How Real Estate Agents can build their Personal Brand Online

Even if you haven’t put any effort towards it, you already have a personal brand. With just a
quick Google search, prospective clients can find out a wealth of information about you in a
matter of moments. The results are going to be there whether or not you’ve taken charge of
your personal brand. The only question is if they’re helping or hurting your business.

As a real estate professional in today’s digital world, your personal brand is what will increase
your exposure, attract clients, and grow your business. If you’re not doing anything to build
your brand, you’re giving up control of a powerful way to increase your earnings.

Why Your Personal Brand Matters

It doesn’t matter what type of properties you sell or what your target demographic looks likes,
it’s important to have a strong personal brand.

According to the National Association of Realtors’ Generational Trends Report, younger
consumers put a high level of value on finding an agent that’s honest and trustworthy.

Similarly, older consumers are looking to work with a real estate professional with a positive
reputation and extensive knowledge.

What does this mean to you as a real estate professional? It means that if you’re not known for
being an honest, reliable, and knowledgeable agent, you’re at a severe disadvantage to your
competition.

At the most basic level, your personal branding is often the very first impression that you make
on prospective clients. It can take a long time – and a lot of work – to successfully build your
brand. But by projecting the right image, you can set yourself up to reap the benefits of your
labor for a long time to come.

That doesn’t mean that branding in a one‐time process. In fact, quite the opposite is true. No
matter how much time you spend getting your brand off the ground upfront, you’ll always need
to be looking for ways to maintain and improve it further.

Take a minute and search for yourself on Google. Try entering your name, followed by the
phrase “real estate”, and then the market that you’re targeting. An example of this would be
“Joe Smith real estate Los Angeles”.

What kind of results popped up? If you’re like most agents, you likely found your personal real
estate website, and probably a few links to your social media profiles.

Now put yourself in the mindset of someone looking to sell their home. Maybe they came across
your name in a property listing, or perhaps they are friends with one of your past clients. Either
way, would your online presence be enough to convince you to hire yourself?

Developing Your Brand

Not all real estate professionals come from a business background. In fact, most of them don’t.
While just 6% of agents surveyed by the NAR stated that real estate was their first career, only
19% of respondents claimed a background in business, management, or finance.

If you fit into that other 81% percent, the thought of creating a personal brand for your real
estate business might sound intimidating. Luckily though, you don’t need to be a technological
guru or expert marketer to successfully generate results.

If you haven’t yet begun focusing on your personal brand, here are three tips to help get you
started:

1. Know Your Competition

A savvy businessperson would never jump into a venture without doing their fair share of due
diligence. When it comes to establishing your personal brand as a real estate professional, your
logic should be no different. Begin by researching what your competitors are doing and how
they’re marketing themselves, taking special note of the popular niches being targeted in your
area.

2. Clearly Define Your Brand

After you’ve researched the opportunities in your market, you need a clearly defined brand to
set yourself apart from other agents. Be sure to identify the core demographic you’re targeting,
the most promising neighborhoods to focus on, and the unique advantages that give you a leg
up on the competition.

3. Simplify Your Slogan

Your slogan should be much more than a marketing gimmick – it should highlight your unique
selling proposition in a concise manner. Here, you should forgo generic phrasing and aim to be
as specific as possible. For example, “Toronto Real Estate Expert” does nothing to set you apart
from the thousands of other agents in the city. On the other hand, “Rosedale Sellers’
Specialist” makes it obvious that your focus is on working with sellers in the upscale Rosedale
neighborhood.

Marketing Your Brand

Once you’ve firmly identified and begun developing your personal brand, the next thing that
you should be focusing on is marketing yourself and your newly defined brand. You need to
present yourself in a way which shows that you have what it takes to meet the needs and
expectations of prospective clients.

1. Present Yourself as an Expert

Branding isn’t going to be enough to grow your real estate business on its own. You also need to
be able to back up your marketing and showcase the expertise that you’re claiming.

For example, if you want to be known as an expert in high‐rise condos, you need to learn as
much as you can about the residential buildings in your area and share that knowledge every
chance you get – whether it’s helping a client choose the right property for their needs and
budget, or sharing interesting local condo statistics through social media.

