The Best Ways to Use Success Letters in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

You can and should use ‘success letters’ in your commercial real estate business.

When you have a positive result in a sale or leasing situation, is worth sending a ‘success letter’ into your location and certainly so with the prominent investors, property owners and business leaders.

Use your positive results in your local real estate business as a marketing tool.

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)

What is the focus here?

You want the local people to know that you have produced a positive result with a property that they are likely to know and perhaps see every day.

Use the local area as a base of marketing. Help them remember you and your success with the listing, they drive past it on the way to work or on their way doing business locally.

So what specifically is a letter of this type?

It is simply a traditional direct mail piece that is sent to the surrounding location property owners and business leaders. It is simple in format and usually contained on one single A4 page; the letter tells of a property result locally, you enclose your business card, and you invite general enquiry for more information.

When you send these letters out into the local area, you must follow them up; that is the way the processes really must happen. Here are some ideas to merge into this marketing strategy:

• Reference the address of the property and or the building – Make sure that everyone knows that you are the person that listed the property, created the inspections, negotiated the deal, and resolved the property challenge for the client.
• Talk about enquiry rates – Local property owners like to know that other enquiries are still unsatisfied; that may be enough reason for them to contact you for their property challenge.
• Use case studies – You can put together a case study or series of case studies that talk to the property listing and result that you achieved. Over time you can compile a series of these special information sheets and merge them into your presentations, client discussions, and negotiations. Sometimes people just need that extra proof of an event to make the final decision to move on what you are saying or recommending.
• Have a story to tell – Stories create interest. You can merge a number of stories into your property marketing and client contact processes. Stories should be local in relevance and proximity. You can put those stories into your canvassing letters.
• Write editorials and blogs – A good story about local property results and trends can be put online via a blog and or into the local newspapers. If you did the sale or leasing deal, then you have a story to tell. As part of that process, ensure that you have the client’s approval to talk about things that they may consider ‘sensitive’ to their property sale, lease, or disposal.
• Connect with your database – Whilst you should and will have a database, there are various ways you can connect into the people within the list. Email, letters, and telephone calls all work as part of a comprehensive property marketing campaign.
• Integrate your social media platforms into your case studies and results – There are a few social media platforms that are useful in commercial real estate today. It is doubtful that you will directly attract and close on a listing though social media, but you should have the advantage there of staying in regular contact with the people that you know and have already reached out to.

So your success letter process can feed into your marketing methods both online and offline. Chart out your current marketing processes and look at how they can be improved with this process.

(N.B. these ideas are also sent out to regularly to our friends in Commercial Real Estate Online Snapshot to help amplify brokerage results…. Get your access here)