​Branding for Real Estate Agents: Establishing Your Brand

Branding or brand image is how the public perceives your company. This has a huge effect on how successful a business can be, and popular brands spend millions on regenerating their brand image. Think of successful brands like Coca Cola, Cadburys, Nike, and Apple. You all know these brands and will have an opinion on it, the job of the marketers is to make sure it is a good opinion. But if you’re a small company or freelancer and don’t have a marketing team, here are some ideas to help you develop your brand.

Logo

Many consumers relate to an image, typography, or colour of a brand logo and often connect the imagery to a product before the name. Examples of this include McDonalds’ Golden Arches, Coca-Cola’s red, and Cadbury’s purple. The importance of a good design is vital, so it is worth hiring a designer.

Social Media following

Whether you are a new business or just looking to grow, social media is a key place to find your customers and interact with them in a public setting. Social media channels can also save lots of time cold calling or by using mailing lists, with the ability to target consumers. Sponsored posts can be sent to consumers of a specified locality, age, or with specific interests.

Once you have built a following on social media, it is a great place to advertise products or services. You can do this either by writing timely posts or you can start a blog. Social media also allows you to react to news in your industry and open discussion.

Popular platforms include; LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat.

Create a buzz

Look for opportunities to get people talking about you and your products. This can be from handing out free products in a busy town centre to doing stunts that will get people’s attention. While this isn’t a new strategy, the inclusion of social media means consumers can post about you and your name will be linked to their posts.

Engaging in or sponsoring a stunt, like breaking a world record, can often get the attention of the local press and can help build up knowledge of the brand.

Host events

Hosting a charity event or fundraiser is a great way to get people to have a positive impression of your brand. Especially if you’re local, if you’re seen helping the community then often the community will trust you over competitors.

It is also a great chance for people to meet you in a relaxed setting a learn more about the business when it isn’t forced upon them.

Word of mouth

Finally, if everything above goes well then you can hope that society will talk and your brand will grow just through people talking about it. This can be as simple as a builder doing a good job and the home owner recommending him to a neighbour. Eventually, this will have a knock-on effect.

If you’re a retailer, offering a loyalty card can often improve business as customers are more inclined to bring friends or relatives, so they can build the loyalty bonus. This method has been optimised by coffee shops such as Starbucks.

Of course, word of mouth can also be a disaster if something goes wrong. An easy example is if someone gets food poisoning at a restaurant and tells all their friends, some of their friends will be reluctant to try that restaurant. Large companies employ a PR department that is in control of pushing positive news and attempting to quieten any problems. Not everyone is afforded that luxury, but for freelancers insurance is available to limit the damage caused to your business’ reputation.