As a real estate professional, you rely on positive feedback, social/online referrals and satisfied clients to generate new business. Yet, as valuable as those items are, it’s still important to keep up your personal branding to attract new clients, grow your business and build your bottom line. To attract and retain the business you need, personal branding techniques are a must. Just as a company would market itself to a target audience, you’ll need to establish yourself as a thought leader, industry expert and sought-after professional to encourage your local community to trust you with their business, their futures and their dollars.
Here are a few ways you can market yourself as a real estate professional to stand out from the crowd and expand your influence.
1. Set yourself apart and highlight your differentiators.
You might feel behind the eight-ball because your town is already full of real estate professionals chomping at the bit to get that next prized property, motivated seller or buyer with deep pockets. Yet, just because you’re joining a hot industry doesn’t mean you have to automatically blend in with the crowd.
Instead, find one or two elements of your technique that set you apart and focus on those when developing your personal branding strategy. For instance, do you specialize in rural real estate with an average lot size of more than 15 acres? Or, are you an expert at helping young couples move into affordable starter homes that only require a touch of DIY repairs? Selling to the masses can be overwhelming, but selling to a niche audience is much more doable.
2. Get tech-savvy.
From virtual reality headsets that let prospective homebuyers “tour” a property a thousand miles away to SMS messaging updates for clients, there are myriad technologies that fit in ideally with a realtor’s business model. Knowing how to use and explain these tools to your clients can set you apart, make you appear more relevant and modern, and offer them an experience unlike one they can get anywhere else.
The largest group of homebuyers today are the “Generation Y” millennials. This is a demographic that’s more tech-savvy than any before it and they’re looking to work and partner with professionals who are up-to-speed on modern technology. To this end, ramp up your online presence, become active on social media, and allow your customers to contact you across myriad channels. If you’re still relying on snail mail postcards to market your business for you, you could get lost amid the forward-facing competition.
3. Keep it consistent.
Your branding should look, feel and sound the same across all of your platforms. For instance, if you’re marketing yourself as a polished, successful professional with a bevy of satisfied clients, but you’re driving your prospective buyers around in a beat-up jalopy in need of auto body painting services and a cracked windshield, odds are you’re sending mixed signals. The same goes for your online versus brick-and-mortar presence. If your physical location is glamorous, well-designed and neat as a pin, but your website is clunky, outdated, and difficult to navigate, someone who just left your office and is hoping online to learn more about you might be a little shocked at the difference.
It’s worth taking the extra time to make sure that you’re displaying the same, consistent branding across all of your customer touch points. Then, you’ll be better equipped to make the most of every interaction.
Real estate professionals, like any other industry experts, should routinely take an audit of where their marketing dollars are going, what the return on the investment looks like, and how they can improve. By putting time, attention, money and resources into your personal branding strategy, you’re gearing up for a more profitable and successful selling experience down the road.
