By Walter Fitzgerald
* A note on the author: At 83 years old, Walter isn’t your typical copywriter—and that’s exactly why we love him. His offbeat take on blogging and colorful storytelling make him a standout voice at ATYPICAL.
A Note From Walter
Alright, let’s get something straight—throwing up a few property listings and hoping for the best is not a marketing strategy.
I know, I know—commercial real estate has been slow to catch up to the digital age. For years, brokers and landlords have relied on cold calls, networking events, and (shudder) printed brochures to get deals done.
And sure, those things still have their place. But if you’re not leveraging digital marketing in 2025, you’re basically trying to lease space with a fax machine.
Now, before you roll your eyes and tell me, “Walter, we’re already on LinkedIn,” let me ask you this: Do you have an actual strategy? Or are you just posting property photos and hoping someone bites?
Because here’s the thing—marketing isn’t just about getting eyeballs on your listings. It’s about knowing who you’re targeting, where to reach them, and how to guide them from “just browsing” to “where do I sign?”
That’s exactly what we’re covering today—a step-by-step guide to building a commercial real estate marketing strategy that actually works. We’ll talk about defining your audience, picking the right digital channels (and trust me, not all of them are worth your time), and using the four P’s of marketing to turn your brand into a lead-generating machine.
So, if you’re tired of throwing spaghetti at the wall and want a strategy that actually delivers results, pull up a chair and let’s get to it.
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Step 1: Define Your Marketing Objectives Based on your Business Goals
A winning commercial real estate marketing strategy doesn’t start with social media posts or ad campaigns—it starts with a clear understanding of your business goals.
If your marketing efforts aren’t directly driving revenue, filling vacancies, or increasing brand awareness, then they’re just busy work.
Before choosing marketing tactics, you need to define your business objectives in a way that’s measurable and actionable.
This is where SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) come in. Once your business goals are locked in, you can set precise marketing objectives that help achieve them.
Step 1A: Identify your Business Goals:
Your business goals should be concrete, time-bound, and tied to measurable outcomes. Here are a few examples of strong SMART business goals:
Increase revenue by 15% by the end of the year
Lease 80% of available office space within six months
Grow investor interest and raise $10M in new capital in Q3
Expand into X market and secure 10 new clients by Q4
Notice how each goal is specific, measurable, and has a deadline—this ensures accountability and makes it easier to find your marketing goals that will ladder up to them.
Step 1B: Define your Marketing Objectives:
With clear business goals in place, the next step is setting SMART marketing objectives that directly support them.
To do this, we need to work backward from your targets and define exactly how many leads are required to hit your goals.
Example of How to Set the Right Marketing Objectives:
Let’s say your business goal is to increase revenue by 15% by the end of the year.
Average deal value: $500,000 per lease
Deals needed to hit goal: 10 new leases in 12 months
Typical conversion rate: 10% of high-intent leads convert into signed leases
High-intent leads required: 100 leads
Marketing’s role: If 20% of marketing-generated leads are high intent, we need 500 total MQLs (marketing-qualified leads)
Marketing Objective: Generate 500 MQLs within 12 months to convert into 100 high-intent leads and close 10 deals.
But lead generation alone isn’t enough. Commercial real estate deal cycles are long—whether you’re leasing office space, selling a retail center, or closing an enterprise contract for a CRE tech platform. Decision-makers don’t act overnight, which means your marketing strategy also needs to:
Drive Website Traffic & Brand Awareness – If potential clients don’t know who you are, they won’t engage when they’re finally ready to make a decision.
Establish Thought Leadership & Credibility – Investors, tenants, and brokers do business with companies they trust. Consistent content marketing, case studies, and PR help position your brand as an authority.
Engage & Nurture Leads Over Time – CRE decisions aren’t made in a single interaction. Email marketing, retargeting, and social engagement ensure you stay top of mind until prospects are ready to act.
Every successful commercial real estate marketing strategy includes these elements, whether you’re a brokerage, owner-operator, or CRE tech firm.
