With so many high-quality developments all within a click or swipe, real estate branding is the most reliable way to differentiate yourself from your competition.
A well-built brand will drive exceptional value in any market.
But if your brand positioning isn’t tailored to match your customers’ personalities, you’re destined to be nothing more than noise to be tuned out.
Here’s how to start attracting the right people to your property.
5 Essential Rules for Real Estate Branding
It’s never been more important to differentiate your property from the competition.
A meaningful marketing plan based on great branding tends to be more effective because it’s designed to resonate with a targeted resident profile.
The return on investment for a well-executed branding strategy can easily generate high multiples.
Consider the revenue from a mere 1% increase in rents across a large multifamily property: Faster absorptions of units help offsets debt more quickly, and higher close ratios reduce staffing needs.
Here are 5 tips for getting started with real estate branding, along with some portfolio examples.
1. Know Thyself
Finding the brilliance behind your brand starts with a deep investigation into your project.
Great brands are revealed, not created.
Just like you might do some “soul searching” on a personal level, effective real estate branding requires the same type of deep exploration.
Start early and work with an experienced branding team that can objectively uncover what’s relevant.
Example: The Taft Building
Flux Branding crafted an authentic brand for the property that reflected the buildings true character. Working with the progressive brokerage Industry Partners, Flux created a new graphic identity based on historical research. The resulting visual language captures the spirit of creativity in the building’s reputation.
2. Curate Your Community
By curating a residence of like-minded individuals who share common values, the result is a spirit of harmony that appeals to a specific type of person.
This forges a personality that communicates intuitively while also generating a reputation maintained by the community itself.
When it comes to real estate branding, word-of-mouth marketing opportunities are key, especially in the form of online reviews. Generate enough talk that your prospects notice and trust you.
Example: The Variel
The Variel is a luxurious senior living complex in Woodland Hills, CA, offering a variety of programs from independent living all the way to memory care. Our team created a fresh look highlighting the myriad benefits of retiring at Variel, including five-star cuisine, top-notch amenities, workout classes, community, and individualized care.
The result is a location that not only seems enticing for seniors but could easily be mistaken for a vacation destination, positioning it as the leading choice in Southern California.
3. The Power of Design
Exposure to exceptional design is now elementary, thanks to unprecedented access to artistic content, creative publishing, and social sharing. It’s raised expectations for what lifestyle aspirations are made of.
The result is a far more astute customer who associates success with elevated design.
From interior finishes to the architecture itself, great real estate branding provides the initial visual appeal that sets the stage for strong emotional attachment.
Ultimately, it fuels a sense of urgency for new prospects to act fast. When appearances exceed expectations through inventive and remarkable design, a strong emotional connection forms driving a passionate response.
Example: Reaume Richardson
Flux created a portfolio book to be used as marketing collateral and a website redesign to reflect the new sleek and modern visual tone. The interlocking R’s of the logo is a nod to Reaume Richardson’s expertise as builders and their focus on long-lasting relationships with clients, partners, and staff.
4. Make it Experiential
As your prospects move through various digital and real-world spaces connected with your brand. Interactive, curated moments generate excitement which leads to a meaningful experience.
For real estate branding, property management can extend into event programming to encourage community interaction.
The result is an overall lifestyle experience that differentiates your development from the ordinary.
Example: OLiVE DTLA
Positioned to appeal to young, creative urbanites, we created a visual language that expresses both peace and progressiveness coupled with a PR launch campaign for an Artist in Residence.
We held a global search and the campaign received national attention as it served to represent developers and artists working together to bring life and culture to living spaces.
5. Dominate Digital
Technology has reshaped the way messages are delivered. This means that there’s an unprecedented opportunity to reach the right prospect at the right time.
While print still plays an important role in communications, new digital platforms have become the primary way to reach your prospect.
But the noise from low-quality, poorly-targeted digital messaging has saturated our attention, desensitizing us to recognize only the most relevant items.
Successful real estate branding begins by crafting a profile of your target resident’s behavior using a combination of programmatic advertising and paid search.
Then generate high-quality content that specifically relates to the targeted behavior. Make sure the property website is exceptional, invest in search engine optimization for natural search results, leverage maps and review sites, and maintain an active social media presence.
Privacy laws are extremely relaxed, offering unprecedented opportunities for programmatic ads based geo-targeting directly to mobile devices. Retarget prospects who show interest with display ads.
Example: Downtown Center Business Improvement District (DCBID)
The DCBID chose Flux as their trusted local partner to spearhead a strategic redesign.Flux undertook a comprehensive audit of back-end programming, user experience, and information architecture to determine the best route forward.
We created a site with a beautiful design and user interface, streamlined navigation, intuitive functionality, and seamless UX that is optimized both for users and for back-end analytics.
Strategic Branding is Essential for Differentiation
Successful real estate branding is about emotional engineering; it forges a consistent reaction when the people it’s crafted to encounter it.
When someone falls in love with your property, then the rational decision-making process is influenced emotionally.
This results in a sense of urgency, driving faster action as customers are motivated to avoid losing something they love.
We can help you build your brand into something extraordinary.
Contact us to discuss the possibilities.
Enjoyed this article? Here are three more to help you:
Home is a Feeling (So is Your Real Estate Brand)
Habits & Rituals: The Holy Grail of Branding (Part 2)
Clarity Between Cycles
This article was originally published in 2019, but has been updated in 2021 just for you!