Introduction
Picture this, you or your firm have just acquired a new industrial property in a great location. The local marketplace has plenty of competition and potential clients have numerous properties to pick from. You need to lease the property as fast as you can to achieve a positive operating income. Reaching the right tenants at the right time is an absolute must. The Cindtoro team will teach you the various different ways to market your industrial property for maximum exposure.
Who This Article Is For
We created this article to help owners, operators, and tenant-rep brokers market their industrial assets. If you are in need of assistance get in touch with Cindtoro today.
Use Professional Photography and Video
Nothing gets done either on or offline without the use of excellent photography or video. Unlike people who buy other types of commercial real estate, people who lease / buy industrial real estate operate differently than others. Imagery is not just about having pretty interiors. Functionality is huge. Your images should include important items like yard lighting at night, dock levelers, as well as other key details.
You should also be prepared to showcase the turning radius, loading dock queues or other elements that could be of importance.
Your overall goal is to make it as easy as possible for a tenant to ensure that the property they are viewing will fit their needs. This will help save both parties time and money in the long run.
Virtual Reality (VR) and 3D Tours
A virtual reality / 3d tour allows you to showcase the property before you take a prospect on a live tour. Given that industrial real estate space is all about usability, the most important goal is to cover the key areas. Inside your VR tour include clickable hotspots for things such as the docks, knockout panels. You can also include a tour of built out expansion pads.
Similar to professional imagery you will want to include things that make it as easy as possible to ensure that a space or building is right for them.
Paid Promotion
Increasing the number of views to your industrial real estate listings page is a key element to lease / sell properties faster. There are numerous thing that can be done to reach the right people at the right time, paid advertising is a great way to do this by using targeted keywords as people are searching for the type of industrial space they are looking for. Once a user gets to your website retargeting can then be implemented to bring back any lost visitors encouraging them to make a phone call or fill out a form.
Make Your Listings Discoverable
Online discoverability by people who matter requires that your firm takes great care dialing in the words that appear on your listings page.
To make your listings more “discoverable” you can create a “Spec Table” that helps to show key features that make a property unique. Think things such as listing the amount of space for clearance height, dock-high/grade-level counts, the number of trailer stalls, yard depth, ESFR, power and the amount of office space percentage. The more information you add the better you will be able to attract the right people to you.
Positioning & Messaging
How you choose to position your messaging will come in handy to craft your overall listing description for that property. Ideally, the best way to do this is to create a narrative story that helps to describe a property and the spaces available.
Creating a narrative story will give you the ability to cover all the relevant details that are important to a property in such a way that will help you sell it online to a prospect.
Here is an example: “Built in 1989 this class A flex warehouse space offers ample loading docks, high clearance ceilings, newly renovated lighting and a state of the art security system”
The most important thing to remember is the more information you add the better. You do not need to write an entire “book” however a three to five hundred word description should be sufficient.
Segmented Email List
An email list offers a highly personal way to reach into different buckets of users. Ideally, these should be segmented out by different attributes. Think about things such as types of job titles, people who have expressed interest in a tour, those who have objections so on and so forth.
Segmentation ensures you are able to create various different types of emails that will speak directly to the needs of who is on the list. Segmentation will help improve your overall deliverability, open rate and other important indicators.
Marketplace Syndication (Property Listing Websites)
Marketplace syndication websites are also important to generate quality referral traffic. The main websites would be LoopNet, Costar to name the largest marketplaces. You could also look at joining other smaller, often more targeted websites for additional referral traffic. These sites are great places to have your listings on as they are frequented by other CRE professionals as well as people who are in the market for all types of real estate.
Broker Enablement
All of commercial real estate is a relationship based business. Brokers can be some of your best friends helping to access their networks for people who are looking for industrial real estate.
On-Site Capture & Local Activations
To improve engagement and increase lead flow you could create signage with a custom QR code that allows a prospect to book a tour as they are on the property. This code can take a user directly to your website’s property listing page showcasing all the relevant details.
Consistency, Cadence & KPIs
With anything you do, consistency is the most effective way to get and stay ahead. Effective property promotion requires a proactive approach not a set it and forget it style. At minimum you will need quarterly refreshes on any online assets if you want to maintain your visibility. Outside of standard timelines (quarterly refreshes) There will be signs you need to make new updates look for things such as drops in traffic counts, page views, and number of leads that are driven from a single source or multiple sources.
Conclusion
Standing out in a crowded marketplace can be done but it should be undertaken with a tactical approach. We would recommend that you start with professional images / video as this will help you set the base for everything else you will do.
Once that is done, ensure that your messaging is consistent, clear and finally maximize discoverability with paid promotional strategies, email list or other methods. If you need help marketing your industrial real estate properties get in touch with the Cindtoro team today!