There are 2 sub-issues for you to deal with regarding „Realtor Branding“. The first is the fact that YOU your brand. The brokerage you hang your license with is NOT your brand. The second issue, once we’ve realized the first, is actually implementing your Realtor branding properly, just like the big boys do.
Let’s deal with the first issue a little more. In most cases, your clients are choosing you because of you, not your brokerage. If you switched brokerages, they’d go with you 99.9% of the time, right? That means it’s YOU they’re choosing and not your brokerage.
Far too many Realtors and agents overstress their brokerage as a selling point; as their brand. Granted, some brokerages provide some unique services that actually IS the brand and the reason why the consumer is choosing you (like Redfin.com). But that’s such a minority percentage.
The vast majority of the time, you’re getting the client because of a referral, a past client working with you again, advertising you placed that emphasized you personally (not your brokerage), etc.
Let’s put it another way to drive this Realtor branding issue home………
At your brokerage right now, is every one of the agents in your office closing the same number of deals each month? No, of course not. That proves the brokerage is not your brand.
If the brokerage was the brand, every agent would close just as many deals as the next agent. But that’s not the case. Each agent closes differing numbers of deals because each agent markets themselves and each consumer chooses to work with the REALTOR or AGENT, not the brokerage.
Some agents are clearly better at Realtor branding than others. If they switched brokerages, chances are they wouldn’t miss a beat and business would continue rolling along. They are the brand no matter what company they hang their license with. Ok, I think we’re clear on that now.
So since you are your brand, you need to „brand yourself“. No, you don’t need to get a red hot iron and scorch yourself like cattle. You need to learn how to build a solid, consistent, recognizable brand, which is „You, inc.“ You need to create that Realtor branding that you want out in the public.
You need to decide if you want to brand your name or if you want to create a separate entity or team, as many agents are doing now. You might want to be known as „Jane Doe“ to the public. Or you might want to be „The Doe Team“ or „Doe Realty Group“ if you plan on building a small or large team of more than just yourself. Either way, keep that name consistent on all your marketing and advertising. If you keep changing names, your Realtor branding will be non-existent because the public will be confused, at best.
You don’t want to have one name on your postcards and another name on your website. Consumers will get confused and that means no money for you.
What you stand for; your USP (unique selling proposition) is another vital item to mull over when it comes to Realtor branding.
How are you different from every other agent out there?
Are you an expert in the „Homeville Neighborhood“ or do you specialize in working with military home buyers/sellers?
Do you want to be known as the „Animal Loving Agent“ who attracts all the animal nuts (and I mean „nuts“ in a nice way…. My wife and I have 4 dogs ourselves) out there?
Think about what sets you apart from every other agent and put that into your Realtor branding.
In addition, to solidify what you stand for, put it into a 2-7 word sentence, which will be your USP. For example, the USP for a certain Seattle based brokerage is „Founded by Agents to Serve You Better“. That’s the essence of the company. With another Realtor marketing school, their USP is „Creating Wealthy Agents through World-Class Marketing“.
This way, as you build your brand recognition, when people hear of „Jane Doe“, they don’t just picture some random agent. They picture the „Animal Loving Agent“ who is the one they need to work with to find them and their 3 Chihuahuas a new home.
See how it works? Be known for something that sets you apart. The possibilities are absolutely endless.
Another big piece of this pie we call brand recognition is your logo. Not only do you want to keep your name consistent and your USP consistent but you want prospects to keep seeing the same image/logo over and over and over again. When they see that logo, you want them thinking of you, immediately.
Your logo could be an image or your name displayed uniquely or both ideas mixed together. You just need to get creative and unique and come up with something. Then, put that on every stinking marketing piece and ad you have out there.
What do you think of when you think of Coke? You think of a red can with the words „Coke“ running up the side. That’s what you want. But instead of the can, they’ll be thinking of your image or logo that you use.
When it comes to your logo, you don’t want something cheap. You want it to embody what you’re trying to convey. If you’re an artist, you can do this yourself. If you’re like the rest of us, you need some help.
Two excellent vendors I’d recommend (in no particular order) would be Austin Milner and Trident Design.
Austin Miller, Artisin.com, is awesome when it comes to designing your logo/branding image. He did the logo for Shiloh Street and Shiloh Street University. In addition, when other big name logo design companies charge $400+ for a logo, Austin is a fraction of that.
Yuriy at DesignsByTrident.com would be my other recommendation. It’s too hard to say who is better so I’d just check them both out and see who you like best.
Building your brand doesn’t happen overnight. But if you build it correctly and consistently, you’re going to reap some HUGE rewards.
Immobilienmakler Heidelberg Makler HeidelbergSource by Josh Sanders