It gets tougher to attract buyers and sellers in a competitive industry with a real estate agent on every other corner. But staying relevant to run your business successfully is equally essential. This is where branding comes to play. REALTOR® or real estate agent branding is how you can achieve recognition and trust among your real estate clients to grab more leads in your sales funnel!
What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about a brand? The colors, fonts, logo, and website might pop into your head. These elements are there to convey a message and not just merely exist for decorative purposes.
So, ultimately, the branding of anything combines these elements that sum up the experiences and feelings of the individual associated with the industry. This goes for real estate branding as well. Elements like brand fonts, logos, and colors mixed with other important aspects like reputation, values, unique value proposition, and processes work together to create your real estate brand.
This guide will be a helping hand in building your real estate business.
Building a powerful brand for REALTOR® is essential, especially in this cut-throat competitive market, where attracting and retaining clients is getting harder. Here are some major benefits of building a brand:
Yes, REALTOR® branding is important. But, how to begin with the process? Let's explore in detail the entire process of succeeding at building your brand as a real estate agent.
Before you begin to establish your brand as a real estate agent, you need to get the basics clear! Every personal branding starts with defining core values that position you in the market and to your customers. If you are not yet clear on what values, vision, and mission you want to stick to, that's perfectly fine! You can decide it along the way as you grow in the industry.
Start thinking deep. There must be something that makes you passionate about working in the real estate field. Make that your mission.
Next, consider the values you want to follow to pursue your mission. For example, you might want honesty as one of the most significant values to give your clientele. This will benefit your customers as they will be able to put faith in you. And voila! You have your value, mission, and vision to incorporate into your business plan.
Before you start working on branding, recognizing your target audience is the foundational step. A couple of things you need to keep in mind while figuring out your target market are:
By identifying your audience, you can customize your visuals and marketing strategies to meet the needs of the people most crucial to your business. This ensures an authentic brand presence in the competitive real estate market.
What is your unique value proposition? Is it your local market expertise, or are you tech-savvy? You might even be an expert in one of the real estate niches. Highlighting your qualities helps potential clients recognize the benefits they would receive by choosing your services, thereby establishing trust with your business. Maintaining a strong brand identity means that your unique selling points are reflected throughout all elements.
Setting realistic and achievable timelines is one of the most important elements for any REALTOR® branding. Look how we are stressing the realistic word here. That's because setting timelines are easier, but creating goals that are humanely possible to achieve in that particular business stage is harder.
Set monthly and quarterly goals that pressurize you enough to keep you motivated but not drain you out. Give yourself time to settle into the industry because building a brand is not easy and definitely doesn't happen overnight!
Study well-established real estate brands to get insights into what works for them. Analyze their marketing tactics and how they use color schemes, visual aesthetics, logos, and taglines to establish their brand identity. Also, make sure to analyze how the local agents you'll compete with do branding. By learning from the success of others, you can identify what resonates with your target audience. Modify these strategies to develop a unique and compelling brand identity for your business.
Learning to do things on your own is always good, and you should, in fact, know the basics of graphic designing to help further create marketing materials. But, it is always better to appoint an experienced designer when it comes to a memorable real estate logo!
Although logos seem to be such a small piece of design, they are the face of your brand through which you will be remembered. It gives your brand a personality. Moreover, you have to display them everywhere, from your social media, emails, and business cards to print and digital ads! So, make it an outstanding element!
Outsourcing design companies or professionals will become more cost-effective than learning to design a real estate logo. Moreover, logos are not easy, and a professional knows what they are doing.
Without adding a real estate headshot to your marketing strategies, real estate agent branding is incomplete. Several agents attach their headshots to marketing materials like flyers, websites, and social media platforms to build trust and familiarity with their clients.
Ensure your headshot is professional and not too informal. And if not marketing materials, at least include them on your website and real estate social media marketing strategy to add a face to your brand.
According to the 2022 Home Buyers and Sellers Generational Trends Report by NAR, 95% of homebuyers took the help of the internet to search for homes. It was further reported that among all the generations of home buyers, excluding baby boomers, the first step to search for the perfect place began on the internet. So, are you still wondering why a real estate agent needs a website?
