How Real Estate Should Evolve Through Digital Branding

The real estate industry is going through changes; the global economy through the turmoil, and not all real estate giants manage to navigate it. Just look at industry veterans like Zillow, which has lost around $1.5 billion over the past few years.

Digital nimble real estate agents who have adapted and leveraged social media and blogging - stayed on top as they understand branding is a key ingredient in entrepreneurship - and even of the new stage of the employment economy.

Bill Gassett, Founder of Maximum Real Estate Exposure, realized early on that to compete with large agencies converting clients outside of their limited zip codes, he needed to embrace a digital brand and increase its reach: "Through proper digital marketing techniques, I was able to get my real estate content out to a wide audience. One of my favorite social media channels for distributing my content is Linkedin, where there are many years ago I started my own real estate group. Today it is one of the most active on the platform with 115,000 members."

To avoid being left behind, digitally brand yourself by following these steps:

Define your target audience

If this is your first dive into this sort of thing, a good method will be to find role models with those you've most recently helped. For example:

Where are they similar?

Did they all face the same problem?

Are they all in a certain age/income range?

Perhaps "coincidentally" your last 15 deals involved helping technical employees move. Maybe half of them are working from home now. These things are worth noticing.

After you begin to understand your ICP (Ideal Customer Persona), find other role models. It will be easier now because by searching for a yellow car you will find more yellow cars.

You may notice that most of these techs are from the east coast, moving west or leaving a specific state that you can target. This will help you organize your content around their pain; adjust your delivery filter, and even your ads.

Define who are you

After knowing who you are talking to, helping and selling to, it's time to look within. Who are you really?

You can start by asking yourself these questions:

What are my values?

How can I make the buying process easier for my customers?

If the tables were turned, why would I buy myself a house?

Do I have experience in the tech industry (or maybe your partner is in tech)?

Who am I, as a person? Introverted, ambiverted or extroverted? What are my hobbies?

Why should these people choose me? (what makes you more apt to help them)?

The more specific your answers, the greater the potential for value-aligned content, because at the highest levels of real estate, buyers choose agents based on their personality, vision and of their values.

Then it's time to change your mindset. The better you position yourself as a guide, helping the hero (your buyer/seller/tenant) achieve their goal (sell/buy/rent/rent), the stronger your brand will be. If your website's landing page, blog, and emails don't communicate this, it's an email issue. If it does, but it doesn't resonate, it's a targeting issue.

Consistency, feedb...