CityFeet Powers Marketing Campaigns

Repeat, All Real Estate Is Local... "Develop strong relationships with local brokers, reach out directly to prospective tenants, and partner with the dominant newspaper." That's the essence of CityFeet's strategy, as articulated by Mike Mayeri, CityFeet's San Francisco-based Vice President of National Sales. Mayeri's message: "We're a marketing service -- an alternative or supplementary service to newspaper advertising -- offering a bundle of promotional opportunities to our customers."

CityFeet's posted rate is $59 per month per lease listing (discounts available for listers with more than 10 listings). And part of the value proposition is that CityFeet promotes its service -- and, by extension, your property -- directly to prospective tenants. So CityFeet advertises in subways, on taxicabs and at bus stops with the tagline "Commercial Real Estate Without the Runaround." Plus, CityFeet advertises in local business journals and sends out regular e-mail newsletters. Equally important to this direct outreach is the need to strengthen bonds with tenant rep brokers. As a San Francisco Bay Area native, Mayeri's local roots run deep, and he spends a huge amount of time cultivating these personal broker relationships.

CityFeet, which operates in New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Memphis and (coming soon) San Diego, partners with newspapers like the New York Times (which is an investor), Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal and San Francisco Chronicle. Recently CityFeet began offering for-sale listings at $99 per month. All advertisers with newspaper partners have their for-lease and for-sale listings posted to CityFeet, but their information may be limited without upgrading to a premium plan. CityFeet provides an interesting example of a click-and-mortar business. Yikes, I haven't used that phrase in a while.

--Peter Pike