Marketing techniques - the Old Vs. New

Commercial real estate transactions, or sales in general for that matter, can be generated from a number of different marketing techniques. Like fingerprints, no two transactions are ever the same! So what is the best way to market a property? I’m guessing a Veteran Pro would say something completely different when compared to a young, up and coming broker. Despite the endless conceptions and different marketing styles, every month transactions still take place between the two groups. So what is the best way? The old-fashioned smile and dial, or new techniques, like live click email tracking?

I wish I could report that SCM took the liberty of polling over 10,000 north Texas brokers selected at random who have been in the business for a time period between 2 and 30+ years, but unfortunately I cant. So I’m attempting to answer the question on my own accord.

By best answer would be a balance between the two. Use the new techniques to bottleneck more leads into eventual transactions. Using new technology like “live click,” which allows the user to know at the moment when someone views an email or clicks a link, a broker can then use the classic smile and dial to call up the viewer, and express in a pre-meditated email or listing page what makes the property pop. On the surface this sounds easy but with the virtually endless marketing media where does it all stop.

At the corporate level one would find a cookie-cutter marketing plan to address this problem. Then the firm risk’s boring and losing rapport with the folks that receive their media. SCM in fact has a streamlined marketing process for every property our brokers attain. However each property is carefully analyzed to produce the amenities at the property that best suit the future tenant or owner of the property. We try to achieve a streamlined process to avoid re-inventing the wheel, but simultaneously market relevant material in a unique sense to the best possible audience for the particular property.

Is Timing Right for Arlington Downtown Developments?

A lot of press has recently been published about Arlington's re-development in the downtown district. Just to name a few is the construction of the new Arlington Sub-County Court house that is just north of the 501 Border Street City Chamber building, the proposed creation of Founders Plaza Park & Amphitheater, renovations of the 602 E. South St. School Building, which is also near the chamber building, the famous Johnnie High's Country Music Review is to see renovations, new construction of Babe's chicken and loft style apartment will be right next door, the Vandergriff town center, and of course the historic Vandergriff Building's rejuvenation. Lets not forget the $1 million dollar projects for the new lighting, benches, sidewalks, and streetlights that were completed last year.

-Why all this dramatic activity in downtown? Did the Vandergriff Building's proposed renovation in 2003 streamline the process for these other downtown improvements? Does the Cowboy Stadium or 3-Bridge Project affect downtown? Will UTA students buy-in to the downtown scene?