Don't Miss Out on Real Estate Success: Master These Three Essential Terms

The internet is a great source of information, but it causes so much confusion that comes along with it. It might be too much to handle if you are just starting your real estate journey and trying to pick up all the knowledge out there.

At REALTY KIOSK, we are passionate about brand development and dedicated to real estate professionals.

Through our Journal, we want to bring brand development closer to realtors, answer our clients' common questions, and address all misconceptions about planning, developing, and living a brand.

In this post, we want to address three well-known terms that make your real estate journey's three essential business stages – the BBBs – or a Business, Branding, and Brand.

How you perceive these terms might help you get a clearer picture of your destination and how to get there.

All terms are commonly misunderstood and used interchangeably. So we'd like to explain the differences and why each significantly matters in planning your real estate business the right way.

Real estate business stages or terms

The BBBs – Business, Branding, and Brand – are three essential terms that mark certain stages of your business progress. Each stage or term follows the previous one, as illustrated in the image below.

Business registration, followed by strategic planning, development, and implementation projects, leads to a successful brand.

Why is the awareness of each term important to understand your journey better is summarized below.

1 — BUSINESS

Without much explanation, the first stage is registering your real estate business.

Business is the official entity registered for tax purposes – sole trader, company, organization, charity, etc. Elements of the business are those required by the law, such as the business name, address, company number, appointed director, tax number, etc.

Anyone can start a business; it is just a starting point of hard work that follows.

Some businesses never transform into (successful) brands. While some business owners don't care about their appearance, are focused on money-making only, or don't need to attract clients, others are investing thousands to millions to become the top brands in their industry.

Here is an example in the real estate industry. If asked to list top US real estate companies, brokerages or realtors, everyone would list more or less the same top 20-30 brands.

But if they print a list of all registered real estate services in their city, you would realize they have never heard of 90% or more of the companies listed.

If they need a real estate service now, they will contact 1-5 of those they like and trust after some research. Their decision is based on the brand that resonates with them the best. Being one of those few selected is crucial for your business to become a successful brand.

If one of those top US real estate brands they already know about is established in their local area, they will go straight to them. A decision is, again, based on the brands that those companies seriously invested in.

While not investing anything, other realtors who do, are securing their spot among those few selected by the clients they want to work with. Everyone else is left fighting for the remaining clients and properties that might not be their dream ones.

This is a guaranteed way to turn your real estate passion into an exhausting job you must hold on to survive in the market.

2 — BRANDING

Branding, verb = creative process.

Branding, noun = visual presentation of your brand.

Branding project, noun = creative service by a professional designer.

Branding designer, noun = graphic designer specialized in branding projects.

In the following stage, you'll deal with a long to-do list to transform your business into a brand, and branding ticks just one checkbox.

Branding is a designer's creative process of creating a visual presentation of a brand. A logo, fonts, and colors are three essential branding elements that an experienced designer utilizes furthermore to visualize a strategically planned brand story. At the same time, it will make your business appear professional, unique, and recognizable to well-fitting clients.

Branding will become visible to prospects and clients once applied to the print, digital, and physical content, such as stationery, client materials, website, social media content, outdoor signage, promo products (hats, t-shirts, bottles, client gifts, etc.), and even the interior design of your office.

Therefore, branding is just one of several projects for shaping a successful brand. Branding alone doesn't make your brand. It does not cover other tasks like copywriting, tone, client experience, marketing, or your personal image.

The most common client misconception is that branding makes a brand, saying:

"Logo, colors, and matching in style social media content makes my brand."

"I just need a logo to promote my real estate services."

Unfortunately, those are not factors moving you toward the successful real estate brand you’re dreaming about.

3 — BRAND

Brand strategy/plan/development, noun = project of strategic business and creative actions to transform a business into a brand (helping a business to become established in a specific niche and geographical/online area).

Brand designer/strategist/planner/director/developer/manager… = a professional specialized in strategic planning and developing brands.

If planned well and implemented accordingly, your business will grow into a successful brand in the next stage. Afterward, nurturing your brand and enjoying the hard work results is all there is left to do.

A brand is what others think about your business. It is a collection of various human senses and emotions that come together in someone's mind about your business. It's how others see your business, how others feel about your business, and what others hear about your business from others and yourself (smell and taste too, but that's more relevant for the food or perfume industry).

You are responsible for triggering positive emotions in the prospects and clients to win them over. How? With the exceptional brand story and even better client experience.

People are mind-mapping everything around themselves. How prospects and clients map your brand is solely up to you – as a poor business, average service provider, or an excellent brand they want to work with.

A brand is a proven #1 factor in attracting, engaging, and converting prospects into clients. Therefore, it is essential for growing the business profits.

Brand development is strategically, carefully, and professionally planned. A brand designer puts enormous time, experience, skills, planning, and creativity into shaping your values into a well-told brand story.

The story that will attract, engage, and convert specific prospects into well-fitting clients, all resulting in higher profits and everything you perceive as personal success - lifestyle, freedom, confidence, etc.

Do you struggle with building your real estate brand?

Remember, there are millions of businesses, but only 1% are successful brands everyone knows about and instinctively goes to.

Unfortunately, many business owners are entirely unaware of their business appearance, resulting in lower profits.

Obviously, a successful brand is or should be your goal. Once you know exactly where you are going, defining your journey route is straightforward.

If you struggle to plan your journey to a successful real estate brand, we'd love to partner up with you!

The best way to contact us is by submitting your Project Inquiry HERE so we can discuss your needs and see if we are a great fit.