A Brand is a Great Tool for Realtors

We have done a lot of branding and logo development for the real estate industry. We’ve helped real estate agents and brokers, mortgage brokers and home inspectors. Including our award-winning brand for Blackmore Real Estate. 

Real estate is a volatile industry. It can change from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market really fast! Some houses sit on the market forever and no one knows why, or if you’re on the Canadian west coast, people are snapping up houses without even looking at them.

Here’s what we’ve learned after all of these years of helping the real estate industry.

 

Invest in your branding as soon as you can afford it

Real estate is the perfect example of the 80/20 rule–80% of the business is done by 20% of the realtors. To ensure you’re in that 20% it’s important to stand out from your competitors and to be visible! Starting up is hard, and you’re entirely on commission, so a nice logo and business card might not seem like a priority.

However, the sooner you can get it done properly, the faster you will build your business with better clients. Interview some brand strategists, find your favourite, get their pricing and earmark some savings to use them as soon as you can!

 

Don’t make your logo a house

For the love of all that is good in this world do not make your logo a house. Some may say “but then people won’t know what I do!” but we’ve figured out Starbucks sells coffee even with a mermaid logo, and that Apple doesn’t, in fact, sell produce. 

Getting a clichéd logo does only one thing — it makes you blend in. There are some industries that are notorious for this and real estate is one of them, and unfortunately, contractors and renovators also use houses as their logo cliche as well. Way to get confusing!

Stand out, be unique — it will allow you to be memorable!

 

It’s not about you (sorry, not sorry) 

Another realtor cliché we see is that the brand focus is about them, not the buyers or sellers. A strong brand should be about the person you help. It’s a big moment in the home buyer or seller’s life, it shouldn’t be about you. They are going through some sort of transition and it’s probably quite emotional. To have the salesperson make it about them isn’t great customer service. 

If you’re focused only on yourself, you won’t necessarily be attracting the clients you like to help. The clients you might like to serve may be vastly different from who you are and your stage of life. 

Maybe you like to help first-time homebuyers. You’ve been a real estate agent for 10 years and have bought and sold 3 of you own personal properties. While you have experience, first-time homebuyers need to know you can relate to them on an emotional level, and work through the ups and downs with them, not just that you know how to sell.

 

Get creative

Because a real estate transaction is generally a longer process, and a very personal one, you get to know your clients really well. That lends itself to some amazing marketing opportunities that aren’t always available in other industries. Getting to where your client is at can be a fun and experimental process.

The team at Blackmore set up a booth at a local farmers market — it fit perfectly with who they were trying to connect with. They would babysit your dog (which wasn’t allowed in the market) and would make sure they had plenty of treats. This attracts a very specific group of people. 

Some realtors put together custom gift baskets after the sale, but what can you do a year after the sale to keep that great connection?

If you’re in the very competitive real estate industry, it’s important that your brand development is at the forefront of your mind. With potentially thousands of other realtors as your competitors, finding your target market and catering to their needs is an incredibly valuable step to take.