Everyone knows that the real estate industry is a numbers game, which doesn’t help since it’s so competitive.
When you launch yourself into the world of real estate, it’s crucial to create a brand that’s long-lasting and successful, but let’s admit that that’s easier said than done.
Or, is it?
Regardless of if you’re a new realtor or seasoned one looking to increase business, there’s one thing that’s certain across the board: you need to establish a strong brand.
Afterall, it’s your brand that makes your business viable and legit in the eyes of your ideal customers.
In this guide, we’re going to teach you the key elements every real estate brand needs to have plus give you the 10 steps to follow for building your brand that aligns with your values and mission.
Is Your Real Estate Brand That Important?
Your real estate brand is absolutely important for the success of your business. Your brand is what sets you apart from the competition and gives yourself as the realtor credibility clients need to see before deciding to work with you.
There are several key elements to creating a strong brand for your real estate business, including:
- Logos, font, and colors
- Brand positioning
- Customer services
- Distinct brand voice
Let’s dive deeper into each element and why you need to focus on them before you actually begin building your brand.
Consistent Logo, Font, & Colors
Your brand’s logo, font, and colors should be consistent from your social media channels to your website and marketing. Basically, anytime a prospect interacts with your brand, they should see the same logo, font, and colors since it establishes familiarity. But, before you pick a random color on the color wheel, there are several things to think about when it comes to choosing all the basics that will represent your brand.
For instance, consider the following for each element:
- Brand niche: First and foremost, think of your real estate niche before selecting any of the basics. Retirees will respond to different logos and colors than a young first homebuyer.
- Logo: Real estate logos should be simple, unique, and timeless. Avoid using cheesy clip art and opt for symbols associated with real estate.
- Font: Pair a font that works well with your niche. Luxury niches pair well with cursives whereas younger niches pair best with crisp, modern fonts.
- Colors: Choosing the right color for your real estate brand is all about psychology. Choose at least two colors that evoke the mood you want clients to feel when engaging with your brand, but ones that also reflect your niche and services.
Brand Positioning
There are tons of real estate firms in the industry, which means other brands have already positioned themselves in the market. While every real estate brand has the same purpose (to help clients buy or sell a home), each brand offers the services differently somehow. That difference is known as the unique selling position (USP) and is constantly conveyed to clients.
The USP is what sets your brand apart from the others and shows clients why they should choose you over the over guys. So, before you start the work of building your brand, think of your company’s USP and what it is. Are they luxury homes? Exclusive properties? Other services no other firm offers? Determine your specific USP and highlight it within your marketing channels.
Customer Service
The customer service you provide is a major part of your brand and is likely what you will be remembered by instead of the pretty font and colors you choose. Customer service goes a long way for your business by building relationships and bringing you more customers. Making sure you provide exceptional customer service will always benefit your brand and help you stand out since clients are more likely to work with brands they can trust or have heard great things about.
Distinct Brand Voice
The last basic element of any great real estate brand is the distinct brand voice. The brand voice is how you communicate with clients and prospects that also stays consistent across marketing platforms, your website, and other business materials. Brand voice is also determined by niche and audience since it should resonate with your ideal buyers. Older clients are going to respond to tone and word choices that are much different than what younger clients would respond to.
10 Steps for Building your Real Estate Brand
Now that you know the importance of building your brand, let’s look at the specific steps to implement when it comes to creating a name for yourself in 2024.
Step 1: Defining Your Brand
The first step to building a successful real estate brand is to determine who or what your brand is, more specifically, selecting your niche. This step is also where you will figure out what your USP is so you can include that in later steps. But, it’s important to carve out time really considering the type of brand you want to create by understanding your services and what you target most in the market.
Step 2: Identifying Your Target Audience
Next it’s time to identify your target audience, which will be closely related to your niche. For instance, if your brand is geared towards luxury homes, your target audience will be clients like investors or high-earning individuals. If your niche is first time home buyers, odds are you will be targeting individuals in their 20s or 30s.
This step is crucial since your target audience is responsible for marketing materials. You will build campaigns and marketing your services directed to these people, which means creating a character profile is a must for step two. Your character profile will allow you to become more accustomed with your ideal client (how they think, how they speak, etc.), which is imperative for elements like your brand voice, font, word choice, visuals, and so on.
