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Real Estate Branding: A Complete Guide

Real Estate Branding: A Complete Guide

Real estate branding is one of the most important ways to set yourself apart. After all, you’re one of 2 million active real estate agents in the United States right now.

Your real estate business wouldn’t exist if you couldn’t reach potential homebuyers and sellers. Reaching more of them starts with the way you present yourself and your business to the world—your branding.

We’ve created a detailed real estate branding guide to help you reflect your expertise and reach more clients with a few tried-and-true techniques that will take your local and online presence to the next level.

We’ll start with branding, what it is, and why it’s time to update or create yours. We’ll also share some real estate branding ideas and strategies you can implement to be more successful.

What Is Real Estate Branding?

What is real estate branding graphic against blue background with a screenshot of the platform on a silver laptop screen

Branding encompasses every facet of your business that is “outward-facing.” Your name, logo, website, color scheme, content, and social media pages are all part of your branding, but your sales numbers from last year are not.

The best real estate branding keeps the client in mind. This includes demographics, what questions they probably have, emotions they might be feeling during the home-selling or buying process, and what kind of person they’d like an agent to be.

All while selling the agent’s expertise in real estate to them as a solution. That’s right. In real estate, an agent can best think of themselves as a much-needed solution for a client’s problem.

And just like there are different types of solutions for different problems, there are different types of agents. This means there are different ways to create a brand identity—how you want to be seen and known by others.

Every real estate agent or real estate team needs a brand and identity. We’ll show you how to develop a brand that accurately represents you and resonates with your target audience.

1. Write a Brand Mission Statement

Vision and Mission written on a graphic displayed on a laptop screen with a paper holder and lamp also displayed on it

Aysezgicmeli/Shutterstock

This is the first step, for a reason. And it’s not a step you should skip. Writing a mission statement will help you make clear, pointed decisions about your real estate brand moving forward because you’ll have a document to refer to.

There are many companies with great branding. However, here are some of our favorite examples:

  • JetBlue: To inspire humanity—both in the air and on the ground.
  • Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
  • Sweetgreen: To inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food.

A real estate agent’s mission statement might be “To help clients discover a house that feels like home.” If it helps, think of your brand’s mission statement as a tagline you’ll write about yourself as a real estate professional.

Take a little time to brainstorm and get your mission statement right. It can be an excellent guide as you work on building your brand.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

Image for target business, marketing solution concept as the image for a piece on real estate branding

Olys/Shutterstock

With a good mission statement, you can begin to narrow your focus and think about who you’re serving. You cannot build a strong real estate brand without knowing your target audience.

What clients do you typically serve, and why do they choose you? What kind of solutions are they looking for? How can you provide them?

To be successful in real estate, you must always and consistently put your clients’ best interests first. When you do, your personal needs will be realized beyond your greatest expectations.” -Anthony Hitt

Maybe you are known for your expertise in selling a real estate idea or vibe, like luxury lakeside real estate or quaint country living. Perhaps your focus is on practicality and local living. Or, you might simply target a certain geographic area. 

In any case, you have to make your brand messaging “speak” to the clients you want. This includes the colors you use, the way you write in your marketing materials, and the topics you focus on when connecting with potential clients. 

Get the Visuals Right

Your color scheme, logo design, font choices, and website design all work together to develop your visual brand. This is how people will view and remember you. It only takes a tenth of a second for someone to make a judgment about your brand—good, bad, or ugly.

Color Scheme

Your task is to find the right colors and logo to build this visual brand around. According to Flashmarks, these are some of the emotions and feelings associated with each color:

  • Red: Bold, exciting, youthful, active, power, confidence
  • Orange: Optimistic, warm, impulse, social, spontaneous
  • Yellow: Joyful, friendly, cheerful, wise, and optimistic
  • Green: Balance, clarity, health, nature, wealth, safety
  • Blue: Ambition, goals, self-sufficient, determination, spirit
  • Purple: Original, compassion, creativity, respect, unconventional
  • Pink: Possibilities, feminine, long-term, love, nurture, unconditional
  • Black/White: Balance, calm, neutral, luxury, lasting, mystery, formality

Which colors seem to promote the values or emotions you want associated with your brand? For example, red could be an excellent choice because it conveys excitement and confidence.

These are two things any real estate agent would be happy to have associated with their brand. The classic black and white color combination may be a great choice for an agent specializing in luxury or modern homes.

These colors will quietly promote the values they are associated with when potential clients see them in your branding visuals.

Brand Logo

Modern office workplace with digital tablet, notepad, colorful pencils, glasses, in morning

Kozirsky/Shutterstock

Your firm’s logo needs to echo the colors you’ve selected while further shaping your brand as a real estate agent. There are man varieties of logo design styles to choose from.

But your target audience and brand’s mission statement can help you narrow these down to find the perfect logo.

