What makes a great real estate brand?
We all love standout yard signage, stunning business cards, and swoon-worthy swag. But your brand is so. much. more. than that.
Your brand is the reputation you carry and the promise you deliver. It’s creating a strong, cohesive brand message in the real estate buyer journey — from the first clicks of the mouse to the clink of keys at closing.
Here’s how to create a consistent brand message that resonates with your clients and your team and weave it into your culture and customer experience using just three little words: your brand values.
How distinct brand values make your entire business better
Whether you’re just starting to get strategic about it or envisioning a total rebrand, building an unforgettable real estate brand takes work. But the good news is that establishing your brand really comes down to defining who you are and what you care about — whether as an individual or a team.
After you’ve reflected on your brand values, try to condense them down into three(ish) distinct words that are easy to remember and act on.
For example, Netflix’s brand values are judgment, courage, selflessness, and inclusion. They explain these values in further detail with their team, but those four terms make the company’s values memorable for employees.
In a similar vein, real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens rebranded a couple of years ago with the tagline, “Bold. Honest. Smart.” Those three simple words sum up how BHS does business, and what their clients can expect from them.
You can use your brand values as guideposts to help you make decisions, focus your energy, and deliver the type of experience you dream of for your clients. They should be at the core of everything you and your team do, including personal interactions, marketing and advertising — even down to the emails and texts you send.
Remember: You’re not trying to design a slogan that sticks in people’s heads. You’re creating an identity that your team can rally around, a message your clients can feel, and an experience they’ll never forget.
It might take some work (i.e. repetition, repetition, repetition) to get your team fully engaged and in sync with your brand values, but when everyone gets sick of you saying them, you’ll know it has clicked. 😉
Use your brand values to shape every part of your business
Once you’ve identified your brand values and are brainwashing reminding your team about them on the regular, it’s time to put those values to work. Here are three simple ways to apply your values in your day-to-day work:
Hone your hiring process
When it’s time to bring on a new team member, one of the best ways to evaluate whether they’ll be a great fit is to see how well they align with your brand values. Do they like them? Believe in them? Embody them to a T?
Of course, just because someone doesn’t align with your brand values doesn’t mean they’re a bad person, just that they’re not a good fit for your team. For example, a candidate might place a high regard on independence, which can be an awesome quality in an agent — unless your team is more about synergy. Again, not bad, just not the right fit in this specific scenario.
- Be consistent in your messaging
You probably send the same emails over and over again — introducing all the parties in a transaction, outlining upcoming deadlines, shooting quick reminders to connect utilities, etc. It might be tedious to you, but for your client, it may be a totally new experience. And the reality is, each of these touchpoints is an opportunity to reinforce your brand message, voice, and values… or erode it.
An easy way to reinforce your brand message with every email (and make life simpler for your team) is to use messaging templates. And no, we’re not talking about robotic emails for the masses. We’re talking highly personalized emails, texts and messages that actually make your clients excited to hear from you — while also keeping your brand message cohesive and consistent.
At Preclose, we’ve built a platform that can help you do just that, with our signature @tokens to make customization easier than ever. This way, you can curate the customer experience without making it arduous for your team. (In fact, they’ll probably thank you for it.)
- Design a 10/10 customer experience
Getting your team on board and in sync with your brand values might be easier said than done. That’s why it helps to share your vision and define what a 10/10 customer experience looks. This means you’ll need to map out a plan for how your brand values can be manifested at each stage of the customer journey. You might even use additional tools like a mission statement or vision board.
In that process, also consider the following:
- What kind of first impression do we want to create?
- What checkpoints or milestones are most important in the customer journey?
- How can we uplevel the service we’re providing at each stage?
- What do we hope our clients say about us? (The more specific, the better!)
- What tools or technologies can support our customer experience goals?
When you intentionally design your clients’ experience and apply your brand values, there are numerous ways you can build the “wow factor” into your customer journey — from creating consistent workflows to improving communication.
