Personal Branding Techniques for Real Estate Agents and Brokers

A key principle of marketing is to find something unique about what you offer
as the basis of your sales message. Even if what you offer is a commodity, there
is always one thing unique in your business -- you.

A big error made by many Real Estate Agents and Brokers is to try to develop
an institutional image like most big companies. People do not like to do business
with institutions; they like to do business with people.

In advertising terms, branding is the "image" created in the minds
of people when they see or hear a name, product or logo. Companies invest a
lot of money in creating and maintaining their brand, but the Internet has sparked
a new trend called "Personal Branding".

Personal branding isn't only important for promoting a product, business or
political cause, but also for promoting yourself for advancement within your
own organization. It involves developing your personal reputation.

Branding can be done to any product, or any person. Before undertaking an exercise
in personal branding, however, consider your distinctive strengths and abilities
and what they offer the market place. Traditionally personal branding was for
sporting celebrities who gained enormous coverage and following through their
sporting prowess. Movie stars have also had celebrity status and association
since movies began.

A personal brand is about creating strong, favorable associations in the minds
of people that you encounter. If you don’t actively do this, they will
still make associations. Therefore, it may be better to be proactive and undertake
the branding exercise for yourself, you cannot control what they think but can
give them some information to assist with the associations.

WHY BRANDING OURSELVES?

- Places you in a leadership role

- Enhances prestige

- Attracts the right people and right opportunities

- Adds perceived value to what you are selling

- Earns recognition

- Associates you with a trend

- Increases your earning potential

- Differentiate yourself from the competition

- Position your focused message in the hearts and minds of your target customers

- Confers top of mind status

- Increases authority and credence of decisions

HOW DO WE BRAND OURSELVES?

Like any branding exercise, the key to personal branding is having a good product,
one which you understand and pitch to the right market. The first step in personal
branding is knowing who you are, find out what strengths your brand possesses
and how these strengths can help you. Personal branding is not about presenting
a façade to the public; a poor product will not stand up to market scrutiny.
This is also a choice of brand elements, people you deal with, the look that
you have, and how you conduct yourself. Once this has been done, determine what
you are going to offer. As a product what do you do, what need does the product
of you satisfy in the market. Next figure out the position you will take in
the audience of your mind. What unique space do you wish to occupy and what
unique associations do you want people to recall when they think of you?

Finally, once you have established the first three steps, manage your brand
over its lifecycle. That is keep visible, be consistent and be yourself. According
to Montoya, the well-known personal branding guru, the key to managing your
personal brand is word-of-mouth (WOM), the most trusted form of communication.

How does one go about building a personal brand? Recognize your personal strengths
and gifts! Think about how you best connect with people, consider what your
target audience needs and wants, identify the value you deliver to meet those
needs and wants, and communicate in a way that reaches your constituents in
their hearts and minds and via the channels that work best for you

Functional associations are important such as timeliness, quality, dedication;
as are emotional associations like inspiring, leadership, being an innovator.

The three C’s of personal branding are clarity, consistency and constancy.

Clarity deals with being honest about yourself and your strengths and promises
of value attached to your personal brand and being clear in the way you communicate
them. Often, for simplicity, you must focus on one or two aspects that are most
vital and focus on communicating them. Think about the things you associate
with prominent artists or mangers, and they are unlikely to be complicated.

Consistency is keeping things consistent for the customers. This does not mean
staying stuck in the past, but just not undertaking drastic changes. Coca Cola
have had a consistent message for 50 years; the message evolves continuously
and is not stagnant but is consistent. Artists like Madonna change every three
or four years, but there is a consistency to the change.

Constancy means being visible with your brand and maintaining an on-going level
of awareness in the marketplace. Oprah Winfrey is visible constantly, and although
most of people do not have the visibility or exposure of Oprah, they can still
be visible in a smaller audience. There is no point trying to build a brand
image quickly to coincide with a new exhibition or performance you may have
coming up – brands take time to build in consumers minds.

A FREE PERSONAL BRANDING TOOLKIT FOR REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS

NetReal.net, a company noted for its template-based Real
Estate Web design solutions, offers a Winter Holidays Gift for Real Estate
Agents and Brokers – the Personal Branding Toolkit: http://www.netreal.net/personal_branding.php

The Personal Branding Toolkit contains the “Essential Marketing for Real
Estate Professionals” ebook and 17 Real Estate Reports and the tools to
personalize them with your name, contact info and photo.

NetReal’s editorial team put together the top 25 highest- rated Real Estate
marketing articles of 2004, and created a must-have e-book - “Essential
Marketing for Real Estate Professionals”. The ebook covers Marketing 101
, Network marketing, Personal Marketing, Customer acquisition and retention,
Telemarketing & Direct Mailing, E-marketing.

You can personalize this e-book with your data and send it to your contacts,
absolutely free of charge. This is a great way to offer a helpful gift to your
colleagues and partners.

The “17 free Branded Reports” allow you to create your own branded
Real Estate reports (for buyers, sellers, investors, movers) with your contact
info and photo/logo and an exquisite design. Distribute them to your prospects
or clients as e-docs or printed materials, or upload them on your website. Show
your professionalism with these great tools to acquire new clients.

The Personal Branding Toolkit for Real Estate Professionals (http://www.netreal.net/personal_branding.php)
is free for everyone.