Let’s start this post off with a statistic from “The Digital House Hunt,” a 2013 Google/NAR study: “85 percent of buyers and sellers want to work with an agent who uses video.” Let’s follow up with another statistic from the same study: 15 percent of agents actually have a video presence. That means there’s a huge gap between what real estate buyers and sellers want, and what agents are providing.
We see this as a big problem for active Realtors. Realtors host open houses every weekend, help listing clients through renovations, and attend (or host) local community events. But what we’re noticing is that most Realtors aren’t finding ways to showcase all the great work they’re doing through digital marketing. This means that they’re not able to get their brand and listings in front of prospective buyers and sellers who are looking for an agent online.
So if an open house occurs and there’s no video of it; does it exist on the Internet? The answer is no. If you’re not posting video online, you’re missing out on an amazing opportunity to connect with buyers and sellers. If you want to find a NEW source of business by tapping into the Internet, you’ve got to update and change the way present yourself online.
That’s why we believe video marketing content is so important for Realtors. Technology and distribution platforms have changed enormously over the past decade. This means that Realtors also have to change the media they develop and how they distribute this content in order to reach new customers online. Of course asking for client referrals, establishing partnerships with escrow companies, and building relationships are still extremely important. But today, you need to augment your existing marketing with a digital strategy that focuses on producing and distributing video.
Below are 3 reasons Realtors need to use video as a part of their digital marketing strategy:
1. Reduces overall marketing costs
According to a recent report, “video traffic will be 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2020.” That is a pretty staggering number, especially considering it’s focused on a specific type of format. Therefore, if you want to reach more customers and generate more online leads, then you need to start creating video marketing content.
If you haven’t noticed, videos on social media platforms, like YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are quickly replacing TV, radio, and print as the preferred content mediums. When you create video content and post it on distribution platforms, you’re able to increase your brand visibility. Best of all? You can get your message in front of thousands of viewers for a fraction of what you’d pay for traditional TV media buys. Or if you’ve really upped your social media game, you can get your message out there for free!
2. Drives traffic to all of your other marketing channels
Most real estate professionals want to continue nurturing their existing database of leads, as well as their new leads. But one problem that most professionals run into is that they don’t have any content to share with their current, previous, or future customers. For example, they don’t have content to distribute in monthly email newsletters or post on social media. As you can see, it’s hard to up your digital marketing game if you don’t have any useful digital content to share with anyone.
And that’s another reason why creating video is so important. It helps you solve your content issues so you can engage and connect with current and future customers more consistently. Video marketing is also great because it allows you to take advantage of all the different online distribution platforms. A single video can be posted on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube channels, or it can be shared in your email newsletter.
If you commit to creating consistent video content, you can start to amplify all of your other marketing channels. Need ideas? Create a series of videos that show how you help sellers through a renovation, and then a listing. Highlight some of the best businesses, schools, or parks in your community.
The overarching concept is to create videos that highlight your knowledge and expertise so that you have branded content you can distribute through your own media platforms (such as your social media pages, email newsletter, etc).
3. Gives you an opportunity to storytell beyond pictures and words
We help our clients focus on video marketing (specifically small screen video for smartphones) more than any other media format because it’s the best way to connect with buyers and sellers. If a picture is worth a thousand words, video might be worth a million.
Just a little over five years ago there were lots of video creation challenges for anyone who didn’t have a big brand or media production budget. You’d have to spend thousands of dollars to produce a video. And you’d have to hire a professional crew to shoot and edit your video. Once you had the video, there weren’t many marketing channels to distribute it on. TV was really the only way to get your video in front of an audience and that was typically cost prohibitive for most small businesses or entrepreneurs.
Fast forward to today’s technological environment and you can instantly create videos using your smartphone without a film crew. You can broadcast those videos live. You can also distribute videos on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter without having to purchase a crazy-expensive media buy. Best yet? The video you create today doesn’t need to be overly polished. Selfie-style videos that are broadcast on Facebook and Instagram Live allow you to present yourself in a more authentic way, and share what goes on behind the scenes.
With the advances in hardware, faster mobile Internet, and user-friendly distribution platforms, pretty much anyone can tell a comprehensive story that goes beyond pictures and words. As a Realtor, you need to take advantage of this shift in media production and distribution.
It will make you stand out from the crowd because a simple landing page with pictures of a house, square footage, and a certain number of bedrooms/bathrooms isn’t going to cut it anymore!
Want some examples of great videos that Realtors are putting out there? Check these out:
Community Video:
About Us Video:
Casual Holiday Message to Social Media:
Hopefully you’re convinced that video marketing is an appropriate medium for you focus more time and energy on. Are you a Realtor who is using video as part of your marketing strategy? What types of video do you produce and how has it worked for you?
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