Are You Marketing Your Future?
Most agents are ecstatic to get into the industry and start making a living as quickly as possible. However, most of the times an agent tends to pull the trigger a little too quickly in terms of branding their new business.
Creating your own brand as a real estate agent is very important. Having it focus solely on YOU is even more important. Agents leave their brokers in charge all of the time. Chances are you’ll move from Re/Max to Keller Williams to the latest and greatest thats offering you the best opportunity at that time. What you may not realize is you are branding the company you work for before you brand yourself. Its especially true when you’re starting out in the business. Those that have been practicing real estate for some time probably understand this already.
What does your email address read? Is it branded for you or for your agency? Are you branding Bellsouth the phone company instead? (Very popular in the south, yourname@bellsouth.net) – Every time you move or even relocate, do you have to change email addresses? Branding your email address as your business helps retain clients. They know how to find you and they won’t receive bounced emails if you change it. Having your own domain means having your own email address.
Website
You know where I’m going with this by now. Does your website URL look like this?
http://barbaraalexander.yourkwagent.com/
Can you imagine spending thousands of dollars on marketing materials, search engine optimization services, pay per click advertising to send traffic to that web address? What happens if Barbara leaves Keller Williams? All of those years of hard work and search engine optimization down the drain. All because of the little perk of a ‘free website’ provided by the agency. That agency isn’t dumb. They’ll simply redirect all of that traffic to their main site if she leaves.
At the very least, you should be branding your name as your domain name. And even thats a little suspect in today’s day and age.
“It’s not supposed to be about you. Its supposed to be about what you are doing for me.”
http://realestatetomato.typepad.com/the_real_estate_tomato/2008/02/is-your-website.html
(ps. no affiliation, just a great article)
So if you’ve been on the fence about branding your business, theres no time like the present. Start working on your branding now and once this market turns you may just be surprised how many people will remember your expertise because of how you branded yourself.
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