Highlighting your skills, expertise, and personality in a well-crafted bio will bring qualified clients right to you
Content marketing can be a very daunting part of a holistic real estate marketing strategy and writing an effective bio is a seemingly trivial but important part of how you introduce yourself to prospective clients. To many, writing a bio feels a lot like the vague and dreaded, “so, tell us about yourself” question that comes up so often in interviews. On the receiving end, this question can feel frustrating because we can’t truly boil down our experiences, skills, and personality to a simple statement. We’re human, which means we’re complex and nuanced; our stories aren’t always linear or easy to understand from an outside perspective.
However, the way you go about answering this question can be extremely telling. It’s impactful partly because it’s difficult. After all, there’s meaning not only in what you choose to include but also in why you chose to include it. Your real estate bio should help your potential clients quickly understand what you represent and what sets you apart.
In order to craft a real estate bio that brings qualified leads to you, start with these steps.
1. Identify your motivations
When writing your bio, start with the big picture questions: Why are you here? Why have you chosen the real estate profession? Do you hold a particular appreciation for the concept of home? Do you love connecting with others? Do you like helping families start a new journey?
In this first phase, if you don’t already know what your ideal niche is, focus on identifying it. In many cases, getting specific about your motivation for working as a real estate professional will also reveal who your ideal client is and lead you to better understand your particular niche. For example, do you serve military clients because you or a family member spent time serving? Do you serve a certain area because the sense of community is particularly strong there? Determine how your background, passions, and interests connect together to motivate you to be the professional you are.
2. Consider your history
Once you’ve identified your motivations, it’s time to think about the key events that have played a role in bringing you to your current career. Instead of considering your “why”, this is where you establish your “how.” How did you end up here?
While this step might involve looking back through your work history and piecing together where you picked up applicable skills, you shouldn’t be putting together a laundry list of places you’ve worked. Instead, get to the root of things — how have your experiences impacted what really matters to you now as a real estate agent?
Have there been any key decisions or realizations in your life that have helped lead you here? Can you remember how you felt as you set out to purchase your first home or how you defined home as a child? Jot down three to five important events that significantly impacted your journey to where you are now as a real estate agent.
3. Use a story structure
By now, you’ve already gathered all of the puzzle pieces that will come together to form a full picture of who you are. You’re off to a great start! It’s now time to lay out the main structure of your bio. To do so, imagine that you’re telling the story of your career journey to a close friend or potential client. When someone asks, “How did you get into real estate,” or, “What brought you to this city,” how do you structure your response?
Humans relate to stories, and it’s important to help people connect with you before you even meet them. Using a story structure for your bio will go a long way in helping people understand who you really are. Structure your bio by starting with the beginning of your career journey or with a moment when you realized a motivation to help others through real estate. Share a few points within your journey, then finish by explaining your current mission and what you offer.
4. Include relevant skills and knowledge
While humility and relatability are important, it’s also crucial to remember that your bio should give people compelling reasons to work with you. As you share your story and discuss turning points in your journey, stop to explain the skills you gained from each experience.
Has working in construction given you a keen eye for well-built houses? Do you have a financial background that might help you negotiate for clients? Has living in your area for a substantial time given you a deep understanding of each neighborhood? Include these details because they establish the relevant benefits of working with you!
5. Highlight your values
Aside from writing about what you’ve done professionally and what skills you’ve developed, it’s important to showcase your values. Is integrity your top priority as a luxury real estate professional? Perseverance? Simplicity? Grace? Use your motivations and your style of working to easily explain your overall values. This is how your future clients can quickly understand what you’re all about and feel immediately connected to you.
6. Write in your authentic voice
Your real estate bio isn’t a listing copy or a landing page or an educational blog. It should be all about you, and it’s meant to showcase who you really are! Avoid being overly formal or stuffy, and write as if you were speaking to a close friend. The more genuine and natural your writing is, the more easily your audience will trust you and relate to you — and ultimately want to work with you!
If you’re not quite sure what your authentic voice feels or sounds like, try using dictation software to speak your story out loud and have it automatically transcribed. This way, you’ll be able to smoothly articulate yourself verbally, and you’ll hear firsthand if there are any places that don’t sound like the real you. You can also try identifying your authentic voice by journaling for a while as you plan out your bio or even looking over your style of writing emails.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a writer, we all represent ourselves through words every day! When in doubt, do a free-write: don’t edit yourself as you go, and instead simply write out everything that comes to mind. Set a timer and commit to typing the entire time. At the end, you’ll have something authentic to work with, and from there the editing can begin!
7. Be brief
There’s no need for your bio to be more than a couple of paragraphs long. If you find yourself rambling about your past work experience or that marathon you ran fifteen years ago, consider cutting these sections down. Does the information really help a potential client understand how you can help them? Does it help them trust or connect with you? If the answer to one of those questions isn’t a resounding “yes,” the information doesn’t belong in your bio.
Writing a brief bio of an appropriate length also means you’ll be able to use it on other platforms like Google My Business, Realtor.com, Facebook and Yelp. Internet users generally won’t pause to read something on social media that will take them more than a couple of minutes to get through, so plan accordingly!
8. Get creative
This is the time to let your uniqueness shine through! Get creative as you write your bio by thinking about aspects of your skills and personality that make you special. Do your years of experience set you apart? Your negotiation skills? Your ability to diffuse tough situations with humor? Use the format and the freedom of your bio to convey what’s unique about you and what people can expect when they begin to work with you. You can even integrate creative formats like timelines or charts into your bio on your website. Let people see who you really are!
9. Edit, edit, edit!
Above all, make sure you take the time to edit your bio. Read it out loud to yourself and to a few family members or friends. Run it by a couple of colleagues to see if there’s anything you left out that they see as a strength of yours. Use online tools like Grammarly to check the spelling and grammar. Editing can involve the basics like correcting punctuation, but it can also require cutting out unnecessary details, adding in important information, and tweaking the tone to make sure the voice sounds authentic to you. Take your time polishing it up.
Once you’re happy with the finished result, make sure you have a professional headshot to accompany your bio. Then, post it to your luxury realtor website, your social channels, and anywhere else you’re hoping to get your name out and find qualified real estate leads!
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Luxury Presence is one of the fastest-growing digital platforms for real estate professionals. Our team specializes in the type of strategic, thoughtful content marketing that will help you build your brand, close more deals, and expand your network. Get in touch with us today!
