Creating videos for real estate agents is not only important. Many would say that it is vital to their survival.
According to CISCO, By 2022, 80% of the content on the internet will be video.
Video has quickly become an indispensable marketing tool for Real Estate Agents. The reason is very simple:
- In the digital world, video is the favorite medium for creators and consumers.
- Making videos used to be slow and very expensive, but today anyone can grab their smartphone and broadcast themselves.
- Social networks give you access to a considerable audience in an organic way, and a global audience paying a fee.
Advantages Of Using Video In Real Estate Marketing
To give us an idea of the power of video marketing, here are some interesting data:
- 90% of Internet users watch videos online.
- 75% of users agree to see advertising in exchange for free content.
- 90% of online shoppers find it helpful if the sites where they go to buy offer videos.
- For buyers interested in purchasing constructions under development, puts investors at ease.
- Emails with videos receive 96% more clicks, while the unsubscribe rate drops up to 75%
- Showing a video of the views and neighborhood hook more customers than a brochure
Video On Twitter And Instagram
On social media, video marketing means more engagement than text or photography, regardless of the product being sold. According to Twitter analytics, tweets with video attract 10 times more tweets. Also, Instagram anticipates that video will account for 78% of total mobile data traffic in the next few years.
Why Should A Real Estate Agent Care About Video?
Real estate listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without video.
For a local business trying to penetrate a saturated market, video production and optimization can be a key driver of growth.
9% of agents use videos on their listings, but 73% of homeowners said they would rather sell their property with an agent who uses videos.
Incorporating video into your online marketing can boost your real estate agent’s efforts in generating leads. However, for videos to work as an effective property marketing technique, you need to:
- Produce the right types of video
- Promote them effectively.
In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at the best types of video for real estate marketing that a real estate agent could use, give examples, discuss how to effectively market videos online, and finish by looking at the different production options available.
What Can You Get By Making Videos For Real Estate?
One of the biggest benefits is that a video can capture the attention of a wider range of buyers.
Video helps enormously in the sale of a property and also helps the buyer, It gives them information in a faster, simpler, and more understandable way.
Video also takes some of the guesswork out of the home search process, providing a more accurate feel for a property than a photo slideshow.
Another plus is the ability to connect with younger shoppers who are more used to finding luxury goods on social media.
Marketers don’t necessarily have to expect immediate results from the video, but rather see it as a way to attract more people. So, allocate some of your real estate video production time and effort towards creating some of these unique video types to add another layer to your digital marketing presence.
How To Use Video Effectively
Video is most effective in helping to sell a home when it is relatively short, well-produced, and widely shared on social media.
Not all real estate buyers want to see a 90-second movie, so you could have shorter videos providing the opportunity to capture and hold potential clients’ attention long enough to allow a conversation to take place.
According to real estate experts, posting explanatory videos on Instagram and YouTube is useful for buyers to notice a property. Some of its clients even say they request to be informed about new properties through videos sent through the WhatsApp messaging service.
Use Drone Footage
A good reason for that is that the cost of drones has dropped dramatically in the last decade. That means it is really easy to get a decent drone with good video quality.
If you do not feel sure about it, here are 3 reasons to give drone footage a chance.
- Create unique, emotional and dramatic videos
You can have all sorts of dramatic movements, slow contemplative shots or amazing 360 views from any residence.High quality video footage not only looks amazing, but it also makes your website and social platforms look appealing and professional. - Create virtual tours
You can get a drone to fly through every room of the house, and then create virtual tours for your customers to experience the property without even stepping out of their house.
If we get to lockdown again, you will be the only real estate agent still showing houses. Pretty cool right? - Show more of your property
A drone will help you get footage you won’t be able to get any other way. Use it! Landscaping, backyards, chimneys, neighborhoods. There are a lot of features no other real estate agent can show with conventional video or photography. Use that to your advantage and deliver unique value to your customers
Although if you do not feel sure about investing in a piece of technology, you can hire a professional to shoot your video.
How To Carry Out A Real Estate Video Strategy Step By Step
1. Manage Your Properties And Clients, And Keep Control Of Your Strategies
As always, in real estate, everything you do has to be measured and have objectives, so … the first thing of all is to think about which one is going to be the goal. Based on the objective you define, the video will go in one direction or another.
For example, The objective of the video is to get more potential clients to visit.
Another example of a goal: I want to increase visits to my website. Or the objective of the video is to download the guide that I have prepared on the valuations of a property. Or they sign up for face-to-face training.
See Where Your Customers Are
The point is to identify where your clients or potential clients spend their time online and meet them there. Spend time exploring different social networks, and you will have an advantage over many other agents fighting for the same business
2. Define The Resources You Have
You have to adapt the resources you have to the idea of the video. I leave you a list with all the resources that you would have to plan previously.
- Budget: Do you have a budget for the video? How much?
- Time: How long will you have to record and edit the video?
- Equipment: What camera do you have to make a video? Are you going to use a tripod? Spotlights? Tie microphones? Are you going to use a chroma? A drone?
