Leasing Commercial Property – How to Design the Leasing Brochure for More Enquiries

A brochure to lease a commercial, retail, or industrial property should be informative and yet simple. You must get the property message through to the prospective tenants so you can encourage enquiry from many prospects and take them to the qualification stage.

If all the boxes are ticked in the property promotion and qualification stage then you will go to an inspection process with the prospects. When you inspect a property it is necessary to have a strategy for the inspection. Know what you are going to show them and in what order. Preparation is the key.

In major new leasing projects, it is preferable to have a display suite available to inspect given that the building is likely to be largely vacant for some time.

You do not want to inspect a property without tenant qualification as your time is precious. Tenants that cannot afford the space can waste your time. Ask good qualifications questions about the tenant and their needs in premises before you inspect.

Let’s look at a simple brochure design to use when leasing a property. Here are the rules.

1. High on the list will be your definition of target market. The brochure needs to be written with the target market in mind. Build your leasing brochure around what the prospective tenant or target market requires or is interested in. Depending on the size of the leasing project, you may need to do a market survey of local businesses.
2. The design and layout of the brochure should have more images than words to attract the tenant’s interest. As part of that you want the physical features of the property and the tenancy to be captured in clear and professionally prepared colour photos.
3. Have a clear address branding or name for the property, and put it across the front of the brochure. In larger premises such as office complexes and shopping centres this will likely be the name or address of the property as it is known locally. Prestige and image are the key elements of the property brand. Tenants like to know that they are moving to a property that is well known and supports their corporate profile.
4. Use graphics to support image in the photographs. For example you could superimpose a logo or caption across the main photos to attract or convey the message you think the property has in the minds of the occupants. This can be words such as ‘prestige’, ‘style’, ‘space’, ‘modern’, or ‘open plan’.
5. Introduction to the property and the region is essential. This will include property detail, history, services, amenities, tenant mix, locational factors, and regional demographics. Prospective tenants must be told about the area and the place the property takes in the region. If the property is retail then this is highly important to allow the tenant to project sales trends and opportunities.
6. Maps of the vacant area and plans of the property are a great idea in your brochure. Include with this some floor plans and tenant mix plans where multi-tenant occupancy is relevant.
7. Provide detail about property ownership, floor plates, car park, security, access, operational hours, transport, signage, services, and amenities, common areas in the property, areas for lease, rentals, outgoings, lease terms, and features of each vacancy.
8. Clear contact information to the leasing operative should feature on every page of the brochure. Make it easy for them to call you or send you an email.
9. In the case of large vacant areas in prestige properties, have a special website or webpage created and refer to that in the brochure. Put further property information on the website together with feedback and enquiry forms.
10. Use the “AIDA” formula of marketing to layout the brochure. That is, and in this order, attention, interest, desire, and action. Create the attention of the prospective tenants. Provide more detail that is interesting. Create the desire for the tenant to be in the property. Call them to action and to make contact with you.

So the brochure formula is simple. When you keep it that way, the tenants get the message and come to you for more detail. Remember to qualify the tenants well and the leasing inspections will be more productive.