Brand yourself!

For many agents, branding starts and ends with a slogan. That’s a bit like saying you need only pound a sign in the ground to sell a piece of real estate.

by Marty Kramer   Branding yourself the way a rancher marks livestock would hurt. Luckily for you, no red-hot irons are involved when branding your business for marketing success. Though there’s no physical pain involved, the process does require a great deal of forethought, coordination of multiple efforts, persistent follow-through, and an almost fanatical approach to consistency.

If branding takes so much work, why bother? "Real estate professionals who focus on strong branding have a great opportunity to do great things," says Peter Montoya, author of The Brand Called You and The Personal Branding Phenomenon. Montoya, who is founder and president of an ad agency that specializes in personal branding, believes that real estate professionals are among the world’s worst advertisers. "The utter failure of the industry on the whole to properly market themselves makes it easy for a select few to drastically improve their careers through personal branding," he says.

What is branding?

Ask a handful of experts to define branding and you’ll get a handful of variations on a theme. Most, though, agree on what branding is not. A slogan does not constitute branding. Neither does an advertising campaign. "It’s more than putting your picture on your card," says Kim T. Gordon, author of Bringing Home the Business. "It’s a great deal more than saying that you’re a top sales person." Gordon, a former vice president of marketing for a large real estate company and currently president of National Marketing Federation, says that at its essence, branding is the distillation of whatever you want people to remember most about you. "It’s what you stand for. It’s everything that is said, known, read, written, heard about your company, all added together and then boiled down into one simple thing that people can remember."

Branding helps consumers differentiate you from your competitors, but do it successfully and you will accomplish much more than basic awareness. Rob Frankel, a brand consultant and author of The Revenge of Brand X, says, "Branding is not about getting your prospects to choose you over your competition; it’s about getting them to see you as the only solution to their problem."

How to create a memorable brand

Convincing people you are the only solution to their real estate needs is a tall order. When faced with such a task, many real estate salespeople reach into their bag of achievements and start offering statistics as proof of their value as an agent. Montoya asserts that you will achieve your goals only when you do an about-face and consider your target audience as your starting point. "Choose who you want to reach and craft an identity around the needs and goals of that target audience," he says. The identity must come from your personality and style so your target audience can relate to you.

The brand should communicate not only who you are but also what a person can expect when dealing with you. Gordon recommends taking time to consider what really separates the experience of working with you from working with somebody else. When you determine that difference, write it down. Your branding flows from there. Beware not to simply string together a few sentences about how many homes you sell or the number of years you’ve been in business. Your benefit statement, as Gordon calls it, must explain what customers get rather than what you offer.

Decide what made you a successful sales associate. Ask yourself what makes you unique and keeps clients coming back to you. You might decide it’s a service or level of service customers get from you. Perhaps it’s a combination of benefits. For example, you could position yourself as the agent to contact when a buyer wants a technologically savvy agent who really knows a particular neighborhood.

Stop thinking about yourself

Remember that even though this is your brand, it’s not really about you. It’s about what customers get when dealing with you. This bears repeating, as creating an inner-focused brand is one of the most common mistakes agents make. Frankel suggests that an agent or company should enlist professional help to create a brand. "Because brands must be built from the outside in, it takes an outsider to build that brand," he says. "Otherwise, you end up with a brand that ‘sells what we’ve got’ instead of letting the public ‘buy what they need.’"

Put your brand on everything

Once you define your brand, incorporate it into everything you do. Here’s where a slogan comes into play. For agents, you are your business, so using your name as part of your slogan makes sense. But don’t settle on a slogan just because it sounds good, rhymes, has a play on words, or uses your name creatively. It must reflect your brand.

Powerful slogans often evoke an emotion. Think of Michelin’s line: Because so much is riding on your tires. "People make emotional decisions and back them up with rational thinking," says Montoya. "For any advertising to be successful—to be memorable and leave a lasting impression—a personal message must wiggle its way into the ‘needs list’ of your target audience."

A logo and the designs you use for marketing materials must also promote your brand. If you position yourself as an agent on the cutting edge, an art-deco logo will undermine your branding. Like selling real estate, creating a slogan, logo, and graphic identity can be done on your own, but most people will benefit from hiring a professional.

Once you have a slogan and graphic identity, include them on all your communications: business cards, brochures, property fliers, direct mail, Web sites, your e-mail signature. You might even include your slogan (or a close variation of it) on your outgoing phone message or even in conversation—if it doesn’t feel forced. For example, if your slogan says something about how you can be reached 24 hours a day, you can end a conversation with a customer by telling her that if she has any questions, she can call you anytime, day or night.

Do it your way

If you start with a benefit statement that focuses on customers, then carry that through with a slogan and graphic identity, you have done more to brand yourself than many agents. Still, you’ve only just begun.

You also must ensure that everything you do reinforces your brand. Frankel calls this his Ubiquitous Branding Test. "You need to ask, ‘Are we doing it the <company or agent name> way?’ Everything, down to the way you answer the phone, comes under scrutiny. If you can answer yes, you’re probably well-branded."

Think of your brand as a promise to the consumer. Each time a customer’s experience doesn’t meet his expectations, you’ve broken that promise and your brand crumbles a bit. So if a newsletter includes your logo and slogan but the content doesn’t support your brand, you’ve failed. Furthermore, you can’t just turn your brand on for prospects and clients. Business contacts, vendors, other agents, and personal acquaintances should know you as the agent who (fill in your brand here).

Consistency, consistency, consistency

What if your brand isn’t working—when should you scrap it and start over? Never, says Gordon. "If your brand is built on the essence of what’s true about working with you, then it can’t be off-target." She says a brand is evolutionary rather than revolutionary and should only be tweaked as your customers’ needs change.

But don’t confuse advertising campaigns with branding. Gordon advises that when you’re not achieving your advertising goals, you can take different creative approaches as long as you stick with what’s true about your relationship with your customers.

Indeed, not maintaining the same branding message consistently over time weakens your efforts. "A consumer needs constant reinforcement to remember a brand," says Montoya. "Marketing has a snowball effect: The longer it rolls, the bigger its impact and the easier it rolls."

You’re in control

For agents who perceive themselves at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to branding, Gordon has these words of encouragement: "You have the same opportunity to build relationships that any agent with any big company has." Any disadvantage you imagine is only in your head, she suggests. Lamenting not having the resources available to a large firm also serves no purpose. Individual agents actually have an advantage over a company in some respects. The public cannot receive a mixed message—not unless you’re the one mixing it. As an individual agent, you can control every communication and contact. When you’re in control, backed up by a benefit that clearly positions what people can expect from you, you’ve developed a brand that will help you stand out from the herd.

Photo illustration by Joel Mathews; photos © Corbis Images and PhotoDisc.

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