Branding Challenge

Are Your Current Marketing Products Up to Snuff?

Are all your promotional products consistent with a branded style so people can easily remember you? If you are not getting enough phone calls, the problem isn't that there are not enough buyers or sellers but rather they simply don't remember your name. Read how branding can turn your marketing campaign into a lead generating machine that will give you a step above your competition.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of the buyers and sellers who receive your marketing literature. Maybe they have only seen a business card. Others might have also seen your For Sale sign. Hopefully many of them have seen a majority of your marketing materials. Try to be as objective and unbiased as possible to allow you to get into the minds of the people who you are targeting, the people who you want as clients.

What will they see? An agent without an identity? An agent who is morphing his company brand into his own? Or will the target market see an agent who has created his or her own separate identity, just like any business does. This is important because being a real estate agent is exactly like running a business. If you don't take your business and your business identity seriously, things might not go as you hope. Then again, if your brand conveys a credibility, trustworthiness, dependability and reliability, you'll get more leads.

Look below and honestly judge for yourself: do you have your own individual brand that is easily identifiable? Will someone from your target market - say Prospect A - remember your name? NAR statistics show that contacting someone 12 times compared to 8 times DOUBLES the number of responses. What that statistic doesn't tell you is that it will succeed at increasing those responses if all of the marketing products used to contact them had the same branded style!


Your Competition without Branding	Reaction from Prospect A	This is YOU utilizing BRANDING
	Both business cards look decent, branded or not. Both agents appear professional, trustworthy and credible. However, since this is the first time Prospect A has seen anything from the agent, he will not remember the agent next week - or the next day for that matter. Contacting your target market with just a business card is not enough for them to remember you. Further promotion needs to be made to achieve brand and name recognition.

	The following week Prospect A receives a JUST LISTED postcard. Prospect A might not remember your competitor because his postcard does not look anything like his business card. On the other hand, your postcard style matches your business card; he might remember seeing your card last week. The prospect still doesn't call since this has just been two times he's seen your materials, but he might - just might - remember your style (and maybe your name) - because of the branding you used.

	A week or two later the prospect walks through an open house in his neighborhood like he always does. Although he isn't really interested in buying this house, he likes to compare how his house matches up to this particular house so he can try to judge how much his house is worth. He walks through and grabs an agent brochure that was next to the front door as he is leaving. Upon getting home, he looks at the brochure for the first time. He might not recognize your competitor because his brochure doesn't match either his business card or postcard. Yours - on the other hand - does match your business card and postcard he received a few weeks ago. The brochure offers more physical space than a business card or postcard so Prospect A reads and learns more about you. There's a good chance Prospect A may recall seeing your branded style but still might not remember your name. After all, he's only been contacted by you three times so far.

	Two weeks later you decide to mail the entire neighborhood a letter providing some local news and housing sales statistics that might be of interest to them. Your competitor uses company-provided letterhead. While this is branded for the company, it doesn't help the target area remember him or his brand style (since he doesn't have one). The letterhead doesn't match any of his other promotional materials so there is a good chance people will not even know that they have already seen his business card, postcard and brochure; they all look different and, in turn, provide no consistent, easy-to-remember brand. Your letterhead, on the other hand, matches beautifully with everything else he's seen. Now he probably remembers seeing your style and there's a good chance he'll remember your name too.

	In another couple weeks you send another letter with coupons and savings that you worked out with some local businesses. Utilizing co-operative advertising has worked for you in the past and the neighborhood loves getting the special offers you've worked to get for them. In addition to the letterhead, the envelope you used is also branded in your style. While your competitor uses yet another company-styled envelope, yours is focused on you and reminds your target market that you care about them, that you are consistent in not only your marketing campaigns but also in the way you do business in general.
*What was the end result?*
	When it all boils down to it, people don't like taking chances when making decisions. They don't want to risk something unknown happening. People like working with what they know, feel and understand. By showing consistency in branded marketing products, they feel a connection to you that is stronger than other, non-branded competitors. They have a perceived relationship with you because of your communication with them, even if they'd never met you before. There is a reason why McDonald's is the most popular hamburger restaurant. Do they have the best hamburgers? No. Why are they #1? Because people know exactly the quality and service they will receive when going into any McDonald's. People make decisions based on what they know and people stick to McDonalds. That is their brand of choice because McDonald's has always stayed consistent in their products, their services, their quality and most importantly their brand identity. Would you believe that more people in the world recognize the McDonald's logo (the golden arches) more than the Christian Cross? Yes, it's amazingly true - and it all comes from branding. Now imagine you were the McDonalds of real estate; everyone knew your name and knew what to expect when they talk and work with you. Would you like to be the McDonalds of real estate? Start with a branding package that will get you on the path to greater name recognition, increased leads and ultimately more financial success. If you want to get started with branding, check out the Marketing Made Easy Branding Package. If you have your own personal graphic designer or marketing department, just make sure they utilize consistency across the board so it's easier for your target market to remember you.