If you’ve spent any amount of time trying to come up with great real estate branding, you’ll eventually reach one conclusion: Building a real estate brand is HARD. Really hard. If you want to build a brand that lasts, you’re going to need some help.
That’s why we decided to put together this ultimate guide to real estate branding for 2022. We review a step-by-step formula for building a memorable brand, give you some case studies of great real estate brands and explain why they work, and finally, we offer you branding tips from industry experts.
What Is Real Estate Branding?
Real estate branding is a strategy that realtors and brokerages use to communicate their mission, vision, and values to a target audience. The core components of a brand generally include a logo, tagline, brand colors, mission statement, and overall design language. A great brand helps consumers stand out from the competition and can help increase sales.
How to Build a Real Estate Brand That Lasts: A Step-by-Step Guide
Believe it or not, the process that marketing professionals use to build a brand is very simple. Don’t let the simplicity of the process fool you, though—branding takes hard work, and many startups struggle from the first step. If you’re ready to take branding seriously, here are the steps you need to take:
1. Discover Your Mission, Vision & Values
Mission, vision, and values (MVV) are at the core of every great brand, whether they know it or not. So if you want to build a brand, you need to take the time to discover your MVV.
2. Gather Inspiration From Successful Real Estate Brands
After you’ve nailed down your MVV, the next step to building your brand is to study great real estate brands for inspiration. Start by gathering branding elements of local agents and brokerages you’ll compete with, then branch out to franchises or even brands that are outside of the real estate industry.
The best way to organize branding inspiration is to create a “swipe file.” Gather brand elements that you like into a centralized file. When you’re done, you should have a compilation of logos, taglines, brand colors, social media posts, real estate website screenshots, and any other brand elements that inspire you. Now when you hire a graphic designer to work on your logo, you can simply send them your swipe file for creative direction.
Here are some valuable resources to get you started:
- Best Real Estate Slogans & Taglines
- The Best Real Estate Logos 2021
- The Best Real Estate Business Cards 2022
- Worst Real Estate Business Cards
- Best Real Estate Agent Websites
3. Create an Actionable & Realistic Timeline For Building Your Real Estate Branding
That which gets measured gets improved. It can take years to build your brand, but creating a timeline with realistic goalposts to reach along the way is a crucial step in this process. The idea is to turn building a brand from a “wouldn’t it be great!” daydream into a concrete plan.
Setting monthly and quarterly goals will probably give you enough pressure to keep you motivated, but not overwhelmed. Just remember that like most long-term projects, building a brand will probably take longer than you think it will. However, if you give yourself enough time to build your foundation with a solid MVV, the rest of the process should go relatively quickly.
Here is a sample brand building timeline starting on January 1:
| Branding Element | Deliverable | Due date |
|---|---|---|
| Mission Vision & Values | MVV Statement | 7/1/2022 |
| Inspiration Swipe Files | Logo swipe file, slogan swipe file, social media swipe file | 8/1/2022 |
| Find a Freelance Graphic Designer | Freelance offer | 9/1/2022 |
| Completed Logo | Print and JPG logo files | 10/1/2022 |
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