Using Video Marketing to Reach Your Full Potential in Real Estate

Many businesses have discovered the secret weapon of online video, but amazingly, real estate agents are not using video to its full potential.

A home purchase or sale is the biggest transaction of a person's life, so people want a real estate agent who is trustworthy and relatable. Using online video marketing will allow you to make a much more personal connection with your clients.

Different Types of Videos

Listing Videos:

If you're not already creating listing videos, you should be. Buyers and sellers expect it. Photos are great and necessary, but nothing can show off a listing like a video can. These days, smartphones are so powerful that you can shoot a high quality video all on your own. For a slightly more professional feel, you can invest in a smartphone video stabilizer rig. There are also a lot of free apps that help you edit and refine the footage. Just like you would use photos to enhance views of what makes a particular listing especially appealing or unique, use video to do the same. Some agents even mix still photos with video clips—and don't be afraid to add a voice narration.

Informational Videos:

There is a lot of information you need to provide to buyers and sellers, so why not use a video to do it? Short videos that educate your clients on the nuances and finer details of real estate are very valuable and you should definitely use them to market your business. It's a great way to showcase and differentiate your expertise. Clients love "how-to" videos that will share tips you've learned over the years about buying or selling a home. A video update on the current state of the housing market is far more compelling than a dry, boring page full of numbers any day. This is a great way to build a reputation as a knowledgeable resource.

Agent Videos:

How many "about me" pages have you read on websites? Have you ever considered using a video? Headshot photos are great, but a video is more personal and can do a better job of making you stand out as a real estate agent. You can showcase yourself or your entire office. A video shows your staff, your specialty and your office culture. Don't be afraid to promote yourself and your team. Get personal too. Not only tell them about your professional expertise, tell them about yourself, how long you've lived in area, and a bit about your family. The goal is for people to already feel like they know you—even before they've met you.

Testimonial Videos:

One of the best ways you can showcase your success is by providing video testimonials of your elated clients. Let them speak for you and attest to your creativity, ability and work ethic.

Places/Channels Where Video Should Be Used, and Why

Embedding a video into an email campaign is a great way to share content with your client base. It's relatively simple, and it will definitely spice up your campaigns. Forbes Magazine says that adding a video to emails can boost click-through rates by as much as 300 percent.

We all know it by now—you simply must have a social media presence in today's digital marketplace. The more video-intensive social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram are great ways for Realtors to engage with clients, particularly if you are trying to target millennials. So if this is your market, you have to go where your clients are and connect with them on their level, and that is best done using video on these platforms.

You have to be smart about the social media platforms you use. You certainly can't use all of them. There are too many and it's not very practical for you to use them all. You really need to start with your client base. Who are they? Do you know them well? How much of their time do they spend online? If it is a lot, meet them there. Older agents in particular are very reluctant to go beyond Facebook, so if you reach out and use these other platforms, you'll run circles around your competition. Each social platform has lots of tips on using video, so you'll be just fine.

How to Optimize Videos on Your Website for SEO

Videos can literally drive people in droves to your website. If you use the strategy of adding video to your website and your landing pages, you'll see increases in organic traffic. Many agents are embedding autoplay video capability into their landing pages; when a user hits that page, the video starts playing automatically to engage that lead. In fact, a HubSpot report states that embedded videos in landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80 percent.

It's fairly straightforward to optimize videos for SEO:

• Design your video. What is your goal? Each video needs to have a strategic purpose in your overall brand strategy. Who is your target audience? Who are you trying to appeal to?
• What action do you want your customer base to take after they watch your video? Do you want leads to visit a web page, a landing page, set up a tour, or make a phone call?
• You have to have a way to capture leads. Create an email registration, have people share on social networks, or create a contact form at the end of your video.
• Of course, you have to add key SEO information in your video. You can use Google's Adwords planner, or do research on words that rank well within the real estate industry. Just remember that Google and YouTube don't extract all of the words from your video into a transcript, so you can actually transcribe it yourself and turn it into accompanying text to boost your SEO.
• Use schema markup to make it easier for Google to find and index your videos.
• Pay attention to your video analytics and use past performance to plan future content.

How to Leverage Live Streams

Live streaming of video is a very hot trend in video marketing, and it can be a great tool for real estate agents. It's live, so you can communicate with sellers and buyers in real time and it allows you to engage with a very large social media audience on Facebook. Many real estate agents do live open house events, or they use live streaming to showcase homes and neighborhoods to out-of-town buyers. Perhaps you cater to many first time buyers. That's great, because you can host a live frequently asked questions (FAQ) event on Facebook to engage with your audience.

The thought of live streaming may sound difficult, but it's actually really easy to do. You can download lots of livestream apps like Facebook Live or Periscope. These apps allow you to easily broadcast your livestream on social media. It is a great way to reach your current audience and expand into new territory.

A few video concepts that work well on livestream are neighborhood videos and videos highlighting a community event. Homebuyers are even more interested in the neighborhood than they are in any particular home, so live stream to show them location, location, location. Choose a beautiful winter day or a spectacular sunrise or sunset to show them the paradise they could move to. It always works to show the local sites and to maybe even provide a few quick testimonials about why people love living in this particular neighborhood.

If there's a special community event like a festival or parade, live stream it! There's no better way to provide a great unique neighborhood perspective.

You also might want to live stream local businesses, like a great place for lunch or coffee, a farmer's market or a community theater group. Do what you can to showcase the uniqueness of the neighborhood and entice people to want to explore further in this area.

How to Optimize a YouTube Channel

YouTube is a social network platform and search engine all rolled into one. It is the second largest search engine after Google, but it's also a social networking platform that rivals Facebook. Now that you know that, you see why you should have a presence on YouTube. Potential clients can subscribe to your channel. YouTube is seamlessly integrated with Google, Twitter, Facebook and other sites, allowing you to easily tag and share video content.

Optimizing your YouTube channel means creating something that is unique to your brand and memorable to your clients. Create a custom background image to match your content. Select a great color scheme that showcases your brand. Use your best video as your feature video. YouTube automatically makes your most recent video the featured selection, so you may want to reset it so that another video serves as your feature. You can also add channel tags, using relevant keywords to make it easier for people to find your content. Most of all, pay attention to channel comments that people leave. Respond to them to engage with your audience, but be sure to delete spam-type comments. Finally, you don't want your site to look neglected, so make sure you keep your activity stream busy by adding a "recent activity module" to your channel. YouTube has a moderator tool that will allow you to start a discussion, ask questions, or take suggestions. Interestingly, it was first created only for the news and politics YouTube category, but quickly became part of YouTube in general.

Conclusion

If you decide to use videos for your real estate marketing, you'll be way ahead of your competition. Most agents are not using it, and those that do are not using it to its full potential.

Just remember, video is a cutting edge form of marketing content, so use it. Customers say that it provides the on-the-go flexibility they need to watch video on any device. According to Forbes Magazine, video will drive more than 80 percent of web traffic by 2019.

The bottom line is that video content promotes brand recall. It's visual. It's auditory. Hubspot says that the overwhelming majority of customers remember a video they've seen in the last month. Often times, video content is much easier to remember than text, and a customer remembering your video means a customer remembering your overall brand. And, it's easier than ever for people to share video, and that multiplies your customer base.

When customers remember your video marketing content, they also remember your brand, which translates to more sales and leads for you. What's more, customers typically like to share videos they enjoy, which can expand your online reach. Start today. Make your video memorable and make sure they sync up with your overall brand strategy.

To view the original article, visit the WolfNet blog.