Why Real Estate Agents Need to Build Their Brand
Part of what you can do to give yourself an advantage over the competition is to take measures to create your brand. Even though you can find success through your brokerage, especially if you’ve partnered with one of the big legacy brands, I think agents should be the face of their own business — and that involves building a strong brand. To remain memorable to people, you have to find ways to stay at the top of their minds.
Beyond what business you’ll drum up from existing clients and referrals, creating your own brand and marketing can help other people become aware of you and what you have to offer them.
5 Pro Tips for Creating Your Own Brand
Most real estate agents already know – or at least have a good idea – about what makes them unique, what they offer their clients that other agents don’t, and what else encompasses the raw materials of what they either need to use or have used to create their personal brand. And if you don’t know yet, think about what gives you an edge or what you want to leverage to gain that advantage. Here are some tips to consider.
1. Be Personable, Friendly, and Approachable
Being a friendly, trustworthy, approachable face isn’t going to hurt your business. It might seem like a no-brainer, but if people like you, want to strike up a conversation with you, and trust you, they’ll be more likely to call on you when they want to entrust someone with helping them buy or sell a home.
2. Get Smart About Your Business
Knowledge is power, and it’s no different in real estate. If you know the ins and outs of your business – again, because you’re tracking everything – you’ll be able to easily pitch prospective clients and give them clear explanations of what you do and, more specifically, what you can do for them.
3. Use Physical and Online Media and Marketing
Social media and other forms of online marketing are essential for building a personal brand. It’s just another way to connect with and stay connected to people. However, don’t overlook the power of physical marketing as well. From business cards to signs and advertisements, anything that puts your face out there for people to see is a step in the right direction.
4. Find What Makes You Unique – and Sell It
Are you well-established in a specific neighborhood and know absolutely everything about it because your family has been part of a community for generations? Are you quick at closings and consistently manage to negotiate big wins for your clients? Do you have the most sales of any agent within a specific neighborhood or even city? These are all great places to start.
5. Establish Yourself in Your Neighborhood or Community
Consider how your reputation might be different with potential clients if you’re someone who works within a specific community but doesn’t live there vs. if you did live there and have strong relationships with your neighbors. If you’re someone who shows up to town hall meetings, volunteers with local organizations and knows every worker at the local grocery store by name, you’ve got better odds of being chosen to be someone’s real estate agent.
Final Thoughts
Marketing is a big part of the real estate business. Just like with any business, you want to make sure you’re connecting to your client base and drawing in new clients to be successful over time. Even better, you want to create a lasting business that you can, one day, sell for lots of money. Your database has tons of value – and so do you. After all, you’re the face of your business. Don’t be afraid to sell yourself.
Get involved, know every aspect of your business, and have connections to your community. Put down roots if you can; people will be more inclined to trust someone who is a familiar face than a stranger. I always tell people that the names in their database should be people with who they’d feel comfortable striking up a conversation in the grocery store because they know each other: This is the core of building your brand as a real estate agent. Make those connections, but don’t stop there. Make those connections last.
Branding is really about being memorable. You probably remember a few commercials or jingles from your childhood. Talk about good marketing! If a 30-second commercial is so memorable it has taken up space in our brains for decades, why can’t you take up space in someone’s brain during a five-minute interaction?
Give someone a reason to remember you. Make them trust that, if they want to buy or sell property – or know someone else who does – you’re the person they should call. It’s the way to get a leg up on your competition, and it’s the way to ensure you’ll have a steady stream of clients for a long, long time.