There are four basic types of logos:

  1. Icon: A logo primarily composed of a symbol or icon, like the Nike logo.
  2. Lettermark: A logo primarily composed of stylized initials or letters in the font of your choice, like the Louis Vuitton logo.
  3. Wordmark: A logo primarily composed of a brand name written out fully in a certain font, like the Coca-Cola logo.
  4. Combination: A logo equally composed of a symbol or icon with a wordmark or lettermark, like the McDonald’s logo.

You can choose whether to pay a graphic designer to create a few different logo ideas for you based on your colors, font choices, and ideas or make your own logo with software available online.

Researching industry logos will help you identify some fonts you really like and may want to use in your own branding.

Your logo will be front-and-center in your marketing materials. Because of this, it’s wise to let an expert handle this task to make sure your logo looks professional and inviting.

Website Design

The overall look of your website will serve as another visual brand support. It should go well with your logo and color choices. This ensures your brand has a consistent look.

A beautiful logo paired with a website that looks outdated or completely unrelated won’t do your real estate brand any favors. 

Remember, when visitors come to your website, they’re mainly looking for functionality. But they’ll certainly notice whether or not it’s aesthetically appealing and form an impression of your brand within milliseconds.

They’ll only give you a few seconds—in fact, visitors may form an impression of your site in as little as 50 milliseconds.” -Serenity Gibbons, Forbes author

That brings us to our next point: beefing up your real estate website. This ties your entire real estate brand together, so pay special attention to this section!

3. Rely on Your Real Estate Website

As an image for a piece on real estate branding, A computer, laptop, smartphone and tablet on a desktop workspace with real estate online responsive website on screen. 3d Illustration. All screen graphics are made up.

Georgejmclittle/Shutterstock

With a great color scheme and logo adorning your website, you’re still not quite there yet. Your website can be a lead generation machine for you to rely on if you utilize it properly.

Use Social Media

Social media and other platforms, while great to market yourself and help familiarize people with your brand, do not belong to you and don’t necessarily help build your brand.

The official goal of your social media accounts should be to send traffic to your website and landing pages. Although increasing engagement is important, it’s not the main goal.

Millions of real estate agents and realtors call Facebook home, and many use it to generate leads through ads and genuine engagement. These are smart strategies that have an important place in your real estate marketing efforts.

Make a Website

But when you fail to create a website and only use social media, you’re forced to compete with other agents. That’s not so with a real estate website. It’s one of the best platforms available to use as a lead magnet that lets you showcase your brand.

A homepage enables you to quickly show visitors your main idea. For example, luxury homes in coastal North Carolina could be your strong point. Your “About” page lets you tell a story about your brand and use your brand’s mission statement to back it up.

Write a Blog

Your blog lets you connect with more visitors, utilize SEO to bring more traffic to your website, cement yourself as an expert in your industry, and share answers to common questions your clients have.

To learn more about creating a website that supports your brand, check out our article on building a real estate website.

4. Set Yourself Apart

A group of real estate professionals running after a guy in dress clothes flying a box as a piece on real estate branding

Alphaspirit/Shutterstock

With a solid brand mission statement, your visuals designed, and your website filled out with great, on-brand content, you’re well on your way to creating an effective real estate brand. Setting yourself apart from other agents is the next step!

Why do you need to set yourself apart? You’re one among many, and the competition is tough.

According to the National Association of Realtors, there are 1,359,208 realtors. If you’re one of them, you should be mentioning this fact in your marketing materials and branding.

Or, if you have connections with the best lenders, mention this. If you’ve been the top seller in your brokerage for four years running, mention it in your marketing. Branding isn’t the place to be meek or humble. Whatever makes you stand out should be your focal point.

5. Invest in Marketing Materials

Finally, investing in attractive, high-quality marketing materials will help others view your brand positively and make a great first impression.

In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible.” -Seth Godin

Your yard signs, business cards, video marketing, and flyers all reach the eyes of thousands. Settling for subpar marketing materials will only hurt your brand and make a negative impression on those who see them. Anything less than the best is a waste of your marketing efforts.

Use your brand color scheme, font choices, and logo on your yard signs, business cards, and flyers. Hire a videographer to make sure your videos look professionally done.

Use special templates to create attractive flyers that will catch the eye. Go for the highest-quality business cards you can afford, so you’ll be proud to place a card in the hands of a potential client.

So, What Is Real Estate Branding?

In order to successfully sell real estate, you must first be able to sell yourself. That means creating a real estate brand that practically and visually calls out to the target audience you serve.

It also accurately portrays who you are and what you do, and it explains to potential clients why you’re different—and better—than the rest.

A great real estate brand helps you effectively connect with your target audience, and without one, you won’t reach your full potential as a real estate professional. What does your brand say about you?