If you’re a realtor, you know you have to build trust with your clients. Before they welcome you into their home —and allow you to commodify everything they love— they’re going to want to know that you have their best interest in mind.
What some people don’t realize, it may seem clear that a lot of this trust comes from reputation management and building a successful brand around your image. This often becomes easier the longer you stay in the game, but we know it can be hard for new realtors who are just starting.
What isn’t as obvious is that your reputation is built one small piece at a time, starting with recognition. If you are an unknown, why would someone trust you?
Without general community backing, it can seem almost impossible to break into the game. However, with the right confidence, talent, and good reputation management, anyone can find success.
The easiest way to establish yourself within a community is to launch an advertising campaign focused on getting your image out there and locally branding yourself. One way to do this is through real estate bus-bench advertising.
Why Bus Benches?
Today, almost every bus bench hosts the face of a realtor. Bus shelters, surrounding billboards, yard signs —pretty much everything else is fair game, but bus benches belong to the Realtor. If you’re wary about real estate, bus-bench advertising, you’ll have to accept that if you’re not advertising there, another realtor will be.
Bus benches are one of the safest outdoor advertising platforms because the print ad is often placed behind a clear screen for protection. This protects them from the seasonal damage that outdoor posters or other large print ads may face. What sort of image do you convey if someone sees a torn, waterlogged sign representing you?
Become a Part of the Community
Perhaps the most valuable factor in real estate bus bench advertising is that bus benches are tied to bus routes and public transit power communities. Creating an engaging ad that people see on their way to work ties your image to their commute and engrains your name in their mind. Suddenly, you create a local community with each of your ads. As people grow more and more familiar with your image and brand, they’re more likely to think of you when they need help selling their home.
Now imagine this local effect multiplied by ten. Real estate bus bench advertising comes with a large market, so you can choose to advertise on several different benches or home in on the spots where you want to grow closer with your community.
The number of daily impressions for each of your ads inevitably grows as you expand your reach, and you can count on your customers returning to the same spot every day. This will only cement your image in their mind and allow your campaign the repetition it needs to succeed.
When we talk about repetition, we’re talking about how many times a customer views your ad. Obviously, the more they see it, the better, but it’s important not to allow too long between viewings. The fact that your customers will see your ad every day on their way to work, in the same place at the same time, is a rare gain in advertising.
The repetition allowed in real estate bus bench advertising is part of what makes this option so invaluable and one of advertising’s best kept secrets.
What Do You Want to Achieve with Your Campaign?
It’s important to establish your goals for your campaign early on. The first question would be whether you’re using your campaign to launch a promotion or brand yourself. If you’re new to the game, you might advertise an unbeatable commission to catch people’s attention, but your clients will ultimately need to trust in your brand to work with you.
Realtors need to reach your potential clients while still in the awareness and consideration phases of their decision. The awareness phase is triggered when a client realizes they have a problem they need to solve. They’re aware enough to realize that they have a need —in this case, they need to buy or sell their home— but they don’t understand their options.
This is where real estate bus bench advertising really comes into play. As someone grows to recognize your image and becomes more familiar with your face and brand, they may be triggered to think of you when they realize they need a realtor. Otherwise, another person who has been complaining about their home for a while may be prompted by your ad to consider selling their home, and suddenly your image will be the first thing they think of.
Consider This
Most realtors know that selling a home can be a very emotional ordeal. This is why earning a client’s trust is so important, and in advertising, you can find the boost you need.
Whether the client realizes it or not, your campaign can build an emotional response within them through the familiarity they gain in seeing your image. If this is the case, they’ll be much more willing to reach out to you as they move through the decision-making process and shift from awareness to consideration.
At the consideration phase, your client knows they have a need and knows they’re going to turn to a realtor to solve it. At this point, they’re considering their different options and likely going to reach out to several realtors.
The positive branding that comes from real estate bus bench advertising may just be what gets you in the door, but it’ll be up to you to become the expert your clients need. Clients will often ask many questions when they try to find a realtor because they’re trying to find someone who matches the foundation of how they want to solve this problem. This conversation is simply a continuation of the brand you established in your advertising. The ad brought recognition that led to inquiry, and now you have to connect.
While many prospective clients may quiz you on your stats, process, and expertise, they’re also gauging your personality. Most people will go with their gut when it comes to such an emotional transaction, so it’s important to build a brand that’s not only trustworthy but true to you.
If you use your campaign to highlight the best parts of your own personality, clients will always be happy to learn more about you.
By Talitha Turkin