By Kim Cameron, CRS
About four or five years ago, I was attending an RRC summit with about 75 amazing agents, and I remember thinking, “I’m kind of bored with my business.” Not because I was so wildly successful, but because I was tired of my brand. I would get a listing, use the same templates and so on. People feel it when you’re enthusiastic and inspired about what you’re doing—and when you’re bored, they feel that, too. I needed a boost from other great REALTORS® to inspire me and prompt me to make some positive changes.
Since that time, I’ve rebranded my own business and taught courses at the Council that help agents do the same. This new course on digital marketing is an offshoot of that. Designed for newer agents as well as those who’d like to reenergize their social media presence, the three major areas of focus for the course include:
- Learning the difference between your personal brand and your business brand, and the appropriate use of each. There’s definitely a difference, and in digital marketing they can easily get blurred.
- Finding your voice and translating it into your business brand—be you.
- Learning the tools and techniques that make it easier to create your brand and manage your digital marketing.
Knowing the difference between a personal and business brand is important for any business. In real estate, it can be easy to lose the distinction, especially since we strive to build relationships with our clients. In the course, I’ll point out some dos and don’ts and talk about how to be consistent with each of your brands. For example, if someone finds you on LinkedIn, looking very professional, then goes to Facebook, and sees Little League and family reunions, there’s a disconnect there you’ll want to fix.
That being said, you will want to find your professional voice, so you can be authentic when you are presenting that brand to the world. Sometimes somebody will show you something and you think, “Well, I’ll just do what they’re doing.” Again, that might come across as odd when a potential client meets you and you don’t sound like your marketing materials.
This class is also going to introduce students to a few tools that make it easier for them to create their brand presence. For instance, the online platform Canva is useful for creating a whole range of communications, from social media posts to brochures and postcards. Once posts are created, Hootsuite can deploy them based on a preset schedule as far out as six months, so posts will automatically go out for holidays or other key dates. These tools are great for agents or their assistants who are managing a team’s marketing campaign.
Part of the class will be devoted to a workshop. I’m a huge fan of implementation, so during the last hour, students will be able to work with all the templates needed for day-to-day business, such as business cards, letterhead, brochures, a pre-listing kit or a buyer’s kit, and make them their own. They can take those templates, add their own logos and company information and create items in a digital format with an option to print on demand.
Students will leave class with a plan to work on their business—not in their business—and devote the time and resources to improve things. Take the time to imagine what your career will look like if you take one hour a week to put out social media marketing that is branded, systematic, intentional and purposeful. The sky’s the limit!
Cameron’s course, Digital Marketing: Build Your Client Relationships by Branding Your Business Across All Platforms, is available through RRC. Learn more about the class at CRS.com/catalogsearch.
Photo: iStock.com/Designer
