILS (Internet Listing Service). Depending on the type of properties or spaces you’re trying to promote, you’ll have various ILS portals to choose from. If you want to promote commercial properties or coworking spaces, you might want to try out COMMERCIALCafé.
You can create a free broker profile to promote your listings, which will be displayed on both CommercialCafe and sister company PropertyShark. The two websites get more than 4 million visits per month combined, thus you’ll get more exposure and will be able to gain more leads for your listings.
You can also add an unlimited number of free listings, upload your own property photos, and get access to our easy-to-use CRM to manage your listings.
2. Sign up on social media
Make sure you have social media accounts on all of the major networks. These include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, among many others.
Each network is very different in terms of its audience and the methods you can employ to promote your listings online. So, do your research and take a tailored approach. For example, you will need to include popular real estate hashtags on Twitter and create stunning visual content for Instagram.
You also need to maintain an active good social media presence to reap the maximize your rewards. Make sure you interact with users, share relevant posts and opinions on the market and, of course, showcase your listings.
Also, add social sharing buttons to your own website to encourage users to further promote your commercial listings online.
3. Create compelling online content
A blog is an invaluable tool to build your brand and demonstrate your expertise to the industry. Research reveals companies that published more than 16 blog posts per month receive almost 3.5 times more traffic than those that publish zero to four monthly posts.
Used in the right way, a blog will also help you improve your website’s search engine rankings using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques.
You could also offer to provide third-party sites with guest posts and articles, which backlink to your website. While some sites may charge for guest posts, others may accept your content for free. Alternatively, they may be happy to take part in a content exchange where you accept one of their posts on your site, and you create a post for their website.
4. Use video
Online video content is another avenue you could explore. You don’t need to use expensive equipment but could instead post simple neighborhood overviews to showcase your local knowledge. Or you could create a straightforward virtual tour of a property.
You could also use this video content on your social media accounts to further extend its reach. Stories on Facebook and Instagram are extremely popular right now, so make sure you use them to your advantage.
5. Get involved in property forums and online groups
Property forums and online groups provide you with another way to promote your commercial listings online. These conversations are often used by buyers, sellers, and investors when researching properties or trying to source additional information about the industry. For example, Yahoo Answers has a dedicated Renting and Real Estate section and Facebook is home to many industry-specific groups.
By taking part in these online discussions, you are further demonstrating expertise and have another way of connecting with prospective clients. You can also direct traffic back to your own website.
