What is Real Estate Branding?
Real estate branding sets you apart from the competition. Properly done, it connects with your audience and generates excitement. Successful real estate branding is more than a great logo, it’s a combination of consistent on-point messaging both in written word and visually. You are your brand. Whether offline or on, that brand needs to be a professional and consistent reflection of you.
“When you build a personal brand, your clients are chasing you, not the other way around. Think about it like this – it’s not how many properties you sell; it’s how many people in your market know you, and never forget who you are.”
– Ricky Carruth, Forbes
Why does Real Estate Branding Matter?
The competition. It’s the biggest hurdle you face as a real estate agent, and it’s one of the top reasons you need to care about your real estate brand identity. Real estate branding can help your business stand out from the competition, it’s the first step in building a trusting relationship which is paramount in real estate. With such an enormous investment at risk, buyers and sellers need to feel they share your brand values and they understand your identity as an agent.
If that’s not enough to convince you to take real estate branding seriously, just think of how much money companies have spent researching the effectiveness of branding! Most major businesses put a lot of stock into their branding and you should too! Before you decide, here are some branding statistics from SmallBizGenius that show just how important your real estate branding is:
- It takes 5 to 7 impressions for people to remember a brand.
- Color improves brand recognition by up to 80%.
- 89% of shoppers stay loyal to brands that share their values.
- Brands that blog generate 67% more leads.
- Presenting a brand consistently across all platforms can increase revenue by up to 23%.
- Over 70% of brand managers consider building an audience more important than converting sales.
- 82% of consumers feel more positive about a brand after reading customized content.
- 94% of customers are likely to show loyalty to a brand that offers complete transparency.
- Consistently presented brands are 3.5 times more likely to enjoy excellent brand visibility than those with an inconsistent brand presentation.
- 10 seconds are enough for people to form an opinion about a logo.
- 94% of people said they’d be highly likely to recommend a brand they were emotionally engaged with.
Real estate branding matters because it’s the first impression potential leads will get. In a matter of seconds, they’ll digest your branding and decide who you are, what you represent, why you do what you do, who you serve, and if all of that aligns with their values and what they’re looking for. If it doesn’t? They’ll move on to the next agent and that’s not necessarily a bad thing because your branding should be designed to attract the right leads to your door.
Save yourself time and money and get your branding right in the beginning because, as the stats show, repetition and consistency is the key to making your brand work over the long term.
94% of people said they’d be highly likely to recommend a brand they were emotionally engaged with.
How to Build Your Real Estate Brand Identity
Ready to build your brand? Follow this guide to get started and consider hiring a professional to perfect your brand for the best results.
Research the competition. Do not skip this step! Your branding needs to be unique and recognizable against your competition. Remember, on average it takes 5 to 7 impressions for people to remember a brand. A strong logo should be simple, clean and recognizable within 3 seconds to a viewer’s eye.
Establish your brand. Your brand defines who you are and the core values of your business. Are you here to help luxury buyers get into million dollar estates? Are you the king of ocean front properties? Do you know where the best golf course properties are at Lake Tahoe? Or maybe Miami condos are your jam? Whether you specialize in a particular property type, buyer or seller, your brand should emphasize that! If you’re not sure how to identify your brand, or you’re just getting started, ask yourself the following questions:
- Who is your target audience? Are they part of a specific demographic (age, income, occupation, education, marital status, etc.)?
- What are your company values? Reflect on your mission statement and goals.
- How do you outshine the competition? What can you provide better than anyone else?
- How do you want new prospective clients to see you? What impression are you trying to make?
Design your branding. Unless you’re a seasoned professional, it’s time to hire an expert in branding (preferably real estate) to bring your ideas to life. Having a strong understanding of your brand identity and how you want to be perceived will help a designer craft the perfect logo and slogan for your business. Once you’ve perfected your branding, hire a real estate website developer like IDXCentral to build a website, integrate IDX, and incorporate your branding.
It takes 5 to 7 impressions for people to remember a brand.
Spread the word. Your branding is established and your real estate website is live! It’s time to build relationships with your local community. Add your branding to social media pages, email signatures, drip campaigns and other marketing materials. Check out our article How to Master Real Estate Farming: A Geo Farming Guide for more ideas.
Take stock and reevaluate. Over time, your message may change and your brand will need to evolve with it. Remember when Amazon only sold books? Your brand will grow and change with your company. If, after some time, you aren’t seeing the levels of success you’re aiming for, consider changing your branding. Your branding may need refining, but consistency is key, so avoid updating your branding for frivolous reasons.
Real Estate Branding Tips
The best tip we can offer? Be consistent! We cannot understate how important this tip is. Consider it the pinnacle rule of branding: your branding needs to be consistent with your online presence, print advertising, business system and social media. Now let’s dive into some more hot real estate branding tips.
Be consistent by using the same logo across all print and digital platforms.
