Establish Your Brand to Market Your Business

Providing the best possible customer service to clients is a great step toward becoming a successful Realtor®, but those who don’t market themselves will likely lag behind the competition. There are approximately 1.2 million Realtors® across the U.S., according to the National Association of Realtors®, and close to 11,000 Realtors® belong to NVAR. Differentiation from other Realtors® should be an essential marketing plan goal. 

“Consumers don’t know the difference between the real estate brokerages in this area, so you can’t rely only on your company name,” says Josh Fertel, president of River City Marketing in Fairfax. “As an independent contractor, you should establish a brand that distinguishes you from your company and your competition.”
Your “USP” (Unique Selling Proposition) is what gives you a competitive advantage, Fertel says, so your marketing plan should start by answering the question of what makes you unique, such as your background as a lawyer, an interior designer or another experience that informs your real estate acumen.

Tweak your marketing plan frequently to make sure the money and time you spend on it are effective.
“I evaluate my marketing quarterly,” says Brian Block, managing broker with RE/Max Allegiance in McLean. “But you need to give some things six months to a year to see if they’re working. I started out blogging, which brought in a lot of business and media attention, but then blogging got saturated because so many people were doing it. I actually do more direct mail now because people always want to know how much their home is worth.”

FINANCING YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Determining how much to spend on marketing before you earn a commission is one of the toughest decisions new agents must make. While Penny Yerks, principal of The Yerks Team with TTR Sotheby’s Realty in McLean, spends $300,000 annually on marketing, she recognizes that young new agents can’t spend that much. 

“When I started out, I spent whatever I could afford on print advertising in the Gazette [newspaper], and it made a huge difference to my business,” says Yerks. “Some people still remember my name because of that.”
Piper Yerks-Gioia, a principal with the Yerks Team, says that tightly focusing your marketing on your network and on locations near your listings provides the biggest return on marketing spending. For example, she participates in fundraising activities for the Potomac School, where her children attend, and at schools in McLean, Great Falls and Reston where most of the team’s listings are.
Many successful agents initially used their creativity to start expanding their connections on a budget.

“When I first got into real estate, Craigslist was gaining popularity. I provided information on the site about developments or neighborhoods that were advertised, making it clear I wasn’t the listing agent but offering buyer’s agent services,” says Adam Gallegos, a broker with Real Living at Home in Arlington. “It cost only my time and generated a lot of business, but then other agents started doing it, too, so it’s less effective now.”
Brett West, a Realtor® with McEnearney Associates in Washington, D.C., spent $15 per month to subscribe to Constant Contact’s email service. He began sending out his personally branded newsletter to his sphere of influence to help grow his business. 

“I love writing, so that was a natural way for me to share my expertise, enthusiasm and real estate experiences with other people,” says West. 
Now West reserves 10 percent of his net commission on each transaction to pay for business expenses, including branding and marketing himself and his listings.
“New agents should look to their brokerage to find out how much of marketing expenses the brokerage will share,” he says. “We have an in-house design and marketing team to create our brochures and direct mail.”

Suzanne Granoski, a Realtor® with RE/Max Executives in Alexandria, says she reinvests 30 percent of her income on marketing herself and her properties.
“That’s one reason I review and reallocate my marketing dollars often, to make sure I’m not overspending or spending on the wrong things,” she says.

Gallegos, who spends only about 1 percent of his income on marketing, says that Realtors® who are trying to grow their business should spend 25 percent on marketing. He also recommends spending time volunteering or pursuing other interests as part of a Realtor’s® growth strategy.
“If you double-down on what you already like to do and participate more, you’ll naturally meet more people and those they are connected with,” says Gallegos. “At the same time, you’re doing something you enjoy.”
Gallegos says new agents may not initially find value out of an expensive website and marketing materials. 

“Those things come later after you build your network,” says Gallegos, although he recommends buying a URL for a website as soon as possible, even if you just hold it until you have the cash to build a professional site.  
“There are a lot of free resources available for Realtors® about marketing. I think it’s important to budget time to learn about new strategies, particularly from Realtors® in other locations,” says Gallegos. “If you follow other people in this area, you’ll have a hard time standing out, so you might want to listen to Realtors® from the West Coast and find out what they’re doing that hasn’t been done around here.”

