The Core Benefits of Public Relations — and How It Can Help Your Real Estate Branding
Before explaining how you can get your real estate PR campaign off the ground, let’s examine why it’s worth your time to pursue this tactic. There are many benefits for brands in using public relations to enhance their visibility — many of which are applicable to you, the agent — but these are the primary benefits to consider.
You can get assistance in gaining exposure for your real estate brand.
No one gets to where they want to be professionally without a little help. Sometimes, it comes in the form of a reference from a former colleague that helps you land a job. Other times, it’s a referral lead from another agent in your market. Similarly, when it come to public relations, you can leverage other people (journalists, TV/radio personalities, industry influencers, bloggers) and publications (newspapers/news websites, magazines, weekly/monthly newsletters) to become a recognizable agent in your community.
While it typically takes time to develop a solid PR strategy that generates buzz around your brand and positions you in the light you want leads to see you in, sticking with your community outreach plan in the long run will bring about numerous distinct benefits for your brand. Think of it this way: Just as persistence is required to “win” with your real estate search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, the same holds true for building mutually beneficial relationships that yield more acknowledgement of — and, if done right, high praise for — your company.
You can develop relationships with sources who have large followings.
Speaking of relationship-building, it certainly comes in handy to have connections who can regularly publish and promote your content and help introduce your real estate brand to an entirely new audience. The trick to building bonds with writers, editors, reporters, publicists, and other media professionals is learning what you can do for them in return.
The biggest benefit you can offer publications, blogs, and other digital channels is name recognition that will generate traffic for their sites and, in turn, advertising revenue. This means having an extensive online presence is paramount: The more fans and followers you have, the more likely you are to appeal to publications, podcasts, radio stations, and similar outlets who can share your information and content.
You can build and maintain your real estate brand reputation with help from PR pros.
Over time, as you develop close relationships with those who work for news outlets, respected blogs, and similar entities, you will notice big changes in your real estate marketing analytics (assuming you track all external brand mentions closely and routinely). Additionally, you will also likely notice that people recognize your name and that of your company.
Some people may know you from the local newspaper where you were quoted regarding home buying trends, a community charity event you sponsored, or perhaps a similar promotional endeavor you undertook in previous months. That’s the power of public relations: It helps you publicize yourself and your brand in ways that support your digital marketing foundation and lead more people to check out your online presence who haven’t done so before.
It takes effort to gain exposure both offline and online (with the latter taking slightly more importance given the age we live in), but these “bonus” marketing efforts can generate lots of traction for your business that may otherwise never come about without some savvy outreach.