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Step 2: Identify your Target Audience:
A commercial real estate marketing strategy is only effective if it reaches the right people. If you’re marketing to everyone, you’re reaching no one.
Whether you’re a brokerage, owner-operator, or CRE tech firm, your audience isn’t just a broad group of “tenants” or “investors.” It’s made up of specific decision-makers with unique needs, challenges, and behaviors.
To market effectively, you need to answer a few key questions:
Who are you trying to reach? Tenants, investors, brokers, or property managers?
What do they want? More space, better returns, improved efficiency, or new opportunities?
Where do they look for solutions? Google? LinkedIn? Industry events? Word of mouth?
What are their biggest pain points? High vacancy rates? Slow deal flow? Complex leasing processes?
Example: The Retail Center Investor
Who They Are: Private investors, institutional buyers, REITs, and family offices (if they are institutional, what are the job titles we need to reach?).
What They Want: Retail properties with strong tenant rosters, stable cash flow, and growth potential.
Where They Look & Platforms They Use: Google, LinkedIn, Crexi, LoopNet, ICSC, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, News Websites, Broker Relationships, and Email.
Pain Points:
Struggling to find high-yield retail properties.
Limited access to off-market deals.
Need for better data on foot traffic and tenant stability.
High competition.
High interest rates.
Every segment in CRE—whether it’s tenants, investors, or tech buyers—has different priorities and decision-making processes.
By clearly defining who you’re targeting, you ensure your marketing speaks directly to their needs—instead of wasting time on generic messaging.
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Step 3: Choose the Right Marketing Channels
Now that you know who you’re targeting, the next step is figuring out where to reach them. Not every marketing channel is effective in commercial real estate marketing—decision-makers have specific habits, platforms, and preferences.
The key is to focus on where your audience actively searches for information and makes decisions. That means being strategic about your marketing channels rather than spreading efforts too thin.
Commercial real estate professionals don’t find deals the way consumers do. Whether you’re targeting investors, tenants, or brokers, you need to meet them where they’re already searching for information.
Here’s how CRE decision-makers typically search, research, and engage:
Google: The first place investors, tenants, and brokers go when researching properties, market trends, or tech solutions.
LinkedIn: The most trusted platform for B2B networking, thought leadership, and industry news.
Email: A go-to channel for deal flow, updates, and nurturing long-term relationships.
Crexi & LoopNet: Investors and brokers actively use these platforms to search for available properties and off-market opportunities.
Industry Websites & Events: Many deals happen through trusted industry publications, reports, and networking events.
Social Media (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok): Increasingly used for property marketing and brand-building, particularly for visual content.
How to Choose the Right Channels:
To reach the right audience, focus on the platforms that match their decision-making process. Here’s a breakdown of key channels and when to use them:
The best commercial real estate marketing strategies use a combination of these channels—leveraging both paid and organic tactics to maximize reach.
For example:
SEO takes time to build momentum, but paid search ads can deliver leads quickly.
Posting on social media organically helps with brand awareness, but boosting posts or running targeted social ads ensures your message reaches the right audience.
Email marketing nurtures leads long-term, while PR and industry partnerships build credibility and exposure.
The key is to determine where your audience is engaging and which channels are driving actual results. Not every platform will be worth the investment, so tracking performance and adjusting accordingly is essential.
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Step 4: Choose the Right Tactics
Now that you’ve defined who you’re targeting, and where to reach them, it’s time to focus on what tactics will actually drive results.
A commercial real estate marketing strategy isn’t just about visibility—it’s about choosing the right mix of tactics to generate leads, build relationships, and drive conversions.
The most successful strategies combine brand awareness, lead generation, content marketing, and digital advertising in a way that’s tailored to their audience.
Strengthen Your Digital Foundation
Before investing in paid ads, email marketing, or social media, make sure your website, listings, and brand presence are built to convert.
Your website should generate leads—not just provide information. Ensure it’s mobile-friendly, fast, and SEO-optimized.
Your property listings should stand out. High-quality visuals, 3D tours, and detailed descriptions attract serious inquiries.
Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile. This improves local SEO, making your business and properties easier to find.
