There comes a time in any business cycle where growth and sales plateau. There a lot of reasons why your growth may have slowed or even declined, from macroeconomic events to shifts in niche markets and simply poor execution. It may be time to rebrand your real estate business.
Tom Ferry Cash Cow Growth Model
As a real estate agent or broker you are most likely all too familiar with expanding and slowing markets.
One aspect that many entrepreneurs often don’t consider as a factor is misaligned branding. Whether your brand messaging and design was off from the beginning or felt out of touch as industry dynamics changed, it can hurt your business.
For a refresher on why real estate branding is important please read our article.
This article will provide tips and resources on how to rebrand your real estate business successfully.
If your real estate sales have fallen flat it’s time to ask your customers what they think of your business name, slogan, logo, color choices as well as imagery and website via surveyClick To Tweet
Do You Need to Rebrand Your Real Estate Business?
When it comes to branding important decisions are often made in a hurry for small business owners. During the startup phase entrepreneurs are usually excited and quickly decide on a business name and logo just to get going.
During later stages business owners often make decisions to rebrand based on a hunch or simply wanting to “change things up”.
Rebranding your real estate business can be a resource and time intensive undertaking. Before you start changing any of your brand assets let’s find out if it’s actually the right move for you.
As a general rule of thumb if your business is expanding and you are hitting and exceeding sales targets it’s best not to change anything.
On the other hand if things have fallen flat it’s time to conduct a survey. Ask your customers and other stakeholders what they think of your business name, slogan, logo, color choices as well as imagery and website. The more data you can gather the better.
Once you have a large enough dataset do an honest analysis. If the data tells your there’s a disconnect between your brand and your target audience then it’s time to rebrand sooner rather than later.
Creating A Brand as a Start-Up
Maybe you are just getting started with your branding efforts.
The first thing do when when starting your brand from scratch is:
- Research your target audience and your competitors.
- Pick your focus and personality.
- Choose your business name.
- Write your slogan.
(Shopify)
1 and 2 is basically settling on your niche. Here are 50 real estate niches to help motivate you: https://www.jasonfox.me/50-real-estate-niches-you-can-focus-your-marketing-on-in-2019/
Here is some help with creating the right name for your real estate business.
While you are working on a name you should probably consider picking the right domain name at the same time. It will do no good to pick the perfect business name and not be able to get a domain name for it.
Rebranding Starts With a New Logo
Above are 3 examples of successful real estate businesses. The point of me adding them was to remind you that logos do not need to be mind-blowing.
Your logo sets the foundation and design direction for your entire brand. The creative choices you make here will determine how the rest of your brand will look and feel.
An important decision you’ll have to make is whether you simply want to tweak your logo or to start with something completely new.
If your survey data indicates that your branding is only slightly off you can get away with a few tweaks to freshen things up.
If you are looking to pivot from lets say residential to commercial or entry level to high end real estate you most likely will need a completely new logo.
Whether you are going to tweak or start from scratch make sure you take your time with the logo design process. You can either hire a graphic designer or use a free tool like the GraphicSpring Logo Maker to try different logo concepts.
If you want to have your logo professionally done I have had good luck with The Logo Company over the years.
Once you have a few design options that you like share them with your close circle and business stakeholders for feedback. It’s great if you like the logo but make sure to have an open mind to feedback.
Choose the Right Brand Colors
When it comes to rebranding your real estate business colors play a major role in how your logo and brand assets are perceived by your target audience.
Each color conveys a different message. For example red evokes passion while green conveys serenity.
To make sure that your brand colors are aligned with company goals it’s advisable to revisit your mission and vision statements. Once you know exactly what message your business stands for it will be easier to choose the perfect color scheme.
In addition to learning the meaning of different colors it’s important to learn which colors work together well so that your brandy identity is visually pleasing. If you don’t have a trained eye or education in graphic design you can use a color wheel to help identify complementary, analogous or triadic patterns.
A free color scheme generator like ColorMind can be an easy alternative.
