Enhance Your Personal Brand with a Professional Bio

You’ve heard it before: It’s all about personal branding. And what could be more personal than a bio? To grow your business, potential clients must understand who you are, how you work and what you can do for them. As a copywriter on The Studio’s Design Concierge team, it’s my job to take these details and present them in a way that makes the agent stand out from the competition. To accomplish this goal, the bio should meet four key objectives.

• Capture the agent’s personality

As I carefully read through the agent’s personal and professional details, I get a sense of who they are. The agent’s words give me direct information, but I also pick up on more subtle clues. Some agents come across as high energy, others are more formal, and still others are somewhere in between. I try to channel the agent’s unique personality throughout the writing process. If I’m successful, the reader sees the agent as a trustworthy friend and specialist who will confidently guide them through the buying and selling process.

• Open and close with a bang

An effective bio should grab the reader’s attention and present the agent’s strongest points in just a couple sentences, similar to an elevator speech. If the agent is a community specialist, is highly credentialed, is a marketing expert, or all of the above, I note that right away. I want the potential client to feel compelled to read further for specifics. The bio should also have a memorable close. If the agent has a tagline, I work that in. Sometimes a direct quote encapsulates the agent’s personality, approach and skills. A call to action is yet another way to persuade the reader to contact that agent.

• Tell buyers and sellers what agent will do for them

A strong bio anticipates and answers a potential client’s questions. Buyers want to know that the agent will take the time to listen to their concerns and create a strategy to find a home that meets their specific needs and wish list. Sellers want to see how the agent plans to market their property for maximum exposure, top return and a quick close. This information is very important – perhaps the most important part. With good details and examples, I can create a clear and persuasive bio that is unique to that agent.

• Describe agent’s credentials and experience

An agent with decades of experience and substantial credentials would tend to have an upper hand over one just starting out, but that doesn’t mean a new agent has no hope of gaining listings. Even the most inexperienced agent has something to offer. Whether that is community involvement, renovation expertise and/or past employment, it’s up to me to make connections for the reader. If an agent has worked in hospitality, for example, I can translate that into strong customer service skills. Maybe the agent is a former health care professional. That means he/she can handle stressful situations and turn problems into solutions.

Once the bio is complete, it can be posted online and used in professional brochures and listing presentations that reflect the agent’s personality, skills and branding. The writers, designers and coordinators on the Design Concierge team make sure all these assets come together. The result is a cohesive collection of marketing pieces that empowers the agent to take on the challenges of today’s competitive real estate market.