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Finding new ways to stand out in your local market is an ever-renewing challenge for brokers. Strong leadership, a support structure that uplifts agents, and being actively involved in the communities you serve is key.
At ICLV, Moderator Wendy Forsythe interviewed broker-owners Nancy Almodovar, NAN & Co. Properties and Ian Hoover of Deacon & Hoover Real Estate about how they leverage their brands locally while maintaining strong engagement from their clients and teams.
Here are 10 key takeaways to helping your brokerage establish a local footprint and unique brand amongst the crowd.
1. View your community as a key audience and make sure that you invite the community to all of your charity events.
2. Recognize that the community is what builds your business, and you need to reinvest into it.
3. Create a “Yes,” policy when it comes to charity. Ask yourself if this cause is good for the community and if you can afford it.
4. Balance charity work at your brokerage. Create a community involvement plan that creates direction for your team.
5. Create goals and match them against your profit and loss. Involve your team in making decisions with the budget you have to work with.
6. Resist the temptation to spend large budgets on one billboard. Instead, research branded swag items to give to your agents and your audience.
7. Partner up with local businesses to help you create a bigger boost your charity efforts. Build relationships with other small businesses.
8. Use your brand’s colors to help build your brand. Always wear your brand to help build recognition.
9. Keep giving back what you are able because it will come back to your business in the future.
10. Stay focused and keep working hard and saying “Yes.” Focus on the work you have, not the market to come.
The tactics for positioning your team as a local presence are not complicated, but it does take focus and hard work. Build recognition with the consistent placement of the name of your brokerage and enable your team to be hyper-involved in the community they serve. Supporting your team, your community, and other small businesses are the key to leveraging a stand-out reputation and business for years to come.
Watch the full video above for more tips and insights from Almodovar and Hoover and how they are making a real difference in their hometowns.
Rachael Hite sold real estate in Virginia and West Virginia for seven years with a specialization in short sales and foreclosures. She has been an office manager, an agent, mortgage marketing consultant and continuing education trainer for agents since 2012. She currently specializes in private business development and digital marketing services for top producing agents and businesses in the housing industry.
