REALTOR® Magazine Online: 8 Ways to Beef Up Your Market Share

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			*Marketing your brokerage* Analyzing the Business Climate
	Setting Marketing Strategies Analyzing the Business Climate Creating Your Market Identity Planning Your Advertising Coordinating Company and Salesperson Marketing Developing Public Relations Strategies Enhancing Customer Service		8 Ways to Beef Up Your Market Share 1. Practice multicultural marketing. For instance, establish an Internet presence in different languages. 2. Concentrate on service (servicing your clients as thoughtfully as a concierge) rather than market share. 3. Shift from egocentric to consumer-centric marketing approaches. 4. Replace personal promotion with property promotion. Change from bragging about "how great we are" to "how great the property is." 5. Change the emphasis from client follow-up to client creation. Focus on people who may want more real estate but have no real estate plan. 6. Forget slogans; work on systems. 7. Develop a full-service company with full-service salespeople. 8. Insist on technological sophistication company-wide. —Allan Dalton, president of REALTOR.com, in a speech at the "Power Brokers Forum" (sponsored by RIS Publishing) at the REALTORS® Conference & Expo, November 1999 How to Develop Your Brokerage Brand A brand is a name, term, symbol, design, message, or combination of those elements to expresses the essence of your business. An effective brand tells the world what your company is, what you do, and how you do it. At the same time, it establishes your company’s relevance to and credibility with potential customers. And it builds trust and emotional connections with your customers. Think, for example, of the many images and emotions that come to mind when you say the word “Disney.” When creating a brand, you want to imprint a perception of your company in your clients’ minds. Many independent real estate companies develop their brand around their founder or owner. Ask yourself the eight questions below. Your answers will help you identify key words that you can use to shape your brand and develop your branding message. 1. What is your role in the business? Owner? Designated broker? Selling broker? 2. What is your personal style? Open and easygoing? Conservative? 3. How do others describe you? Reliable? Efficient? Friendly? 4. What do you provide that is different from your competitors? Better service? Higher sales volume? 5. What are your natural gifts and learned skills? Financing? Negotiating? 6. What is your personal and business experience? More than 25 years of sales? Mortgage loans? 7. What do you value? Integrity? Determination? Loyalty? 8. Who—or what—is your target market? Buyers? Sellers? People seeking vacation homes? Adapted from Carole Nicolaides, “How to Create a Successful Brand for Your Business” ideamarketers.com,C.E.S. Business Consultants, and Elena Fawkner, “Branding Your Business,” on rivercitygroup.com,November 29, 2000 For more information on branding, see the Personal Marketing section. TIP: Base your branding efforts on marketing research. What key words are important to members of your market? What key words do your competitors use in their marketing materials? Choose a combination of words that will both appeal to your market and express the features that give your business a competitive advantage. TIP: Focus on achievable branding—an identity that you can actually support with fact and appropriate performance, rather than on “aspirational” branding—what you’d ideally like the company to be. For example, if you’re a two-person office in a large metropolitan area, branding yourself as the company with the most sales in the area cannot be supported by actual achievement, and thus will not be believable to customers. Creating Your Market Identity >

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