Today, maximum searches begin online, at least for the millennials and Gen Z. And making your real estate agent website rank on the search engine only opens opportunities and gives you more exposure. Think of it as your online office where you welcome your clients, explain to them what you serve, and build your credibility as an agent.
Moreover, when you have a clean website with easy navigation, your clients will appreciate you as a tech-savvy and modern individual who keeps up with the industry trends.
Having a recognizable visual identity is only the first half of your battle to brand yourself as a REALTOR®. Even a written identity matters as much as creativity does. This branding identity includes a well-written listing description and agent biography. It is your introduction to your clients. Hence, make it impactful, well-thought-out, and informative.
Don't confuse your audience. Give a clear and crisp introduction of yourself and your company. Be authentic. Use words that actually describe you, not what people want to hear. Make your written tone match the way you speak in real life. Add your passion for working in the industry. What excites you the most about work? Add that enthusiasm to your description. Moreover, use the written material to build a customer-centric story around your brand, team, service, and listings that end with happy sellers and buyers!
Having a slogan/tagline for your business is not necessary for every business, but when you look at Nike or McDonald's, you know it can be really impactful. It helps your clients associate your name with a distinct value proposition. Even the simplest but thoughtful phrases can separate you from the competition, and leave a memorable impression. Choose your words wisely, and ensure your strapline aligns with your brand's identity.
As you see your real estate brand growing, tweak and develop branded collateral that aligns with your marketing needs. Watching what others are doing won’t help because what strategies worked for one might not work for your style, goals, audience, and plans. So, create promotional materials that align with your goals. This can include social media graphics, GIFs, stickers, or flyers!
Real estate flyers are one great way to promote your service because they:
Download Free Real Estate Templates!
Every type of business has become increasingly important to include social media in its branding strategy. Especially for branding REALTORS®, social media platforms are a great way to create a presence in the crowd and sometimes even generate new leads and increase sales! However, begin your real estate social media marketing with a proper social media strategy that works for you. We recommend using the popular EAT framework to create an organic social media presence. It stands for:
Moreover, there is a growing trend of using videos to promote your brand these days. In 2008, 52% of US adults watched online videos. Cut to 2022; the numbers saw a whopping increase to 82%! According to a statistic, 73% of homeowners preferred going to a real estate agent who uses videos in their marketing material. That’s a considerable figure to ignore.
If you are confused about where to begin your video-making journey, we can help you get started! With Styldod, you can create real estate videos and share them on your social media for free!
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Influencer marketing has captivated the whole world in recent years. Collaborating with brand influencers or respected leaders not only helps boost your brand's reach but also helps elevate your social media presence across your channels as well as theirs. You can create a property video where the influencer showcases the property, or partner with a photographer to share tips on how to make your house presentable while selling.
Remember, connecting with brand influencers isn't just about exposure; it's about building meaningful relationships that can mutually benefit your brand and theirs in the competitive real estate market.
As you build efforts to make your presence more prominent online, don’t forget there’s a whole world outside the computers. Offline real estate agent branding still comes with thousands of new opportunities to grow and generate leads. There’s nothing wrong with going the traditional marketing routes through billboards, yard signs, sponsorships, and booths at local events. Your local market is still valuable and can establish you as a leading real estate agent in the community!
Keeping your brand image consistent is really important in achieving familiarity across the Internet, as well as in real life. From your color schemes, fonts, and visuals to your bio and messaging, make sure that all the elements are uniform. Here is the list of things where consistency should reflect:
A strong and consistent brand not only shows professionalism but also sets you apart from your competitors and establishes a memorable and lasting image with your audience.
While building your brand and creating a powerful identity as a real estate agent, remember your client’s experience with you matters the most! No one can market you better than your customer base. So, ensure you provide them with top-quality service. Do something different than your competitors to stand out from the crowd. Maybe bringing a thoughtful gift to celebrate closing the deal can be one way to communicate that you value your clients. This way, they’ll remember you and might even return to you for real estate services again!
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