Block spends 25 to 30 percent of his gross income on marketing. “It’s important to avoid overspending, though,” says Block. “It’s tempting to go after the shiny penny, the next new thing, but traditional marketing techniques like sending handwritten notes and client appreciation events and just talking to people are essential.”
Fertel says it can cost from $1,500 to $3,800 for professional branding services and as much as $30,000 to $40,000 for an entire marketing campaign for a brokerage. 

MARKETING MATERIALS 
While many Realtors® use their photo as their logo, Fertel recommends that agents have a logo designed for them and that they develop a tagline to use on all their marketing materials. A logo can cost as little as $300 to $400 or as much as $10,000 depending on the level of professionalism. Gallegos says you can even use a site such as “Fiverr.com” to hire a freelancer to design your logo. 

“I was recently chosen as a top Realtor® in the Washingtonian magazine’s “Best of” issue, so I use that as my tagline now,” says Bonnie Rivkin, a Realtor® with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Alexandria. “I used to have a tagline that read ‘My Service Will Move You’ with little houses over all the Os.”
Yerks-Gioia says that her team still places some print advertising in local publications to get the team’s brand and name in front of area residents and bring in non-local buyers through Internet marketing.

                               

“We’re one of the first real estate teams to outsource our marketing,” says Yerks-Gioia. 
Fertel says that whether you do-it-yourself or outsource your marketing materials, it’s important to use quality material rather than cheap paper for your business cards and brochures. “You also need to be consistent with your logo, your tagline and your colors throughout your card, your listing presentations, your brochures, your newsletter and your website,” says Fertel. 

WEB PRESENCE
While Realtors® typically have a web page associated with their brokerage, establishing a personally branded site is an essential part of marketing. Granoski, who has worked with multiple brokerages during her career, says her website and online advertising have helped new clients find her and referrals contact her.

“Your website should have keywords in the URL, such as ‘yourviennarealestateteam.com’,” says Fertel. “The focus should be on what makes you unique, not just on your company name.”
Rivkin says she has had a personal website since she started in real estate, in part so she can see what people are looking at on the site and to organize her database.
“You have to spend a little money to create a website and put systems in place that can work with and without you,” says Rivkin. “Your website is the best place to demonstrate what makes you different from other agents.”

“Fertel says that at a bare minimum, Realtors® should have a personal brand, a marketing brochure about themselves to hand to potential clients and a distinctive website separate from their company site."

In addition to a personal website, Granoski says online Realtor® recommendations will become even more important to consumers now that new rules are in place to increase their reliability on Realtor.com. At the end of 2015, Realtor.com announced an agreement to add content from Quality Service Certification, RealSatisfied and Testimonial Tree to agent profiles. In addition, the ratings and review system has been revised with a consistent set of criteria for evaluations, including the fact that the recommendations must come from verified customers with a closed transaction. This will help with each rating’s authenticity.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
Granoski, an early adopter of social media, uses her Twitter handle (@realest8outloud) on her marketing materials. A professional stager since 1997, she also uses Pinterest and Instagram for visual marketing. “Being consistent with your social media identity is essential,” she says. 

Fertel says at least some of your social media presence should be individual to you rather than outsourced, although some of it can be delegated to a staff member.
“Keep your Facebook posts interesting and educational, not about selling,” he says. “You can use Hootsuite to send your posts to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all at the same time.” 

Granoski recommends participating in Facebook groups for Realtors®, to network beyond the region. 
“Too many Realtors® shoot themselves in the foot rather than help themselves with their social media,” says Gallegos. “If you post too much about real estate then everyone knows you’re just trying to make money. You need to be genuine and post things that are interesting, not just about your business.”

Gallegos suggests having a business page as well as a personal page on Facebook, even though there will naturally be crossover between the pages. 
“You need to know what your purpose is when you are using social media,” says Gallegos. “I was blogging a lot and felt strongly that it was important to focus tightly on a niche, in my case Arlington. I focus all my marketing there and set out to create a name for myself in that area.”
West says he uses Facebook and Instagram for visibility, with a separate business and personal page.

“The more people who know what business I’m in, the better,” he says.  
Fertel says that at a bare minimum, Realtors® should have a personal brand, a marketing brochure about themselves to hand to potential clients and a distinctive website separate from their company site. A social media presence also creates brand awareness, he says.
“The platinum rule of real estate is to communicate with people the way they want to be communicated with,” says Granoski. “That should be what informs your marketing.”