You created a real estate team because you wanted to offer customers a unique service, and you do. You probably also sought to take others under your wing, and help them to excel like you have.
Most importantly, you wanted your clients to understand that you have a solid group of agents who share your dedication to providing superior service.
Unfortunately, you can’t just cross your fingers and hope people know all of this. You have to carefully craft a brand identity that supports the image you want clients to have of your team.
Creating a brand identity
A brand identity is what makes a business special and unique, and thereby separates it from the competition. Without a well-developed identity, your target audience is unlikely to understand what your real estate team has to offer.
Therefore, you need to dedicate time and money to creating brand elements that will encourage the perception you want prospective clients to have.
Now, before you argue that you’re just starting out and don’t have the time or funds, allow me to remind you of the importance of a good first impression.
Every real estate agent knows that the initial impression is the only one that counts, and that doesn’t only apply to the homes you list. According to ActionCard, it only takes a prospective client 10 seconds to form an opinion about a team based on its brand, and if it’s a bad one, you’re not going to receive their business.
So where should you start? Research, of course.
Who are you as a team?
- Why did you create your team? What is your deeper purpose (aside from making money)?
- What beliefs drive your team? What are your team’s core values?
- If your brand were a person, who would it be like? Is your brand serious, funny, lighthearted, friendly, etc.?
- What makes your brand unique? What does your team do that other teams don’t?
- How do you communicate with your clients? Do you use emojis in your text messages, or are you extremely professional?
- What is important to you as a company?
- What makes your team special? What are three words that customers would use to describe your team?
Once you have these questions answered, you will be able to create a brand strategy document that contains the following: brand position, brand voice, brand message, brand purpose and brand promise.
With these key components, you will be able to move on to the next phase.
Now, your assets
Once you have a strategy in place for your team, you can begin to create the foundation for your brand. After spending so much time analyzing what your company values, it’s the perfect time to create one of your most crucial assets: your tagline.
A tagline serves to make your brand stronger. Think of it this way: Even when a company has rebranded, its tagline usually remains the same. A tagline isn’t meant to tell your entire teams’ story. Instead, it should be short and to the point, while still being emotional, focused, authentic and memorable.
A good place to start is narrowing down your brand promise to just three or four words. Never let your tagline exceed five words.
Next, you may want to move on to the visual components of your team’s brand identity. During this phase, you will need to develop a logo suite, color palette, typography and patterns.
Once all of the above are complete, you should create brand guidelines to ensure that there is no variation of your brand throughout marketing materials. According to crowdspring, 90 percent of clients expect a brand to be consistent throughout all marketing, and the majority will even recognize it if you change colors on them.
Therefore, every use of your brand should support the strategy, or else you risk weakening the core brand proposition.
Finally, it’s time to leave your mark. Once you have your brand, you will need to create all the additional elements needed to advertise your team and gain recognition in your local area.
As a new team, you’ll want to have the following designed: direct mailers, a website, social media profile images and templates, business cards, folders, home brochures, listing presentations, informational brochures and emails.
If you have a larger budget to play with, think about investing in a brand campaign and listing ads. The combination of all these will help your fledgling team grow quickly.
The future
Where do you go from here? The sky is the limit. You have all your core brand elements. All that is left is to develop a lead-generation campaign or commence running the campaign so that you can generate more business.
In other words, it’s time to create a marketing strategy that will serve as a game plan for ensuring your team’s success.
For those just starting, I wish you much success and leave you with this: Don’t shirk the time and money needed to do this right to begin with. If you put your best foot forward, you will save countless amounts of money and time in the long run.
It’s so much easier to get it right from the beginning than it is to have to overcome the preconceived notions left from a bad branding attempt and have to go back to the drawing board to start over again.
Laura Ure is the CEO of Keenability, a full-service marketing agency specializing in lifestyle and creative real estate marketing. Follow her on Facebook or Twitter.
