Marketing Trends — Commercial Property, London
We’ve been working with property clients for the past year or so, and have noticed positive marketing-based changes.
Here are our main insights for the future of property marketing.
Stakeholders’ desire to be impressed will increase further
Design agencies will offer extra or fall behind
Commercial real estate (CRE) firms will increase their marketing spend, and exercise higher scrutiny
Let’s get granular.
CRE firms want differentiation in their marketing.
They’re after people who can create exciting work that commands attention. They’re not after a minimum viable product that does ‘just enough’.
Print should be impressive.
Generally speaking, the deeper the expertise, the more effective a print job can be. Printing out a PDF on your inkjet will not impress an investor. Impressive production techniques like foiling, blind embossing or experimental paper texture are set to re-trend. Property marketing in the future will involve more care. Considered print is making a comeback.
A digital brochure is not just a print brochure that isn’t printed out.
If you’re going to offer a digital only option, make sure it’s not just an attachment of the print file slapped onto an email like some afterthought. You’ve got an opportunity to create a microsite, a mobile app, an interactive PDF... anything with some level of engagement to sell the sizzle. Offer something exciting.
Over time some design agencies become lazy.
We only have a handful of clients in the property sector. It’s our outside perspective that they find attractive and keeps the work fresh. Some clients feel let down by agencies who regurgitate the same templated brochures time and time again. There is a fine line between templated efficiencies and laziness. Committing to higher value output eliminates any doubt and ensures that agencies continue to offer more to survive.
So, who is doing what?
A new wave of forward-thinking agents and asset managers is becoming exceptionally good at delivering thought leadership pieces. They do extra. They up the value to their current clients and future clients. Thought leadership in property is no longer confined to marketing directors and those in authority, if they happen to have the time and budgets. It’s a fundamental necessity to trade.
Beautifully designed white papers.
Printed white papers are the best way to communicate real value. They position the authors as an experts. Someone who takes the time to invest in the future. They’re most effective when they’re printed. Tangibility and sensory experiences will always trump a scroll. Best of all? They don’t have a comments section. A printed white paper is a clear line in the sand that says; “We stand for this. We believe it so much that we’re going to commit it to print”.
So, again, this is what we’ve noticed and predict:
Stakeholders’ desire to be impressed will increase further
Design agencies will offer extra or fall behind
Commercial real estate (CRE) firms will increase their marketing spend, and exercise higher scrutiny
If you need your publications to impress, or you want to include white papers in your communications mix, we'd love to hear from you. We're together@also.agency.
Also, thanks for reading.