Branding

If you're in a large agency or brokerage, your branding naturally dovetails with that of the team. Still, no matter if you work independently or within an organization, you should keep an eye on how you present yourself to potential customers — especially online.

Branding may sound complicated, but it's simply the process of communicating in a thoughtful and consistent way to help people understand the three biggest things they need to know about you:

• What you do
• Who you do it for
• How you do it differently

No real estate agent is perfect for everyone, yet newcomers to the field often cast a wide net. They worry that if they get specific about what they do, they will alienate potential customers and get less business. The opposite is true: When your brand is specific, you attract more of your ideal clientele.

In the first year or so, any real estate agent will spend plenty of time learning the ropes. It's not out of the ordinary to be unsure what kind of customers you want to work with or what problems you enjoy solving. After some experience, it's essential to start tackling these big questions.

The sooner you do, the sooner you can go from chasing leads to attracting referrals.

Every interaction you have with the public or customers has the potential to influence their perception of your brand. Of course, we can't control everything and shouldn't try. But understanding your vision for your brand will help ensure you're upholding your values and aspirations.

Here are some ways to come to grips with real estate branding:

• Decide Which Clients Energize You
  It's okay to conclude that certain clients just aren't right for you — there are plenty of people out there and enough agents to help them all. Do you resonate with first-time buyers or luxury buyers? Boomers or Zoomers? Think about who you communicate best with and what interactions give you more energy.
  
  
• Zero In on Specific Problems to Solve
  For a brand to speak to someone, it needs to be crafted for their needs. For example, do you know first-time buying programs inside and out? If first-time buyers are your core customers, then your knowledge can become a cornerstone of your brand. The same applies to any type of problem or question.
  
  
• Have a Visually Consistent Style
  Your real estate website is where most of your future customers will first "meet" you. Be sure it has a consistent style, with the same colors and fonts used throughout. Then, reproduce those fundamentals on all other collateral, such as your business cards, email marketing, or direct mail fliers.
  
  
• Talk in Terms of Benefits, Not Features
  Benefits are what happens for the client. Features are just details of how they get there. Get to the nitty-gritty: Do you consistently get your sellers' homes to closing in 30 days or less? This concrete, numbers-focused figure will be much more enticing to them than a whole list of your credentials and education.
  
  
• Make Following Up Part of Your Routine
  No matter if you're working with a lead or a satisfied customer, following up is crucial. It shows them you care about their success and builds the relationship. You may need to follow up 7-10 times to get business from a lead — and some agents follow up every month with past clients to request referrals.
  
  
• Extend Your Brand to Digital Platforms
  Of all the different professionals who spend time on social media, real estate agents have the best opportunity to grow their business. Dig into social platforms to find out where your audience is active and what they're looking for — then provide helpful, informative content that leads back to your site.
  
  
• Network with Your Real Estate Peers
  A clear, well-defined brand makes you the "go-to" problem-solver in a specific arena. That means your peers, who also aren't trying to do everything for everyone, will be more likely to send business your way when they encounter someone who meets your criteria, but not their own.
  
  
• Have a Written Marketing Plan
  Your marketing can be thought of as your brand in action. Write down your key marketing goals and select a handful of ways, not more than three, to pursue them. Then, make sure all your communications consistently showcase what your brand is all about.

Leverage the Right Technology to Make Branding a Natural Part of Your Business Workflow

Branding for real estate is a big topic, but having the right technology on your side can help. When you use a real all-in-one solution like DeltaNET®6 to manage your relationships, you'll spend less time figuring out where people are and more time giving them the value they expect.

Contact us to learn more about how real estate marketing can enhance your brand.

What sets you apart from your competition? No matter the size of your market, you're not the only game in town for real estate clients. With millions of registered agents all over the United States, the reality is that your potential clients always have a choice. Your branding is one of the most important ways to communicate the things that set your business apart, build trust, and establish your identity with your target audience over the long term. Creating a branding strategy is complex, but the effort you invest can ultimately help shape the future of your real estate business.

Know Your Audience, Shape Your Brand

Who are you trying to reach? With branding, it's hard to be everything to everyone and equally difficult to set yourself apart from the competition using generalities. Effective branding starts with knowing your audience, and understanding what they're looking for from a real estate business.

Whether you cater to young, first-time buyers, luxury real estate clients, people searching for vacation homes, older clients looking for the perfect place to retire, or any other niche, your unique value proposition is at the heart of your branding.

So, in what ways do you serve your target audience better than the competition? When faced with other real estate options that serve a similar niche, why should they choose you? Answering these questions is the perfect place to start shaping your brand. And when you answer those questions through branding in a way that resonates with your target audience, your business can benefit for years to come.

