What ways do you use to market your real estate company and properties? Has Twitter or a Facebook fan page given you any leads? What has been the most successful strategy you have implemented as a marketing plan?

I build my contact database of buyers and commercial brokers/agents.

When I go to a listing and show them thousands of buyers looking for their property on my laptop and all they have to do is sign the listing agreement to get started they can't wait to get going.

I show them my contact manager. I work very hard maintaining the database.

How is it that you keep your customer database current? We keep our contacts updated with a monthly newsletter containing relevant information about the market.

I'm a Realtor in the Charleston, SC area. Do any of you commercial guys offer demographics, site selection and analysis as part of your marketing?

Tom Mitchell

Depends on what type of asset I am marketing.

I have found typically that it is a MISTAKE to make these huge packages to send.

Sometimes sellers give me info on properties I am listing in Excel,Word,etc. The issue is everyone has different computers so some buyers I send to the file doesn't display at all or displays improperly.

When I make the package I convert everything to a .pdf document as all buyers can open it.Ones that don't have computers I have to snail mail to them.

What most want is a small file with a basic overview of 1 to 2 pages to see if they need to go further.If so it starts going up the line to the final decision maker.This is mainly for corps or groups and not individual investors.

I have also found that everyone pulls demographics and analysis differently. So a assisted living will pull different data points then an apartment or retail site etc.

Most of the buyers tell me they run THEIR OWN demographics and site analysis so they get an unslanted view of the property to make a decision. They are also used to using a certain company for their research for development projects and acquisitions etc.

So I just send a 1 to 2 pager and go from there.

Hope it helps...................

This is very helpful information superrealtor, thanks! How often do you contact the members on your mailing list? It's always such a shame to put so much effort in an email campaign only to end up in a spam folder!

If you word the title and message of the body correctly the message about 99 percent of the time will not go to spam.

I work for a large commercial brokerage firm so they handle all the company's marketing - Busines Journal, WSJ, different industry publications, etc. - both in the form of print and web.

Regarding marketing properties, they go on Costar, Loopnet, our company websitem, and a sign on the property as well. As well, the properties are distributed by email blast to all commercial brokers in our region. Also, as my focus is in retail, I send the blast to the corporate retail real estate managers as well.

All that said, this is not usually where my deals come from. The majority of my time for marketing properties is based on good old fashioned cold calling by telephone directly to the companies. This is where I have had the most success.

Regarding "Tenant Rep" marketing, I use my property listings when I call as a foot in the door to talk about where else they are looking, my expert "feet on the street" knowledge of the market, what deals are getting done, and how I can help them.

Craigslist has been good in the Reno & Northern Nevada commercial real estate market for smaller properties. Larger established businesses typically have more sophisticated resources and the larger listings don't get very many calls.

Signs are starting to gain steam on visible properties. Even poor listings (overpriced, zoning difficulties, or difficult sellers) in visible locations can be an asset to you if you can take the calls and get them to use you as a tenant rep if the sign property doesn't work.

Obviously the listing companies like Loopnet and Costar are great. Facebook and Twitter are good to have, but I have not seen any direct business from them.

I used to market my real estate properties through social media networks like youtube and Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Plurk.

Our typical marketing campaign includes:

[url=http://www.loopnet.com]Loopnet[/url]

[url=http://www.saccre.com]SacCRE[/url]

[url=http://www.costar.com/]CoStar[/url]

Also, a local lawfirm has a broker network we use together with the usual sign, cold calls, etc...

I think that Twitter has become one of the best marketing techniques. It is a social media that nearly everyone is using and can access straight forward information. Here are some tips for utilizing [url=http://www.buildrealestateresults.com/blog/20-twitter-tips-for-real-estate-marketers.html#axzz13NWpC04Q]Twitter as a marketing tool[/url] for real estate. Hope this helps! Best of luck!

Probably you can try a SEO. Itīs a new marketing equipment, but really effective.

Our facebook fan page has been generating some leads. We use it in conjunction with postlets and have good results to show for it.