The real estate industry, residential or commercial, continues to depend on print materials to attract leads and solidify relationships. There’s nothing wrong with print — it proves effective in many instances — but relying on it alone almost always portends disaster. Print materials can be difficult to manage, expensive to produce and, when handling high-profile clients, detrimental to public image and reputation.
A way out exists: digital media and platforms. By using these methods, commercial real estate agents can present their true image—that of a polished, prepared and knowledgeable professional. The medium holds other benefits, some of which are detailed here in brief. To discover more advantages, download Pitcher’s case study on the subject.
Improve Agent Support
Print materials will never be capable of multi-language functionality, nor will they provide on-demand support. The latter is a given; the former, an endeavor that causes even the bravest to shudder. Print media takes time, translators and funds to produce. It is never, ever on-demand.
A digital platform can offer multi-language capabilities, though it depends on the provider. Pitcher, for instance, provides the ability because it best serves their worldwide client base. The platform also delivers anytime, anywhere access, a benefit that some agents rank above the multi-lingual one.
Streamline Expenses and Operations
You may remember the days when office walls held brochure racks. The brochures came from somewhere, of course. They didn’t automatically populate the racks when needed. Someone, usually an intern, would be sent to the storage room to look for needed brochures only to discover that no more remained.
It might seem like a ridiculous story, but life often discloses such gems. It also offers opportunities to change the narrative. With digital media, commercial real estate agents can easily produce content at a cost-effective price point. They can also cut down on the time needed to prepare a client presentation or personalized leave-behind.
Create Experiences with Digital
Kids and cats might like paper and boxes, but they tend not to be hits with potential commercial real estate clients. Their desks probably already contain numerous pieces of paper and no matter how memorable or well-designed they likely don’t want any more.
Besides, your commercial real estate sales and management would be better served with customizable experiences, not static images. You can take clients on a journey via digital and show a property in all its context and glory. Clients remember those kinds of experiences and keep them in mind when deciding with whom to work with.
Add A Personal Touch
Because print is static, you can’t add any sort of personal flourish. Oh, you could pen a handwritten note or the like, but the background image stays fixed in place, time and mind.
Digital gives you the chance to personalize every interaction. You can leave customized digital content and, if needed, print. Once you input client data into the digital platform, it’s easy to find the content needed to continue and close the sales journey.
Real-time feedback
Clients can give you feedback on each presentation, property or piece of content you share with them. If the feedback isn’t ideal, your marketing team may not know about it until it’s too late and they might be continuing to distribute that piece of content to others with similar opinions.
Digital solutions offer real-time feedback so your field reps can instantly report back to marketing and office teams about client presentations. This will help marketing teams understand which content pieces are resonating and which ones aren’t. If client feedback is positive, your marketers can have peace of mind. But if feedback is less than ideal, they can make necessary adjustments to get things back on track.
Develop New Content
Print is a beautiful medium, but it isn’t exactly malleable, so you’re stuck with whatever creative was decided upon. Considering how quickly customer demand and tastes change, the fact becomes a handicap quickly.
Digital acts completely different. The content can be easily updated and in many instances, the capability leads to creating new content and delivering more multi-media experiences. One of Pitcher’s clients, for example, found themselves embedding more video and 3D mapping in addition to standard PowerPoint presentations, PDFs and media files in their client presentations. They also created a mobile application that extended agent functionality and increased client engagement.
Digital platforms stand as great tools in commercial real estate sales. You can use them to manage content, which leads to cost savings. You can also use them to create customized digital experiences that solidify your corporate image and client relationships. If you’d like to learn more about how Pitcher helps clients build better presentations and grow their business portfolios, download the case study today.