What would you say if I told you there was a secret way you could dramatically boost your sales without spending a dime? You'd probably think I was pulling your leg, right? But, if the CEO of a respected Fortune 500 were to tell you the same thing, I bet you'd start listening. The same is true when it comes to marketing your own online business. Ironically, when it comes to saying good things about yourself, your product, or your service, most people are more likely to believe what someone else says before they believe you.

Creating a Personal Brand: Pizza Analogy:

To a consumer, Realtors may seem like somewhat of a commodity - They all do the same type of work - help you buy and sell houses. For example, a friend of mine who was considering becoming a Realtor, described the highly competitive and intimidating landscape of starting as a New Realtor and competing side by side with other Realtors with the following analogy: He said: "It's like opening a new Pizza Parlor on a street, Pizza Avenue, where there are already hundreds of Pizza Parlors to choose from - All serving the exact same product - Pizza." To follow my friend's Pizza analogy, he likened it to a family who drives to Pizza Avenue in search of Pizza and then is overwhelmed by having to decide where to eat from the hundreds of Pizza Restaurants located side by side all serving Pizza. He said, that basically, when a consumer is looking to either Buy or Sell a house, s/he is faced with the similar daunting task of choosing a Realtor from the tons of Realtors on "Realtor Avenue" who are all offering the same service.

His point: Differentiation:

You have to differentiate yourself from other realtors. You have to make an Extraordinary pizza that is Unique and Distinctive enough to get those consumers shopping for pizza to choose Your pizza parlor over the hundreds of competing pizza parlors located right beside you on Pizza Avenue.

How to Differentiate Yourself through Branding:

This is why creating and marketing a distinctive and unique Brand is so important! For Example, after helping a customer buy a house, you want your customer to refer to you by NAME and not as THAT REMAX AGENT!

In other words, You cannot just rely on the STRONG BRAND NAME that REMAX has built because you will get Lost in the mix with all the other REMAX Agents. Instead, you have to Build Your Own Personal Brand so customers refer to you by NAME! You need to differentiate yourself and market your Real Estate services as distinctive and unique to stand out from the competition so that consumers choose your brand over those of your competitors.

You Must Create Your Own Niche:

To differentiate yourself from the crowd, you should aim to create your own niche. Following the Pizza analogy, you can't just make a plain pizza. You have to create a new Pizza niche that is not already taken.

So, for instance, you could aim to market your brand of pizza as "Gourmet Pizza " or even "Breakfast Pizza".

So what is my niche? Good questions to ask yourself might be:

• 1. What is going to make a home buyer or seller choose my services over everyone else?
• 2. Do my customers really see me as different from my closest competitors?
• 3. How do I currently utilize my website as a tool to differentiate myself?
• 4. Does my website provide fresh real estate information tailored to my niche that will give my customers a reason to frequent my site website?
• 5. Have I positioned myself as an expert in my Niche?

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