NovaLoca Blog

It is probably more important now than it has ever been to make the most of any means of communication with clients whether it is over a quiet drink at a trade show, a telephone call whilst in the office or sending them a quick email.

According to one article by NM Hancock over 66 trillion emails were sent in 2006 to over (an estimated) 1.2 billion email users indicating that for businesses this could be a very cost effective marketing tool. However, as the article goes on to state, making the most of this can be difficult. With so many emails being sent how do you make sure yours is the one that is read? The potential of email marketing may have been under-valued in the past due to the quality of the leads they generate. However in today’s credit crunching market using email as a marketing tool is a no-brainer! If you get it right, make it interesting and get your message across, you could be on to a winner. The article gives some useful tips about how this can be done including personalising the email, keeping it simple and promoting your main messages in the most viewed places. We have also discussed how emails can be used when marketing commercial property on this blog.

In our email communications with clients we have found it useful to include links to pages on the site which demonstrate what the email is about, e.g. their property listings or NovaLoca’s interactive maps. As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words: Compelling, visual content will engage a recipient increasing the chance that they will read your email and therefore, making it possible and more likely that they will follow your call to action.

One of the aims of commercial property search engine, NovaLoca, is to make marketing commercial property easy for agents. One way we have done this is by allowing interested occupiers to contact the agent via telephone and email directly from the site and it is working. To date NovaLoca has generated over 15,000 telephone and email leads for commercial property agents who list their property on the site. To find out how you can benefit from marketing your commercial property on NovaLoca and start receiving some of these telephone and email leads give us a call on 0844 3575 260 or email christin@novaloca.com

Well, we have now returned from Offices 08 and hopefully managed to see some of you there. If not then keep an eye out on the blog for announcements of when we will next be on the road and hopefully we will have the opportunity to see you then!

If we did not see you, you missed out on the NovaLoca team making an great impact as they told delegates all about how Novaloca is ‘making it easy’ to market commercial property online. We even went to extreme lengths to demonstrate that updating property listings can be managed in less time than it took Bolt to run the 200m Olympic final, not only causing much amusement but also proving the point! It really couldn’t be easier to take full advantage of what NovaLoca can offer to both agents and occupiers.

Standing out in our polo shirts emblazoned with ‘NovaLoca: Making It Easy’, the enthusiasm and dedication of the NovaLoca team was evident for all to see and somewhat infectious too. A thoroughly enjoyable couple of days were had by all, as well as being effective in continuing to raise the profile of NovaLoca. In fact we were surprised (and delighted) at the number of people who said to us, “I know you, you’re NovaLoca”, proving that we are now being recognised more and more within the commercial property industry; a great achievement in such a short amount of time.     

NovaLoca also announced at Offices 08 that it’s already impressive mapping facility with aerial and Bird’s Eye (where it’s available) imagery is to be further enhanced with the addition of Street Level views of central London. This new imagery will be released in the coming weeks, will be the first UK commercial implementation of this latest in mapping technology and is set to be released ahead of Google’s UK “Street View” imagery furthering NovaLoca’s commitment to using the latest in web technology to making marketing commercial property easy for agents and finding commercial property easy for occupiers.

With announcements such as this, NovaLoca fully believe in our claim of being the best commercial property search engine in the UK and to date there have been no challenges to this!

Energy Performance Certificates

In a statement on 17 September 2008, David Collett, CEO of Green CO2 said:

“In a little over two weeks, Commercial Energy Performance Certificates will become mandatory when any commercial building is constructed, sold or put up for lease.
Yet the numbers of EPC’s currently being processed in anticipation of this new regulation is worryingly low, which means there is a real risk that come 1 October, many people responsible for commercial buildings will all rush at once to order an EPC thereby creating a backlog for the commercial assessors to deal with and possibly incurring the fine attached to this regulation for non compliance.

Click here to read the full story

The advice from NovaLoca is to act now! Try and avoid becoming part of the backlog when landlords, agents, and owners all rush to get that all important certificate for their commercial property. If you fail to then you might run the risk of being hit with a fine (currently £750 plus a hefty 12.5% of rateable value) and potentially having a vital sale of that office block or lease deal delayed.

