Real Estate Video Marketing Made Easy

You may have heard you should be using videos in your online content because videos help convert leads. That sounds great, but how does the average agent get started without spending a bunch of money? The good news is you don't need to be a professional videographer or have fancy equipment to reap the benefits of video content that will help your business.

Why Video?

Differentiation is a big challenge with online marketing in real estate. There are lots of sites consumers can use to search for listings and there are lots of agents they could potentially work with, so you need a way to immediately make a personal connection. This is exactly what video is perfect for.

Because video plays natively on social media, viewers can view your content right in their feeds on services like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. This reduces obstacles for people to consumer your content, and video can be a lot more engaging than other content when used the right way.

Video also makes it easy to transport people to a location and make them feel closer to being there, providing a more virtual experience than photos are capable of providing.

And a huge benefit of video is that it brings more search traffic to your website:

Companies using video enjoy 41% more web traffic from search than non-users.

– Aberdeen study shared by HubSpot

Video Content Ideas

What video content should you produce? Once you start brainstorming and recording, you will quickly come up with a list of ideas. Just be creative! Here are some ideas to get you started.

Your Personal Introduction

Who are you? Share a little bit about yourself and your background. What got you into real estate? What do you like about helping people find a new home? What do you like about the local communities you serve in your market? If your past clients have complimented you and shared what they enjoyed about working with you, make sure you include that information as well. Finally, give your new prospects some reasons why they would want to work with you such as how they can expect you will help them with your services, what advantages you offer over your competitors, and anything else you can think of that will help win their confidence. This is your moment to make them excited about working with you. And make sure you smile a lot!

Anything Buyers Might Be Interested In

Hiking trails, parks, playgrounds, scenic spots, shopping districts, pools, skating rinks, gymnasiums, etc. There are lots of possibilities to produce video content that offers deeper insight into what a community offers. Pretend they're in your car and they've asked you to show them what you think they should see.

Listings

If you have your own listings, why not record some video to accompany the listing on your site?

Video Production Tools

You can get started with the camera available in most phones, which just about every real estate agent has at this point. So don't get caught up on what camera to use—just start shooting video and getting your video out for the world to see! If you happen to have a video camera, then even better!

There are lots of software tools available for helping you edit and finish off your video content, whether it started on your phone or with some other video source. Here are some tools to get you started that offer a lot of bang-for-the-buck:

Camtasia

As their website states, Camtasia "makes it simple to record and create professional-looking videos on Windows and Mac." It's not free, but it's a very flexible solution that can handle a variety of video production tasks. It does offers sophisticated features that you might need at some point, but they don't get in your way if you don't need them. It really does make screen recording and video editing easy. Learn more >

Adobe Spark

This online video editing tool focuses on keeping the editing and production process simple and efficient. Piece together your footage with photos, music, voiceovers, and transitions from one scene to the next. Learn more >

iMovie

Available for iOS and macOS, iMovie makes it really easy to produce polished videos on your Mac, iPhone or iPad. Learn more >

Where to Use Your Videos

The great thing about video content is you produce it once, but you can use it on multiple channels to get views, drive awareness, and bring traffic to your site.

Emails

Your automated follow-up email campaigns for new leads could include your personal introduction video in your first email to get people's interest and immediately differentiate yourself for a competitive edge with new leads. For campaigns you build related to specific locations, you can add your custom videos related to those locations within your email content.

YouTube Channel

Your YouTube channel is where you can upload your videos for people to discover and share. There are a lot of features, but don't be intimidated. Once you upload some videos a few times, you'll be an expert in no time. Learn how >

Website

Once a video is published on YouTube, you can use the embed code provided on YouTube to embed the video wherever you want to feature it on your website. Learn how >

Social Media

It is so easy to post videos to social media, and they are so broadly consumed. It's one of the best ways to promote yourself and your business. Focus on sharing content that will help educate people about real estate topics in your area and offer insights on what's going on locally in real estate, or even nationally.

For more ideas, check out this collection of social media tips from realtor.com.

To view the original article, visit the iHomeFinder blog.