How to Market a Commercial Property: Essential Leasing Tools, Additional Marketing Tactics, and Pricing

Is your leasing team effectively marketing your commercial property?

When you hire a commercial brokerage firm to lease and market your property, there are certain marketing materials that should be provided as a part of their standard marketing package in order to effectively market your project.

Read Next: The Ultimate Guide to Commercial Real Estate Marketing

In this article, we outline the basic marketing materials and marketing tactics that your leasing firm should provide, other marketing tactics to consider for larger projects, plus, an easily digestible pricing table.

Basic Tools Your Leasing Firm Should Provide

1. A Standard Property Marketing Flyer

The first thing that your firm should provide is a flyer or brochure. These are usually designed in the leasing firm’s standard flyer template.

Read Next: 5 Questions You Should Ask About Your Leasing Firm’s Marketing Team

This flyer will be used for all aspects of property marketing – it will be available for download online and on property listing sites, distributed to inquiring tenant rep brokers, shared with prospective tenants, and more. 

 Property marketing flyers should generally include:

• High-quality photos or renderings of the property
• Location map
• A list of property features and highlights
• Leasing contact information
• Map highlighting surrounding amenities, access, and/or other pertinent information
• Any available site plans or floorplans detailing typical floors or specific availability
• In some cases, the flyer may also include rental rates, demographic information, parking details, etc.

A standard AQUILA property marketing flyer for Hartland Plaza.

If you don’t have high-quality photos or renderings of your property, these will typically need to be contracted through a third-party photographer or visualization/rendering firm. 

In some cases, it may make sense to create a custom brand and marketing materials for your property, outside of the leasing firm’s standard template. In this case, a third-party branding agency will need to be engaged to establish this identity. Below, you can see examples of custom marketing materials for Eastlake at Tillery, Mueller Business District, and more. 

Your brokerage firm’s marketing team should be able to lead this branding initiative and maintain the campaign once brand standards and templates have been produced.

Read Next: 6 Best Branding Agencies for Commercial Real Estate Property

2. Property Listing Page on the Leasing Firm’s Website

One of the primary ways your property will be found online will be through the listing page on the leasing firm’s website. 

The property listing page should, at a minimum, feature all of the information that is included on the flyer (including images, details, maps, contact information, etc.), a link to download the flyer, and links to the leasing brokers’ emails. 

Click here to view the full, interactive property page.

Even in the age of technology, we can’t forget the impact of traditional marketing. What better way to tell the world that your property is available for lease than a physical sign on the site? 

A property leasing sign should be placed in front of your property to grab the attention of people driving or walking by. 

Unless a third-party agency is engaged or another template already exists, these are usually designed in the leasing firm’s standard sign template. Your leasing firm’s marketing team should handle the design and coordinate the execution of these signs with their sign company.

3. Leasing Sign at Your Property

Even in the age of technology, we can’t forget the impact of traditional marketing. What better way to tell the world that your property is available for lease than a physical sign on the site? 

A property leasing sign should be placed in front of your property to grab the attention of people driving or walking by. 

Unless a third-party agency is engaged or another template already exists, these are usually designed in the leasing firm’s standard sign template. Your leasing firm’s marketing team should handle the design and coordinate the execution of these signs with their sign company.

It is common for a basic leasing sign to be paid for by the leasing agency; however, depending on the project and sign requirements, there may be an additional cost incurred by the landlord. The details should be clearly defined in your listing agreement.

4. Listing on CoStar

Your leasing firm should update and maintain your property listing on the commercial real estate listing site CoStar. This is typically a broker’s first stop when searching for available spaces for their clients. If you want your listing to appear on LoopNet, you must pay for a CoStar Silver ad. This is not typically included in a leasing firm’s standard package and must be paid for by the landlord.

Read Next: 3 Problems A Landlord Broker Can Help You Solve

5. A Virtual Tour

A virtual tour allows prospective tenants and tenant rep brokers to tour a space on their computer or mobile device.

Virtual tours allow prospects and brokers to experience your space from wherever they are – be it down the road or across the country.

Read Next: Virtual Tours for Your Commercial Property: Everything You Need to Know

With the rise of COVID-19 and the resulting stay-home orders and travel restrictions in 2020, virtual property tours went from a nice-to-have marketing tool to a must-have.

While some pandemic trends may fade out as the world reopens, we don’t anticipate virtual tours losing their value.

Previously, a tenant may have gone to walk through as many as 10 to 15 properties on their initial round of tours. Now, decision-makers can tour these spaces virtually, and then visit a reduced shortlist. Additionally, out-of-town stakeholders can be involved early on without having to make multiple trips. This saves prospects time and money.

According to a study by real estate technology company VTS, 80% of people preferred to take a virtual tour of a space to narrow down their search before touring in person. Additionally, 100% of people expect to see a virtual tour and floorplan before committing to an in-person tour.

Read Next: What Type of Website Should You Build for Your Commercial Property?

Additional Marketing Tactics

While all the items listed above are the standard marketing materials that should be provided by your property leasing firm, their marketing team should also be available to provide ongoing support and be willing to help you execute new ideas and a number of additional marketing initiatives.

Additional marketing initiatives might include:

• Branding
• Drone photography/video
• Video production
• Direct mail
• Social campaigns
• Online advertising
• Custom website creation
• Events
• Swag/Giveaways

Be aware that these additional initiatives will likely require you to come out of pocket with some marketing dollars to cover third-party agency costs, supplies, advertising budgets, etc. 

Read More: How Much Does It Cost to Market a Commercial Property?

Pricing

Please keep in mind that these are estimates. Your property’s marketing team should be able to provide more tailored pricing estimates for these and source trustworthy vendors to execute these projects.  

Reach out to our marketing team for a personalized marketing budget for your property.

If your leasing firm is not providing basic marketing materials, it may be time for you to hire a new leasing team. 

To learn more about putting together a successful property marketing campaign, check out these helpful articles:

• 10 Best Examples of Commercial Real Estate Video Marketing
• 9 Best Commercial Property Websites
• Six Things to Consider When Creating Renderings for Your Commercial Property
• 6 Best Branding Agencies for Commercial Real Estate Property
• Guide to Building an Effective Marketing Center for your Commercial Property