With an estimated two million licensed real estate agents in the US, it’s never been more important to stand out in a memorable way. When you meet someone in person, that’s easy — you’ll win them over with your personality and keep in touch consistently. But how about the “unmets” – the potential clients you haven’t met yet? How will they find you and be drawn to you?
This is where branding comes in. We’ll dive into what a real estate brand is, what makes a great brand and why it’s important for your real estate business, plus tips for creating and showcasing your own custom real estate brand.
What is real estate branding?
Real estate branding is a message to the world, letting potential clients know who you are, who you serve and how you operate in your business. Believe it or not, this can all be conveyed using branding. Your real estate brand consists of not only fonts, colors and logos, it also encompasses everything you put out to the world publicly.
Think about your favorite brands: Nike, Nordstrom, the Ritz Carlton. Consumers don’t need to have coffee with these companies’ CEOs to understand what the company does and who it serves. This is due to their strong branding. (Picturing the Nike swoop in your head, right?)
A great branding strategy (and execution) creates an instant connection between a company and its target client. It makes the audience feel something powerful that draws them in.
Why is branding important for your business?
- Attract target audience
- Differentiate your business from competitors
- Create recognition and loyalty to your company
- Build trustworthiness
- Sell your expertise and services
A strong real estate brand allows you to connect with your target audience before you even meet them. It serves as leverage. It sells your potential clients on you, so you don’t have to do as much selling yourself.
Think about it: Pretend you’re a first-time buyer taking the leap from renting to home ownership. You search online for a local real estate agent and click on two websites. The first is pretty generic, with stock images, not much detail and looks very basic, but it has several solid testimonials from happy clients. The next website draws you in. The colors, fonts and images used on the page are inviting and fun. They give you a sense of ease, even though you’re likely not consciously aware of it. There are also several testimonials for this agent.
Who would you be more likely to reach out to? Most likely, you’d choose to call the second agent because the website is enticing, makes you feel comfortable, shows expertise in real estate and you’ve even seen the same branding on a for sale sign down the street. That’s the power of a strong real estate brand.
Elements of a great brand
What elements create a great brand? When determining the elements of your brand, consider how you will be perceived, the visibility for clients, telling your brand story, connecting with your ideal client and reflecting the core values of your business. Here are the key elements to focus on as you create your own brand:
- Fonts: If your brand is more modern, use a sans serif font like Arial for a clean, crisp look. If it’s more traditional, consider a classic like Times New Roman.
- Colors: Bright, bold colors are great for fun, energetic brands while neutrals and more subdued colors are typically used in luxury brands.
- Images: Lots of possibilities here! While some agents do use stock images, I’d recommend using your own images. These can be headshots, lifestyle photos you take specifically for branding purposes, listing photos of homes you’ve sold or simply photos you take and use on social media of your everyday life. Use images to tell your brand’s story; this is a great way to build a sense of connection with your potential clients.
- Logo: Incorporate your brand colors, fonts and a graphic that ties to your unique location or specific niche. Many agents use the outline of a house in their logos, for instance.
- Language: Use words and intonation that you normally use in conversation on your website and social media to showcase your personality and reflect the location you specialize in. Local jargon and abbreviations will let your clients know you are an expert in the area. For example, in New York, calling the Long Island Expressway the LIE or in New Jersey saying “driving down the shore” instead of “driving to the beach.”
Those are the key elements, and here are the places they will show up, where you can display your brand to the world:
- Your website
- Your social media platforms
- Your business cards, either old-school printed cards or a virtual card
- Your marketing materials, such as your buyer consult guide and listing presentation
- Postcards
- Swag: pens, mugs, notepads
- Laptop cover
- Yard signs
- Car decals (only if you’re a polite driver!)
- Newsletters and email communication
Tips to create and showcase your real estate brand
Now that you know why a strong brand is important and the elements you need to create your brand, consider these six tips for creating and showcasing your real estate brand to the world.
Tip 1 – Identify your target audience
Before you get to work on creating your real estate agent branding strategy, think carefully about who your target audience is. This will influence every aspect of your brand, so it’s important to choose this first.
