Skip to main content

Patience: Brand Building's Cornerstone (Posted May 16, 2016)

About a year ago, our marketing guy started posting goofy stuff on a personal Instagram account on a daily basis.  His sources of material were either odd photos he took himself while out and about or something he found while cruising the ‘net.  An example of the former would be a photo he took of a gas station sign that reads, “Fried Gizzards/Livers, Non Ethanol (Pump 11).”  An example of the latter would be a meme that reads, “Another day has passed, and I have not used algebra once.”  Sure, these aren’t the heady stuff being discussed by political think tanks or tested at Cal Tech to disprove String Theory . . . but he found that if he went more than a day without posting something, he was getting short messages from friends and “followers” asking him if he was okay – more importantly, they wanted to know when he was going to post another weird photo or snarky meme.  Weird, huh?

So, a few months ago, he decided to try an experiment in the business arena along similar lines: he started creating small “ads” for the company and posting them throughout social media twice/day (once in the morning, once in the afternoon) Monday through Friday.  The ads usually consist of a photo, a short headline, and sometimes a little text – and best of all, they don’t cost a dime to produce and post all over social media where the outlets are practically infinite.  One of his particular favorites has a photo of two chickens pecking away at the ground with cartoon speech bubbles above their heads to indicate a conversation.  The chicken on the left says, “I keep telling Carl to check into his VA eligibility for his mortgage, but he’s too scared to ask.  He’s being such a ch. . . .”  And the other chicken jumps in to finish his sentence with, “Child.  I believe that’s the word you’re searching for.  A child!”  The headline reads, “You’ve EARNED your VA eligibility.  We’ll make sure we look into it.” 

After a month of posting these consistently, he would receive messages from different people if he hadn’t posted something by a certain time in the morning or the afternoon.  Like his goofy posts on Instagram, he had created an audience and a desire in that audience to see something on a consistent basis.  His purpose from the outset wasn’t necessarily to create a “fan base” but to create a presence for the company that made them recognizable and distinct – in other words, he did it strictly for branding.  Once he got a sense that his ads were taking hold in the social media world and the Priority brand was established (at no cost), he started reaching out to agents who are a part of his selected audience and asking them for a few minutes of their time – and it’s worked.  They’ve already gotten a sense of how different we are among mortgage companies from the messages and tones of the ads, so they’ve been more open to meet and learn what we can do for them.  The meetings aren’t a sales pitch – they’re a planning session on how we can help that agent. 


So, that begs the question for you as an agent: what are you doing to build YOUR brand?  That question leads to a second question: are you doing it consistently?  If you change your message and your image as often as a teenager changes clothes, you don’t have a brand – you’re perceived as a fad.  Sure, fads make money, but brands make fortunes.  Which do you want? 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Numbers Don't Lie, But Wherein Lies the Truth? (Posted November 21, 2016)

Said with enough conviction, you can make almost anything sound true.   Preface the fabrication with “according to a recent bi-partisan government study,” and you’re three quarters of the way to selling the lie to a lot of people.   Seriously, try this. The next time you’re at a dinner party or having coffee with friends, pepper this little tidbit into the conversation: “I read something really interesting the other day.   According to a recent bi-partisan government study – I think it took them three years to get it all done – middle-aged men who drive either a Toyota Camry or a Honda Odyssey have more testosterone than younger men who drive either a Ford F150 or a Dodge Charger.”   You’ll get some raised eyebrows and looks of mild disbelief, but don’t let that deter you.   Just lift up your hands, palms outward, and say, “I just think it’s interesting, and it makes sense when you think about it” – and then change the subject to something completely u...

Dumb as (or Smart as) a Box of Rocks (Posted June 27, 2016)

Obviously, you all want to know what Brexit means to the economy and the housing market specifically.   So do I!   But since my crystal ball is at the cleaner’s, let’s give the Brits and the European Union a little time to work out the terms of their separation and look at something else.   What’s a “fad ”?   With the help of Google, this is what I got as a definition: “an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived and without basis in the object's qualities; a craze.” In April 1975, an advertising executive by the name of Gary Dahl invented the Pet Rock.   The idea came from his sitting in a bar with some friends who were complaining about the cost and time required to take care of various types of pets.   He marketed his “pets” by placing a rock in a box cut and shaped like one you would get at the pet store to carry home a puppy or a kitten.   Along with the box and the rock, a booklet was included...

Left Behind (Posted April 4, 2016)

It’s highly likely that almost every single one of you already read the Yahoo! Finance article about the survey that Chase recently completed.   For the seven people who decided to take a nap under a rock last week, I’m going to share some of the major talking points here – the rest of you can step away and have an ice cream or paint your cat’s toenails.   First off, the survey shows that an ALARMING 68% of Americans are starting the home search on their own (gasp!) with 45% using a computer or laptop (as opposed to some other type of technologically advanced processor like a microwave oven) as the first step in this search and 13% using their mobile devices.   (In other related news from the Department of the Obvious, scientists have found that fish still have no use of a bicycle and looking directly at the sun is inadvisable.)   With numbers like these, we should just throw in the towel and join the circus, right?   Here’s the weird thing: in the ...