Blog Posts

Sep
03
How To Build A Winning Real Estate Brand
By Sharmila_CML

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They may teach you a lot about laws, statistics, and contracts when you are studying for the real estate exam.


However, they don’t teach you how to build a real estate business and brand that can survive the test of time and thrive in the digital era of real estate. If you are like most real estate agents and brokers, you started out in this business with a million and one questions, a to-do list that is ten miles long, and a lack of direction.


One of the biggest and most urgent priorities that you should have is to develop your brand. There are a lot of pitfalls you need to avoid and shortcuts that you can take to build a winning real estate brand and I’m sharing them all with you today.


Why Do You Need A Real Estate Brand?


Since nearly all real estate transactions in the U.S. begin with an online search, you can’t afford to not build a major online presence. When it comes to digital marketing, you simply can’t expect to be effective without a recognizable brand. Once you have really nailed your brand, you will be able to save a ton of time and money on your marketing efforts. Furthermore, your followers and ideal clients will become more and more familiar with you, your message, and the value that you offer them. Branding is the most effective way of getting people to associate you and your business with whatever you want them to and keeps you front of mind for those needs.


Start With Profiling Your Ideal Client


Building your real estate brand is NOT something that should be taken lightly or done at random. If you want your brand to work for you and become lucrative, you need to make sure that it is well thought-out.



Watch: Real Estate Niche Marketing | Profitable Real Estate Niches | Sarah Layton





The best way to ensure that you will achieve the results you desire with your brand is to take a hard look at your ideal client. Your ideal client can be anyone (within reason) that you want them to be; first-time buyers, luxury listings, aging downsizers, military, etc.. Just make sure that you are extremely specific about all of the demographics that make up your ideal client because that will help you tailor all of your branding and marketing in a way that attracts those people to you and gets them to hire you!



To make the process of identifying your ideal client, I have created this worksheet for you. Be careful when you are filling it out that you are answering the questions about who your dream client is, not people that you may have worked with in the past or the people someone told you that you should target.


Develop Your Unique Value Proposition


Once you have completed that worksheet and identified your ideal real estate client, you will have a clear understanding of what their problems and goals are. Your brand’s value proposition should revolve around solving their largest problems and helping them achieve those goals.



How To Avoid Becoming Another Broke Real Estate Agent







For example, if you are targeting seniors that are downsizing, you may want to incorporate elements in your brand that address their fears of safety, isolation, and change.


The more that you can specifically show your ideal clients that you offer a service that is specifically for them, the more they will trust and hire you.


Defining Your Badass Brand


Once you know who your ideal client is and understand what your unique value proposition is, its time to roll up your sleeves and get started with the fun stuff.


1. What’s In A Name


The name of your real estate team, brand, business should again revolve around your audience.


“Miami Luxury Living” is always going to work better for branding and marketing than something like “Jan Jones”. Remember, you want your name and every part of your brand to be very searchable online!


Your brand is meant to be a tool that helps you attract your ideal clients, rather than every joe shmoe out there. The less time you waste on crappy leads, the more time you will have for the clients you love. That being said, your audience needs to instantly understand that you are for them when they see or hear any of your branding. That begins with your name.


2. Hook ‘em


If you really want to crush the competition, let them keep their lame old-school slogan and create a hook. Your hook should clearly communicate what you have to offer and why they should offer you. One trick to making your hook super powerful is to incorporate what your ideal client stands to gain or what loss they stand to avoid when they hire you.


3. Choose Your Colors


One of the most distinctive elements of any brand are its colors. Typically, real estate agents will opt for the same colors of their brokerage. However, I seriously caution against this because most real estate agents change their brokerage several times over the course of their career and the last thing you want to do is build a whole new brand for yourself every time. Double check with the compliance rules of your brokerage, but build as much of your brand around you and your ideal clients as possible so changing brokerages has a minimal impact on your image.


4. Land On A Logo


The other recognizable element of a bold real estate brand is the logo. In most cases, I think real estate agents over-think and overspend on this part. Remember, you’re a real estate expert not a professional graphic designer. Just hire a logo designer here for $5 and move on to bigger and better things.


Show-Off Your Brand


Once you’ve built your winning real estate brand it is time to put it out there for the world to see. Make sure that any and every piece of content or marketing materials are consistently branded so that you can build your audience’s recognition of your new badass brand.


Here are a few of the places to show-off your branding:




  • Your real estate website




  • Your real estate blog




  • Your social media profiles, pages, and groups




  • Your podcast




  • Your Alexa skill page




  • Your Youtube & Vimeo pages




  • Your webinars




  • Your real estate signs




  • Your agent bio




  • Your business cards




Tell Your Story


Your real estate brand is a major part of your business.


It helps you to stand out from the competition, build loyalty, and earn you more business.


But if your ideal clients never see your brand, it won’t be able to do any of that for you. That means that you need to first earn their attention first. Book a free consultation with me to learn how I can do that for you.