The real estate brokerage model has its historic roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Unfortunately, some brokerages are still stuck in the “good old days,” with systems, processes and marketing that hasn’t changed much over the decades. If you want to be more effective in earning clients, recruiting agents and growing profits, it’s time to bring your real estate brokerage into the 21st century.
Branding Your Brokerage
Branding includes everything about the way you present yourself and your business, from the quality of your business cards, to the logo, to the font, to the company’s colors, and more. It means defining your core values and incorporating them into the way you do business. It means having an elevator pitch when people ask what makes your brokerage different from everyone else—and making sure everyone in your brokerage is an effective ambassador for your brand. If you have not yet developed a clear brand identity, it’s time to do so. If you’re not sure where to start, it may be a good idea to work with a marketing company that specializes in branding.
Updating Your Brokerage’s Technology
Clients today are busier than ever and they are looking for a seamless experience throughout their real estate transaction. The better your technology is integrated into your brokerage, the more effectively you can streamline the client experience. That results in positive buzz for you and your agents—and more referrals from happy buyers and sellers.
Content Marketing
Content marketing—blogs, video, podcasts, social media, and more—is an essential part of almost every industry’s marketing initiative, but it barely registers with most real estate brokers and agents. Each agent has different niches, designations and levels of expertise. That means each agent has something to contribute to the online conversation. Help facilitate and encourage your agents to create content designed to promote their own business—and yours.
Company Culture
How you do things, how you treat people and how you define yourself as a company—all of these are elements of company culture. Providing training, defining best practices and setting your agents up for success are all elements that contribute to positive experiences and outcomes.
What happens when someone makes a mistake? How do you treat your agents when they are going through a major life event—either good or bad? What happens at onboarding? How do you incentivize your top producers? All of these and more are elements of culture that can make or break your agents and your brokerage.
Rewarding Innovation
Newer agents, whether just out of school or career switchers, bring a wealth of insight and a fresh perspective to the practice of real estate. Some of today’s biggest names started out as newbie agents with good ideas about the use of video for marketing, social media for networking or workflow and efficiency for day-to-day operations. Take advantage of these fresh eyes and fresh voices to innovate and bring new ideas to your brokerage.
You don’t have to change everything at once, but being open to change—and welcoming some of the possibilities it brings—can make a huge difference in your bottom line and in your day-to-day enjoyment of running your brokerage.
Yazir Phelps is the chief marketing officer at Real Estate Express, a national leader in online learning for pre-licensing, continuing education and professional development. Yazir has over 18 years of experience in marketing fueling growth at Fortune 500 organizations and over 5 years of experience working directly with real estate professionals. Her extensive background in generating demand for products and services encompasses crucial strategies to a successful career in the field. To learn more, please visit www.colibrirealestate.com.
