So, you’ve earned your license and you’re ready to hit the pavement. Fantastic! While you’ve overcome the first major hurdle, this is just the starting point. You have a few more steps ahead of you before you can hit the pavement and knock on doors. If all you have is a logo that you ordered off Fiverr or that your nice’s boyfriend whipped up for you as a favour, then you haven’t yet put in the work to figure out what type of Realtor you’re going to be, nor will your ideal home buyers or sellers have any idea why they should choose to work with you instead of your competition. 

With thousands of Real Estate professionals getting their licenses each year, it’s so important to find a way to stand out from the pack. It’s easy enough to just check off the easy steps and start knocking off doors. Things like getting a logo made and applying it to brochures and letterheads is fairly simple to have made for you. But the process of having a only logo made doesn’t force you to analyze the key components of what is going to differentiate you from your competition. And every part of your business needs to shout these qualities from the rooftops. A stand-alone logo just isn’t prepared to handle that kind of work load. 

One of the most significant investments you can make in the early days of starting your Real Estate business is in establishing your reputation through your personal brand. I’ve been building online brands for the last six years and have worked with many Realtors. When most clients first came to us, they mainly wanted a logo that they could simply overlay onto posts for their Facebook and Instagram posts and the promotional materials provided by their brokerage like open house signs. Instead, we coached them into understanding the power that a strong brand identity, the whole package, can have on building a successful Real Estate business. 

Here’s what I’ve learned in my experience building Real Estate Brands and why you need to focus on building your own personal brand, and not just your logo. 

1. Brands have a voice. 

In its most basic form, working in real estate means that you’re performing one of two tasks: you’re helping your client either buy or sell their property. One the one hand, this simplicity makes it really simple to focus in on your tasks, but on the other hand it can make it more difficult to communicate to your audience why you’re the right Realtor to work with. 

This is where a good branding strategy can really get to work on your behalf. A well-designed brand communicates to your potential clients what type of realtor you are and what you unique skills you bring to the table as a Realtor. A good brand will communicate the type of Real Estate you specialize in such as commercial, residential, pre-sales… not only that but it will also communicate the type of client you specialize in as well for example perhaps your niche is working with luxury buyers, downsizes, long-distance relocations, first-time homebuyers, female home buyers… 

Your brand can communicate what it is that you do better or differently than the competition in your area. If you just have a logo that you’re placing onto documents and marketing that were designed by someone else, you’re not doing yourself any favours as this is not a cohesive strategy to attract your ideal clients. And attracting the wrong type of clients just wastes both your time and theirs. 

Think of a brand like a puzzle and a logo is just one piece of it. There are many other components needed to make up a cohesive brand that communicates the right message and differentiates you from your competition, just like there are many pieces to a puzzle. 

2. Brands keep you focused.

In order to stand out from the competition, it is imperative that you stay focused on working with clients that are in your ideal niche. If your specialty is helping working women find their perfect condo, then you need to put all of your energy into attracting your perfect clients. You’ll become even more skilled at service this niche and over time, this consistency will establish you as an expert in your corner of the Real Estate industry. Your brand will help you keep this focus. 

Remember that you’re not only a Realtor. You are the owner of a growing business and one of your job titles is head marketer for the brand called “You”. Instead of simply adding your logo onto pre-made marketing materials, sending thoughtfully branded materials out into the world such as your print mailers, social media posts and yard signage, will help you build recognition, positive reviews and brand loyalty in your community. 

With a strong personal brand, the recognition that you’ll grow over time will be with your ideal clientele. This will help you keep your focus on to invest your time and resources into serving your specific niche with your fullest attention. 

3. Brands gain loyalty and word of mouth 

In the process of establishing your brand, your designers will most likely have you lay out what makes you unique as a Real Estate professional. How to you serve your clients differently than your competition? What do you offer that’s unique? What specific skills do you have that will benefit your clients? A good designer will be able to communicate these qualities through the brand assets and templates they’ll create for you. The level of service that you offer your clients will be talked about and over time, you’ll earn a reputation for the unique service that you offer your clients. Now it’s time to cash in on some of that brand loyalty. 

If you’ve crafted an authentic personal brand, and worked hard to live up to that brand, you will have earned recognition in your corner of the local market as a valued resource, and not just another face in a sea of service providers. Your insight and knowledge will be valued by clients and prospective clients. Your expertise will be sought after and appreciated. Clients who have benefited from your expertise will talk about it in their circles and seek you out when they’re ready to make their next move. They’ll be seeking out not just another Realtor, they’ll be seeking out the complete experience that your brand provides. A stand-alone logo just isn’t built to communicate all that it is that you offer to your clients. 

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Components that make up an effective branding strategy

One of the first things that most Realtors think about when first starting to market themselves is their logo design. And while an eye-catching logo is a key component in a brand identity, as I mentioned earlier, it is only one part of the puzzle. Here are a few of the other components you need to consider and should discuss with your designer/branding expert:

1. A tagline

A tagline doesn’t always need to include a pun or be witty. If there isn’t a clever play on your last name or a humorous tagline doesn’t come naturally to you, then your next best bet is to describe in as few words possible your unique value proposition. Something like “The Right Price, Right on Time” indicates that you’ll fight to get your clients the fairest price possible and in a timely manner. Before you get too attached to a particular tag line, make sure to do a quick Google search to make sure there ins’t another Realtor in your local market with the same tagline. 

2. Your color scheme

Think of color as having an impact on how you’re perceived as the same impact as does tone of voice in a conversation. The colors you choose for your personal brand should evoke a certain type of emotion within your potential client that matches your style as a Real Estate Professional. If you’re bold and outgoing and tend to work best with home buyers who are similar, then choose color associations that are highly saturated and consider using reds and blues. 

If your consider yourself to take a softer approach to working with potential buyers, or are perhaps an introvert, then you might want to consider choosing brand colors that are more muted and in the green and yellow range. If you tend to work primarily with female buyers and your personal style is on the feminine side, then go for it and rock pink as part of your personal brand. Whichever colors you choose, just make sure to be rigorous with your marketing materials and maintain brand consistency.

3. Your marketing materials

Once you’ve settled on a tagline, color scheme and logo with your designer, you’ll want to have them design your marketing materials. This includes every piece of content that a potential home buyer or seller might interact with in the buying process. Make sure to consider having your design create templates for direct mail campaigns, social media graphics, brochures, a business card, yard signs, open house signs and graphics to share to your social networks. A designer with a good track record of building brands with positive brand awareness will be able to incorporate all of the elements of your brand strategy into a cohesive collection of tools that you can use to attract your target audience.   

In review

An established Real Estate brand offers a framework for creating your entire marketing suite. From social media graphics to business cards, and all of your promotional materials. It’s like a megaphone that shouts from the rooftops in a pitch that only your target audience can hear. As you’re building both your online presence and marketing strategy, it’s important to invest in not just a Real Estate logo but instead invest in harnessing the power of good graphic design that communicates your unique value proposition.  

If it’s been a while since you’ve had your brand designed or are wanting to freshen up your marketing materials, you can customize our done-for-you templates. With just a few clicks, simply transform our templates for brochures, postcards and mailers into a marketing tool that matches your Real Estate brand. Add in your colors, your tagline, your fonts and photos. All of the text is completely customizable which lets you customize all of the content to be consistent with your unique value proposition. They’re an easy way to bring some brand consistency to your next Facebook post or direct mail campaign. 

Check out our editable templates pack built for productive Realtors.