There’s a form of marketing for commercial real-estate pros that I’ve mentioned before here at Sibdu Blog. I was reminded of it again when I do what I sometimes do to search for blog topics — type ” commercial real estate ” into the search box at Google News.

The second story in my results list was the one that intrigued me, because it reminded me of an older-fashioned marketing method commercial real-estate pros can use to help people by providing quality information, and in the process market themselves as experts.

That’s why I call this kind of marketing old school “social-media” marketing. It’s much more one-way than with a true social network, but using it can be of benefit to an entire community. This kind of marketing can also have an electronic component. More after the jump.

The “old school” method I speak of is called article marketing. Essentially, you write articles on topics that you think will hold the interest of whatever audience you’re targeting. Then you go to local publications, newsletters, etc., to ask if they’ll publish them. There’s even Web sites dedicated to distributing these submitted or contributed articles (what these are called in the journalism biz).

And even though I’ve written about such articles here, I’m going to refer you to this article on the topic. Why? Because it comes from a former CRE pro. Read it first (the link pops up in a new window, so you won’t lose this article), then come back here.

Intrigued? Good. Notice how the author provided good, quality information for you to start publishing your own articles. While I think his article maybe goes a bit too far into the self-promotional area (for the site hosting the article, not the author’s actual business), it is a good example of a contributed/submitted article.

For CRE pros, though, I’d go against what she says and do contact local papers and magazines, and especially newsletters — from chambers of commerce, local trade groups, etc. — to get your articles published. Why? If you’re like most CRE pros, you’re looking for local business. Local business comes from local coverage. In this case, local papers, newsletters and other publications are the way to go, because the people you want to reach are already reading them. What’s more, an article establishes credibility in a more effective way than a paid ad.

I would also use sites like the one I’ve linked to today as well. You do get a lot of really good Google juice (in other words, search-engine optimization) from having these articles hosted by them. And if one of your articles gets picked up by someone through these sites, all the better.

And in terms of topics, I know the article to which I linked suggested social media and marketing. Most of our readers, though, are in commercial real estate. So write about commercial real estate. Write about what’s “hot” in the news nowadays about CRE (not difficult). And when you write, don’t get self promotional. Just write about the topic and end the article without mentioning how good you are at closing lease deals, getting money in this tight market, “greening” a building that desperately needs it, etc.

Two good examples of non self-promotional articles are ones I’ve written — one is on following up after business-networking events (real-world); the other is on the power of the written note. Click on the links to be taken to them (in separate windows). Both articles came from when this company was marketing Web-enabled property management platforms sold to CRE brokers for relationship building and maintenance with new and current clients. Get the link between the article topics and the nature of our business (back then)?

A vast majority of newspapers, magazines, etc., that take these kinds of articles let you have a small paragraph at the very end of the piece, where you can put your own name, company name and contact information. After consuming your piece, readers will know that you’re an expert in the field, and they’ll know that you’re the one .. no, I mean the one .. to call.

Nowadays, so much is changing in CRE — and changing fast. If you want to be known as the go-to expert, you really need to get out there now. Cold calling and networking work just fine, but nothing says “I’m the expert” like an article published in some kind of local, regional or professional publication. You’ll likely get some business now, and be well known enough in the future so that you’re “top of mind” when this market digs itself out of what it’s stuck in right now.

Oh, and if you have a blog? Put the article right in it. And when it gets published, update the entry to reflect it. Even better, write a separate “breaking news”-kind of entry that it has just been published, and link to the published article if possible. Or buy a PDF reprint of the article and distribute that via your Web site. You’ll get instant credibility.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 @ 4:08 pm on the category Business Networking, Helpful Hints, Marketing/Sales, Professional Networking, Self-Help. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.