Creating Your Other Brand Assets
Once you have decided on the right color scheme and logo it’s time to build out all of your other brand assets.
The color choice, logo layout, font selection and more should set the direction for all of your other company graphic design.
Many real estate agents make the mistake of being inconsistent when it comes to branding. You can stand out from your competitors by ensuring consistent use across all of your promotional and information platforms.
These days your most important promotional brand assets are probably your website, social media channels and business cards.
Having said that don’t forget about brand assets like flyers & brochures, pitch decks, and merchandise. You can have any of these items designed by a professional graphic designer or use a DIY application online. For real estate printing we really like Bear Printing.
Some of the large printing providers offer DIY tools to create your design before submitting a print order.
Implementing Your Branding Changes Properly
Rebranding your business can be a lot of work so it’s an exciting moment when you are finally ready to share your new look with the world.
What many companies do is they set a relaunch date and then publish everything at once.
Of course you can also do this in stages depending on your time and budget constraints. The important takeaway is that when you do publish your new look that you do it properly.
All too often you visit a real estate agent’s website or their social media pages only to see a blurry logo or cut off images. Whether you are uploading your new logo to your website or sending your new business card design to a printer make sure you understand the file type and dimension requirements. The most beautiful design will look off if the right files aren’t used.
Another tip is to use vector files in any instance where you are looking to scale your logo, whether that’s for a bus bench ad, large billboard or tradeshow banner. Vector files can be scaled to any size without loss of quality so you can rest assured your design will look great.
A Few More Tips to Look Like a Pro
When it comes to design it’s all in the details. To separate yourself even further from competitors pay attention to those details. Here are a few more tips to keep in mind when approaching your rebrand and design going forward:
- Limit the use of fonts: Your newly designed logo should contain no more than two fonts. Apply a similar rule when choosing fonts for your website, brochure, presentation, etc. Choose only a handful of fonts that pair well together and use those exclusively across all of your brand assets
- Be consistent with the use of icons: Icons can instantly elevate your designs. It’s important not to mix and match your icons however. Choose one icon set and use it consistently across all of your promotional material.
- Choose your images carefully: The use of images is essential when it comes to branding. It’s important to make sure your images are high-resolution and part of a larger set. Using images that are similar in tone and feel will give your brand a professional look.
You Should Keep Score
The purpose of rebranding your business is not just to give it a fresh new look but to ensure your updated brand resonates better with your target audience. After you have relaunched it’s advisable to gather initial feedback.
Similar to your assessment survey before the relaunch you can engage in direct surveying again to gather feedback from clients and other stakeholders.
If you are looking to gather general feedback at a larger scale you can use a tool like Google Surveys. It’s quick and easy to create a survey and you can upload several of your brand asset images and set a scoring system or open-end feedback form. You can then set the demographics for respondents and publish the survey. Note, there is a small fee for each reply.
Besides the initial feedback you’ll want to keep a close eye on your KPIs over the followings weeks and months. A successful rebrand should move the needle when it comes to new leads and revenue.
Conclusion
Revisiting your brand strategy from time to time is good practice that every business should implement. If you have been in business for a while and sales have slowed it may be time to rebrand your real estate business.
On the other hand if you are just starting out and struggling it’s also worth checking whether you rushed your initial brand strategy and implementation. As an entrepreneur in the real estate field you have a lot on your plate and thinking about rebranding can be intimidating, especially if you don’t have a graphic design background or a keen eye for design.
The tips and resources highlighted in this article will make this process a bit easier for you. Although this is a time consuming imitative it’s well worth it. Well executed branding can set you apart from your competitors and drive more business.
A key point to keep in mind is that any negative reviews should be what sparks constructive conversation and actions for improvement. This means getting to the bottom of some potential pitfalls in your existing business operations and turning a bad customer experience into a great one.
I read a report recently that people trust a review score with a little blemish more than a perfect score. They suggested you should have a score between 4.2 and 4.5.