Branding in the Digital Age

In today's digital world, the reality is that most real estate prospects begin their search for real estate services online. A consistent, reliable online presence is one of the biggest keys to ensuring that your brand reaches as many people as possible.

• Real Estate Website
  Your real estate website is the cornerstone of all of your online branding efforts. It's a place where people come to learn about your business, browse your listings, and find out whether you're the right choice for their needs. That's why it's so important to have informative, educational content, to help prospects find answers to their real estate questions, discover the communities where you sell homes, experience your expertise, and learn how your brand stands out from the competition.
  
  
• Social Media
  When it comes to connecting with prospects and building relationships that lead to business, it's hard to top social media. For real estate businesses, social media is a place to share expertise, engage with your audience, and highlight the best parts of your brand. Agents can use social to connect with clients on a more personal level, showcase communities, give a peek behind the scenes of life as a real estate agent, and build lasting relationships. Make sure that your brand's name and appearance are consistent to provide a seamless experience across all social platforms that you use.
  
  
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  No matter how well you develop your brand, the only way to maximize its impact is to ensure that your message reaches as many people as possible within your target audience. SEO helps you stand out from the competition, and ensure that your brand is what people find when they're searching for real estate services in your area.
  
  
• Online Advertising
  While building organic SEO and growing your social media audience takes time, paid online advertising is available to give your brand a boost anytime. Advertising on social media and in search engines can be a great way to get your brand in front of the right people at the right time.

Traditional Branding Tools for Real Estate

Digital marketing is excellent, but that doesn't mean that more traditional marketing methods don't have a place in modern branding. There's a good reason that "For Sale" and "Sold" signs are still ubiquitous on the lawns of homes around the country. Because they work! And if your target demographic isn't so active online, then tools like direct mail and traditional advertising can help you reach them. Even for a more modern audience, traditional marketing tools can provide a valuable complement to your digital branding efforts.

Building Your Brand to Last

In the end, effective real estate branding requires a holistic approach. When you understand who you're trying to reach and which factors differentiate your real estate business from the competition, you can use that information to shape all of the other aspects of your branding. While some parts of your brand will likely remain the same long term, remember that it's also a good idea to be nimble and experiment. Finding new ways to reach prospects as branding tools evolve will help you build a brand that can outlast any trend.

Are you doing everything you can to turn your agents into the best possible representatives for your real estate brand? Just by the nature of the job, your agents are always representatives of your brand because they are the primary point of contact between your clients and your brand. But there's a difference between representing a brand and being a true ambassador.

Agents who are brand ambassadors recognize that promoting your larger brand is just as beneficial to them as it is to your real estate businesses because building a trusted, reliable, recognizable brand means more business for everyone. But agents are busy, so they may simply need some guidance and a nudge in the right direction. Here's how to turn your agents into valuable reps for your brand.

Start By Making Sure Agents Are Informed About Your Brand

In order to be great promoters for your brand, agents need to understand exactly what your brand means. That means going beyond logos and branded marketing materials to help agents understand the core values, standards, and benefits of your brand. An agent with an understanding of what your brand is will be better equipped to share that brand with the world.

• Who Are You Trying to Reach, and How Do You Offer Value?
  For agents, it's hard to promote your brand if they are trying to be everything to everyone. So agents need to understand your target audience and how your brand brings value to that audience. If your brand is focused on luxury real estate clients, your agents will need to promote your brand differently than they would for first-time home buyers. Even if your brand is geared to a wider audience, helping agents understand your unique value proposition will help them rep your brand.
  
  
• Do Agents Understand Your Brand Standards?
  While logos, color schemes, fonts, and images aren't everything when it comes to branding, those standards do make a big difference in brand consistency. Communicating those standards and making it easy for agents to integrate them into their own branding materials are simple ways to help agents promote your brand.
  
  
• How Consistent Is Your Branding?
  Some parts of your branding, like your website, branded social media feeds, online advertising, and traditional marketing materials are largely beyond the control of your agents. However, keeping your brand consistent in all of those areas will make your brand more recognizable, which ultimately makes it easier for your agents to represent your brand.

How Marketing Tools and Technology Help Agents Rep Your Brand

The vast majority of agents will want to be great ambassadors for your brand, but they only have so much time to devote to actively representing your brand while still handling all of the day-to-day details of their work. That's why it's so important to provide them with the right tools and technology to make representing your brand a simple, streamlined process that they can easily integrate into their busy day.

• Leveraging Technology to Make Promotion as Easy and Automated as Possible
  Your agents will be using technology to communicate with clients, cultivate leads, and promote your brand to the world. Are you providing all of the tools that they need to complete those tasks efficiently and effectively? Help them by providing the right marketing tools, making templates for key announcements on social channels, and giving them everything they need to represent your brand consistently — both online and in the wider world. Automate as many key tasks as possible, like sending email newsletters, to help agents rep your brand while still saving time in their busy day.
  
