How to Build a Remarkable Real Estate Brand

All successful companies have one thing in common – a unique and impactful brand. Effective branding distinguishes a company from its competitors. It is essential not only because it helps create a memorable impression, but also because it serves as the marketing persona of a business and allows clients to connect and identify with the company.

For real estate firms, powerful real estate branding is key to getting listings, referrals, and repeat business. In this article, we’ll show you several ways you can build a highly effective and impactful real estate brand that will take your business to the next level.

Well-executed branding starts with a strategy

When it comes to creating the perfect strategy for your real estate brand, simply having a set of taglines and real estate logo ideas to choose from just won’t cut it.

You need an in-depth understanding of what particular strategies work and don’t work, along with a detailed outline of all of the steps you need to take. The more meticulous you are in your real estate branding strategy, the easier it will be for you to execute your plans.

Here are three key points that every real estate brand needs to define:

• What’s your main objective?
• What’s your idea of long-term success?
• What type of clients are you targeting?

Knowing the answers to these three questions is a great start to creating your strategy. It will help you identify your primary goals, figure out the right approach towards reaching your prospective clients, and show you how to measure your own success in meeting your goals.

Highlight your unique selling proposition

One of the most important things to consider when building a brand is your unique selling proposition, or USP. It’s the very thing that differentiates your business from your competition. To help you identify your USP, start by asking yourself these three questions:

• What is the ultimate benefit your clients gain when they hire you?
• What separates you from your competitors?
• How does your service make things easier for your client?

Having a solid, instantly recognizable USP can help any real estate business succeed, even in a highly competitive market. That said, knowing how you can capitalize on your USP and making it the cornerstone of your entire real estate branding strategy will help pave a path towards your goals.

For example, California Life Properties’ USP is catering to client needs in all three California geographic regions – coastal, mountain, and desert communities.

This is integrated seamlessly into their branding, from the icons on their logo representing the different regions, the interactive map displaying the regions and the communities, to the header videos showcasing the thrilling activities you can look forward to in Southern California.

If you want more tips on how you can finetune your USP, head to this page.

Craft a strong real estate tagline

Identifying your USP also helps with another important step in creating your branding strategy: the tagline.

An effective tagline captures the entire essence of a brand and the value it provides to clients in just one or two concise phrases.

It might seem like a simple and straightforward task at first, but it can be a bit tricky, as it forces you to think about exactly what it is you bring to the table and how to make it sound enticing in just a few words.

A great tagline reflects the personality of the business. Telluride Luxury Properties pulls this off flawlessly with their tagline, “Beyond the Extraordinary.” These three simple words speak volumes about the luxury properties in Colorado’s scenic Telluride region and the type of lifestyle they provide.

The tagline appears prominently above a video montage showcasing gorgeous high-end properties amidst breathtaking scenery, setting the stage for clients looking forward to an unparalleled lifestyle that’s “beyond the extraordinary.”

Additionally, your tagline needs to be catchy and unique to help you stand out from your competition. Making it easy to remember will also help your brand stay at the top of prospective clients’ minds.

Here are more tips on how you can craft an effective tagline:

• Study your competition – Create a list of taglines used by your competitors to identify words or phrases you need to avoid. The last thing you want to have is a tagline that’s too similar to one used by one of your competitors.

• Understand your target audience – Your tagline should be tailor-made to the type of clients you want to attract. If you specialize in vacation homes for example, your tagline needs to address the needs and wants of clients searching for vacation homes.

• Use your tagline consistently – Once you’ve created a tagline that perfectly defines your brand, make sure to use it whenever you can in all of the platforms you use. Your target audience will only start to associate your tagline with your brand once you start using it consistently.

Create a logo that boosts brand recognition

Effective real estate branding should evoke a sense of familiarity, which is something that can be achieved through well-designed visuals.

The logo is the most important element as far as visuals are concerned, as it is essentially the face of the brand. Not only should your logo look professional and appealing, but it needs to make a strong first impression at first glance, which is everything in the real estate industry.

The logo is typically the first thing that pops into a person’s mind whenever a company, product, or brand is mentioned, so it should be unique. While you don’t have to be an expert on logo design, simply knowing some of the basics can help, whether you’re creating the logo yourself or discussing real estate logo ideas with a professional graphic designer.

Here are a few important points to keep in mind:

• Stay away from clichés – Be sure to avoid falling into the trap of using cliché symbols and images such as rooftops, homes, and buildings, which have all been used in countless real estate company logos. Real estate revolves around houses and buildings, but that doesn’t mean you should only use those images. There are thousands of other symbols that can represent a house, such as keys, windows, trees, picket fences, and staircases. All you need is a little creativity in order to stand out.

  

• Take advantage of typography – The use of symbols or images isn’t a requirement when creating logos. Strong, elegant typography works, too. You can make use of your initials or an abbreviation of your company name to create a simple yet memorable real estate logo. Just remember to use a typeface that looks professional.

