I’m really excited to share my perspectives and tips on marketing. Best part: I never went to school or have any formal credentials in the field. I’m not saying this for you to ask yourself “should I really trust Andres?” I’ve considered writing on this topic for a while and finally have, because so many have asked! Both young entrepreneurs and even people who are considered experts in the field have reached out to compliment my strategies and approach.
Do I consider myself a social media guru or the next Gary V? HELL NO! But what I am is a young entrepreneur who launched and grew his business through a strong social media presence. Over my years of branding and learning how to market, I have put together some tips to help strengthen your brand and market yourself to your audience.
When I started in Real Estate, I told myself that I wouldn’t be the typical realtor. (If you are a realtor friend, no offence at all- do your thang). What I mean by “typical” realtor, is the endless posts about sales, leases, data on the market…. blah blah blah. Though I think all the information is important, I have a different approach on how I share my information with my audience.
If I had to classify my brand it would be a mix of informative, inspirational and humor- committing to always showing up as my authentic self.
- informative: As realtors, our clients are looking to us for the latest statistics, strategies and trends. Our clients look to us as leaders to be able to inform and help guide them through this big and exciting decision.
- Inspirational: A quote that guides me daily: “ Aspire to Inspire”. Living from this place of humility and desire to serve and leave a legacy. How will I be remembered? Am I leaving a positive impact for the next generation?
- Humor- You may never remember that person’s name, but you certainly remember how funny they were. I read a long time ago that the best way to leave an impression is to make them laugh. We all need a little bit of laughter and to take ourselves less seriously!
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Find your Brand + your Audience- Branding and marketing depend heavily on who you are as a brand and who your audience is. Depending on the nature of your business and your audience, your message and strategies would be very different. Your brand, and the content you create is dependent on who you are trying to share your message with. The strategies Uber eats uses vs. strategies a gym would use are very different considering they are selling totally different things. I would suggest learning and focusing on who your targeted audience is, and fine tuning your brand and content around that. Strategic content creation is crucial to your online presence and engagement. My branding as a realtor is heavily focused on my personality (human aspect) and the audience (mostly millennials). I recommend researching your field and your competitors to gain more insight on how to brand and who to push your message to.
A quote that I use as a reminder and think would be helpful for other entrepreneurs to hear is: “If you conquer your neighborhood, you can conquer the world!” ( Yes, I know, Preachy Andres is present today lol)
Often times, we start to lose focus and think about spreading our message or products to the world, when really all we need to focus on is our neighborhood. What does this mean in terms of marketing? It means, work with what you got.
Here’s what that looked like for me- I started real estate at age 23 and with limited capital I had to find a way to make it work. I would market/advertise myself in various ways:
• Attend as many events as possible
• Message my whole facebook list
• Send out msgs via text, whats app etc
• Also back then facebook allowed you to “suggest friends” and there was no limit, so I got 3 of my most popular friends and borrowed there accounts to suggest all there people my friendship. Now facebook has a limit. (Special shout out to Alx Veliz, Nico P & Kris Toma)
• Did my research on what type of realtor/ presence I wanted online, now I am comfortable with my audience and know for the most part what types of posts/ stories they enjoy seeing.
Quick tip for other realtors: You can download your whole Facebook list. Now you have an entire new contact list to reach out to. You’re welcome! Second tip, don’t copy and paste the same message. Be genuine and focus on creating relationships- they could be your next client!
There is so much to learn about branding and marketing. If anyone tells you they know it all, they are wrong. The key to being successful online is to come with an open mind, ready to learn. New trends show up daily, make sure you are setting your brand up to be adaptable to grow with your audience. This means, if your audience is obsessed with a new Tiktok trend, join the obsession! Find a balance between strong content creation, and posting random stuff. Put yourself out there, test the waters, get dirty!!! (Sorry, I can get passionate about content creation!!)
Most important thing, have fun with it! Social media is meant to be a tool to help us connect and grow. Don’t take these apps too seriously! This isn’t about pleasing everyone, its about finding your audience and focusing on growing that community every day.