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.