How to Successfully Market Real Estate with Video, Part 1

Video usage in real estate marketing is rapidly gaining momentum. Unfortunately, not all attempts are successful. It takes more than a simple upload to engage customers. Luckily, gaining the right kind of exposure is just a few tips away.

Your Roadmap to Video Marketing Success:

1. Fill with value – not fodder. Carefully consider what will be useful for potential customers. Focus on the community you serve, referencing common questions – not an overblown doorknobs-to-floor-nails approach. More is not necessarily better.

2. Start with YouTube. Owned by Google and the second largest search engine in the world, more than 1 billion unique users frequent YouTube monthly, consuming 6 billion hours of video. This includes more than 50 percent of prospective homebuyers that patronize the site as a primary vehicle for home buying research.

3. Optimize! From physical address to neighborhood and local amenities, brainstorm relevant search terms to ensure you snag relevant home hunters. Include these search terms in your video title, description, and tags – but don't stuff – it'll hurt your placement.

4. Don't overlook your call to action. Include your website URL, phone number, and logo in a visible (but not distracting) position in the video to drive traffic and convert more leads.

5. Share, share alike. Cyclical in nature, the more you share your video via email, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Vimeo and other mediums, the more it will, in turn, be shared and viewed, increasing your exposure. So get it out there!

6. Consider dedicated hosting. To circumvent one of YouTube's major shortcomings – driving viewers back to YouTube – consider a dedicated video hosting service like Wistia, Welcomemat or VimeoPro. Built for marketing, these platforms more easily enable sharing, capture leads, deliver analytics, and more.

Video usage in real estate marketing is here to stay. Stop standing on the sidelines.

To view the original article, visit the Properties Online blog.