It’s Your Property: Supercharge Your Building’s Online Presence

We're in the digital age of communication, and having an online presence is critical for businesses of all sizes and industries. It's especially essential in commercial real estate, as potential tenants relentlessly evaluate properties online before signing a lease. While online algorithms are getting smarter thanks to artificial intelligence and the volume of personal data collected by third-party websites, this comprehensive research can lead your prospects in different directions—sometimes down unwanted avenues.

Consider a dated office building that's completing a substantial renovation to its lobby and amenities. The marketing team refreshes the branding, website, and marketing materials to reflect the future experience at the asset. A prospect hears about this exciting project and searches for the building online. In a perfect world, they discover the new website and renderings first. But what if their algorithm takes them to a negative press article from 10 years ago? That's not the first impression this asset needs. That's not part of the brand's story we are trying to tell.

So how do you combat this unpredictability? How do you take control of your property's presence online?

Lay the Groundwork with a Content-Rich Website

Building a positive online presence starts with a website because it’s often the first point of contact for prospects searching for space. To ensure that your website gets to the right users you need to optimize its discoverability on search engines like Google, also known as search engine optimization (SEO). At a baseline, your website should provide valuable information about your property, tell a story about its solutions, and showcase its availabilities for users to engage further. When done perfectly, your website will be the first result a prospective tenant sees.

Tap into Tracking Tools to Collect Website Data

The most digital-savvy brands collect as many data points as possible to understand their ideal customer on a deeper level. This is done through a suite of data-tracking tools and software. While this technology allows businesses to measure marketing performance and get actionable insights from user behavior, it can be very expensive to build out. Thankfully, Google provides many free tools and platforms to help businesses collect and interpret their data in real-time.

Invest in Omnichannel Marketing Campaigns

Commercial real estate tenants rarely rely on a single source of information to find the perfect space, so top properties must employ omnichannel marketing—promoting your property on multiple channels simultaneously and creating a marketing ecosystem—to enhance their discoverability and improve SEO. According to 2024 data, social media users utilize about seven social media platforms each month on average, spending around two hours and 30 minutes on social daily. It’s crucial to market your property on a variety of online platforms to effectively reach tenant prospects wherever they are looking.

Spend a Little Money on Social Media

Investing time, and more importantly budget, into social media campaigns will enable your property more opportunities to reach prospects and differentiate in a crowded marketplace. Social media spending worldwide is expected to reach approximately $220 billion in 2024 and continue growing over time. While it may seem unwise to spend money on social media advertising when trying to cut costs, you should consider it a smart investment in your marketing data.

The primary benefit is immediately accelerating awareness around a property so it’s always top of mind for prospects, wherever they are in their journey to find commercial space. While organic posting only reaches a limited number of people for a limited time in their news feed, paid social media campaigns allow property brands to consistently reach users based on specific interests, search terms, and locations. LinkedIn’s ad platform boasts about its ability to “reach one billion+ professionals around the world,” and marketers can pinpoint who sees an ad by company name, industry, job titles, and more.

Social campaigns also enable data-driven remarketing to users who previously engaged with your ads. Together, this can be a powerful tactic in reaching new prospects and remarketing to ones who have expressed interest with their actions, whether they watched a video or clicked through to your property’s website.

Own the Online Experience Like It’s Your Real Estate

By following these four tactics, property marketing teams can reduce the likelihood that their brands get lost in algorithms that show outdated and undesirable search results to prospective tenants. While an SEO-friendly website and social media campaigns can be perceived as check-the-box items, they should be prioritized. As a long-term investment in enhancing visibility and boosting your ability to get in front of prospects, your digital outreach should be a centerpiece of your efforts.

Your online presence should always demand focus in your marketing strategy...because it’s your real estate, after all.