Marketing Executives Unveil Their Best Practices

Commercial real estate marketing is a challenging and ever-evolving specialty. Marketers need to have intimate knowledge of commercial real estate, the companies they work for, and each assignment or property they are promoting. They must also be versed in the plethora of marketing tools and channels available while monitoring changing technologies and social media trends for new marketing opportunities.

To find out what makes marketing experts tick, we asked three experts the same question: “If you had to choose one fundamental best marketing practice, what would it be? Why?” Here’s what they had to say.

Katherine DeMercurio. Image courtesy of Evergreene Architectural Arts

Katherine DeMercurio, Director of Marketing, Evergreene Architectural Arts: “A fundamental best marketing practice is to be integrated into all layers of staff—from the person who has their name on the door to the technical experts straight out of school. There are always interesting insights to be passed down by upper management that can be complemented by today’s advancements in technology or a more sustainable way to perform work, which is hugely important to the next generation. Working in a multi-generational workplace offers a plethora of learning opportunities to best market the work and highlight the people that make it all possible. It’s important to establish relationships across the board for the best perspective to connect and communicate with clients, vendors, partners, along with attracting and retaining employees.”

Nathan Reyna. Image courtesy of Avison Young

Nathan Reyna, President, SMPS New York Chapter, and Media and Content Specialist, Avison Young: “The baseline, fundamental best marketing practice is absolutely nurturing buy-in from the leadership teams at your firm. Marketing-led firms have an established voice and point of view that best attracts top-tier talent, engages clients, and fosters a culture of collaboration within the firm. Our members, comprised of marketers, communicators, and business development professionals of all levels in their career, seek to be that strategic and dynamic partner with their respective firm leaders in order to advance their business goals.

“A great example of this would be building engaging and provocative content like white papers or case studies by utilizing firm principals or accelerators as thought leaders and subject matter experts, with marketing folks acting almost like investigative reporters within their firms to drive out compelling project and people stories.”

Karen Benoit. Image courtesy of Kidder Mathews

Karen Benoit, Chief Marketing Officer, Kidder Mathews: “I would say to do very thorough strategic brand planning to identify key differentiators to build an on-point brand personality/voice, messaging and visual representation. It’s critical to have this foundation to inform all other marketing and branding activities to create a strong, recognizable brand. It should be re-examined at appropriate intervals to keep pace with changing market dynamics and to maintain a fresh and modern brand.”

Jason Price, Executive Director of Marketing and Research, Commercial Properties Inc.: “When you think about all the commercial real estate properties there are in the world, the features they offer, and the needs each building satisfies for a business to thrive, I would attest that one of the most important, and critical services a brokerage firm provides for their clients is the professional promotion and presentation to the right group of potential investors or tenants. Anyone could build the most amazing state-of-the-art building in the world, but if no one knew about it, meaning it wasn’t promoted and presented to the right group of tenants or buyers, it would struggle to sell or lease and could potentially fail to provide a return on the investment.

“Commercial brokerage firms have a strong grasp of the local market and understand what is in demand and know how much people are willing to pay to get the building features they need to support their businesses. In addition, brokerage firms have built up thousands of contacts through multiple transactions and memberships to national or international networks, which help connect the right buyers or tenants seeking commercial space in the market. Promoting a property goes beyond the basics of just posting it on a brokerage company’s website. Professional brokerage firms will develop marketing collateral, acquire high-quality photography and possibly even capture aerial drone video footage. All this will be utilized to promote the best features of the property and help tell its story to a diverse group of potential buyers or tenants. This is achieved by uploading the collateral on multiple commercial real estate listing platforms, sending information out through their subscriber-based email marketing platforms and promoting the information on the firm’s social media channels.”