With the fray and distractions and bluster of the campaigns for Presidency of the United States now behind us, a relative calm has settled on our nation. The stumping has ended and the soap boxes have been put away. While political analysts endeavor to sort out the results and create understanding, for the moment, the once angrily lofted accusations have transformed into messages of bi-partisan cooperation and peaceful transfer of power and our collective attention turns to the future. There’s not many Americans that aren’t asking “what’s next?” Will the assurances of change come to be realized and bring the good fortune and homogeneity that has been promised?

Certainly, there’s a question of what’s next for this industry, commercial real estate, as well. Just moments into his newly defined status, our president-elect enthusiastically projected some of what he envisions:

“We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. We’re going to rebuild our infrastructure, which will become, by the way, second to none. And we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it.”

Our soon-to-be president is smart to place his aspirations in infrastructure. According to PwC and its Emerging Trends In Real Estate 2017 report, “Infrastructure emerges as a key real estate development issue, ranking nearly as high as land cost and construction cost…. In fact, a whopping 96% of our survey respondents cite infrastructure as an important issue.” With indicators like these, it may be time review your targeted markets and rethink commercial real estate ads.

Let emerging trends guide real estate ads
Infrastructure comes in many forms and technology readiness tops the list according to PwC. In fact, 95% of respondents to their survey believe that tech basics like broadband capacity and performance are important factors influencing real estate decisions. Ensuring that your real estate ads are reaching IT decision makers whom are clearly influencers in real estate decisions nowadays seems essential. A consistent and effective way to get your product and service information on your targeted client’s desk is to go where your clients are – or at least to where they get their information. Real estate ads in publications like CIO Magazine which has an intimate relationship with the IT industry’s leaders may be a new way to get attention for your commercial real estate offerings. Advertising with publications like this doesn’t mean giving up tried and true real estate flyers, postcard campaigns or email marketing, but it can mean complementing those activities with banner advertising, sponsorship of e-mail newsletters or white papers and mobile advertising.

Other trends in commercial real estate center around the retail and healthcare industries. For instance, while big box anchor tenants are slowly becoming retail paradigms of the past, urban/high street retail and “click and collect” models are coming to prominence. Investors looking to create portfolios of pricey on a per-square-foot basis retail properties will be interested in seeing your investment offerings in these locations. National Real Estate Investor focuses on retail as one of the sectors it watches and offers an array of advertising and list rental opportunities. Modern Healthcare magazine which boasts more than 700,000 active readers of its publication and is a leader in healthcare business news, research and data offers similar advertising opportunities in its sector.

Sometimes the best real estate ad is human interaction. After all, the commercial real estate industry was built on personal relationships. Look to some of these emerging trends for opportunities to join new association or get involved in charitable activities that are important to leaders in those industries. LinkedIn or other social media can be a great way to meet someone that’s integral to an emerging real estate trend in your targeted business area.