Your personal brand as a real estate agent is a massive responsibility. It’s your reputation. Whether you like it or not, people you come across—other agents, clients, referrals, and your inner circle—will form opinions about you based on your public image. This means that not only are your day-to-day work activities open for observation but so is your online presence. Building an effective brand is about creating trust over the long term. This article will walk you through branding techniques that can help you shine.
Create Your Niche
Due to the oversaturation of real estate agents in the U.S., finding a way to stand out is imperative. First, consider who your ideal customer is and the type of real estate you’re passionate about:
Customer type:
- Sellers or buyers
- Millennials
- Senior communities
- First-time homebuyers / sellers
Real estate type:
- Luxury
- Vacation homes
- Commercial
- Land
As a new agent, it’s best to stick to major real estate characteristics rather than narrowing your customer base too much.
Define Value Proposition
Why should people come to me for expertise? What is attractive about me? Your value proposition tells customers what you stand for, how you operate, and why you deserve their business. A value proposition is created by considering your clients’ problems and identifying how to alleviate them.
Create Content
The digital world makes it possible to communicate who you are to a wide variety of audiences, including potential customers, industry professionals, and friends and family. Create a website on a reputable platform–think WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, etc. Hire someone to help you set up your site with coding, copywriting, headshots, or graphics if you’d rather not do it yourself. While your broker might advertise your photo, real estate experience, and contact information, it’s much better to have your own site because you get to personalize and control the content.
As you gain experience and confidence in your transactions, consider writing guest posts or articles on industry blogs. Your focus should be on providing thought leadership or sharing expert insights from business or life. Typically, you’ll need to send publications your article ideas and some background information before you post. If writing doesn’t come naturally to you, you can hire a ghostwriter or an editor to fine-tune your thoughts before they go public.
Get Social
Social media is another tool you can use to express yourself. Learn the differences between paid and organic social media. Eliminate boring listings, uninspired photography, and repetitive content from your social strategy. Your current followers may not be looking to buy or sell, but instead, want to see your personality. It’s OK to share your life outside of work! Take time to engage with your followers and follow other Realtors and industry professionals.
Paid social is a great tool to target specific audience segments, such as the city, state, and demographics that make the most sense for your business. You can pay for as much exposure as you want on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn.
Good examples of social media marketing include:
- Facebook: Creating targeted ads to drive traffic to your website, jumping on Facebook Live to answer common real estate questions.
- Twitter: Asking questions, using trending hashtags, and contributing to meaningful dialogues with other professionals.
- LinkedIn: Sharing your latest thought leadership articles or posts.
- Instagram: Creating Stories and Reels that show behind-the-scenes work, sharing photos that demonstrate your knowledge or expertise (e.g. before-and-after shots).
- YouTube: Interviewing industry experts you admire, creating short clips of experiences you’ve had on the job.
Remember to keep your content fresh—a mix of professional, humorous, and personal. Feel free to use emojis, GIFs, memes, etc.
Celebrate Community
You are more than your work. Join clubs, sports, professional organizations, and meetups to become part of your community and grow your influence. You can sponsor events like Little League, Rotary Club dinners, galas, and fun runs. You can also delight your clients by delivering treats at their doors with handwritten thank you cards.
The Bottom Line
Cultivating a strong brand takes years. With careful planning and enthusiasm for engaging with local and large-scale audiences, your opportunities for success go up exponentially. Start with building a website and testing social media platforms that give you the highest ROI. Adjust your strategies based on engagement and formulate a marketing mix that meshes with your skillset. Reach out to experts in the field, such as other successful real estate agents, to strengthen your brand image.
Every agent has the opportunity to evolve their career by taking control of their brand, so start early and be persistent—success should follow.
