How to Differentiate Yourself from the Competition
Are you beginning your foray into the bustling business of real estate in 2021? Perhaps you’re one of the many agents who have decided to refresh their branding? Either way, this is the perfect opportunity to develop a strategy that will differentiate yourself from your competition.
We recommend that you focus on establishing your value to your potential clients, refining your messaging, and taking a multi-pronged approach to ensure that your brand stands out from the crowd. As you work through your branding, either for the first time or as a redevelopment project, here’s how you can connect with your ideal market.
1.) Locate Your Niche Within the Real Estate Profession
If you want to establish a stream of incoming clients, it’s essential that you find a way to serve your target market in a way that’s an improvement, either to the process or the standard level of service they’re accustomed to.
It may be helpful to imagine that you’re a buyer or seller navigating today’s market landscape. If you were, what could an agent offer you that would make your experience noticeably better or easier? How could an agent really knock your socks off?
2.) Establish Your Strategy for Communicating Your Value
Once you’ve identified precisely how you intend to be different from your competitors, it’s time to make sure your communication with potential clients includes mentions of these exact services.
If you wait for word of mouth and depend on your clients to communicate your added value, you’ll be waiting far too long and more prepared agents will have a leg up.
3.) Refine Your Brand’s Voice
Your brand’s messaging should rally cohesively and consistently around your intended added value strategies. Anywhere your branding appears, it must be immediately identifiable with every other brand sighting. Furthermore, your branding’s essence must align with your proposed value.
For example, if you intend to serve millennials by showing them fresh-to-market properties in trending neighborhoods, it won’t be effective to use a kitschy font or outdated, DIY graphic design in any of your marketing. Instead, it will be worth your time to hire a graphic designer (who understands the aesthetic preferences of your target market) to craft and create your visual appeal.
4.) Market Your Services Aggressively and Effectively
Once your brand’s voice, image, and value are prepared, it’s time to market yourself across every available platform. In addition to fully leveraging your reach on all social media platforms, we also recommend utilizing print and traditional advertising mediums as much as possible.
Your brand should appear throughout your community, both electronically and physically, featuring:
Your font and cohesive color scheme
Your name and contact information
Your fresh logo
Your slogan
Optional: a short quote from a delighted client’s review
Keep in mind that psychological research has consistently proven that people begin to prefer options that are the most familiar to them. This “mere-exposure effect” can be your most reliable tool to establish or reaffirm yourself within your market.
5.) Take Every Opportunity to Strengthen Your Reputation
Once you have a steady stream of clients, it’s time for you to reinforce your positive reputation. Don’t hesitate to request testimonials from your clients! These powerful reviews can serve as your best advertising across both print and online platforms.
Almost all buyers today begin by researching their potential agents before contacting them directly. That means that every positive, detailed review is going to contribute toward you snagging new buyers and sellers.
We always recommend that agents remain in contact with their past clients. By checking in, asking how their new home is serving their needs, and remembering them at holidays or on their birthdays, you’ll continue to strengthen a connection that could lead to either new business, repeat business, or both.
6.) On Competition: Notice, but Don’t Mimic
While taking note of the marketing strategies employed by other real estate agents will most likely be informative, it’s important to avoid falling into the imitation trap. Remember to keep your focus on standing out from the competition; cramming yourself into an occupied niche will not serve you in accomplishing this goal.
Instead, continue to think outside the box, push beyond the usual levels of service, and establish your unique value.
Finally, we cannot overstate how important it is to connect with a mentor who can offer tips, encourage you, and offer honest feedback on your tactics. We at Parks Realty hope that you realize your real estate business goals in 2021 and beyond!