2. Focus on Your Clients’ Successes

This may sound a little blunt, but most of your clients aren’t going to care about your past
accomplishments – they’re only concerned with what you can do for them. Rather than promoting yourself by talking about how you closed 75 deals or did $20 million in sales last
year, point out client‐friendly statistics, such as how your sellers closed 20% faster than the
local average, or that your listings sold for an average of 98% of the asking price.

3. Stay Consistent

As a real estate agent, it can be hard to turn down a good listing. But if you’re committed to
growing your personal brand, you have to remain consistent. If you want to be known for selling
high‐rise condos, then that’s exactly what you should focus on. Rather than diluting your image
by taking on properties that aren’t in line with your message, consider referring these
opportunities to other local agents instead.

Best Practices for Building Your Personal Brand Online

While there’s no doubt that offline marketing can still put you in contact with potential clients,
today’s buyers and sellers are increasingly turning online to find the information and assistance
that they need. Over the past four years, real estate related searches on Google have increased
by 253%. Furthermore, 90% of home buyers use the internet at some point during the home
buying process.

If nothing else, this should serve to reinforce the fact that having a well‐developed brand and
strong online presence should be important to any real estate professional.

1. Personal Website

Your personal website is the backbone of your entire online presence. When prospective clients
search for you, it’s probably going to be one of the first things they see. Your website’s sole purpose is to promote your brand and business, and as such it should be designed to generate
results.

What kind of information are your clients looking for?
Make sure you’re providing content that is valuable to your target demographic, whether
it’s current local trends or the best ways to stage a luxury property.

Provide Useful Content –

Your website gives you free reign to promote yourself, and you should be taking advantage of the opportunity. Get feedback from satisfied clients and prominently display the endorsements for your visitors to see.

Highlight Your Strengths with Reviews –

Getting people to visit your website isn’t enough to build your business – you also need to convert them to clients. This is much more difficult to accomplish if you’re making it tough for them to reach out to you. If you want to generate leads, make sure there are plenty of forms and calls to action to motivate visitors to contact you.

Make it Easy for Visitors to Contact You –

2. Social Media

Social media has made it much easier for the average real estate professional to increase their
exposure without drastically increasing their marketing budget. Although it’s next to impossible
to keep track of all of the social media platforms out there, the most popular sites to focus on
include Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Success with social media means keeping your
fans, followers, and connections engaged. Instead of treating social media solely as a
vehicle for advertising, commit to sharing valuable content that your audience will
want to read and share with others.
Share Things People Care About –

Connect with Other Professionals – Social media isn’t just for connecting with
prospective clients. It can also be a great resource for building mutually‐beneficial relationships with other local industry professionals.

Managing your social media profiles can take up a lot of your
time, especially as your business grows. Luckily, platforms like Contactually and
Hootsuite make it simple for the busy agent to manage everything from one
centralized dashboard.
Tie It All Together –

3. Online Reviews

We already know that buyers are looking for well‐respected agents that they can trust. As such,
it’s no surprise that online reviews have become one of the best ways to build your brand.
When it comes to choosing an agent to work with, two out of every three buyers will conduct
extensive online research beforehand. This makes having a positive presence on review sites a
must for the serious professional.

Consumers trust online reviews because they’re
unbiased and based on real experiences. Encourage your past clients to leave
legitimate reviews for you, and avoid putting yourself in the questionable position of
asking friends or family members to leave feedback for you.
Encourage Legitimate Reviews –

You’re not always going to make everyone happy. If one of your past clients leaves a negative review, refrain from lashing out or acting unprofessionally in the public eye. Instead, thank them for posting their honest feedback, and work to either rectify the situation, or prevent a similar one from occurring in the future.

Watch What You Say –

When you’ve built a great online reputation, you should try to share it with any many people as you can. Linking positive reviews to your personal website or social profiles can be a powerful marketing tactic and can help unify your entire online presence.

Be Proud of Your Reputation

Taking Action to Build Your Brand

At the end of the day, your personal brand is going to continue to define itself whether or not
you intentionally contribute to its development and growth. If you want to set yourself up for
success (and apart from the other agents in your area), you need to take control of your
personal brand and frame it so that it fits in with your professional goals and ambitions.

With consumers having such widespread access to information, one of the most dangerous things to your business isn’t having a negative online reputation – it’s having no real online presence at
all.