Branding is one of the essential tools for CRE firms looking to attract investors, create trust, source deals, and grow. 

And yet, many firms seldom go beyond the basic motions of paying for a website design and logo, creating some basic marketing materials, showing past projects on your website, and occasionally posting on social media. 

The reason branding is often neglected is twofold:

  • Branding is intangible and hard to measure. Unlike running a marketing campaign, it’s hard to put the finger on any specific lead you land, thanks to branding. 
  • Branding efforts can be time-consuming and cost money.

That is a misconception on both accounts:

  • Just as eating all your vegetables or doing sports don’t show an immediate tangible improvement but are still proven to benefit health, investing in branding is a proven strategy to improve business results and promote growth. 
  • There are branding actions you can take that are relatively inexpensive and convenient. 

But Before we dive into it, let’s define what branding is. 

What is branding?

Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for your firm that sets it apart from competitors. 

It starts with the “basics,” like the name, logo, and marketing materials, but that’s just the starting point. It also encompasses your messaging, values, and more. 

Branding is especially important in commercial real estate, where competition over investors can be fierce. 

A well-crafted brand identity fosters trust and familiarity with potential investors. When investors see a consistent and well-executed brand identity across all touch-points, such as your website, marketing materials, and social media, they are more likely to feel confident and trust in your firm. This helps build relationships and ultimately leads to more investment opportunities.

Boosting your brand with minimal cost and effort

Let the numbers do the talking

Numbers are catchy. Numbers demand less attention. Numbers create a sense of accuracy. Numbers tell a story. Let investors see your numbers.

This may include performance metrics like AUM or ROI, the number of projects completed, years of experience, the amount of square footage developed, or the number of units sold. 

Here are a couple of examples of firms that are nailing it: 

  • Beachwold Residential is a multifamily-focused real estate firm with over 16,000 units in Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Tennessee. Beachwold showcases its experience and success by showing numbers: years of experience, number of units, AUM, and development pipeline. 
  • Rose Valley Capital takes it further, showcasing IRR and ROI on their past deals under the title “Actions speak louder than words.” 
  • Another great example is that of Helu Capital, with a page dedicated to its experience and track record, showcasing past and present projects, together with numbers. 

Present your investment strategy

There are two ways presenting investment strategy helps your brand:

  • Presenting a clear and unique investment strategy differentiates you from competitors. 
  • Being clear on your strategy helps build trust and conveys confidence.  

Here’s a great way to present your business strategy: Iridius Capital has a website page dedicated to laying out its strategy.

Share your values

Yes, driving revenue is important. But by sharing your mission statement, core values, and vision with potential investors and demonstrating your commitment to ethical investing and social responsibility, you can create a brand identity that resonates with potential investors and that they can identify with. 

Reality Fund is doing a fantastic job of demonstrating its mission statement and core values on its ESG page: it details the values Reality stands for on all fronts – environmental, educational, and community.

Similarly, Openpath Investments, a firm headquartered in Denver, Colorado, puts its value statement front and center on its homepage. 

Go as a guest on a podcast

A podcast is a fantastic way to build your brand: You can talk shop, demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, share your values and host other industry professionals.

You can start your own podcast. But it does take a chunk of your time to create and maintain a podcat, and success is not guaranteed.  

But you can still be a guest on a podcast, and the best part is – it’ll only take a couple of hours of your time. 

If you need a starting point in your podcast research, we recently had an informal Linkedin survey asking our page followers about their favorite industry podcasts, and they are: 

Or, you can be a guest on Agora’s own Deal Makers podcast, where CRE professionals share their industry knowledge with fellow GPs, syndicators, and developers. 

Boost your brand with minimal cost and effort

The importance of branding cannot be understated. By taking the steps above, you can improve your branding with little effort and cost. 

More importantly, the steps we mentioned above are not an exhaustive list, and are mainly meant to create a change in your state of mind towards an approach that utilizes easy-to-apply actions that carry substantial impact.