Paul Dughi

How your brand is perceived by your potential clients can make the difference between attracting new customers or having them work with other agents. Establishing a strong and trusted brand identity will set you apart from your competitors and allow you to increase your market share. “We’ll Sell Your Home Fast” “Great Personal Service” “We Work for You” Too many real estate agents, realtors, and real estate brokers brand their business by promoting phrases like those above. Unfortunately, they are the fundamental expectations that all real estate buyers have. Would you do business with someone that takes forever to sell your home, provides lousy customer service, and works for someone else? Of course not. The first step to building a brand is to find the one thing that differentiates yourself from everybody else out there. 1. Differentiate Yourself From Your Competitors Before you can sell your brand, you have to define it. Are you the #1 seller in your market? Does your agency sell a home every 30 minute on average? Are you a buyer’s agent? Do you price your services on a flat rate? Do you have a sales guarantee? Are you a relocation specialist? What can you say about yourself or your agency that sets you apart and makes it memorable. 2. Avoid The Laundry List It is tempting to tell potential customers that you do everything well. In fact, you may do everything well. However, the message will fall flat. By focusing on one thing and driving it home relentlessly, you will stand out. The average consumer is exposed to more than 10,000 brand messages every day. How you can expect them to remember a list of things you do? 3. Create Brand And Name Awareness If you can get people to remember that one thing about you, and remember your name, you are ahead of the game. In the real estate business, it is all about getting the best listings. The best way to do that is to make sure homeowners know your name and what you stand for before they are in the market to sell. That way, when they go to Google, they look for you first by name. If they have to do a search for local realtors, they might find you, but they might see all of your competitors as well. 4. Gain Their Trust Anybody buying or selling a home has to trust the person they work with. They want to work with experts that are committed to meeting their goals. Reassure them you will do everything you can to accomplish their goals. 5. Ease Their Fears Buying or selling a home is one of the – if not the – largest financial decision most people will ever make. It’s understandable they will be nervous and maybe even fearful that they will make a bad decision. The more you can mitigate those concerns, the more likely they are to do business with you. Home Seller Fears • • • • • I won’t get fair value for my home! It will take forever to sell! Strangers in my house while I’m not there! The deal will fall through! The home inspection will find something bad! Home Buyer Fears • • • • • I will overpay! I won’t qualify for a mortgage or my credit score is too low! I’m locking myself in for 30 years! I’m buying some else’s problems! I won’t like the neighbors, neighborhood, or schools! The more you can do to allay their concerns, the better chance you have to earn their trust. Consider branding your marketing efforts around easing their fears. 6. The Power Of Referrals Showing potential customers that you have a group of people that were in the same situation they’re in now and that they were satisfied with the results can go a long way to easing those fears. The more raving fans you can amass, the more comfortable people will be. You can give someone all the facts in the world and not convince them. Connecting them with real people who had the same fears and came away happy with the results you brought them may be the key to getting them signed up. 7. The Power Of Success Advertising your successes is one of the most effective ways to gain trust. If potential customers see that you are selling a ton of homes, it will give them confidence that you will do the same for them. 8. The Power Of Consistency Whatever you do, make sure all of your branding efforts are consistent. The same logo or font style, the same colors, the same branding messages, and the same images. No matter where a potential customer comes across your brand, you want it to them to see and hear a consistent message. 9. Develop A Marketing Plan And Stick To It There are four key steps in establishing an effective marketing plan for your brand. It doesn't take a perfect marketing plan to work. It takes a good plan, executed consistently and relentlessly to work. • • • • Advertising: Any medium can work if you use it properly and put enough effort behind it. Putting the right message in front of the right customers at the right time makes it work. Consider coupling traditional media – with its mass reach – with digital advertising that can target niche audiences that need your services. Remember, you need to advertise to people in the market for your service now while also building your brand for people that will need your services tomorrow. Establish your online presence: A website is the price of entry these days. People do their research online Take advantage of low-cost and free online tools, including social media and email marketing. Low-cost online and offline tools: Take advantage of free social media and look at targeted Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter ads. Networking: In addition to asking for referrals from your customers, the more you can network with people in your community, the more likely you are to get their business. Your church, Rotary club, social and business connections, charity boards, school events, etc. can be a great place to connect. It may make the difference in getting the first call. We know this is hard work and you will need to spend serious time and money to get your brand out there. If you want to be more than “just another” real estate agent, agency, or broker, you need to do the work up front to achieve your goals. You can do it! The results will be worth the effort.