- Location: Where can you record?
- Actors: Who will be in the video?
- Music: this point is important. Don’t use copyrighted music. Your video will automatically be deleted.
3. Define A Previous Script
Try to be specific and clear about your idea before you start recording. A good video always has planning behind it.
The videos that most excite and sell the most are those that tell a story. Think about the story in advance and even make a script with the text. Think about whether it will be a voiceover or there will be dialogue. If there is a dialogue between people, send the script beforehand so that they can learn it.
Type Of Videos You Can Create
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Promotional
Very similar to television spots but without the time limit of TV. The promotional video serves to sell your services. It can be a promotional video of the agency or a promotional video of the real estate consultant.
Promotional videos are mainly used to humanize and empathize with your target audience. They are videos that show your values and how you do things.
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Interview Videos
Chances are you’ve worked with many buyers or sellers in the past or even colleagues in the real estate industry (i.e. mortgage lenders, home inspectors, attorneys, etc.) who can provide a first-person view of how good it is to you as a real estate agent.
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Informational Videos
One of the goals of real estate marketing is to provide value to buyers and sellers. And one way to add more value and impress your clients is by creating short, educational videos on common real estate topics and questions.
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Videos Of Services Available In The City
- What are the best places for lunch?
- Where are the best places to have a cup of coffee?
- What makes this community special?
The goal here is not to directly promote your real estate brand, but to provide a valuable resource to your clients. Plus, local business owners will love the free advertising.
- Live Streaming
One of the hottest trends in video marketing right now is live streaming.
Live streaming allows you to video communicate with home buyers and sellers in real-time. It is the perfect place to interact with a wide audience on the web.
Popular live streaming apps like Instagram, Youtube, or Facebook Live, allow you to start streaming with ease.
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“About Me” / Agent Profile Videos
The amazing thing about the video is that it allows home buyers and sellers to meet the person behind the screen. People want to work with real people.
Tell us a little about yourself: your real estate experience, your hobbies, your family, your successes, even a funny story.
Your future customers will feel like they already know you, just by watching your “About Me” video.
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Neighborhood Videos
Location is everything. Homebuyers are just as interested in the neighborhood as they are in the property.
Sell home buyers in your future neighborhood with a quick video tour of local hot spots and beautiful scenery. If you can, add some testimonials on why this neighborhood is the best neighborhood for new owners.
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How-To Videos
These videos are perfect for sharing your tips and tricks on some of the tricky topics in real estate, for example: think “how to select a real estate agent”, “how to read an inspection report” and “what to do when your appraisal returns low”.
Quick Tip: To improve your ranking on search engine results pages, be sure to include the phrase “how to” in your video title.
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Real Estate Market Update Videos
Chances are, your real estate clients and prospects have only a vague notion of what the current real estate market looks like.
So, help them by providing up-to-date videos on the current state of the real estate market. They will appreciate the extra effort.
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Review Videos: Periods / Years
A good way to end the year is with an agent “in review” or an office video highlighting your top achievements for the year. Show a slideshow of all the houses you’ve sold, all the people you’ve made happy, the events you’ve sponsored.
Get creative, have fun, and take some time to thank your clients who have made your year so successful.
What Are The Best Tools To Start Creating Video Content?
Not all the videos that you need, or rather, those that you choose for your marketing strategy will need slime editing. For viral videos, among others, I recommend the use of these applications:
YouTube is one of the most important online video consumption platforms in the world. So it was to be expected that it would also strive to offer a video editor to match. And they did! with one that is complete enough so that YouTubers do not have to resort to third-party tools.
Perhaps the only downside is that it only serves to upload videos on YouTube, although you can always do it privately and download them.
VideoToolBox is a free online editor capable of processing videos up to 600 MB, and with an advanced file manager that helps us upload or download videos from other web pages. You can publish your works directly to YouTube, Vimeo, and other platforms.
It also offers options to record from a webcam or videocast, add watermarks, trim the videos, merge them, and add subtitles. It also can change the format of our video, supporting some of the most popular formats.
Apart from allowing you to record videos directly while using the web, upload them and add music tracks and narration if there is something that makes WeVideo stand out from the competition, it allows you to make edits collaboratively.
Another interesting addition is that it has an application for Google Drive so that we can save our creations directly in the Google cloud. Unfortunately, the free version inserts a fairly large watermark on the videos, so we will have to pay for the full version to fully enjoy what it has to offer.
PowToon is a curious tool that allows you to make videos composed of clippings or slides. All you have to do is drag the elements you want. To make our task easier, it has many templates.
You can also start from scratch and add your images in the background.
Conclusion
We cannot ignore the power of social media and the many ways video can help us grow an audience. And particularly, the real estate business is experiencing a transformation into a new audience and new ways to sell properties.
How are you going to start your first video? Did you find these tips useful? Let us know in the comments!
For more information on Real Estate, I highly advise you to read this article as well. Real Estate Digital Marketing.
