Sitting down to think about your property management branding is important. Your brand is more than a company name and a logo, it shows your values and expertise.
What is branding?
According to the American Marketing Association, “A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller’s goods or service as distinct from those of other sellers.”
If we think about car companies, they all produce the same product, cars. But those vehicles can be very different, and the way you think about each company is different. Think about a Ferrari and then a Chevrolet, they’re both cars but their branding is very different.
What we’re going to do in this article is to explore how you can apply the same concepts to your property management branding.
Who is your audience?
Current Clients
If you have a property management company that’s up and running, look at your list of clients. Think about what they have in common. It doesn’t matter what they have in common, so long as it makes sense. It could be geography, average age, or type of community. Consider if that’s the path you’d like to continue down or would you like to target different types of communities? As well as considering what they have in common, think about their pain points. Why did they all choose to hire a property management company?
If you don’t have clients yet, look at your potential clients and see what they have in common.
Competition
The next step is to look at your competition. Look at other property managers in your area. What niches do they fill? And what are their values? What does the branding look like for their property management company? Think about what their logos transmit to you – is it security, luxury, modernity or traditionalism, or something else?
Then look at your company, how are you different to the competition? Why do clients pick you or why they should they pick you? What do you want to focus on, and what is important to you and your business?
What is your focus?
Having a niche or a specific focus will help your company become the best at that. If you try to do everything, you won’t please everyone. You don’t go to MacDonald’s expecting soup or great wine, their niche is fast food, and they do it well.
Pain points
One activity is to look at your audience’s pain points. These are specific problems that your audience face, for example all the companies available are very expensive or busy.
Talk to Clients
That means you can ask current clients why they decided to work with you, and not a rival management company. For instance, clients often tell us that our responsiveness and service persuaded them to choose us. and the reason they chose your company can help identify your focus.
If you don’t have any clients, try to identify what is missing from property management in the area, and how you can help fix the problem.
Focus on your passions
Your property management branding can include something your passionate about. For instance, providing the best service or being the fastest company to respond. Some companies slide into a gap in the market without realizing it and others identify one first and then hone in on it. This should be reflected in your logo, slogan and presentation.
For Example:
So, if you live in a small town in the mountains, and you focus on rural properties, your logo shouldn’t have a high rise builing. If it does, your clients won’t identify with you. They’ll think that you want to work with large city clients, rather than them. In this case, your branding should include mountains, a cabin or something similar. You’ll want to refer to the great outdoors or the wilderness in your slogan or pitch.
What do you value?
If you don’t already have values, think about what you value as a company. What do you always try to deliver? What attitude do you all have towards customers or work in general? What makes you unique from other property management companies in your area?
It’s a hard exercise but it is worthwhile, and you will find that some values will resonate more with you and the whole team. If you don’t have a team, you can do it on your own. However, it’s important to remember that your personal values won’t be exactly your business values. Sometimes they will be, but not always.
Your values are important for your property management branding, and your company as a whole.
Cohesive property management branding
Once you’ve decided on your values and your overall brand, you need to apply it to everything you do.
Think about your audience and the tone that you need to adopt when you address them, then take that tone into every interaction with them. You also need to think if you want a company uniform so people can instantly recognize you, or if that doesn’t work for your brand’s style.
For Example:
If you’ve chosen to focus on condos for young professionals and to provide property management software for them, then your tone can be more relaxed. Your logo should be more modern and young.
If you focus on retirement communities, your tone should be more formal. Your text on flyers, leaflets or your website should be large and clear. Finally, your logo may need to be more simple and traditional.
Website & Social Media
Your branding needs to come across everywhere you appear. You also need to think about where your audience is, and what platforms they use. You don’t need to be on every new social media platform, you need to be where your audience is.
For Example:
If we go back to our young professionals, they are more likely to use social media. They may be on Instagram and Linkedin more than Facebook. Finally, websites matter to them, so your property management business’s website needs to be good.
Looking at our retirement communities, they may appreciate a printed newsletter from you. Older people are on Facebook, but they probably won’t read your blog, so maybe you don’t need one.
You and your company now need to apply your values to every single interaction with clients. Every single employee and customer represents your brand and they spread the word about how great your company is.
Conclusion to Property Management Branding
To sum up, when you think about your property management branding, you really need to think about it before applying anything. Your branding transmits a message to your clients and potential customers, so you need to know that you’re giving them the right message.
- Analyze your (potential) audience
- Examine what you focus on
- Scrutinize your company’s values
- Apply your branding consistently
To learn more about marketing your property management company, download our comprehensive ebook.
