If you’re lucky enough to run a real estate brokerage that is reputable and has fantastic brand awareness, then you have just made selling your services a lot easier. A strong real estate brokerage brand presence makes your firm stand out in the extremely competitive real estate marketplace, online and offline. However, not every real estate brokerage has strengthened their branding, and could benefit by learning brand marketing strategies.
Keep reading to learn how to develop your real estate brand.
So how do you brand a real estate company and develop its brand identity?
Let’s start with real estate branding basics.
1. Develop your company values
You need to develop a set of core values that you and everyone who works with follow and live by.
2. Creative branding
Then you need to get creative. What does your logo look like? What are your brand colours? What type of brand messaging and brand story do you want to tell your customers? All your branding needs to be cohesive and integrated into all your offline and online channels.
3. Define your audience
- Are you targeting home buyers, sellers, or both?
- Are you focusing on new home buyers? High-end clientele?
- Do you specialize in new developments? Pre-construction? Condos? Senior living and retirement communities?
- What is your target demographic? What is their age range? What do they care about? What do they look for when they work with a realtor®?
- What location are you targeting?
4. Integrate your branding into your brokerage offline and online
Integrate your branding into your brokerage offline and online
- Add logo and company slogan to documents to portray a professional image when sending documents to clients
- Ensure all your signs indoors and outdoors are all branded in unison
- Share branded materials with staff and real estate agents to distribute to potential buyers and sellers
Benefits of strong brand identity and presence
Attract talent who fit your company culture and values
Agents want to work at a brokerage they are proud of, but if you don’t brand yourself and promote your company, nobody will know about you. Branding isn’t just logos and creative content. Branding is emotional, as well. How do customers feel when they work with your agents? How is the in-office company culture? Are you a small, tight-knit team? Candidates may read reviews on online job sites like Glassdoor or Indeed.ca, so we suggest reviewing these websites and reading the reviews. The more positive your company culture is, the more your employees and agents will rave about you. They may state things like, “they give great leads, and offer lots of amazing marketing materials,” or “I just started my real estate career here, and I love the hands-on learning opportunities here.” Leverage this feedback to attract new talent as well.
Reputation and testimonials
Customers who are actively looking for a house or selling their home are also simultaneously looking up realtor® and brokerage reviews. An excellent review that says how stress-free and easy it is to work with your brokerage is a fantastic opportunity to showcase how professional and caring your agents are. Leverage positive testimonials and distribute them across your social media channels, build case studies, and have them on your website, or add testimonials to the bottom of your email signature. Anywhere a customer would be looking for more information is a fantastic spot to place a positive review.
Training Programs
Being transparent about your training programs will help attract the type of talent your brokerage is looking for. Tell new agents what they will learn at the start, how on-going training works, and other options for professional development. Leverage your social media channels or even broadcast and TV to highlight your recruitment and training process. Show people what you do and decide for themselves if you are the right fit for you.
Brand awareness across different geographical locations
A strong brokerage brand identity increases customer awareness across multiple locations and eases realtors® and brokerages’ sales process. For example: Just having for sale signs branded with your brokerage’s name and logo is passive advertising. Anyone driving by will notice the sign and may remember your company name. The more prominent your branded presence is across a city, on billboards, on benches, or seller’s lawns, the better. You want customers to remember your brand colours, and name and think of you when it comes to buying or selling their home.
Brand awareness online
Did you know over 90% of home buyers are searching online now for listings? Create a cohesive content strategy to integrate branded content across all your social channels. Add customers, new prospects, and new followers to your email funnel and keep them in the loop. Let me know when new listings are added, about new construction developments, and anything else you want to share with your target audience.
Realtors® are your brand ambassadors
Your real estate agents are one of your biggest assets! They are walking marketing tools and brand advocates. Each time they talk to a customer, they are marketing your brokerage to more and more people. They help you leverage your company by word of mouth. Get them to share brokerage news, new properties for sale, or houses sold above asking across all their social media channels. Even better if they have a dedicated realtor® specific Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Every real estate brand and brokerage is different and has their specialties. Show your customers and future candidates what your superpowers are, and why people choose to work with you. Leverage your existing positive reviews, connections to your realtors®, and online and offline branding to grow your business.
Comment below and let us know how your brokerage leverages their brand.
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