Today’s market wants authentic marketing and branding. Gone are the days of people deciding on a real estate salesperson based on the ’90s power pose and big sales stats. People want nice people, active in their community, people they relate to – who just happen to be great at real estate.
How do you accomplish this?
1. Create your brand:
Authentic marketing is what people of varying age ranges are looking for today. To create your brand, make it something authentic to your lifestyle. Branding isn’t just a pretty graphic or colour scheme. It’s portraying who you are, what you’re about and why people should meet with you. A brand is a concept.
A few ideas for an authentic brand are:
- Mother – Are you a mom? Great! Many of the decision makers and early researchers in a family are the moms. Prospects know how moms make things work and how many hours they can find in their day. Moms trust other moms, because they “get it”. Work the mommy marketing. Another side tip for mommy marketing: there’s a term online for marketing within mom groups (especially on Facebook) – the “Mommy Mafia”. A mom-centric brand can go a long way if you’re participating actively in these groups.
- Family man – Are you a man working hard to create a great life for your family? This appeals to not just men doing the same thing, but mothers as well. Boom…brand.
- Volunteer/community member – People highly respect people in their community who are involved and trying to make a difference. It’s a higher connection if they are doing the same, but even those who wish they were (but are too busy or don’t know how to get involved) will also feel that connection. That emotional connection is gold…it’s a brand.
- Neighbour – Similar to a volunteer or community member, simply being a neighbour establishes a bond quickly. You don’t want to narrow it too much, but if you’re in west-end Calgary, be that. If you’re east-end Toronto, be that.
- Member of a specific community – It is no secret that people like to deal with people from a similar background or language. Are you from, or second-generation, a specific subset of a community? Boom…brand. Do you speak a second (or third, or fourth) language…boom. While many think this might alienate others, it can be better to appeal deeply to some than not appeal to everyone equally.
2. Establish that brand:
You’ve figured out what your brand is, fantastic. How do you then establish and market that brand?
To do this you need to design the brand and then implement it. This entails designing and adding the branding across:
- Your website
- Business cards
- Other print marketing materials
- Social media profiles
- Advertising
Once you have the design and have proliferated it across your website, print marketing and social elements, you need to then build that brand, especially on your social media marketing, advertising and website (because that will be the backbone of your online branding, since these days everyone Googles you before meeting you).
Establishing your brand means doing more than just creating some glossy on and offline marketing materials, it’s embodying it. You need to live it in your community, in your social media and other on-going marketing, in Facebook groups and other social media communities.
Robin Wilding is the creative mind behind The Lead Gen Factory and The Realtor Pipeline. The Lead Gen Factory is a boutique real estate online marketing company hyper-focused on lead generation; The Realtor Pipeline is a digital DIY platform showing Realtors how to generate online leads, lead conversion, Social Media Marketing, sales pipeline building, and more. She also leads The Realtor Pipeline Facebook group, a group for Realtors to learn new online techniques, technology and share best practices.
