Public Relations Tips for Commercial Real Estate Brokers

January 22, 2019

This article first appeared on the Apto Commercial Real Estate Blog. The author is Cary Brazeman of CRELIX.

PR, short for public relations, is a prime strategy to raise your profile in the market and create goodwill that can be leveraged to support your commercial real estate business marketing.

PR is a great complement to Apto’s CRE Digital Marketing Checklist, which includes useful tips on website marketing, content marketing, social media and online advertising.

Just What is PR?

Public relations can mean a lot of things, including speaking on a panel, hosting a breakfast or lunch for clients or prospects, or performing community service in a way that benefits other people but also positively reflects on you and your brokerage.

When most people think of PR, though, they’re thinking about media relations — raising your profile in the market by being quoted or featured in the media as an authority.

Of course, to be cited in the media as an authority you need to be one… not just claim it but demonstrate it.

8 Tips to Build and Sustain a Commercial Real Estate Broker PR Program

How do you assert authority and capture the attention of media in your market? These tips are a good place to start.

1. Demonstrate expertise on your market, be it geographic, by product type or by some other definition. Publish regular market updates on your website in writing, on video, or even in podcast form.
    
2. Comment on the market on social media, where you’ll be noticed by market participants as well as members of print, broadcast, and online media. Many reporters scour social media looking for story ideas.
    
3. Seek out speaking opportunities, which expose you to market participants directly and to members of the media, who may cover your remarks and communicate about them to a larger audience.
    
4. Let reporters know of the deals you’ve completed if they are remarkable by an objective standard. Do it right at the time of close, assuming your clients are okay with that. Deal closings can be news.
    
5. Tip reporters off about major things happening in the market, which supplies media with story ideas and positions you as a source. Tip-offs can be about deals or market trends, even land use issues before your local government.
    
6. Share market data with the media, be it your firm’s data or your own data that you may collect and track on a particular market niche.
    
7. Return calls from media right away, then take the time to respond thoughtfully. Gather supporting information and determine your point of view before you call them back.
    
8. Keep good photos of yourself on hand, and make them available to media who have interviewed you.

Take these steps, and media attention is likely to follow.

And remember that it’s a virtuous cycle! Once you start to get noticed and quoted by media, you are much more likely to be quoted again. Your profile gets raised. Your authority gets reinforced. And people who are aware of you are more likely to call you when they have a need.