There’s a saying that it’s a poor carpenter that blames his tools. On the surface, the meaning of this maxim is obvious; when things go wrong, the craftsman will point to his tools and blame them for any fault in a project. On some level, most people have probably found themselves doing this in some way, shape or form when failing in the execution of an undertaking. It’s really not a conscious thing that we do, but probably more of a defense mechanism that feebly attempts to make sense of a situation. Psychologists would probably refer to this kind of assigning of blame as transference and would likely note that we’ve all done it. Those utterances may sound something like; “I shanked the ball because these golf clubs are too short”, “I ran a lousy time in the 5K because my trainers aren’t lightweight enough” or “I overslept because the alarm clock didn’t go off”. Sound familiar? Maybe you’ve even said something similar about your real estate marketing campaigns.

In thinking more about the carpenter and his tools, it’s easy to interpret that saying to suggest that tools don’t matter at all and that performance is simply limited by the carpenter’s skill. Carrying that notion to real estate marketing would suggest that marketing campaigns fail because of the skills of the marketer and not for any of the other myriad of factors that have bearing like; economics, firmographics, seasonality or attractiveness of the offering itself. Marketing programs don’t fail simply because of an individual. A smart business person can do their best to ensure success by incorporating an array of real estate marketing tools into their efforts.

Shifting your marketing efforts to more than one channel (meaning engaging the market using a spectrum of tools) can hold great benefits for your real estate firm. In the same way that diversification of investments minimizes risk, an omni-channel approach to marketing minimizes the chances that you’ll miss reaching a targeted demographic or fail to be seen by a prospective investor. To be sure that you’re reaching your target audience in as many ways as possible, peruse the following checklist and see where you may add an additional market touchpoint.

Brochures and flyers – Having a professional commercial real estate flyer, brochure, offering memorandum or handout can drastically affect your ability to win assignments, impress clients and close deals.

Customer contact management – A customer contact management system goes hand and hand with the Commercial Real Estate Industry. To be successful in this business, it’s imperative that you’re touching base, making phone calls, following up, sending emails and scheduling meetings with prospective and existing clients on a daily basis

Direct mail – Still produces pretty impressive response rates in comparison to some other marketing methods. According to data from the United States Postal Service, more than 20% of direct mail recipients visited the sender’s web site.

Email marketing – a study from the Direct Marketing Association shows that email marketing can yield almost twice the return of other mediums.

Inbound marketing – Traditionally, marketing was all about pushing products and services on clients, inbound marketing is all about pulling clients toward you.

Postcards – A standard 4” x 6” real estate post card is more likely to be read by the recipient. In fact, according to the Direct Marketing Association which publishes the definitive guide on industry statistics, postcards are read 51% of the time – almost double the next closest mail form.

Social media – While social media has become a crucial part of the best marketing plans, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the most time-consuming.

Search engine optimization – Search Engine Optimization is important, and while it sounds complicated, its importance can be understood in one simple question—how visible are you when people type your name into Google, Yahoo, or other search engines?

Videofloor plans – showing your property to a largely untapped audience of prospective buyers by providing them with a virtual walk-through of a property or investment opportunity

Web design – A well designed commercial real estate website serves as a virtual hub for generating commercial real estate leads.