This article was submitted by Tonya Eberhart and Michael Carr of BrandFace, a branding agency primarily for real estate, mortgage, and title professionals. The team at BrandFace is passionate about helping you develop your personal brand, which will influence your marketing message and help you win more business.
If you’ve been putting off personal branding, you may be using one of many excuses that we hear consistently. Whether you don’t think you have enough time or you don’t believe it’s necessary, we think you should know what it’s costing you. In fact, there are four negative consequences you’re most likely experiencing if you have not taken the time to properly define, develop, and display your personal brand.
CONFUSION
You cannot calculate the cost of confusion. You’re surrounded by shiny objects that you’ve been told will make you wealthy with very little effort. Sometimes it feels like you don’t even know where to start. Where should you market yourself? What should you say? How much money should you be spending? Your brand is actually what sets the tone and direction for everything you do in any kind of marketing. When it’s not clearly defined and when you feel like a deer in the headlights, it causes procrastination at best and inaction at worst.
FRUSTRATION
If you are like most people that we hear from, you’ve tried numerous marketing channels, lead generation platforms, and even a ton of coaches and trainers. But it seems as though none of them work the way they should. The first thing that many of us do is blame those marketing platforms, coaches, and trainers. But a lot of that is unfair blame. There are a lot of great marketing tools and fantastic coaches and trainers out there. Their job is to teach you how to use their marketing tools and systems, but it is not their job to differentiate you.
That’s where personal branding comes in. So keep that in mind when you’re so frustrated because you’ve tried so many things that haven’t worked. It’s most likely not the marketing tool, coach, or trainer that is at fault. It is the way you’re using it and how you are expressing what sets you apart. What is your message? What makes you different from everyone else who is using those same marketing platforms and systems?
OUT-MARKETED
When a competitor gets deal after deal and you wonder what’s in their magic sauce, you begin to feel defeated from a marketing perspective. This may come as a result of longevity in the market or simply being out-spent. However, most of the time the problem stems from the fact that your competitor’s brand is better defined. Whenever they market themselves, they stand out. These people are known for something, which means over time they attract clients because of exactly what they’re known for, and that’s when you get out marketed.
You can’t control all aspects of marketing. There will always be someone with more signs, more listings, and a bigger marketing budget. But having a well-defined, developed, and displayed brand can often catapult you ahead of your competition regardless of their length of time in the market or the size of their budget.
OUT-SOLD
The worst part of getting out-marketed is when the prospect actually chooses your competitor over you. You’ve not only missed the ability to get on their radar, but now it’s too late! So you’ve not only been out-marketed, you’ve been out-sold.
We realize this sounds brutal, but that’s what many people experience. If you haven’t focused on building your personal brand first (before you market yourself) you probably don’t truly know how to sell yourself, who to sell yourself to, or where to sell yourself. All of those things are dictated by your personal brand and what you stand for, which is why it’s critical that you spend time on those things first. If you don’t know who your ideal customers are, what sets you apart, and what significant value you bring to those customers then, how on earth do you know what to put into your marketing?
If you are ready to build your brand, go to www.DiscussYourBrand.com
Learn more about personal branding here: www.BrandFaceStar.com
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