Trying to figure out how to market yourself as a realtor? Then you need to invest time and money into real estate branding.
Why? Because realtor branding is where the money’s at. Especially since it generates all the outcomes your business needs for exceptional growth (like credibility, discovery, and a strong reputation).
But, thanks to a saturated market, it can feel challenging to know where to start and how to be successful with this strategy.
To make it easier, we’ve put together this guide of 11 easy-to-implement real estate branding ideas so you can be well on your way to creating a brand that lasts and captures high-quality leads.
Elements of a High-Performing Realtor Brand
First, let’s look at what makes a great realtor brand.
And by “great,” we mean a brand that…
- Generates the right leads
- Is consistent across all platforms
- Is memorable and long-lasting
- And makes money! (The ultimate goal, of course.)
To create a realtor brand that contains everything we listed above, there are several elements your brand needs to have, such as:
- A defined USP: This is what sets you apart from the competition; the reason why clients should choose you over other realtors.
- Well-designed basics: Think logos, color palette, and fonts. These elements are instantly associated with your brand in the minds of your ideal prospects.
- Clear messaging: Who you serve and why your business benefits your audience should be consistent across all channels.
- Exceptional customer experiences: For a positive and strong reputation, prioritizing high-quality customer relationships are key for a lasting brand.
- A distinct personality: Every real estate brand is different from the rest. Your brand should have its own personality clients come to associate with only you. This is done in the brand voice you use in your messaging.
Before this starts to sound overwhelming, let us put your mind at ease: all of these elements can be (and are) accomplished in the steps below!
11 Creative Ways to Create a Memorable Real Estate Brand
Now for the nitty gritty: actually developing your real estate brand! Here are 11 creative ways that make branding in real estate easy and high-converting.
1. Pinpoint your audience
First and foremost, you must identify your target audience: i.e., who your business serves.
Why? Because in order for your brand to attract the right leads, you have to create a brand that targets the right clientele.
Before moving on, ask yourself the following questions to discover your target audience:
- What’s my real estate specialty? (Think luxury real estate, first-time home buyers, retirees, vacation properties, etc.)
- What are my audience demographics? (Age, income, location, buying habits, etc.)
- What is the problem my services solve?
- How do I want my audience to feel when interacting with my brand?
- What qualities/characteristics do I want my brand to have?
If you need more help determining your audience so you can craft the perfect realtor brand, try creating an ideal client profile to further unlock the attributes of your audience!
2. Evaluate the competition
Once you know who you’re speaking to, the next step is evaluating the competition.
This will show you a couple of key details you need for creating your own real estate brand, like:
- How other realtors are speaking to your target audience.
- What’s working and not working for your competitors.
- The gaps are open that you can fill.
- How your competitors’ audiences are reacting to their branding efforts.
- Your brand’s USP.
With these details in mind, here’s how to conduct competitor analysis to use the information for your branding development.
Step 1: Find competitors
In an online search, find competitors in your area or around the country that have a similar business structure or offer the same services to your audience.
Step 2: Look for data
While analyzing the competition, collect data around pricing, communication/experience, and how they market their business.
Step 3: Compare your business to theirs
Once you have all the data you need from your comps, compare their business to yours. Look at their services and marketing in relation to yours, and note what’s working and what’s not. Also look at their positioning and their value to see how to position yours.
Step 4: Unlock your advantage
With all of your findings, you should be able to discover your business advantage and place in the market. Analyzing the competition to see how you can fill the gaps your competitors are leaving open gives you an edge to attract more customers.
3. Discover your differentiator
Every business, including real estate, requires a USP (unique selling proposition) to stand out to your ideal clients.
Your USP is what conveys to your audience the benefit of working with you over other realtors. A few examples of this in real estate can be:
- Exclusive properties
- Guaranteed fast offers
- Premium services
Once you discover what your USP is, remember to incorporate it into your branding efforts by featuring it in your messaging so prospects always know how beneficial your business is to them.
4. Create catchy branding basics
One of the easiest ways to stay memorable in your realtor branding is to create basics that are always associated with your business.
Here are the branding basics your real estate business needs to have:
- A logo for recognition
- Special fonts
- Color schemes
But before you select any font and color palette for your brand, remember that these basics are all centered around your clients and how you want them to experience your brand.
For example, a luxury real estate brand would not use Comic Sans Font with a yellow color scheme. Instead, they would go with a more sophisticated font and wealth-inspired color scheme like black, white, or neutrals.
5. Set up an optimized website
Since branding yourself as a realtor requires consistent experience for your audience, you have to create spaces for them to go to that allows them to interact with your brand.
One of the best places to start with is an optimized realtor website.
Creating a realtor website is a must for your brand not only for the branding experience for clients, but for business growth as well.
Setting up on-page SEO with target keywords your clients are searching for is how your brand is easily found.
Once prospects discover your brand through your website, make sure you have the following set up as well for the best experience:
- Your brand basics (the logo, font, and color scheme).
- A clearly stated USP.
- High-quality images and videos.
- A professional picture of you.
- Contact information (including a sign up form).
- About page.
- Testimonials from previous clients.
- An educational SEO blog.
- Links to social media channels.
6. Get active on social media
Nowadays, social media is where most of your audience will interact with your brand. Social media is also the easiest place to start creating brand interactions through the use of videos and responding to comments/messages.
