What is Positioning?
In marketing, positioning refers to linking the brand’s features and benefits with the consumer perception to differentiating from its competitors.
The main purpose of market positioning is to differentiate your real estate services from the competition. Additionally, by positioning yourself, you become an authority in a market space and become recognizable for solving the specific needs of others.
Ask yourself, “What problem am I solving?”
If you are a real estate agent, it is vital to adopt this concept to serve an audience.
For instance:
A shoemaker may position as a symbol of status and luxury
A fast-food restaurant may position as the provider of affordable meals
A smartphone may promote as the mobile device with the latest technology
Positioning is the most crucial thing in marketing. Every product or service occupies a position in the consumers’ minds, even if it is nowhere.
Marketing positions are built upon people’s perceptions, which may or may not be real.
Successful brands use marketing to differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Types Of Positioning Strategies
There are several types of positioning strategies for real estate agents. The most effective ones are:
1. Product Attribute
One of the main ways real estate agents can position themselves is by specializing in properties with specific attributes or a consumer feature. Usually, it is based on a specific price range, property type, or property feature.
Additionally, often a property can be positioned one more than one feature or benefit. A real estate agent’s main job is to identify those things that are essential to consumers and are responsible for making a purchase decision.
The most significant positioning categories for real estate agents include:
- Positioning by property type
- Positioning by location
- Positioning versus competition
- Positioning by property attribute, features, or benefits
- Positioning by value or quality
🔑It is in your best interest as a real estate agent not to enter a crowded market and copy what everyone else is doing. The only way you can compete in this competitive marketplace is by offering points of differentiation, something that separates you from your competitors. Your purpose is to support customers to understand how you can help with their real estate issues and why you are different from everyone else.
Ask yourself, “Any person with a real estate license can sell a house, why should someone choose me?
2. Price/Quality: Positioning based on price or quality
If you decide to use the price-quality approach means you are using the relation between price and quality. Keep in mind that price doesn’t need to be high for positioning as high quality.
For example, Walmart has willingly positioned itself as a low price instead of high pricing.
If you specialize in selling run-down mobile homes, people will know you as the go-to person for selling run-down mobile houses. Or you can position how long the luxury homes the point image of ourselves so that you are in a market space of specific properties that you become known for selling or helping people buy.
Another example is to market yourself as a real estate agent with the lowest commission guarantee that you will be less than your competitors.
3. Use/application: positioning based on how property will be used
As a real estate agent, it is imperative to create a unique, consistent, and recognized customer about you and your offering. A property can be positioned based on how it is used.
You can position yourself as an investment property expert, farmland expert, commercial real estate expert, multi-family home expert, vacant land expert.
One of the best ways to position yourself in real estate is how the client you’re targeting plans to use the land they’re purchasing.
As an agent, you have to remember that you are highly trained, so have the skills and knowledge to ensure you put your customer interests first.
4. Service Class Positioning
There are two types of class positioning.
- Position yourself by appealing to a specific type of prospect or specializing in a specific class of properties. For example, service class positioning means to deal with an exclusive class of properties such as fixer-uppers, affordable housing, luxury homes, condominiums, etc. Service class positioning means that you work within specific parameters of the real estate industry.
- The second type of service class positioning is comparing your strengths and services to other agents and expose their weaknesses, and highlight your strengths, so that you can be differentiated from your competition.
Your prospects must understand that your brand offers high-quality benefits in comparison to other real estate agents.
Service class positioning involves holding in a consumer’s mind relative to competing services. Usually, real estate agents do this to counter competitive attacks, appeal to consumers, target other segments, and remain appealing.
This type of market positioning can include adding more services or removing specific offerings from the market.
🔑Successful real estate agents usually utilize a combination of these positioning approaches. Whatever strategy you select, your main goal is to differentiate from your competitors by focusing on your service’s distinctive advantages.
5. Product user: Positioning towards particular group who uses your service
Another approach is to marketing yourself as the preferred choice of a particular demographic zone, both preferred by a specific group of people, backed by customer testimonials.
By associating yourself with people and testimonials, who approve and use your service, you build credibility with other people within that market segment.
It is vital to be yourself not only when you are working but also when you expose yourself to social media to gain trust within your market segment.
An excellent idea to build trust with customers is to post pictures of you doing things you love. However, be careful. Avoid posting or sharing controversial topics like sports, religion, or politics.
Don’t forget to become an expert in your segment of the real estate industry. You want to appear skillful, knowledgeable, and expert. It is imperative to prove to your customers that you are capable of helping them.
Remember that their home is one of the most significant investments they will ever make for your clients. They want to work with someone who can help them navigate through this complicated and overwhelming process.
7. The Blue Ocean Strategy: Create a custom Category where you are Number One
BMW separates itself from the competition with the tagline “BMW, the ultimate driving machine.”
A common positioning strategy that you can use and many other successful companies do is create a custom category where you’re number one.
When most people think of the largest business in any space, they automatically assume that their product, or service, must be right.
Another excellent example of a positioning tagline is Sara Lee with “Nobody Does it Like Sara Lee.”
Strong brands have consistent positioning, which is often communicated through their advertising taglines.
To position yourself as the number one real estate agent, start by creating a tagline that positions you away from your competition.
Once you develop your tagline, you should use this catchphrase on your business cards, promotional materials, website, and incorporate it in your IMC strategy.
For example, if you are a real estate agent in San Diego, you can have the catchphrase that says, “SAN DIEGO’S #1 real estate agent with the lowest commission… GUARANTEED!”
This catchphrase positions the real estate agent as number one, and it allows room for modification if another agent undercuts their commission rate.
Finally, it is essential to position yourself as a real estate agent to win customers’ attention and interest. Besides, it allows you to communicate and fulfill the expectations of your target buyers. It promotes goodwill and loyalty.
Ultimately, it is the best way to promote yourself and services by designing an effective promotional strategy to increase sales.
Examples of positioning taglines:
- Highest Quality, Lowest Cost, Fastest Delivery…Guaranteed!
- (Your town or city name here) #1 Real Estate Agent with the Lowest Commission…Guaranteed!
- Your (insert geographical region here) Real Estate Authority
8. Position Yourself Against the Competition
Positioning yourself against the competition means that you will highlight your points of differentiation and exploit your competitors weaknesses to make you appear superior. Examples of positioning points that you can use against your competitors include:
- Be the #1 Real Estate Agent
- Lowest commission guarantee
- Fastest delivery
- Free appraisal
- A guarantee that your listing will sell, or you will buy it