Put this into practice with Resquared
Resquared is the AI sales platform built for selling to local businesses: the most complete local business database, verified contacts, and outreach written and followed up in your name.
- Verified emails and phone numbers, with owner and staff names on premium plans
- Filter by radius, category, business size, hours and recent reviews
- AI writes each email in your name from the business's own details
- Automated follow-ups that stop when someone replies; replies land in your inbox
Every digital footprint of every brick-and-mortar business, resolved into one record and checked source by source.
See how it worksOrganize outreach around each vacancy. Define suitable business categories, build-out, neighborhood, approximate tenant size, and exclusions. Start within a realistic trade area, often 10-15 miles for one space, then separate materially different categories into their own campaigns.
Focus on independent businesses and smaller multi-location operators whose current locations suggest they could fit or expand. Resquared's database lists 14,786,458 active local businesses in the US and Canada, and 87% of those listed businesses are independent. For restaurant space, also prioritize proven regional operators with multiple locations.
Write the first email like a short local note. Mention the area, space type, and one useful feature, but leave out the exact address, square footage, price, links, and attachments. Ask an easy question such as, "Do you have plans to expand or relocate?" or "Can I send you the flyer?" A general business inbox often reaches the owner at an owner-run business.
Use software designed for local-business prospecting rather than relying on professional-network data. Resquared can filter businesses by radius, category, size, hours, and recent reviews; personalize outreach from business-level details; send automated follow-ups from managed addresses; and route replies to your normal inbox. Call qualified respondents quickly, and use phone calls, manual social messages, mail, or visits to reinforce the email outreach.
What to do
- Create a tenant profile for the vacancy using suitable uses, build-out, neighborhood, approximate size, and exclusions.
- Build one focused list per business category and area. Review the map and remove obvious mismatches, competitors, and businesses already contacted.
- Send a plain-text first email from a real person's name using a separate warmed sending domain, never your primary company domain.
- Run a 3-email sequence, sending each message two or three days after the previous one. Keep each follow-up short and focused on the same easy reply.
- Call qualified businesses when they reply. Send requested materials, propose a specific call or tour time, and record needs that may fit another property.
Related questions
Should the first email include the flyer and full property details?
No. Give enough information to establish local relevance, then offer to send the flyer after they reply. Leaving out the exact address, square footage, price, links, and attachments also keeps the first message simple.
Should landlords target chains or independent businesses?
Start with independents and smaller multi-location operators that fit the space. For restaurant vacancies, proven regional multi-location operators deserve priority because their expansion history can reduce execution risk.
What type of software works best for tenant recruitment?
Use a platform that combines local-business data, geographic and category filters, contact information, personalized sequences, protected sending infrastructure, follow-ups, and reply routing. Conventional corporate-contact tools often miss owner-run local businesses.