  

• Selecting colors – Feel free to use any color you want, as long as it reflects your brand’s identity. The colors used for your logo will give your business its personality. Gray, blue, black, silver, gold, and brown are commonly used in many of the best real estate agent logos as they give off a polished, professional look. But don’t be afraid to contrast with vibrant shades like orange, red, purple, green, or yellow, if you feel like it matches your personality.

  

• Make it simple but memorable – A logo with lots of intricate details may look flashy, but will be harder to recall compared to a simple yet elegant one. You want to get a nice balance between simplicity and sophistication, so you get a logo that looks attractive but is easy to remember as well.

  

Our team of designers at Agent Image are experts when it comes to conceptualizing and designing logos for real estate professionals. You can check out some of our best designs here.

Branding through communication

Even with a solid strategy in place, keep in mind that a prestigious real estate agent brand isn’t made overnight. It’s your clients who ultimately have the power to take your brand to greater heights. How you communicate with them will be key. If you can find the right channels to reach your audience and communicate clearly, building your brand will be easy.

Having excellent communication skills is essential for real estate professionals, as their job mostly involves making everything easy to understand and guiding clients through each step of the home buying and selling process.

Whenever you interact with a client, whether in person, phone, email, or text messages, think about the main point you want to get across. Try to avoid beating around the bush and communicate in a clear and concise manner.

Imagine yourself as a client to see how you can improve your communication skills. Look at your current website, marketing materials, and previously sent emails and messages and pay close attention to your tone, your intended message, and how well you were able to put together your sentences.

Again, using communication as a tool to build your brand will take some time. But as long as you make it a point to always think about what you’re trying to say, respond in a timely manner, and provide clear explanations to clients at all times, how you communicate will play a significant role in boosting your brand.

Having an in-depth understanding of effective communication and client relations is one of the best ways to ensure success for any brand. For more information on how to develop a successful communication strategy, read our previous article here.

Applying your brand strategy to other marketing materials

While printed materials and other traditional media have become something of an afterthought in today’s internet-first marketing landscape, they still make a great impact on potential clients. Small things like professionally designed letterheads, printed stationery, a folder for your project materials and proposals, and extras like pens, flash drives, or notepads can all help keep your brand at the top of potential clients’ minds.

All you need to do is create templates and establish brand standards if you want to make use of traditional materials. Just remember to use the same logo placement, color scheme, and overall look and feel in order to create better recall for your brand. You don’t need to be flashy, just make sure everything is consistent across the board.

Using online platforms to enhance your brand

Nowadays, the majority of homebuyers begin their search for a new home online, which is why real estate agents need a strong online presence. Websites and social media platforms are also two of the most widely used communication tools today. In addition to offering more exposure, it also gives every business a direct connection with end users, which is something you can take advantage of when developing a real estate brand.

As mentioned earlier, communication between the real estate agent and the client can make or break a brand. For many homebuyers, a website or social media account is their very first point of contact with a real estate agent, which makes it a prime platform for the type of brand you want to develop for yourself.

Everything should come together seamlessly to showcase what your brand is all about. If you’re a top-producing realtor in your area, your website should look like it belongs to one. If one of your strengths is your neighborhood expertise, then that’s something your website should also reflect.

Here are a few other ways you can use your website or social media page to work hand in hand with your real estate branding strategy:

• A starting point for developing your brand – In case you’re new to the real estate business, a website or social media account is the best place to get your brand up and running. Having your photo, a memorable logo, and a catchy slogan on your website will begin the process of establishing your brand, and will help put your services on the map in your local market.

  

• Expanding your web presence – Having a website makes it easier for clients to reach you through search engines like Google or links from other sites. It offers instant access to your office’s address, phone number, email, current listings, and areas of specialization. Your website gets your brand in front of a wider audience, so how you curate each element has to be on point.

  

• More exposure to your properties – The majority of what real estate websites contain consists of property listings. How you showcase your listings will reflect on your brand. Having detailed descriptions, stunning photos, and interactive tools such as 360-degree virtual tours reflects the quality of your service and your ability to market properties.

  

• Display your passion for the job – Potential clients can learn more about you as a professional through your website, which is very important in the real estate business. It can contain your qualifications, personal background, awards you’ve won, community involvement, and events you’ve participated in. It can also contain a blog section dedicated to some of the best restaurants, parks, places to visit, and everything you want clients to know about the area you specialize in. Having that “extra layer” that can tell clients more about you as a person instead of just another real estate agent can do wonders for your brand.

  

Developing a real estate brand will force you to take a closer look not only at your business, but yourself as an agent as well, shining a spotlight on what you want to achieve and what it will take to get there.

It can be challenging, but it helps to keep in mind that building a great brand is a marathon, and not a quick 400-meter dash. If you take it step by step and focus your efforts on the different areas mentioned above, you’ll be on your way towards creating a brand that’s synonymous with real estate success.

At Agent Image, we have the expertise and tools to help agents create an effective and impactful real estate brand, starting with your website. Talk to us about what you want to achieve and find out how we can create a professional website and marketing strategy that perfectly reflects your brand.