Branding is one of the key elements of success for a real estate business. As a Real Estate Professional targeting your neighbourhood you need to stand out from the rest of the competition and make yourself visible to the potential buyers and sellers when they are ready to move.
Did You Know? A strong real estate brand presence can itself generate tons of new referrals for you. So, how do you establish your own brand in such a competitive space? Well, in this guide we will show you a step by step method of branding yourself as a prominent Real Estate Professional in your community and beyond.
Where Do Most Branding Initiatives Go Wrong?
The truth is most Real Estate Professionals have a good understanding of the term branding and they often start off in the right direction. However, after a couple of months and even years the biggest problem that you guys face is being consistent with your branding efforts across all marketing channels.
When we say marketing channels, we are talking both offline and online marketing. This includes your flyers, business cards, social media profiles, paid advertising in Facebook & other platforms.
Achieving a higher level of consistency in branding takes time and refinement but it can reap a huge reward once everything is setup correctly.
Setting Up Facebook For Optimized Branding
Profile Picture – This goes without saying that your profile picture should be taken professionally to make yourself more credible as the local Real Estate Professional of your neighbourhood.
However, if you are branding your Facebook page then it should have a logo instead of your profile picture. The logo should be incorporated in a square format.
If your logo is a natural landscape version make sure that you use an adapted version for your Facebook profile image.
For the Facebook cover image here are a few ideas that you should try:
– Use real images of recently listed or sold listings. You can even create a collage.
– You can incorporate a team photo as the Facebook cover
– Avoid adding too much text on the cover photo. You may include a phone number here but make sure it stands out. Remember, a phone number is also visible on your main page and you can always change your Facebook CTA (Call-To-Action) button to Call Now.
Dimensions For Facebook
- Cover Photo – Height – 828px Width – 315px
- Profile Picture – Height – 160px Width – 160px
What Should You Post On Facebook
This is where most Real Estate Professionals fail to use Facebook as an effective channel for marketing themselves. You should have a schedule for your Facebook page and stick to it. There are 3 basic types of posts that you should publish on your real estate page:
- Local news & information (70% of posts)
- Local deals and events (10% of posts)
- Your recently sold listed and sold properties (7% of posts)
- Testimonials from clients (3% of posts)
- Bonus: Interview with business owners (for Parkbench Real Estate Professionals only)
Stop posting articles about how to buy and sell real estate. Anyone can go to InMan or those other 100 websites to consume that content. Instead concentrate on local news, local deals and your own listings in order to gain the notoriety of your neighbourhood.
YouTube Branding For Real Estate Professionals
YouTube can be a great source of referrals and lead generation. In order to execute a successful YouTube channel in your local area you need to keep the video formats and branding consistent.
Each and every video that you post on YouTube should have links to your website, and social media channels. It should also feature the area that you are serving as well as your phone number and other contact details. Try to come up with a format that looks professional and use it as a template for all your videos. On top of this template will be the content for each specific video.
How To Add A Video Default Description
- Go To Youtube > Creator Studio
- Click on Channel (on the left) and select Upload Defaults
- You can edit the description here so that you don’t have to add the same description over and over again.
YouTube Branding Tips
- Adding a channel art is absolutely crucial in terms of YouTube branding. Your channel art is the first thing that someone will notice when they discover your real estate channel.
- Have an intro and a call to action at the end of each video. The intro should feature your logo as well as other useful information. Watch and get inspiration from other Youtube channels in real estate.
- Arrange your videos into playlists and make sure that they all show up in your channel homepage.
- Watermark your videos and ensure that you are linking the watermark area to your website. It’s really easy to implement this on the YouTube editor once you upload a video.
YouTube Channel Art Dimensions – Height – 2560px Width – 1440px
Branding Yourself As The Local Real Estate Professional in LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a place where you can generate some high quality referrals in your area. You should have an optimized LinkedIn profile so that buyers and sellers can discover you. Most people don’t understand that your LinkedIn profile is also your sales page for potential customers
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile not only helps brand your real estate business but also helps your discovery when someone looks you up in Google.
Tips For LinkedIn Branding
- Complete your profile. This means not only do you add your qualifications or experience but you should have a killer About Me section where you ask questions to the person reading it. Asking questions incite curiosity for the reader.
Example – “ Are you looking for an experienced realtor in Los Feliz area with 10+ years of experience? ”
- LinkedIn allows you to add a cover photo just like Facebook? Use the LinkedIn cover photo effectively to engage people visiting your profile.
- Join local groups and communities in LinkedIn while engaging with them.
- Share useful real estate articles as well as your recently sold listings in your area.
- Use a signature just like you would for your email when reaching out to potential prospects in LinkedIn.
Take a look at this LinkedIn profile. This person is not a Real Estate Professional but sells a service and he turned his LinkedIn page into a Call To Action for potential clients.
Twitter Branding For Real Estate Agents
Having a twitter profile and actively maintaining it can turn you into a local influencer faster than you think. Twitter is a great source of news, useful articles and short videos especially for the younger demographics.
Having a well branded and optimized Twitter profile will help increase brand awareness for your real estate business.
How To Brand Your Twitter Profile As A Real Estate Professional
- If you are a part of a real estate team then you should have two twitter profiles. One profile should be your personal real estate brand and another profile that shares everything on behalf of your team.
- In your personal profile make sure you mention your team in the bio section if you are a part of any real estate team.
- The Twitter cover photo should not contain much text and it should be something that potential customers can relate to. Some examples for the twitter cover image would be:
– Image of a house you sold maybe with the sold price
– Images of multiple listings in your farm area
– A testimonial from your client with their real picture - Your twitter profile also allows you to customize the colour of your page, links and other UI elements. Make sure that you stick to your brand colours throughout your team and personal twitter profiles. Over time potential home buyers and sellers will start recognizing who you are and follow you in your area.
The Importance of Colour In Real Estate Branding
The internet generates colours on webpages using hex codes. You need to make sure that your real estate company or team has the following colours ready to be accessed by everyone in the team.
- Your primary brand colour
- Your secondary brand colour
- Your 2 favourite tertiary colours
Note: If you don’t have much knowledge about graphic designing don’t worry. Simply ask your designers to give you the hex codes for your brand colours.
For example: White is represented as #ffffff and blue as #2e3192. Take a look at the colour palette for Parkbench.
Staying consistent with colours will eventually help brand yourself and stand apart from other Real Estate Professionals committing in your area.
Checklist Of Must Have Branded Profiles As Real Estate Professionals
- Personal Facebook profile (must)
- Facebook Page for Real Estate Professionals (must)
- Personal Twitter profile (must)
- Personal LinkedIN profile (must)
- Company LinkedIN Page (only if you are a part of a team)
- YouTube channel (must)
- Pinterest profile (recommended)
- Snapchat profile (recommended)