Real Estate Branding – How To Get It Right

Real estate agents have to communicate an air of authority and trustworthiness at all times. After all, they often have peoples’ happiness in their hands. Appealing to both buyers and sellers involves building trust. And that’s best achieved through strong, relevant branding.

We’ve put together a few tips on how to get real estate branding right the first time. If you’re doing it yourself — without the help of marketing specialists — you’re going to need all the help you can get.

Research Your Local Market

Who’s buying homes in your area of influence? And who’s selling? In order to build your realtor brand, you’ll need to know everything about your potential customers. It’s vital that you take the time to research the local market. Only by understanding your competitors can you create a visionary brand that will resonate.

Check local government databases, census websites, and other online resources for information about the people that live in the area. How much do they earn? Are they married? What’s the most common type of property in the area? What’s the cultural history of the area? Get as much information as you can, but keep things general. You’re not dealing with specifics or details.

Create Your Average Buyer and Seller Personas

Once you know about the type of people who will be buying realtor services from you, it’s time to construct average personas. This involves creating one fictional character for the buyer, and another for the seller. To help you with this process, give each persona a name.

Using the information you gathered through your local market research, look for common denominators. If most people buying and selling homes in the area are middle-aged, make your personas middle-aged. If most buyers have an above-average income, make sure your buying persona has, too.

You should end up with two fictional characters, each with their own backstory. You’ll have given each one an income, a marital status, a home, and an age. In fact, you can add as many details as you like. The main objective is to create someone to whom you can direct all of your marketing and branding messages.

Create and Cultivate Your USPs

Now that you know your average customer, you can begin to create a real estate proposition that would appeal to them. If, for example, your target seller used social media regularly, you could make social media marketing one of your core services. If your target buyer lives in a large property with a pool and land, you could specialize in this type of property.

Your unique selling points (USPs), are the services and traits that set you apart from the competition. What do you do or offer that your competitors don’t? List all your strengths, and look for those that are relevant to the personas you created.

Once you have a clear proposition that is unique and targeted, you can start crafting the visual elements of your branding.

Get to Know the Competition

They say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. And while there’s a degree of truth in that, you shouldn’t simply copy what your competitors are doing. Instead, use their branding and marketing as an inspiration for your own.

Who are these real estate businesses targeting? What does their logo, brand name, and color scheme tell you about their approach to buying and selling properties? Do they leverage social media followings? Or are they more interested in reaching out via more traditional media channels?

Of course, researching the competition isn’t just about looking for inspiration. Only by knowing what other real estate firms in your area are doing can you ensure your brand message is unique. Ideally, the colors, logos, fonts, and general messages you adopt should be completely original and unique.

Create a Visually Striking Brand Identity

A great company name is an integral part of any great real estate brand. It has to tell customers exactly what you’re about — in three words or fewer. Let’s assume that one or two of these words include “real,” “estate,” or realtor.

The brand identifier is the accompanying word you choose. This could be your name, a word with meaning in the local area, or something completely unrelated. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box when coming up with a great name. After all, who’d have thought Zoopla would eventually become one of the biggest real estate websites in the world?

To go with your brand name, come up with a slogan that encapsulates your greatest USP. For example, if you specialize in personal, one-to-one services, say so. Ideally, a slogan shouldn’t contain more than 10 words. The more concise, the better.

Create a Logo That Tells a Story

The most important aspect of any real estate brand logo is uniqueness. It has to speak directly to those personas you created at the start of this process. It has to tell them something about how you operate. But it also has to set you apart from the competition.

You have the option of using graphics to give your logo a very definite real estate aesthetic. Or you can simply focus on style, trust, and visual appeal. As long as the personas you created are likely to respond favorably to what you create, your logo should help to build your brand.

Apply Your Branding to All of Your Marketing Communications

Once you have a name, a logo, a color scheme, and a voice, it’s time to create eye-catching marketing materials with them. Property brochures, your real estate website, your real estate business cards, letters, yard signs, and everything else you use should carry your branding in its exact form.

Use a design platform such as Xara Cloud to create your printed materials. Simply add your logo, and create business cards, property brochures, and everything in between using a selection of templates. You don’t need any technical skills to create your brand vision with Xara Cloud — just your imagination.