Consistency is king. If you read the introduction to this section, you shouldn’t be surprised to see this is our first tip. Don’t mistake repetition for consistency, plan to change up your marketing materials regularly to avoid stale ads and tactics. Be consistent by using the same logo across all print and digital platforms – a professional logo designer will provide you with multiple logo files, allowing you to remain consistent regardless of where your logo ends up. Use the same branding colors and slogan, too. Keep your mission statement in mind, you don’t want to splurge on door-hangers targeting luxury home sellers while your website is geared toward retirement community homes. Be consistent in your branding and your goals.
Aim for integrity. Modern consumers want to know who you are more than what you sell. What do you stand for? Why are you an agent or broker? Align your brand with the core values you believe in and you’ll attract buyers and sellers who are in tune with your business and this can translate to easier sales. You don’t need to be the loudest agent to attract the attention of your market.
Be the local expert. It takes time to find success, you may need to try multiple avenues before you strike gold. If selling to first-time homebuyers isn’t working, look at your marketing and your campaigns. Identify where your shortcomings are and devise a plan, whether that be finding a new niche or changing your marketing material. Talk to the community, strive to understand what the buyers or sellers in your niche are looking for in an agent. If at first you don’t succeed, try again! Finding your niche may not happen immediately and that’s okay, as long as you don’t give up.
Share your journey. Buzzwords can be a huge turnoff to a lot of people. You can use them to attract attention, but don’t rely on them beyond that. Try connecting with your target audience on an emotional level, psychological research has shown that many consumers make purchases based on feelings rather than objective analysis. How did you become an agent? If you don’t want to share personal details, consider the stories of your past clients – did you help a family find their first home? Do the homes you sell have a story? How about your business? Even something as simple as featuring your dog as an important part of your life, like making a video about bringing your dog to work as an agent, or your dog living the good life on the beach while you sell waterfront properties, can serve as an emotional hook. It’s all about letting your leads connect with you as a person and seeing beyond the transaction.
Solve problems. For some real estate is often the biggest, scariest and most confusing transaction a person will make in their lifetime. You ease that fear by negotiating hard deals, being knowledgeable about local laws and permits that may impact the deal, foreseeing potential problems, providing trusted referrals, and so much more. Show your audience you can make the home buying/selling process less stressful.
Develop a powerful online presence. It’s 2021 and print marketing just doesn’t cut it. More buyers are shopping for homes on their mobile phones than reading the newspaper. You absolutely must have a branded website that’s easy to use and gives the right impression – this website will be your online headquarters, it’s where you’ll send leads that find you through Google, ads, social media posts, and more. Hire a seasoned, professional real estate website design company like IDXCentral and who know how to build the best real estate website, not the cheapest. Do some research and find out which online platforms your audience is using the most (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) and then share blog posts, events, open houses, and more to those social media pages. Include a link to your website URL on all digital and print media, always direct the audience back to your online presence.
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Be indispensable. It takes multiple interactions with a potential new lead to turn them into an opportunity. Providing a valuable service is a great way to show your merit as an agent, instill your core values, and give leads a reason to keep coming back. Offer services that align with your business and your brand – if you cater to first-time homebuyers, focus on education resources. If you specialize in vacation properties, put together information about local events, weather, and all the reasons your area is a vacation destination. If you specialize in housing near a university, promote properties within walking distance of the college or target people looking for investment properties. You know your market better than anyone else, so ask yourself, what would be valuable to my target audience?
Real Estate Branding : Rebranding Examples
Some of the most known real estate companies have undergone logo and branding transformations to be more current with the times. Here are some successful real estate branding examples before and after.
Keller Williams
Century 21
Luxury Portfolio International
Real estate branding is a topic agents and brokers will revisit throughout their careers. The best advice we can offer is to be consistent and get it right the first time! Once you’ve established and refined your branding, it can grow with your business. You may need to update it occasionally (most websites need a facelift after three or more years) but strong branding will stand the test of time. Take for example, Keller Williams and Century 21 recently updated their branding with a more modern look to stay current and progressive. Popular companies like Goodyear, Campbell’s Soup and Coca-Cola have stayed consistent with their branding (occasionally updating their colors or logo, but only slightly) over the decades and are now recognizable pop culture icons. While you’re probably not trying to build a business for your great-great-great grandkids to inherit, it’s essential you consider some of the same branding techniques that have created household names. Just like the pros, strong real estate branding, real estate farming, and a top-notch real estate website can help you position your business as a local household name.
Creating a powerful online presence starts here!
Marry your branding with a professional, feature rich website that gets results. IDXCentral has been developing and designing real estate websites for 27 years and counting! We support our clients and help their websites grow with their business, including updates to real estate branding whenever necessary. If you’re looking for a talented, dedicated, and passionate team in the USA to assist with your real estate website project, reach out and say hello!
You can call us at (888) 577-8027 ext. 1 for sales, or send us an email to get started with a free consultation.
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