As the mercury in the thermometer rises and the dog days of summer take hold, it’s a great time to review your commercial real estate marketing strategy. At a time when business is often slower, and staff seem to be in continual vacation flux, don’t miss the opportunity do a check-in on your marketing plan.

You review your employees throughout the year. You check-in with key partners and assess your relationships with customers, but have you looked into the state of your marketing strategy? In today’s environment, more so than ever, with business changing at a moment’s notice, you need to continually assess and adapt, or you’ll give up ground to the competition.

A real estate marketing professional is worth considering

In reassessing your current strategy, you may want turn to an expert for advice. As an expert yourself you know the importance of getting an outside perspective and a commercial real estate marketing firm can provide some great insights. A fresh set of eyes into your commercial real estate marketing plan by a third-party subject matter expert is sure to uncover some new opportunities for success. The expert you call on could even be your virtual marketing assistant if you’re using one. Since a professional marketing company deals with companies like yours on a daily basis, they’ll know the right questions to ask. Most importantly, they’ll help you to understand your return on investment. Are you getting the most for your marketing dollars? Is the payoff what you expected? Did you accurately estimate your potential at the beginning of the year?

A marketing expert will review with you all of the elements of your marketing plan like branding, email marketing and, your social media presence, but other marketing elements as well. Together, you’ll review whether each of your activities is still appropriate for the current market conditions and for attracting your target audience.

If you’re convinced you want to go about assessing your current go-to-market strategy on your own, be sure to be comprehensive. Below are the key areas you’ll want to look at during your mid-year marketing strategy tune-up.

• Marketing tactics. Are your marketing activities showing redundancies from last year and become a bit dated or dull? Have you maximized your social media presence? What feedback, if any, are customers providing? Have you kept current with trends?
• Research. A recent survey found that among the various social media platforms found 73% people use YouTube, followed by Facebook at 68% as their preferred platforms. Does this pertain to your audience? The importance of research cannot be overlooked. You may be content believing that Twitter is the app to use, and be surprised to find it is used by only 24% of people surveyed and is outperformed by Instagram at 35%. Understanding your audience’s behavior as well as your competition is key to making sure you’ve got the right strategy and tactics in place.
• What is your average customer spending per square foot? Can you follow suit with how you price your offerings? Are your expenses in line? Have you over- or underestimated the market? Did you accurately account for taxes? Are your marketing activities covering the costs you’re incurring in execution? Understanding the financial aspects of your marketing program is as important as understanding creative approach.
• Public Relations. Are you taking advantage of free exposure by letting your local business community know about recent sales or new opportunities in your portfolio? Be sure that you’re augmenting media outreach by doing the thing that commercial real estate professionals do best—building relationships and collecting customer contacts.
• External factors. By and large, these are things that are out of your control, but it’s important to be aware of them and ensure that your strategy has been adjusted accordingly. Political climate and regulations, interest rates and foreign businesses are strong considerations for your audience and their purchasing habits.

Every business will experience dynamic markets during the year. If you revisit your strategy periodically and address any needed changes quickly, you’ll ensure successful campaigns and on-going success.