Why should real estate agents use video in their marketing? What types of videos should you be creating? And where should you be sharing your videos?
According to the National Associations of Realtors 2018 Technology survey, about 38 percent of agents reported using videos in their marketing. Thirty percent reported they didn’t use video marketing. And 32 percent reported that they don’t use video marketing now, but plan to in the future.
Does video help sell real estate?
The quick answer is yes, video works on both the buyer and seller side.
- 85 percent of buyers and sellers want to work with an agent who uses video
- Homes listed with video get four times the inquiries of homes listed without video
- Including video in emails doubles the click-through rate and reduces opt-outs by 75 percent
Below, we’ll tackle the following questions?
- What are the four reasons for using videos?
- What videos should you be using in real estate marketing?
- Where should you be sharing your videos?
- How do you create real estate videos?
- How long should a real estate video be?
The four big reasons real estate agents should use video
There are four high-level reasons for using video in your real estate marketing
The first is that for most businesses – and especially for professional services such as attorneys, dentists, or real estate agents – it is critical for the customer or client prospect to feel comfortable with, and trust the person with whom they may be doing business.
Video marketing puts a face and a personality to a business name, helping build that important trust and rapport. People like doing business with people. Video is the next best thing to getting a face-to-face meeting.
Another reason is that videos convey more information more quickly to viewers than by reading a property listing description or scrolling through a photo slideshow. Buyers can get all that at the push of a play button. Your viewers can get a feel of the home’s rooms, property layout, as well as get a sense of the neighborhood.
Because videos save you time and money. In one 3-minute video, you can express to viewers your business or service background, showcase your products, introduce your team, or answer questions among other options. And that one video – or better yet, a series of videos – can be viewed repeatedly and shared 24 hours a day and seven days a week across nearly all platforms and marketing channels.
And with videos, you can add a Call To Action (CTA) to the videos asking the viewer to take a desired action. This could be downloading a piece of content (in exchange for their contact info), sign up for a 101 home buyer’s class, or to schedule a meeting. These CTAs allow current and future clients to connect with your business and move further down the sales funnel.
And finally, real estate agents should use video because they will help your website’s rankings on Google and other search engines. This is done in a number of ways including optimizing how the videos are uploaded to YouTube or embedded on your website. It also includes how the videos are constructed from script and storyboard to editing and rendering. With time, you will increase your page ranking in particular searches and you will see more traffic coming to your website.
What types of videos can a real estate agent create?
Here are seven types of videos you can be creating today to use in your real estate marketing. I’m sure I’ve overlooked a few, but knock these out and you should be in good shape.
Property Listings
The most effective property listings include a one to three minute video that guides a viewer through each room. This can be done via shooting video in the listing, or creating a video with your listing photos. The approach allows visitors to experience the flow and charm of the property with you or a professional voiceover talking about the appeal of a home and its neighborhood.
Open House Exclusives
Open house videos can highlight the features of the home and community, as well as include clips of people seeing the property for the first time. We can include interesting angles such as floor-level and bird’s eye perspectives utilizing aerial footage from drones. By shooting video at open houses, you can also utilize that video for other purposes later on, including About Us/Agent Profiles.
About Us/Agent Profiles
About Us/Agent Profile videos typically feature a real estate agent talking about their education, certifications, experience, passion for the real estate industry, and their personal connection to the community in which they work.
Client Testimonials
As you know – whether you just started in real estate or are a veteran – building your referral base is a cornerstone to building your business. Client testimonial videos are an awesome way to attract, build and strengthen your referrals. Ask a willing client to describe their experience working with you from beginning to end. Some interview conversation starters include:
- What initially brought you to me/us?
- What convinced you to do business with me/us?
- Would you recommend my real estate services to your family and friends? Why?
Neighborhoods
Folks don’t just move into a home, they move into a neighborhood. Can you help them understand what to expect regarding schools, shopping, spiritual, crime, traffic and more? Answering questions like these in your community profile videos will establish you as a local expert.
Market conditions
Establish yourself and your team as the authority and expert in your niche, whether that is in commercial properties or close-in Portland neighborhoods. These can be simple videos that only include your audio voiceover explaining current conditions and showing a slide or two from the recent MLS data.
Educational
These videos could be targeted to buyers, sellers and clients who are now home owners. Topics could include how-to advice on staging, repairing credit scores, preparing to list, strategies for finding a gem, and how to prepare your home for a seasonal change (winter, spring, etc.).
Once you have created your real estate marketing video, how do you share it?
You can upload your video to YouTube for free, or another hosting platform. I can also host and maintain your videos. After you have uploaded your video, you should embed it on your website.
Then you should plan on sharing it on the best platforms for your audience. That includes Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and so forth.
According to the National Associations of Realtors 2018 Technology survey, the most used social media networks used were Facebook (97 percent), LinkedIn (59 percent), Instagram (39 percent), and Twitter (33 percent).
In the survey, 25 percent of real estate agents said they use social media to maintain relationships with clients. That is more than double the 12 percent that said they use it to acquire new clients.
That is notable for how it changes your strategies in the types of videos you should be creating as a real estate agent. There should be more videos that support your current clients — tips for home improvement projects or home care — compared to prospecting videos.
In both cases, real estate agents should use video and include them in their monthly email newsletters. You can also feature a video (say a client testimonial) with direct marketing campaigns such as postcards or printed newsletters.
How do you create real estate videos?
There are several options for creating your real estate video.
You can simply use your smartphone camera to record selfie videos that tackle the above points we’ve covered. The benefit to doing this is that the cost is free and it is convenient. The drawbacks is that you what you gain in convenience and cost, you give up in production quality. And you’ll still need to do some basic editing to clean up the videos.
Another option is to hire a video production company to shoot your videos. This could be for a high end video or something more “run and gun.” I have been shooting videos for Ashley Realty Works here in Portland for more than 7 years. For those, I meet up with them once a month for about an hour to shoot 1-2 videos either at their home or at a listing. Those videos are typically scripted, and I have placed the scripts into a teleprompter, which speeds up filming.
Another option is to create a studio space in your home or office and with a decent DSLR or camcorder (or smartphone), record a video. You can then edit that video in-house or you can share it with a freelancer for editing. Another client of mine is Directors Mortgage, who sends me raw footage that I will quickly edit for them.
Directors Mortgage Company Timeline from Directors Mortgage on Vimeo.
In recent years, more and more real estate agents are adding drone videos to their marketing mix. You can use drone footage for capturing different angles of a home and its place in a neighborhood.
According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2017 survey, Real Estate in a Digital Age, about 18 percent of agents planned on using drone video and pictures in their marketing. That’s compared with 56 percent who don’t use drones. Another 23 percent reported they hire a pro or use someone in their agency.
How long should a real estate video be?
As a general rule, I would say that your videos should be less than two minutes long. And the other rule is that they should be as long as they need to be. But I have found that longer videos are typically so because the agent has attempted to squeeze too many topics into them. Instead of telling your audience the market condition for all the neighborhoods in your community, you can create separate videos for each of those zip codes.
In conclusion, real estate agents should use video because buyers and sellers are no longer convinced simply by what they read on the pages of a real estate agent’s website. Videos have the potential to convey your confidence, expertise, credibility, and sincerity. Jump ahead of your competition and get started today.