Think of this as the foundation of your marketing strategy—without it, your other efforts won’t perform as well.
Leverage a Multi-Channel Approach
No single marketing channel is enough on its own. To maximize reach, brokers, owners, and CRE tech firms should use a mix of tactics:
SEO & Google Ads – Capture high-intent searches like “office space for lease in [city]” or “best CRM for commercial real estate.”
LinkedIn & Email Marketing – Build relationships and nurture long-term leads.
Industry Platforms (Crexi, LoopNet) – Ensure listings and services reach the right audience.
Social Media (Organic & Paid) – Use these to engage your audience and showcase your successes, information, and who you are.
A multi-channel approach ensures you’re meeting prospects at every stage of the decision-making process—not just when they’re actively searching.
Invest in High-Value Content
Decision-makers in CRE don’t just respond to ads—they trust expertise and insights.
Market reports & industry insights position you as a thought leader.
Case studies & success stories showcase real-world results.
Video content make properties and solutions stand out.
Instead of just promoting listings or services, use content to educate, inform, and build trust—so that when prospects are ready to act, they think of you first.
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Step 5: Put Your Plan Into Action
A strategy is only as good as its execution. To ensure your commercial real estate marketing strategy stays on track, you need to put everything into a clear, structured marketing calendar.
Your plan should outline:
Goals: What are you trying to achieve (lead generation, brand awareness, investor engagement)?
Target Audience: Who are you reaching (tenants, investors, brokers)?
Marketing Channels: Where will you engage them (Google, LinkedIn, email, social media, industry platforms)?
Tactics: What actions will you take (SEO, paid ads, content marketing, email campaigns)?
Responsibilities: Who is in charge of executing each part of the strategy?
A well-organized plan ensures consistency, accountability, and measurable progress. Without it, marketing efforts become scattered and ineffective.
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Step 6: Measure Success and Optimize Your Strategy
A commercial real estate marketing strategy isn’t a one-and-done effort—it requires continuous tracking and adjustments to stay effective. If you’re not measuring results, you won’t know what’s working and what needs improvement.
Key Metrics to Track:
Lead Generation: Number of inquiries, contact form submissions, property tour requests, lead-to-client conversion rate, cost per lead (CPL).
Website Performance: Total traffic, traffic sources (organic, paid, social), bounce rate, time on site, pages per session, and conversion rates.
Ad Campaigns: Click-through rate (CTR), cost per lead (CPL), cost per acquisition (CPA), impressions, reach, ad engagement, conversion rate, and return on ad spend (ROAS).
SEO Success: Keyword rankings, organic traffic growth, domain authority, backlinks, search visibility, and local search performance.
Email Marketing: Total subscribers, subscriber growth rate, email sends, open rates, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates.
Social Media Performance: Follower growth, impressions, engagement rate (likes, shares, comments), video views, post reach, click-through rates, and referral traffic to your website.
Revenue Impact: Marketing-sourced revenue, lead-to-deal conversion rate, pipeline velocity, and return on investment (ROI).
By reviewing performance regularly, you can double down on what’s working, fix what’s underperforming, and continuously refine your marketing strategy to maximize results.
Marketing isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it process—it requires constant adjustments to stay effective.
The more you track and optimize, the better your strategy will perform, ensuring that every effort contributes to business growth.
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Walter’s Final Thoughts
Marketing in commercial real estate isn’t about throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks. It’s about having a plan, executing it well, and knowing what actually moves the needle.
If you’re not clear on who you’re targeting, where to reach them, and what message will resonate, you’re wasting time—and probably money. But if you get those pieces right, marketing becomes a growth engine, not just another task on your to-do list.
The trick is to stay consistent, track results, and adjust along the way. What works today might not work six months from now, but the companies that keep testing, optimizing, and improving are the ones that stay ahead.
So, whether you’re leasing, selling, investing, or building the next big thing in CRE tech—make sure your marketing is working as hard as you are.
And if you need help making that happen, well—you know where to find us.
As Always,
Stay ATYPICAL 😊