Watch: How to build a memorable brand identity as a property professional

Julie Ford (00:04.526)

So I’m going to be talking to you a little bit about building your brand. And what we’re not going to be talking about is how you sell yourself out there in a logo or something like that. We’re going to be talking about building a brand personally.

So as has already been said, I’m a commentator on the TV for property, mainly GB News, but I have just finished filming a podcast with Martin Lewis, which was dedicated specifically to renters. Obviously we had the renters reform bill that was just about to come through. Thankfully that’s now gone in the shredder, so we don’t have to worry about that anymore. So what we’re going to look at is identifying your own personal unique selling point.

We always talk about what does your business do, what does your company do, what does that stand for? But the most important thing is what you stand for. So understand why you are different, how you’re different. Let’s face it, when we’re looking on social media and we’re talking to people who are in property, it’s everybody is the same. When you walk down a high street and look at the letting agents or estate agents windows, they all look the same. If you take the branding off, they could pretty much be anybody.

So what makes you different? What makes you stand out from the HMO person doing HMOs next to you? Understand that nobody’s actually interested in your success. Yes, getting your success stories out there is important because that’s how you show you’re good at what you do. But what they actually want to hear is how can you solve their problem? Your client wants to know that the problem they have right now can be solved by you.

Yes, get your success stories out there, but turn that success story around on your socials by saying, I had a tenant who wasn’t paying rent. Rather than just give the problem to the landlord, we did this, this, and this. Is your tenant not paying rent? This is how we can help you. So you’re changing your success by actually understanding your client or potential client’s real problem and showing you can solve that before they’ve even got the problem.

Julie Ford (02:11.936)

Understand that you need to match the ethos and values that you have to your potential clients. It’s really easy to synergize with somebody that already has the same understandings and thinking as you, but it’s really hard to get that across sometimes when we don’t know somebody personally. Again, talk about these different things when you’re doing your social media or when you’re doing any of your marketing. That will attract people from different audiences that you may not have engaged with before.

And the importance of that is you’re spreading yourself out and engaging with the people that you really need to. Getting outside of your comfort zone. Now, everybody in this room is comfortable in property. It’s our safe place. We can do it in our sleep. Get us in a room talking about property and we’ll talk about property all day. What if you’re not talking about property? That’s when we start feeling a little bit uncomfortable. But uncomfortable is good.

It encourages us to engage with different people, different audiences. When you’re networking, make sure that you’re looking for networking events that are outside property. Let’s face it, I’ve been in this industry 30 years and I’ve probably been to every property networking event. And you see the same faces at every networking event. And you’ve heard their stories 30 years long. The important thing is, go to different types of networking events. Go to business events.

Everybody in that room has got money or an interest in property and may not know they have that interest. So then it’s important, again, you’re putting yourself into a different audience. They’re going to engage with you because maybe they haven’t understood property and now they’ve got an expert in the room that they can talk to. When you’re doing your videos for social media, I think the best ones out there are the ones where you haven’t gone back and recorded them 20 times to get them perfect. The ones with errors in the blips, the bloopers.

They’re the best ones because it shows your honesty, you’re believable, and it builds trust, and that’s subconscious. Because people out there that are going to come and be your clients are going to think, well, actually, if they do mess up, they’re just going to own up to it, fix it, and get on with it. And that’s really important. If you’re completely perfect, no one’s going to believe that. The other thing I like to do is set Google alerts on my phone. That means I’m the first person to know if something’s breaking in the industry.

Julie Ford (04:30.004)

And then I’m one of the first people out there commentating on that in social media. Rather than waiting for it to be in an industry magazine or somebody else’s website, I’m already the first one talking about that. That shows I’m ahead of my game and ahead of my competitors.

Build a strong industry presence. I mean, that’s important and we all know that we have to do that. It’s again, talking about standing out from the crowd, standing out and looking different to the person who’s doing exactly the same thing next to you. Write regular articles in property industry magazines, for example. That’s really easy to do. A lot of these industry magazines are always looking for features content writers. You can get your industry name out there.

You’re doing it from the comfort of your own home without having to put yourself under too much pressure. It’s really easy way to get yourself out there. Local radio, actually where I started. I lived in Hemel Hempstead and we had an online radio station called Decorum Radio and I had a property show on there, which was a phone-in show and it was for an hour every week and people were just ringing with their property problems. I would solve their problems for them online. So that got me out there in the community and then of course people are then reaching out. My agency got…

more publicity, and it’s all free. Local radio is always free unless you want to advertise. So rather than spending all the money on advertising, get your own show on there. That’s the best advertising you can have.

Give content for free. Now what I mean by that is for now. If you’re building your brand and getting yourself out there, give as much as you can away for free in content so that people get to understand what it is you’re talking about, what you have to bring to the table. Then once you’ve built yourself up, that’s the good time to start putting it into some kind of package to actually sell on.

Julie Ford (06:22.44)

Social media is very powerful, as we all know. And it’s important to tag the right people when you are putting social media out there. We all put hashtags on stuff, that’s great. But if you want to get your message across or be seen by a certain person, make sure that you’re tagging them in your social media. So if I’m breaking a story, for example, where I live in Bedfordshire, something’s happened, so we’ve just had the big thing of Universal Studios wanting to build their…

their biggest studio back here in Bedfordshire. So we were breaking that on social media, but I wanted to make sure the bigger media knew about it. So I was tagging in the Times, the Daily Mail, those sort of things. So they were seeing what I was talking about. And I did actually get an article in the Evening Standard because of it.

Now, what you want to be is everybody’s go-to person because that’s the important bit. They want to be coming to you and not going to your competitor or somebody else down the road who just happens to be shouting louder than you but may not be doing it as well. Build your profile to be an expert. Now, you can do that in any field that you want. If it is property, pick a specific area. Mine’s legislation. I love legislation. I could talk about it all day long. I won’t start now. I won’t stop.

But that’s all I am interested in. I love it. A new act coming through Parliament. I am there with my highlighter pens and my post-it notes and I’m a happy girl. Choose what makes you happy. In property, there’s loads of areas that you could specialise in. And again, make solving the person’s problem, even if they don’t realise they have it yet, solving the person’s problem needs to be your new mantra. And remember to peddle your unique selling point, not necessarily the services that you have to offer.

Make your own opportunities. Now, speaking at events like this is fantastic because it does get you great exposure. But if these events aren’t available or they’re already fully booked, make your own. I started a lettings and management event in my own area of St. Albans and Hemel Hempstead and I’ve now been running that event for 14 years. I average 100 attendees a month for my events. I can get to speak at my own events because they’re mine. Create your own.

Julie Ford (08:39.156)

If you haven’t got a networking event in your area, create one. Be your own speaker. Make sure you get the local paper there. You’re doing something for your industry, in your area. Get as much exposure as you can for yourself.

And just leave you with these two things. The two that I feel are the most important things when you’re building your own personal brand is visibility and credibility. Because without either of those, you will fail, unfortunately. So make sure you’re visible for all the right reasons and make sure that visibility gives you credibility, which builds your trust and obviously gets you more clients. Thank you.