Who’s your ideal client? Is it downsizing seniors, luxury condo buyers, investors, move-up buyers, divorcing couples or first-time buyers? Decide who you’d like to work with, and don’t be afraid to be specific. Then, build your brand elements based on what fonts, colors, logos and other branding materials will appeal to that audience.
Tip 2 – Do your research
Spend time researching other brands, both within and outside the real estate industry. As you’re researching, pay attention to your gut instinct and how you feel about each company based on their branding. For example, if you want your brand to convey honesty, when you come across a brand you deem as honest, figure out what they do in their elements to give you that feeling and apply it to your branding.
Try to find companies you haven’t heard of before so your reactions aren’t clouded by any past experience or prior knowledge, and you can focus solely on the branding they’re using.
Tip 3 – Create your branding kit
Your branding kit is the compilation of the elements we listed in the previous section (fonts, colors, etc). It’s helpful to keep this all in one place, such as a Google Doc or on Canva, for easy reference when you’re designing your next business card, postcard or flyer.
Pro Tip
Keep the HTML color codes handy; this will ensure your colors are consistent every time.
Tip 4 – Be consistent across all platforms
Consistently using the same branding kit not only makes your life easier (no reinventing the wheel) but also builds trust with clients. They know what to expect. It’s like going to Starbucks and knowing the coffee will taste the same in every location.
Services like Coffee and Contracts will help you remain consistent in your real estate brand marketing, as well. This one-stop shop for all things branding offers social media templates, email templates, mailer and flyer templates, plus marketing guides that can all be customized to your brand to ensure everything stays consistent!
Tip 5 – Build an on-brand website
While most brokerages provide generic websites for their agents, I always advise either completely customizing yours or creating your own. You don’t have to start from scratch and learn code, though.
AgentFire and Placester are helpful tools to get your branded website up and running quickly and easily. Your website is likely one of the first things a new prospective client will see when they look you up online, so it’s important to make a memorable first impression. Your real estate agent branding strategy will accomplish this.
Tip 6 – Hire a branding expert
If you have the budget for it, consider hiring a professional branding expert to help you design your branding strategy. They will work with you to translate your vision into a comprehensive branding kit, one that you can use for years. I’ve been using my brand kit for the past six years; it was even the basis of my book cover!
Real estate brand examples
Check out some of our favorite real estate brand examples. These agents have built strong brands that are memorable and unique to their personality and real estate style.
Example 1: Tara Carter
Why we love it: Tara’s brand is all about fun and joy. She uses bright pink as her main brand color, flamingos as her brand icon and play on words like “flock” and “flamingle” in her messaging. This really highlights Tara’s focus on Florida as her niche location in a familiar and recognizable way.
Example 2: Michael Heissenbuttel – “Your Grandma’s REALTOR”
Why we love it: Michael’s branding explicitly tells the world exactly who his ideal client is: grandmas! He uses clean, straightforward text and a memorable graphic to accomplish this.
Example 3: Ken Pozek
Why we love it: Ken’s branding is all about being the local resource for current and future residents. He uses bold colors and fonts, while keeping the brand’s main focus on the community of Orlando.
Example 4: Saydam Properties Group
Why we love it: Sheena and Han have built an elevated, luxury brand that’s also dedicated to giving back. Their team’s website exudes luxury through the images, colors and fonts used. Having “Charity” as a drop-down on the site’s homepage lets prospective clients know that giving back is one of the team’s core values and an important component of their brand.
Example 5: Caroline Huo
Why we love it: Caroline uses the word “luxury” right on her website’s home page and defines it below. Her use of a single statement image of a high-end living room on the homepage and her word choice, inviting potential clients to begin their experience, are important aspects of her luxury branding.
The full picture
Your real estate brand is an extremely important element of your real estate business. And I mean your own brand, not your brokerage’s brand. Take these real estate branding ideas you’ve learned and put them into practice.
If I were coaching you and you haven’t yet created your own real estate brand, I’d say your homework is to determine your target audience and research other companies’ brands within the next 24 hours of reading this. Set deadlines for yourself to complete the next tips as well. Before you know it, you’ll have your branding strategy in place, and you’ll start to see more clients coming your way!
