Certain styles are indistinguishably tied to specific products and brands. Think about the Disney font, the Coca-cola shade of red, or the Starbucks mermaid. Designing these elements and connecting them to an idea about a business—fun, consistency, honesty, or some other concept—is what branding is all about. So how can you take that concept and apply it to real estate branding for yourself and your business?

What is the difference between real estate branding and marketing?

Traditionally, real estate agents focus primarily on lead generation and marketing initiatives. However, branding is a more comprehensive process. Branding involves honing your target audience and developing messaging and visual collateral that will make you instantly recognizable to them. It's not a short-term fix or a process for getting the next listing. Instead, it's an ongoing process of refining and communicating throughout your career.

When putting together concepts for your brand, think about everything from colors and fonts to the name of your business. Therefore, decide your brand's core values and what ideas your brand should encompass.

In addition, ensure that every member of your team—from support staff to showing agents – enhances your real estate brand and communicates your professional values. That means that you'll need to develop ways to communicate your brand to your team, which will hold them accountable when they fall short of the values you've defined.

As you begin putting together a branding concept, start reaching out to a branding consultant. If you currently work with a marketing or public relations company, they may offer this service as well.

A branding consultant can help you research your past clients and potential market to develop a brand identity that is both unique and appealing. Then, they'll help you develop winning messaging and create a content plan to communicate with your target audience.

Once you have a plan in place for your branding style, you'll want to take the following steps to make sure that it effectively brings in new leads for your real estate business.

Optimize your online presence and SEO

You'll want to maintain a coherent presence across all of your platforms based on a solid SEO (or search engine optimization) strategy and consistent marketing collateral. That means that your website, portal profiles, and social media accounts should share the same names, colors, logos, and photos so that potential clients will know when they have found you.

Carry this through to your URL, email accounts, direct mail marketing, video channel, blog, or podcast. Use it on business cards, presentation materials, name tags, and folders. A fully integrated brand concept that is applied consistently makes you look more professional and inspires confidence in the service you provide.

Create a robust way to capture new leads

Make it easy for leads to contact you once they have looked you up or checked out your profile online. Give them an opportunity to provide information so that you can get back to them with relevant answers to specific questions. This will create an instant rapport and allow you to add value from the very first text, email, or phone conversation.

Maintain an updated look in your branding

It may be tempting to undergo a brand transformation once, but it's important to continue maintaining that same commitment branding for the rest of your career. We all know agents that still use headshots from the beginning of their careers where they don't even look like themselves anymore.

Revisit your branding to ensure that it still conveys your core values. For example, have you developed a new niche? Are you serving a more upscale market? Do you have new certifications or designations? Your real estate branding should continue growing and developing as your business does.

Differentiate yourself for targeted lead generation

Many real estate professionals want to serve everyone in their market with their real estate needs. While it's a nice idea in theory, if you're talking to everyone, you're probably talking to no one very effectively. A generic, run-of-the-mill brand and business strategy will never get you the results you want and can keep you from standing out in your local market.

You can generate more leads by narrowing your focus and becoming everything to a specific group of people rather than trying to please the whole world.

• What do you do that no one else does?
• What challenges have your clients faced, and how have you helped them?
• What do clients say is great about you and the service you provide?
• What is there in your background that is unique or unusual?

Showcase your track record as a real estate professional

Gather statistics about your work and use them to build your authority. Pinpoint what you bring to the table and use it as part of the way you differentiate your real estate brand.

• Do you sell homes in fewer days than the competition?
• Do you get top dollar for your listings?
• Do your buyers continually win out in multiple offer scenarios?

RentSpree's rental client manager is a marketing tool designed to help you stand out and generate leads more effectively than you ever thought possible. Your agent profile offers you a space to show off your brand and convey your message to potential clients in your market. Gather information and share your current listings, providing value-added service that wins new business and referrals.