Real Estate Video marketing is poised to explode in 2012. Once reserved for real estate agents and companies with significant resources, real estate video marketing is now accessible to everyone. Take me for example. I started using video in my marketing about 3 years ago and never looked back, 275 videos and counting {100 public} on my real estate marketing youtube channel and the leads are literally flowing in. 50% of the leads I get through this website MyTitleGuy.com come from my real estate marketing videos.
Marketing Has Changed
The business of marketing has changed. This is especially true in the real estate space as 98% of consumers go to the Internet first when looking to gather information or a home for sale. They do not go to their mailbox, a billboard or even facebook {regardless of what that social media guru told you}. Of that 98%, 80% will choose the first real estate agent they find. Why wouldn’t they? Many consumers see a real estate agent as a commodity, a means to an end in many cases.
It’s All About Them – Not YOU
You have seen this before. You have worked with a buyer for days, weeks, months and sometimes even years – shown them home after home in city after city. They swore you were their real estate agent. They committed to you. All was great until you found out they bought a home with another real estate agent. Why? It wasn’t that you were a bad person. It wasn’t that you were a bad agent {I hope not anyway}, it wasn’t that they didn’t like you, obviously they must have to spend that amount of time with you. The real estate agent a consumer chooses is tied to value. And sometimes value is who is there at the exact moment in time the consumers need is present. If a consumer believes “all agents are the same” why not buy a home with the agent sitting the house of their dreams open? Why not go with the agent on the listing they called when they were driving by? Folks, it’s all about the consumer. What’s in it for them. If there is one thing I have learned it’s that consumers will not care about you unless you give them a reason to. Video can help you do that. Video can position you and your business as the authority on your area or specialty. Video can decomoditize you and your business.
Where Is Your Ideal Client?
The 1st rule of real estate marketing, mine anyway, is to be where your ideal client is. If your ideal client has a cold one at the 19th hole of a local golf course you better be there. If your ideal client is on the PTA of your local school you better be a member as well. In real estate marketing, your ideal client is on the Internet. This is where you go when you have a need so why wouldn’t they? My ideal client is real estate agents and consumers. I get found online. Not just here in Phoenix but from real estate agents and consumers around the world. I’ve been contacted by title companies east coast to west, real estate agents from Singapore to New Zealand, Australia to Ireland. Buyers, Sellers and Investors from all over. One of the ways they find me is with my videos.
@mytitleguy Love your videos. very helpfull!
— Andrew McMurdo (@ampropertyguy) July 23, 2012
Real Estate Video Marketing
I teach real estate marketing classes in the Phoenix metro area to REALTORS® interested in learning the HOW TO of real estate video marketing. There are so many benefits of video in real estate. Real estate video makes us smarter, builds trust and rapport, is emotional, believable, gets found online and video is fast. The biggest challenge I run into is overcoming a real estate gents fear of being on camera. Remember how I told you earlier “it’s not about you”? What a consumer cares about when watching a real estate video is the words coming out of your mouth. How you can help them, save them time or money. Stop thinking about your competitors and what they might think. Do you think for one moment that I would of started in video if I gave a damn what my competitors thought? Hell No! I would still be pitching “I have great escrow officers!”. Instead I now have my own discernable value. My own USP. There are a lot of ways you can make real estate marketing videos without being in them, some examples include screen capture, expert interviews, narration, powerpoint or keynote presentations, slide shows to music, and on and on. You don’t have to be in the video.
Real Estate Video Marketing: Less Is More
When I teach my real estate video marketing classes in Phoenix I talk about less is more. You don’t need to make a 10 minute real estate marketing video, in fact – I suggest YOU DON’T. 10 minutes of someones life is a lot to ask for a consumer that doesn’t know you or your value – yet. The perfect real estate marketing videos are around 2-3 minutes, short and sweet. Short real estate marketing videos are easy for the consumer to consume, just remember to follow the golden rule {mine anyway} always make your videos of value. By value I mean – to the consumer, to your ideal client. You need to learn how to make videos your ideal client would look for online, NOT what you want to see or make them about. This may come as a shock but no one cares about you. Why would they? You havent given them a reason to yet. That means they don’t want to see a video about why you are the best. They don’t want to see a video about your team or brokerage. They don’t care about your stats and awards.
Real Estate Video Marketing: One of my FAVORITE Videos
Before I teach my real estate video marketing classes I typically scan YouTube, Vimeo and other video hosting platforms to see what real estate agents around the country are doing with video marketing. I have seen some AWESOME examples of real estate video marketing and I have seen some that frankly – suck [REALTORS using video as a high tech version of a postcard …. I’m awesome, blah, blah, blah]. One of the things that is awesome about real estate marketing video is that video allows you to show your personality, your sense of humor, your value, your competency and individuality in a way that other mediums can not. Video gives you a face. If you do it right – you can show how AWESOME you are without ever having to actually say it.
According to NAR, 73% of sellers say they would list with a real estate agent that uses video, yet {nationally} less that 2% do. If you were looking to buy a home, would you prefer 25 photos of it or a video? I shoot HD video tours for my clients here in Phoenix. Take a look at the video below, if a picture says 1000 words, video says them all
Video says so much more than text ever could. Using video to market your listings is a great way to help a consumer “mentally move in” to a property. They can SEE and get a FEEL of the home. These kind of real estate videos are unique and memorable, it’s not about the REALTOR® but does a great job in allowing the viewer to be THERE. Video can also get your listings at the top of Google.
This video is further evidence that real estate video marketing can be anything you want it to be. All you need is some IMAGINATION & CREATIVITY, the right equipment {whatever camera and computer you have right now IS the right equipment}, some basic knowledge of lighting and shadows, angles and editing and don’t forget about the optimizing – you need to get your real estate video marketing FOUND in Google, YouTube and YouTube’s Related Search. Check out some of my other real estate video tours.
If you are in the Phoenix metro area, and you want to learn more about real estate video marketing, please fill out the form below. Using video in real estate is not as hard as you think.
