As I mentioned in my last blog on WOW content for your website, you have a choice how you "position" your brand - your identity in your marketplace. What is your brand? Brand is defined: A trademark or distinctive name identifying a product or a manufacturer.
Personal Brand - Service Brand - Or - ?
You may have selected what's called the "personal brand" strategy. With the personal brand, all of your marketing materials, brochures, website(s), domain name, blog, and sales colateral have "you" as the focal point of your marketing materials. If you have chosen to use what's called the "service brand", all of your marketing materials are focused on the unique type of service you offer to your market. This is in contrast to an emphases on the marketing of you - the person. Most Realtors offer some hybrid of the two, a mixture of the personal and service brand marketing. In the example used for the service brand, NCMountainLife.com, the website serves to be viewed more in the vain of a chamber of commerce type site focusing more on community tools and resource information as opposed to imagery of individual Realtors or an agent team. Some Realtors have told me it is their opinion the public's overall trust and perception of Realtors is fairly low ranking them just ahead of used car sales people. Is this why stealth sites have become so popular? The strategy behind a stealth site is to downplay the Realtor's role in the site and it's imagery. Stealth or not, Realtors must disclose their identity as the site's true owner.
Take This Quick Test
It is recommended each real estate service provider go through this exercise. Describe the service you offer and outline the key features and unique benefits of your service. This is particularly helpful to identify what makes you different from your competitors - your UPS - your unique positioning statement in your marketplace. Before you jump into this exercise, let's review Marketing 101. People often confuse features with benefits. An example of a feature is one of the following; your service sold my home sooner, you were able to organize my home to maximize my sale, your service improved the appearance of my home. An example of a benefit (or positive outcome) would be one of the following; your service saved me time, it made me more money, or it helped me feel better about myself. Real estate service providers should always sell based on benefits not features. More and more Realtors want to be viewed less as a "sales" person and more as an educator.
Personal or Service - Which Branding is Right For You?
If you're a relatively new agent or maybe you are just getting around to asking yourself how you want to position your brand identity in your marketplace, you might consider using the "service brand". Don't get me wrong, for most veteran Realtors, staying with a personal brand just makes good sense. It's likely you have so much "brand equity", meaning your name is so popular in your community/market, to make an abrupt change to the service brand would be a huge mistake.
What's Your Exit Strategy?
At some point you will either retire or leave the industry for other pursuits. With that said, if your building your business consistently, it should have some value and increase in value providing you are enjoying greater success over time. What happens to your business when you are no longer apart of it and you have been the face of it as a personal brand? Try to secure maximum value for your business along with that website of yours (JimBob.com), if you retire and the "face" of the busines is no longer there to "drive" the business. Then again, say the owner of PinehurstRealEstate.net decides to sell her business with her website. Now that business (and her website with that valuable domain name) has the potential for great value.
So What Makes You Different?
What brand do you use and why? What is your unique advantage in your market? What makes you different from all of your competitors? Each time I ask those questions during our initial phone consultation with a client, this is what I hear over and over again: "well I have a lot of experience", "we have integrity", or I hear "you can trust me". That's what I hear everyone else say too. Why not say - "Because of my extensive training and certifications as a New Home Specialist, I help my clients avoid costly mistakes when they build their dream home allowing them to experience less stress", or maybe you could say, "As a Senior Real Estate Specialist, I focus my efforts on guiding 55+ buyers and sellers so they realize superior outcomes and easier transitions".
What branding strategy do you use? Personal or Service? What is your exit strategy? What makes you different from your competitors?
I look forward to your feedback!
Bobby Carroll
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