Most people think that branding consists of your logo and a slogan that you pitch on your website and social media. Jason Frazier, the founder of realestatecio.com joins me to talk about what branding really is, common misconceptions associated with branding and how real estate agents can build a strong brand that helps establish trust.
Do your customers choose your brand first? This question gets right to the heart of branding. Branding isn’t about logos or slogans. Branding is about forming a relationship with your customers — a relationship where they know your brand, they like it and trust it. Jason says branding is “what consumers say to other consumers about your business.” Do consumers know about you? If they do, do they like working with you? Lastly, but most important, do they trust you? These are the three critical pillars of growing a successful real estate business. Listen to the rest of the conversation to hear more about building a strong brand!
There has been a recent shift in how people approach buying and selling real estate. Everything looks the same, agents are all using the same techniques and pitches, companies are trying to feel more personal and individual agents think they need to look for corporate. Essentially, the real estate industry is being commoditized. Jason shares that a commodity just results in a simple transaction, but a brand creates an experience and a uniqueness that people will want to experience over and over.
For a long time, “branding” referred to your logo and slogan or the print material your company produced. In today’s camera-first world, logos and slogans are hardly relevant anymore, certainly in the real estate world. Consumers relate to people, not slogans. Jason Frazier says “the about page on a realtor’s website is the second most visited page,” a sign that people care more about who they are working with than what the company logo looks like. If you are a real estate agent publishing content, don’t worry about polishing the content or making everything perfect, your clients don’t care, I promise! Publish content, be personal and vulnerable, and make mistakes...it will pay off in the end!
Unlike your video and social media content, there are a few things Jason Frazier says every real estate agent NEEDS to do. “Take the time to set up a professional email,” Jason says. It’s easy for free mail services to be replicated by malicious parties posing as you, which can cause huge headaches and even potential scams directed at your clients. “I am not going to work with a mortgage lender whose email ends in @gmail.com,” says Jason, “it’s risky sending personal information over those channels and it makes it harder to establish trust.” He also recommends having your own website in addition to a corporate bio page, if you are working at a large real estate firm. This offers some flexibility regarding the look and feel, allows you to present your personal brand, and “travels” with you if you decide to leave that company. Jason also introduces an amazing software called G Suite, that allows you to streamline your process if you have multiple domains and emails to keep track of.
Integrates into everything, multiple emails, alias domains and other entities
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