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How Virtual Tours Are Wasting Your Marketing Budget

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In April 2020, in person touring came to a screeching halt. The world began to work from home, and real estate decision makers and their brokers hit the pause button on in person touring of office space. Organizations began to think deeply about long term strategies to bring employees together in a safe and healthy way. As companies began to outline safe practices and social distancing procedures for the office, it became apparent that it was not a question of if the majority of companies would return to the workplace, but rather when?

Post-pandemic, there will be roughly the same demand for office space. In architectural firm Gensler’s U.S. Work from Home (WFH) Survey, a poll of 2,300 workers across 10 industries, only 12 percent said they did not want to return to an office. Zoom CEO Eric Yuan says “technology-wise, we are not ready to work from home,” and that it may be “15 to 20 years” for product and infrastructure to fully support WFH. Organizations may survive remotely for now, but in-person interaction is critical for professional development, culture, and upskilling. While remote work will increase meaningfully, its impact will likely be offset entirely by job growth and reversal of densification (which saw U.S.-based companies cram 13 percent more employees into the same amount of space).

As companies continue to navigate the unfamiliar waters of making real estate lease decisions during the pandemic, it has become apparent that companies are slowly but surely beginning to tour space again and reengage in lease discussions. In August, Facebook signed a 730,000 sf office lease in the James A. Farley building in Midtown Manhattan.

Groups are beginning to think about re-entering the workplace and touring, however there is one major difference in touring. Many of these tours are now being conducted virtually by utilizing tools such as Matterport.

Virtual tours such as Matterport, whether live or recorded, are a great way to make it more convenient for your prospects to see your building’s offering. These tours can be shared with others who may be part of the decision making process and are a great marketing tool to highlight your space in a more engaging way.

However, as more groups begin to invest in these technologies, brokers are still relying on antiquated forms of marketing (email blasts, direct mailing initiative, etc.) to generate views of the virtual tour.

But what if 85% of brokers, the industry average, don’t open the email blast containing these Matterport tours? What if the email goes to the spam or clutter folder? And even more so, if they do get to click to see the Mattport tours, are they properly linked to a property website which can provide more information on the asset? What do these Matterport tours really matter if they are not reaching the level of the brokerage or decision maker community desired? Is the substantial investment in these virtual tours worthwhile if very few people ever see them?

A series of questions all pointing to one answer; without the right distribution method these virtual tours are not worth the substantial costs incurred to produce them. RealtyAds is here to fix that by providing commercial real estate most effective medium for reaching brokers and end-users. In the last 12 months, RealtyAds has grown from advertising one property in Chicago to marketing over 135 million square feet across 36 markets.

Think of RealtyAds as the conduit to ensure those virtual tours are being viewed by a broker’s target audience, which is both tenant rep brokers and end users! The RealtyAds Platform, driven by proven artificial intelligence, will make creating your building’s digital presence (including promoting these virtual tours) across ad networks such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter effortless and effective. With the RealtyAds Platform, you can now target real estate decision makers at companies of your choosing and reach up to 91% of the brokerage community in your market. It’s that hyper-targeted, proactive market reach brokers and landlords require to remain competitive.

“In a world of endless emails we were looking for an effective marketing tool. RealtyAds is that tool. With one click we can penetrate all audiences for less money than any otherform of marketing in commercial real estate.”

– Adam Showalter, Stream Realty

Instead of waiting and hoping for someone to watch your new virtual tour, join the ranks of happy customers by contacting support@realtyads.com to start proactively reaching your target audience today. 

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