My how the possibilities for marketing in the real estate brokerage business are changing these days. As we all know, so much of our success in commercial/industrial real estate brokerage depends on how we are perceived by our clients and prospects. People definitely want to feel and know that they are working with the best agent in their territory. Wouldn’t you want to work with the person you believed to be the best person to represent your own interests in a real estate transaction?

With so many agents out there how can you position yourself as the agent that others perceive as being the best in the territory--the person they want to work with when the time arrives for them to buy, sell, or lease property? How do you best differentiate yourself from all the other agents who are also making phone calls and in-person visits to the prospects in your territory? How do you differentiate yourself from all the other agents who are also sending out their own personal real estate newsletter keeping people informed on what’s going on in the area? 

The truth is that you must do these things better than your competition, and you must also present yourself outstandingly to your clients and prospects so they know with certainty that you are the agent they must work with when the time comes for them to select a real estate agent.

All of the above approaches to generate business when performed excellently on a consistent basis will have you reap great rewards as a highly-successful commercial/industrial agent. However, at the same time, the agents who are committed to being the best in the business are constantly driven to find new ways to differentiate themselves from their competition and explode their production and income to new levels. For many of these agents one way they will move to differentiate themselves from all the other agents in their territory is through the use of today’s computer technology. The ways that you can now use this technology will literally catapult you past your competition regardless of where you currently are in your real estate sales career.

So what does all of this translate into for you as an agent? How can you actually generate business from this new technology? Well, for starters you can host a Web site that totally focuses on what’s happening in the real estate market in your territory. Consider registering a Web site with a domain name that specifically deals with the territory you serve. For example, a name like industryrealestate.com, vernonrealestate.com, or southbayrealestate.com. Once you have done this you can then have this Web site be the place your clients and prospects know to go to on the Web to get current, up to date information on what’s going on in their real estate market.

Now here’s where it really gets good. You publish your own E-zine. An E-zine (pronounced "E-zeen") is an E-mail magazine or newsletter that you send out to people who want to receive it. You may be already receiving my E-zine that I offer to real estate agents that includes tips and insights on how you can increase your sales. Now the beauty of an E-zine is that it allows you to send articles, information, and updates to your clients and prospects at NO COST TO YOU WHATSOEVER! The only investment is your time to write the information and click and send it to all of your recipients. You don’t deal with print layouts, colors, photos, and folding and stuffing newsletters and envelopes. Also, there is one added bonus to all of this:

It sets you apart from all the other agents in your territory who are only doing business the old way.

Now YOU are perceived as the high-tech expert in your territory! And we all know how much people are totally fascinated by leading-edge computer technology these days. YOU are providing people with a dynamic Web site to go to for information on what is happening in their area whenever they want to. YOU are sending them an E-zine maybe 1-2 times a month to keep them informed on what’s going on in your territory. Meanwhile most everyone else is sending out only hard-copy newsletters (and most of them aren’t really that great, either).

Are you getting the picture? You’re doing something that is easier and costs less to do than a regular newsletter, and your clients and prospects are perceiving you as the true pioneer in real estate technology in your territory. And as business experts will tell you, once you are known as "the first" at doing anything, that identity can carry a lot of weight with people. And knowing that people’s fascination with technology will likely continue for many years into the foreseeable future, this can do wonders for their perception of you as the leading-edge agent in the territory that you serve.

There’s still another bonus to all of this. People tend to read more of their E-mail than they do their regular mail. So in sending out an E-zine, you have a more captive audience than you do with regular paper newsletters. And if you begin sending out an E-zine now, you will have little or no competition whatsoever from the other agents in your territory in utilizing this new technology.

While including articles and market updates in your E-zine, you also want to include things that personalize it to the people you are sending it out to. You may want to include any announcements or awards that your clients would like to publicize about their businesses. Perhaps they are offering a special deal on certain products and services that many other businesses would be interested in. Perhaps their business specializes in one particular area that would be of interest to other readers of your E-zine. Do you think these people will appreciate seeing their name and information in your E-zine? You bet! You are now someone who is providing them with free advertising going out to hundreds or thousands of businesses, and being read by Presidents and CEOs. When it comes time for them to choose a broker to work with, you will be someone they think very highly of. Can you imagine the possibilities if you highlight a different company in every issue of your E-zine? Now we’re talking about building quite a bit of goodwill with these people which will probably come back to you in the future. Do you know anyone else in your territory who is currently using this approach? Do you see the value in becoming the first agent in your territory to do this? Or if not the first, the best?

We all know that everyone loves to work with people whom they perceive as being leading-edge at what they do. Embracing this technology and being the best in your market at implementing it will greatly assist you in having your clients and prospects call you first when the time is NOW for them to take action.