Step 3: Setting Up Your Channels
Step three consists of creating accounts on several social media platforms. It should go without saying that you’re creating profiles for your business and not your personal enjoyment, so if you’re already on these platforms, you will need to create a new account dedicated solely to your business (which means business-related posts only, too).
Social media is highly valuable for realtors since the industry is a visual one. Meaning, you can use social media to your advantage to meet new clients, share your expertise, and showcase incredible listings that fit your niche/ideal customers.
It can be intimidating to think of setting up social channels for your real estate business, so to take some of the pressure off, we recommend starting with only a few. There are several excellent platforms all realtors should join, but building a brand takes time, which means there’s no rush to join all at once and juggle seven different content calendars. We recommend starting with two or three platforms – along with a website – to start with.
Your website is different and should be the first channel you create since this will be your business hub. Your brand’s website is where prospects will go to learn more about you, who you serve, the services you offer, see listings, and reach out to you through a contact form.
When setting up your realtor website, make sure you have a page for the following:
- Home page
- About
- Contact
- Blog
- Listings
Step 4: Conveying Your Value
Your brand’s value is going to be a driving force for gaining clientele. Afterall, your brand’s value is what sets you apart from the rest.
If you remember back to the top of the guide where we talked about brand positioning and your specific USP, this step is where you convey that specialty organically. Within your social media channels (bio and content) and somewhere on your website (home page and about page), weave in your USP through the written content for readers to see to act as another CTA for urging clients to work with you.
Step 5: Marketing Your Services
By this step, your business should already be posted for the world to see via social media and the internet. But, once those platforms are up and running, they can’t sit dormant. It’s time to put in the work and actually build your brand. The only way you can do this is to market yourself as a realtor.
Start by writing SEO-focused blogs on your website educating your clients on market trends or post content to your social channels advertising current listings. The possibilities are endless when it comes to marketing your real estate brand, but the key is to stay on brand by targeting your niche’s audience, always staying true to your brand’s unique voice, and showing up consistently.
Step 6: Engaging With Your Audience
Step six relates to the customer service element of strong brands. As you start to post content that reaches your desired audience, more people will start to engage with your brand through direct messages on your social channels, leaving comments on posts, or filling out your contact form.
How you respond will say a lot about your brand. It’s okay to not respond to every single comment if you’re getting a ton of traction on your posts, but not responding at all will not send a positive message. You should make it a goal to respond to comments as much as you can along with your messages and inquiries. Always respond to engagement with a positive, professional manner so prospects think of your brand as one that’s pleasant to engage with.
Step 7: Designing a Business Card
Even though social media is the tried-and-true marketing tool for realtors, it never hurts to have business cards ready to go. Real estate is an industry that never takes a break from networking or brand building. So essentially, you should treat every trip out of the house as a networking/brand building possibility by having business cards that reflect your brand’s elements (logo, colors, and font) in your pocket and ready to pass out any chance you get.
Step 8: Quoting Testimonials
Once your social media channels and websites are up, never miss an opportunity to highlight your success with testimonials. Reviews are the golden ticket to securing more business and establishing yourself as a credible brand. If you don’t believe us, maybe you’ll believe the stat that says 92% of customers consider online testimonials and reviews before deciding to work with a brand.
Step 9: Building Your Social Media Presence
Social media is where every brand is built these days because of the easy potential it gives businesses for connecting with their target audience. Because of that, it should be a priority of yours to constantly show up online and keep your brand up to date. Social media for realtors should be a combination of a highlight reel from your stunning listings to content that captivates your audience to educate them, inspire them, and convince them to work with your brand. This is easily achieved through the help of a social media strategy where you market your services and yourself, while building a brand at the same time.
Step 10: Staying Consistent
The world of brand building relies on a lot of visuals outside of the content you post. The logo, font, colors, and voice you choose for your real estate brand should be consistent across all channels and marketing materials. Prospects should not see you on social media as a sleek professional with gray, white, and black as your color scheme who appears to target luxury real estate prospects then head to your website and see bright blues and yellows with wording that indicates you’re better suited for a newly married couple. Ensure that your brand is the same on all aspects of the internet and in any printed materials you choose. Consistency equates to familiarity in brand building, which is vital for establishing a long-lasting presence in this industry.