  
• Keeping Track and Following Up with Branding Opportunities
  The right real estate CRM makes it so much easier for your agents to represent your brand and to keep track of all of the information that they need to serve their clients. CRM data makes it easier for agents to keep tabs on branding opportunities, know when to follow up, and know what makes each client tick.
  
  
• Does Your Website Represent Your Brand?
  Your real estate website will be the first contact that many clients and prospects have with your brand. A great website that communicates your brand clearly gives your agent a leg up in representing your brand because it establishes your brand for your audience and helps communicate the values that your agents will build upon in their own interactions with clients.

Where Will Your Agents Take Your Brand Next?

Every agent should want to be a valuable rep for your brand, but it's up to you to provide what they need to succeed in that role. With the right mix of knowledge, tools, technology, and motivation, your agents will have everything they need to be outstanding reps for your brand.

Compared to all the other real estate professionals in America, what makes you special?

Phrased that way, this might feel like an intimidating question. But rest assured, there is an answer. The way you respond shapes your business in profound ways.

Here are examples of ideas other real estate experts like you have had:

• "I'm special because nobody else knows the Borough of Brooklyn like I do."

• "I'm special because I truly understand what goes into senior downsizing."

• "I'm special because I bring years of negotiating experience to my clients."

The question is, how can you communicate your advantages so your leads will know and remember them? The solution is found in online branding.

Online branding is crucial because the majority of your future clients will find you online first. They might read about you on your website weeks or months before they actually expect to reach out to a real estate agent.

The first impression you make helps determine whether you're the one they eventually choose.

Exactly What Is a Brand, Anyway?

To clear up confusion, it helps to understand what branding is not:

• Branding isn't just about your values, even though your values are part of your brand

• Branding isn't just about your visual identity, such as your logo, color scheme, or fonts

• Branding isn't just what you say about yourself, but also what others say about you

You can think of branding as a structured and intentional approach to communicating what you want others to know and remember about your business. Branding isn't just visual; it's everything you put out into the world, including how you interact with people professionally.

Likewise, things other people say about you — such as reviews on third-party sites like Yelp — become part of your brand when someone learns about you by reading them. But if you've taken time to think deeply about your brand, you'll be able to positively influence even the factors you don't directly control.

What Do You Want Your Brand to Represent?

There are several questions you can ask yourself to get to the heart of your brand:

• Who Is Your Ideal Customer?
  After a little time getting used to the industry, this is the most crucial question any real estate pro can ask. All branding is directed "to" someone, and you'll need to know that person's characteristics. Marketing to first-time Millennial homebuyers is very different from marketing to Baby Boomers. Who do you want to serve, and what are their pain points? What demographics do they fall into? How do they research real estate issues?
  
  
• What Is Your Mission?
  You might think of your mission as your promised experience, what you want to deliver for everyone who picks you over the competition. For the agent focusing on those Millennials, it might be something like: "Make the home buying process easy and stress-free for people aged 30-40 searching for their first home." Whatever you choose as your mission, it's most effective when you can express it in a single succinct statement.
  
  
• What Can You Provide That Others Don't?
  Scroll back to the beginning of this article and take another look at the three answers people gave when they were asked what makes them special. Each statement provides insight into what they have to offer that most other real estate pros won't. Since everyone brings their own unique perspective to real estate, each person has their own grab-bag of specialized skills that can differentiate them from their colleagues.

Three Ways to Express Your Unique Brand Online

Once you have clarity on your brand, here's how to bring it to life online:

• Blog Regularly in Your Areas of Expertise
  Every blog post serves as a preview, a tantalizing taste of the value you can offer when someone chooses you as their agent. By publishing regularly, you strengthen your credentials as a local expert. In the process, you can also raise your visibility in online searches on topics relevant to your business.
  
  
• Embrace Branded Real Estate Video
  Video truly is the next best thing to being there. It's not just for listings, either: it's the ideal way to introduce yourself to new website visitors. The more video content you produce, the more chances people have to feel like they know and trust you. Some agents augment practically all of their blogs with video.
  
  
• Amplify Your Voice on Social Media
  Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn all provide amazing opportunities to further your brand. Take the time to lavish attention on every element of your profiles, from header images to headlines. Then, share new content as it comes out. That should encompass blogs, videos, new listings, and any news that matters to you.

With best-in-class marketing automation, Delta Media Group helps you showcase your brand with confidence. Contact us to learn more.

Allow Delta Media Group to show you how it can.

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