BRER Real Estate Marketing Blog

Are You Lost in the Crowd?

Have you taken a look at your About page on your website lately?  What about your introduction on your marketing material?  When you read about yourself as you are presented to the world, does it sound familiar?  Does it sound like every other agent’s description of themselves, with only the names changed to protect the innocent?

Anytime you write about yourself, you should really be writing about your business.  Many “About” pages are written like a biography, something like this:

• “Joan has been with ABC Realty for four years, and was a member of the Millionaire Club in 2003.  She has been a licensed realtor for ten years.  Joan is a member of the Podunk Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.  With her husband Harold, she has lived in XTown for 15 years and has a son and daughter.  Joan loves people and does her best to help her clients achieve their dreams.”

OK, So What’s Wrong with That? 

Well, for one thing, you’d think a REALTOR® would know how to display that designation.  For another thing, most people think if you are a member of the Millionaire Club that you make a million dollars a year.  That can be pretty intimidating; besides that, it’s an industry award and doesn’t necessarily mean anything to someone who isn’t a real estate professional.  Finally, citing an award you received 5 years ago and never again since doesn’t really help your cause.

The biggest problem is that there is not one benefit identified.  A prospect reading that description might think Joan sounds like a nice person, but they have been provided no compelling reason to work with her.

Get Benefit-Oriented!

Long ago I took a sales course that emphasized three ways people describe things.  I’m not sure if they’re still teaching this approach, but it’s always worked for me.  The idea is that you describe a product (or a real estate consulting practice) in three steps:  Feature, Function, Benefit.

Basically, you work through those three steps until you reach the benefit, and that’s how you sell something.  Here’s an example - let’s say we were selling a 6-slice toaster:

• Feature:  Six toasting areas.
• Function:  Lets you toast a lot of bread at one time.
• Benefit:  No one has to wait for a piece of toast while their eggs are getting cold.

The closest thing to a marketing message in the agent’s bio above is this: Joan loves people and does her best to help her clients achieve their dreams. 

So what do you think?  Is that a feature or function?  It sure isn’t a benefit!

Get a Brand

The purpose of developing a brand for your real estate consulting business is so that you can identify your niche, and come up with a list of benefit statements that you can use on your website and in your marketing material.

If you don’t have a brand, at least take a hard look at your marketing message and make sure it’s full of benefits!

According to Rismedia, and as reported in REALTOR® Magazine Online, buyers and sellers are demanding more service from the real estate professionals they choose to work with.

As your clients get busier, they want assistance in each stage of the real estate transaction, including finding the right mortgage, title insurance, appraisers, and so forth.  You, like many real estate professionals, may be providing this type of support already.  The question is:  Are you making the most of that fact in your marketing?

If you’ve established a brand, is your one-stop shop approach part of your real estate brand definition?  If not, this would be a great time to update your value proposition!

Related Reading:

Real Estate Brands

If I develop a brand and logo for my real estate consulting business, how will that brand coexist with my broker’s brand?

That’s a question I hear quite often.  The answer is that broker and agent brands work very effectively together.

First, you need to keep reminding yourself that you are an independent business owner.  You are not an employee of your broker’s firm.  If that seems difficult to establish as a mind-set, remind yourself about the last time you received a paycheck or W-2 from your broker.

And, marketing-savvy brokers appreciate the fact that any marketing strategies you use to increase your revenue are also in their best interest.  Of course, not all brokers are marketing-savvy.

Here are several ways to think about how your brand and your broker’s work together:

• Your broker is Chevrolet - you are the Corvette
• Your broker is Johnson & Johnson - you are Tylenol
• Your broker is Canon - you are the Multi-Pass Printer
• And, well, you get the idea

You wouldn’t walk into a Chevrolet dealership and say, “I’m interested in the little sports car”, and you don’t want people calling your broker saying, “I want to talk to the tall guy”.

Broker brands/logos and agent brands/logos are good for everyone.

Do you need a catchy name to represent your brand?  Should you use your name?  Should you use something that sounds like a real estate company?  These are all common questions about creating a real estate brand.  The answer?  It depends.

The most important thing to keep in mind is where you need to start when you’re developing a brand.  You need to start by defining your competitive advantages, market position, and USP (Unique Selling Proposition).  The most critical thing that should result from establishing your brand name is a concise definition of what that brand stands for.  Then, you can worry about what the brand name should be.

If you pass by a KMart, I’ll wager you get an immediate image in your mind of the type of products and service you’d receive if you stopped to shop.  If you pass by a Neiman Marcus store, or a Saks Fifth Avenue, I’ll wager the same thing would happen.  You’d already know those aren’t the places to go if you want a cheap set of kitchen towels.

And, it really wouldn’t matter if KMart was called RMart or Joe’s.  You’d know what to expect because you’ve been trained to recognize that brand and what it stands for.

