{"id":4600,"date":"2022-06-15T06:57:37","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T06:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crestnetwork.com\/?p=4600"},"modified":"2022-06-15T06:57:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T06:57:40","slug":"mistakes-commercial-real-estate-marketers-make-and-how-to-avoid-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crestnetwork.com\/mistakes-commercial-real-estate-marketers-make-and-how-to-avoid-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Mistakes Commercial Real Estate Marketers Make – and How to Avoid Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

MARY ANN O\u2019BRIEN <\/strong>is the CEO and Founder of\u00a0OBI Creative, a research-based, innovation-driven advertising agency based in Omaha, Nebraska. OBI starts and finishes every marketing plan\u00a0and advertising campaign with the customer at the center – determining motivations, behaviors, and key consideration drivers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

apedersen@obicreative.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest mistakes I commonly see commercial real estate marketers make is not understanding who they\u2019re trying to attract to their property. It sounds so basic that it\u2019s almost not worth mentioning, and that\u2019s the problem. Too often, we assume we know our customers\u2019 needs, wants, interests and pain points when in actuality, we don\u2019t know where they truly stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ditch a General Marketing Strategy for a Customer-Centric One<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mix of qualitative, quantitative, and secret shopping is crucial to truly understand who you are marketing to. You want to get inside the heads and hearts of your prospects and customers to understand what they expect to experience at a property like yours and then deliver that experience. With a firm foundation of customer insight under your belt, you can build a strategy and creative execution that\u2019s guaranteed to deliver profitable results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often marketers must guess whether or not the creative they\u2019re looking at will achieve the results they need it to. Many times it doesn\u2019t; not because the creative design was poor, but because it wasn\u2019t rooted in customer understanding. When you put customers at the heart of your marketing efforts, as well as your operations, your property is destined to become hot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aligning Property Design With Customer Understanding<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My team and I had the opportunity to help a commercial developer market a high-end outlet mall. With a goal of attracting consumers from a 200-mile radius to a property we were aiming to make the dominant retail asset in the region, we set out to create a truly smart outlet center. We began by conducting customer research to understand what consumer wanted, what state and local official needed, and what interested citizens demanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research revealed a desire for a clean, fresh, safe, technology-oriented center that would recapture a big chunk of the $1.5 billion in shopping receipts going to out of state properties. A four-phase approach helped us target buyer personas with relevant messaging. Our research informed more than just the marketing plan though. It drove the technology plan with the development of an app for the outlet center, as well as the mall design. A customer-centric racetrack design was applied to improve the shopping experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, as construction was underway, we made sure property developers didn\u2019t overlook the value of applying signage to the fencing around the construction site. Digital billboards and well-placed media buys generated interest and excitement for the opening of the outlet center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We identified other destination and attraction brands in the area and partnered with them to make package options available that would drive traffic to all properties promoted. A few of the pieces we brought to outlet included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n