An estimated 600 institutional investors, banks, regional and local development agencies, commercial agents, developers, landowners, serviced office brokers, designers and occupiers will meet at this forum-style event to discuss what’s happening within the market place; and will provide an opportunity to make new and old connections, exchange ideas and seize new business opportunities.  www.offices08.co.uk

You can visit NovaLoca on stand 5B from the time the doors open Monday until the end of the exhibition on Tuesday. Offices 08 will be your last chance to list office space, commercial property you have for sale, retail property and industrial units completely free of charge on novaloca.com, this offer is open to individual agents and companies too.

For your chance to win an Xbox360 or a Nintendo Wii both consoles are being presented to winners before the end of the exhibition, attend one of our short demonstrations Monday at 11.15, 14:00, 16:15 and Tuesday 10:30 details below:

Look forward to seeing you there!

One of the many tools available on Commercial Property Finder, NovaLoca to help occupiers find their ideal office space, industrial unit or retail premises easily is being able to contact the agent by phone or email directly from the site. This not only allows you to make an enquiry about a property without needing to open your email service it also allows us to monitor how and when you make your enquiries, which we can then feed back to the agent so they can ensure they are available when you need them to be.

Just as property agents should be aware of how they respond to email enquiries, occupiers should also be careful. Here are some exerts of property enquiry emails which have been sent:

Creating an Effective Property Enquiry

Commercial property agents, like all of us, are busy people. Therefore, the more information you can give then in your initial enquiry the better. Here are a few tips:

· Be specific - What are you looking for? Tell the agent exactly what you are looking for including, preferred location of the property, size (a floor size in metres is much better than stating ‘for two people’!), a guide price of what you are willing to pay for the property, do you want to buy commercial property or let commercial property?

· Give instructions for the agent – What do you want the agent to do? Do you want to arrange a viewing of the property you have found on NovaLoca (give some idea of your availability to view the property) or do you want the agent to send you more information about the property (specify exactly what you want to know).

· Give your contact details - What is the best means of getting in touch with you? If possible, give them two options, e.g. by phone (give numbers and times you will be available on it) or by email (make sure you give the right address and you check your inbox regularly).

· Write something! – Very few agents will return your enquiries if you do not give them some indication of what you are enquiring about.

· Be concise – It is a well known fact that people read the first couple of lines of an email and then decide whether or not to keep reading. The same is true for property agents, so be direct and clear in your enquiry.

· Check your spelling – Run your spell check or re-read your message before your press send. If you cannot be bothered to do this, the agent may not be bothered to reply.

In addition to contacting the agent for details of other properties they are marketing, occupiers can also use NovaLoca’s Property Portfolio tool. This allows you to register your property requirements and receive an email giving full details of all commercial properties fitting your property criteria which are added to the site keeping you up to date with what is available.

For more information about how NovaLoca makes finding commercial property easy, contact the customer service team on 08443575260 or begin your search at NovaLoca.com.

Commercial property search engine NovaLoca has surpassed the 20,000 registered properties mark confirming its status as the UK’s fastest growing commercial property online listings service. An impressive feat when you consider the site only launched in January 2008. The 65,000 visitors to the site last month alone suggest that NovaLoca is on course to become the market leader. Great news for property owners and agents who are already benefiting from the leads NovaLoca generates even during this difficult time for the industry.

But what makes NovaLoca different?

· Allows occupiers to search for types of commercial property which agents have listed including industrial units, office space, retail premises, leisure buildings and land.

· Covers England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

· Provides a comprehensive service for agents as well as occupiers.

· Utilises the internet, the main source of communication today.

· Uses the latest mapping technology from Earthware which includes features such as in-map searching; road, aerial and birds eye imagery; local area information and full property details embedded into the map and attached to the property in its actual location.

· The site is clean, clear and classy and easy to navigate around whether you are looking for property or registering your available property.

· Properties added within the first three weeks of the agents registering on the site are advertised for free.

· Occupiers can contact the agent via email or telephone directly from the site.

Keep an eye on the main site as we have some very exciting additions coming soon which will also be announced here, in the mean time, if you wish to know how you can ensure your properties enjoy the benefits offered by NovaLoca, or if you are looking for a commercial property please don’t hesitate to contact a member of the team on 0844 3575 260 or email info@novaloca.com.

And once again, Well Done to the NovaLoca team for all their achievements so far especially the 20,000 listed properties and here’s to the next 20,000!