That’s why it’s highly recommended to invest in a social media strategy for your real estate business that allows you to connect with your audience and build exposure.
Best of all, social media can be free!
While some platforms offer paid ads (which we’ll touch on later), all platforms allow you to create a free account with the option to post free content.
7. Use technology to your advantage
Technology can be a beneficial tool to implement in your real estate branding, especially for targeting specific prospects.
Other than standing out in the crowded market, every realtor’s next greatest challenge is finding the right leads.
Luckily, tools like Cole’s Realty Resource makes it easy to discover prospects within your real estate farm so you can create campaigns around homeowners who align with your business.
8. Send out enticing emails
Email marketing is another tool for connecting with clients that allows you to experiment with branding.
How? Because it’s another place for your brand’s personality to shine while being consistent in your client communication.
Plus, email marketing helps out with these important realtor branding factors, too:
- Building brand awareness
- Speaking your brand’s tone of voice
- Sharing brand basics like your logo, business name, and color palette
- Consistent messaging
So, if you haven’t started (or grown) your email list, it’s never too late to start!
Have a contact form on your realtor website that encourages prospects to sign up for industry + listing news, but remember to offer some kind of incentive for them signing up.
This incentive can be anything from:
- Free home valuation
- An industry freebie (like pre-listing checklist)
- Neighborhood market reports
- Exclusive listings
- Buyer or seller tips
9. Harness the power of visuals
Visuals are a major component of every real estate brand. Realtors rely heavily on visuals for a storytelling component that entices prospects to purchase a listing.
When you get a property to sell, you want potential buyers to envision themselves living in the home. Taking high-quality photos that are crisp, clear, and bright tells the story of your listing by giving prospective buyers the chance to see themselves cooking in the chef’s-worthy kitchen or hosting parties in the expensive backyard.
Work visuals into your branding by accompanying social media posts announcing your new listing or emails you’re sending out to subscribers that get first-dibs on your exclusive properties.
10. Invest in paid social media ads
We’ve already established that social media is a must-have tool for increasing your brand awareness, but one way to elevate your brand even more is with paid ads.
Social media has free opportunities to market your brand, but paid ads can help you reach a wider audience at a faster rate.
Plus, while free ads help your budget, they take a lot more effort to work and rely on organic growth, which you might not always be successful with (or take months before seeing any traction).
Here are the benefits of paid social media ads you don’t get with free posting:
- Specific, targeted audience
- More ad customization
- Top of search result placement
- Higher engagement
Paid ads definitely help to scale your business faster than the free option. But, since paid ads do come with a higher cost, you can experiment with a few paid campaigns before investing more into the tool.
11. Show off happy testimonials
To make your realtor branding successful, you must have happy client testimonials. Social proof and a strong reputation are crucial components of any long-lasting brand.
So, once you have several closings under your belt, reach back out to previous clients for a testimonial you can share on social media or your Google Business Profile.
These positive experiences from previous clients contribute to your brand by building credibility in the eyes of prospects.
4 Realtor Branding Mistakes to Avoid
Building a real estate brand is not a one time deal; it’s an ongoing process that’ll last with the entirety of your business.
When you’re building and evolving your brand, it’s important to be aware of the common branding mistakes realtors make that suppresses their performance.
1. Failing to be consistent
Consistency is key to building a memorable real estate brand that sticks. Far too often, new and novice realtors forget this important detail and it results in an underperforming business.
So, what does consistency mean when building a brand? Here’s what it looks like so you can constantly check your efforts to make sure you’re building the best real estate brand:
- Staying on a consistent posting schedule
- Marketing messages contain the same TOV across all channels
- Branding basics are posted on all platforms
- Client wins are routinely showcased
- Websites and social media are consistently updated
2. Not having a strategy in place
Like your marketing campaigns, branding requires a carefully-considered strategy to make sure your efforts work. Posting about your business without a defined purpose comes across as scattered to your audience, and makes your brand perceived the same way.
Here’s a brief checklist to help create a branding strategy to avoid this common pitfall:
- Define your target audience
- Know your valuable USP
- Develop a brand personality
- Craft your brand basics
- Use the right channels for promotion
3. Disregarding human connections
The whole purpose of branding in real estate is to resonate with your audience. Prospects need to feel connected to you as a human instead of viewing you as a transaction waiting to happen.
This mistake happens when you fail to understand your audience’s needs and your marketing messages appear to be all about yourself, not how you help/benefit your audience.
To build a brand that’s focused on building a connection with your audience, follow these tips:
- Take customer feedback into consideration
- Ask questions to your audience and listen to their responses
- Be genuine in your messaging and marketing
- Use storytelling to connect with your audience
4. Looking over free press opportunities
Believe it or not, realtors can greatly benefit from free press, and a lot of realtors fail to understand this.
Showcasing your expertise and knowledge from free press opportunities is great a great realtor branding idea that promotes your services at the same time.
Join platforms like LinkedIn or Qwoted that have regular calls for experts to answer a few questions for insightful real estate articles.
The Bottom Line
Creating a real estate brand that’s attractive, converting, and long-lasting is hard work, but the results definitely pay off.
Building a brand for your real estate business can be a complex challenge, but with these 11 real branding ideas in your toolbox, you should be able to create an easy-to-use strategy that’s clear and effective!