The same thing holds true for your real estate brand.  You have to train your marketplace on what to expect from you as a real estate consultant.  And, that’s a bit difficult to do unless you have a clear definition of it yourself!

Try this exercise:  Get a piece of paper and a pen.  Write down one or two sentences that answer this question:  why should someone work with you as opposed to any other agent?

Now, look at those sentences and, being honest with yourself, decide if you think you’ve presented a compelling case.  If you haven’t, how do you expect to convince other people?  I’ve always found this one simple principle to have truly wide-ranging impact:

• You can’t sell something if you can’t describe it.

That’s not as silly as it sounds.  I’ve worked with lots of clients - in large companies and small - that can’t concisely describe what they’re selling.  When you’re very close to the product or service, you can get very caught up in all the features, functions and benefits of the product, and never really learn how to describe it in very simple terms.

So, my advice?  Before you worry about naming your business, figure out how to describe it first!

Your marketing needs to focus on your prospect, their concerns, and how you will help them address those concerns.  This focus needs to carry through how you talk to prospects, your marketing materials, and especially your real estate website.  But, in the real estate industry, it’s easy to fall into a couple of marketing traps.

The first trap is promoting yourself based on the benchmarks set by the industry.  For example:  Member of the Millionnaire Club for 12 straight years, or Top Producer in the XYZ office for 3 years.

While those types of achievements are something to be proud of, your prospects or Internet visitors will not view them as a clear benefit.  For one thing, many people assume that if you’re a member of a broker’s Millionaire Club, you’re receiving a million dollars a year in commission.  That can make you very intimidating!

Make sure that your marketing message focuses on the benefits that you offer to your clients.  For example, the message you want your Internet visitors to take away from your website is something like “Wow, that agent really understands me and my concerns, and I think h/she’d be great to work with”.

The second trap is creating a brand that puts too much emphasis on the “personal” in personal branding.  Keep in mind that you are running a business - a real estate consulting practice.  And a brand is important - every company has one.

But, if you’re focused on “personal branding”, it’s easy to end up with a marketing message that focuses on who you are rather than what you can do for your clients.  Certainly in real estate, like in any consulting business, clients will work with professionals they like and trust. 

So, depending on your market, it may be OK if your logo plays off your love of fishing or unique hats.  But, the underlying definition of your brand had better focus on your prospects. 

No one ever bought a house from a fish.

There are various schools of thought on the topic of how personal your brand should be.  Some experts in the field think strictly personal branding is passe.  Others think home buyers and sellers select their agents mostly because of the agent’s personality.

My view is that you should create a brand that can outlast you in the marketplace.  If you structure your brand all around yourself, you’re locking yourself into being around to represent the brand forever. 

Most agents I know plan to retire at some point.  And, many of them want the option of gaining something back from the real estate business they’ve built with a lot of hard work over a number of years.  It’s a bit difficult to turn a personally-branded real estate practice over to someone else when you’re ready to hit the links full-time.

The other factor to consider is that prospects are looking for WIIFM - the old “what’s in it for me”.  Just because you’re a swell person, that doesn’t mean that you’re a good REALTOR®.

So, my advice is to structure your brand to highlight the competitive advantages that you bring to the marketplace.  And, to make a very direct connection between the services you offer and the benefit those services bring to your prospects.

If you can combine part of your personality with your brand, that’s a good idea, as long as you aren’t the focal point.  Here’s an example.  One of my clients has identified a niche in the EMS/Firefighter/Law Enforcement/Health Care Provider population.  He himself is a Paramedic/Firefighter.

The brand we developed for him is: First Response Real Estate Services.  Take a look at the description of his First Response Real Estate Services brand, and you’ll discover how the connection is made between who he is and how that benefits his target market prospects.

If you’re a full-service real estate agent or broker, how can you respond to the companies offering a low-cost MLS listing service?

The low-cost providers are promoting the concept that selling a home is easy.  Put a sign in the yard, put a listing on the local MLS, and wait for the offers to come streaming in.  And, it can be tough selling against that concept - everyone would like to think it is really that simple.

So, should your listing presentation try to burst the bubble?  I don’t think so.  It’s fine to say “My experience has been that it just isn’t that simple”.  But, that’s just an opinion.

Your presentation needs to define how your approach is different - and better!  That’s where having a clear definition of your brand can make a big difference.  When you can clearly describe the reasons why someone should work with you as opposed to any other agent, you’ve got the MLS listing service beaten by a mile.

Avoid common real estate brand pitfalls.  And, let us know if we can help!

Sometimes when I mention creating a real estate brand to some agents, their first reaction is: “I don’t want to plaster my face all over town.”

And, I agree.  If you are a real estate agent, you are running a business.  It’s a real estate consulting practice.  So, your brand needs to represent your competitive advantage.  Which for most people, is not their face.

Your brand could be your name or a description of your company, such as ABC Realty Group.  The really important part of creating a brand is defining what it stands for.