#1 Freebie. Freebies are something like: eBooks, checklists, videos, podcasts, online courses, webinars, etc. You’ll use them mainly as lead magnets – getting people to freely opt-in to your email list. Once you have a lead magnet, you can drive all your traffic towards it.  When cold calling, you can offer your freebie.  Advertise your freebie in places your target market frequents (newsletters they read, website banner ads, etc.) to get leads coming to you.

Freebies are a great way to bring a fresh supply of leads hands-free.  Set up a page with a contact form and an image of the freebie, and you’re done.  Then you can decide to run traffic to it if your pipeline starts drying up.   Lead Magnet Hero has freebies you can use.

 

#2 Blogging / Video / Podcasting. Providing monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly advice to your target market is a great way to stay in touch. I know what you’re thinking. “How can I possibly think of that many topics?” Newsletter Hero has 100+ topics for a commercial real estate newsletter.

Consistency is key.  If you only have the time for one article a month, do that.

Batching them ahead of time is always a great way to stay ahead of the game.  I batch my content every quarter (3-months) at a time.  Have you noticed my outfit rarely changes?  It’s because I filmed a month’s worth of videos in one sitting.  The best way to stay consistent is by working WAY ahead of time.

 

#3 Emails. When you build content, like in #2, it can easily fill your e-newsletters with helpful information. If you don’t have the time or energy to put into building content right now, you can do announcements of your new listings and fill it full of articles, podcasts, and videos that your audience will find helpful.

 

#4 Mailers. I’m going to be honest with you, I used to be a huge fan of mailers back when it was $0.25 for a postcard to be printed and mailed. Now it’s more like $1, I’m more reluctant to use mailing in a marketing plan. But as of today, the FCC is deciding whether or not to remove the B2B exception on cold calling, so we might need to give a hard look to postcards in the future.

If you must do mailers, I suggest doing small batches until you have a proven message that works.  Use your cold calling list and mail out a postcard that advertises your freebie.  You can give it a separate landing page so you can track how many people saw the mailer and filled out the form.  Track those folks to see if they become paying clients.

 

#5 Advertising Online. Consider setting-up your business in online directories such as Yahoo!, Google, and Yelp. An enhanced local listing can increase your online viewership, get more traffic to your website, and increase your leads.

 

#6 Social Media. Even if you’re like me and you hate social media, I’ve found that participating in social media can raise your website’s ranking in search engines. For this reason, alone, it’s worth it to sign up for Later.com (they have a free plan) and set up future social media postings. Consider putting a reminder every Monday on your calendar to post on social media.  Check out commercial real estate blogs, investment news, and more for recent articles to share with your followers.  Or use Fiverr.com to hire a Social Media person per month.

 

#7 Associations. Chamber of Commerce, NAIOP, Better Business Bureau and your local university will all have events. Meeting fellow business owners and independent agents can bring in referrals and word of mouth advertising. And bonus, some of my best friends are other business owners whose eyes won’t glaze over when I talk sales funnels. Get some referrals and friends while you’re at it!

 

#8 Charity. Social involvement in churches, schools, universities, and other non-profits can bring more word-of-mouth leads. Charitable donations are often rewarded with linking your website with theirs. This is a big deal with SEO since .org backlinks are Internet unicorns – very rare and difficult to get. However, you’ll be shelling out some bucks regularly to get that boost in search engine ranking as most charities only keep your link for a few months at a time.  But frequent donations can keep you on their website.

 

#9 Networking. Industry conventions are one of the best places to network. NAIOP, CCIM and ICSC have some great events. There also may be some great, local conventions in your area. Also, consider events your target market may attend.  Attending World of Concrete may sound horrible, but if you specialize in developers, it’s worth a look.

 

#10 Cold Emails. Emails are the most effective forms of marketing. When directing emails to those who are not familiar with you or your services, craft a catchy but informative subject and a concise message.

To step it up a notch, email personalization is a simple method that increases the response rate drastically. Just having personalized email subject lines is enough to raise the chances they’ll be opened by up to 26%.  Some examples may be: “John, increase tenant retention” “JRB Investments – Have any vacancies?” or “Katy, tour new offices”.

 

#11 Cold Calls. If you’re old-school, this is your go-to for hitting up sales leads. But let’s be honest with each other.  Cold calling is exhausting and time consuming.  Consider using some newer techniques with your cold-call routine like Mass Texting.  Did you know 26% of text messages get read?  Just a message of, “Thought you might be interested in a new 10,000 SF retail center I’m listing for sale in Scottsdale.  Below is the LoopNet link…” could bring in prospects.

Want some help with your cold call game?  Cold Lead Hero can show you how to automate your cold calls, provides pre-written scripts and cold email templates to warm up those cold leads.

 

Providing you with an easy way to upgrade your cold lead game is yet another way, I’m taking the “broke” out of commercial real estate brokerage.