When it comes to marketing commercial real estate office space for sale or lease, it is important to understand the end target market that you are trying to reach. A few key decisions about the property and the location need to be made before the marketing strategy and campaign are implemented.

Vendor Paid Advertising

At the outset it should be said that client or vendor paid advertising or marketing is the norm in commercial office property marketing and should be sought at each and every opportunity. Any vendor that chooses a real estate agent based on the offer of ‘free’ or ‘discounted’ marketing are doing themselves an injustice. Getting the message out to the tenants and buyers about the property first and foremost, is of prime importance. A quick sale or lease is far more important than offered savings on marketing costs.

Some experienced agents will rightfully walk away from listings where the client will not contribute to marketing; this is a good idea considering that the client is really not motivated to help themselves sell or lease the property. The client is not really genuine or has not taken the market trends into account. Wasting time on clients that are less than realistic is not good real estate business practice.

Each Property is Special

Every property owner will regard their property as special; they want their challenges resolved as quickly as possible. The only way to do this is to tap into the target market relative to the property given the current levels of enquiry currently. Today the property market is changing and shifting almost on a monthly basis. As the local real estate agent, it is important to understand those shifts and changes so that each and every property can be correctly matched to the trends in the local area.

Here are some key questions to address in the marketing campaign for the property listing.

1. Identify exactly who the ideal purchaser or occupier is for the office property. Factors that will have impact on the decisions here will be time of promotion, indicative price or rent, and the levels of improvements.


2. Given the ideal purchaser or tenant for the property, how large is the audience and where can they be located? How can you reach this target audience?


3. Most buyers and tenants for any property that is taken to the market today are already located in the local area. That is why local knowledge and networking is so important in your role as a real estate agent.


4. What message should the property and advertising promote? What facts and points of difference does the property give you to work with in the marketing?


5. Is the property known locally, does it have a history of note, and is that good or bad? Obviously these factors may have impact on your marketing choices.


6. What segments of the media will best connect with the target audience for the property? Think outside the box with this. Use both traditional and non-traditional methods of marketing.


7. How will you track the marketing impact or enquiries, so you know what results are achieved? This fact is critical so you can make changes with the marketing for things that do not work.


8. What message should go into each advertisement? Advertising content is far more important than the media that is used when it comes to generating enquiry.


9. What advertising budget do you have to reach the target audience? If money is limited, create 3 alternative budgets for the client to choose from. They will usually choose the middle of the range.

The marketing of office space and office property is a simple process if you keep to these rules that help you build the campaign.