By Tata Rossi 4 days ago, Real Estate Photography
Real estate video marketing tips to help real estate agents attract clients, sell more listings and build their brand. Videos help experts tell more about themselves and show off the property to clients that can even be located on a different continent. A properly produced real estate video can bring you multiple benefits, presenting a venue in more detail than you could ever achieve with an image or a written description.
According to the National Association of Realtors, nowadays, about half of the people interested in purchasing a house begin their search on the internet, and about 74% of sellers give preference to a realtor that will create a video for their listing. Moreover, nearly 50% of all realtors admit that real estate video marketing is a crucial aspect of their strategy.
Videos have proven to increase incoming traffic by over 300%, doing wonders for cultivating leads. Additionally, listings that feature a video get a 400% inquiry increase compared to postings without one.
How are real estate videos for marketing so efficient? Here are some of the reasons named by industry veterans:
Clear property showcase. Videos are better suited for showing the size, notable features, and smaller details of any venue.
Higher chance to schedule a meeting. Emails and social network posts that contain videos are read/opened almost twice as often and are three times more likely to get a response.
Time-efficient solution. After you’re done working on a video and have posted it online, you can still edit it later to add/change an introduction or share some interesting facts about the property to breathe new life into older footage.
There’s no shortage of genres you can experiment with when filming a video that will attract potential clients and help establish your brand. Dedicate some of your effort to brainstorming and implementing ideas that will make your real estate video marketing content more unique.
By offering 360-degree videos to your clients, you give them a chance to “move” from one room to another, while examining the furniture, ceilings, flooring, various devices, etc. 360 videos are some of the best content you can add to a listing. Additionally, their interactivity makes them a great choice for social network posts.
360 footage demands more expensive gear than a regular video. In addition to the camera, you’ll also have to buy a special kit for 360-degree video recording:
GoPro Max – $499. Provides functionality that allows you to stream content in 1080p and offers impeccable stabilization.
Tripod – $32.99. Allows you to set the height between 2.8ft and 6.7ft.
A ball head adapter – $19.99. Comes with a universal diameter.
Rode SmartLav+ – $64.95. Top-tier broadcasting quality.
By getting such a setup, you’ll be fully prepared for recording top-tier 360-degree videos, as the camera will handle 4K footage recording, while the rest of the gear will ensure you enjoy a hands-free experience.
A good real estate video marketing strategy is to record an introduction. Help people trust you by telling a little bit about your career, why you’ve decided to become a real estate agent, and what motivates you.
According to recent reports, house sellers rarely do more than 3 hours of research, often entrusting their property to the first realtor they contact, and it’s your job to become that person. Condense your individuality and the value you bring into a brief, half-minute introductory clip. Add that video to your email signature, giving everyone you contact a chance to get to know you better.
You can use both videos and photos for creating a listing video. Putting together a tour that consists of photos allows you to get by with a camera without solid video recording functionality. You simply have to set appropriate real estate photography camera settings.
If you decided to use photos for the video, then consider creating a slideshow with your voiceover that describes the property. As for video recording, here’s a simple trick you can follow – go around the building the way someone would if they entered it for the first time. Begin recording at the front door and provide a cohesive, room-by-room tour of the entire home.
Putting together a listing video is a rather straightforward process. You can also produce video tours of property you already sold to show potential clients that you know how to make a sale.
To make your real estate video more serious and professional, you can interview an architect or expert in new building methods or unique house design.
People like having evidence that they are dealing with a reliable specialist and the property in question is worth the investment, so having someone like that in your videos may work in your favor.
Some realtors don't focus entirely on showing the property but film one day out of the life of people living there as well. Thus, the final video looks humanized, allowing viewers to imagine what it feels like to live in that house.
The house a person lives in doesn’t just serve as accommodation but also shapes his/her lifestyle. You can target different groups of people by appealing to certain hobbies, occupations, etc.
Drone videos as well as real estate aerial photography look fantastic and add a layer of class to the presented property. Such videos are particularly useful for showing large buildings and land that can’t be given justice with a simple walkthrough tour.
To create such a clip, you’ll need one of the best drones for real estate photography and video:
DJI Phantom 4 PRO – $1,599. 4K video recording support.
Yuneec Typhoon H – $2,199.99. Up to 30 minutes of flight time.
DJI Inspire 2 – $3,190. Smart flight modes.
Commercial property photos taken at noon on a Sunday are perfect for capturing a clear scene, but they often make it seem like the neighborhood is devoid of life. Record a weekday video to convey how lively the area around the property can be during work hours.
The same real estate video marketing idea can be used for residential houses. Record a playground when it’s full of children, the nearby school at lunch, or the local waterfront pathway during the evening golden hour.
This can be a prerecorded video with answers to typical questions or a social media live stream. Try organizing a live stream on your most used social network to advertise a property or investment strategy. Such platforms as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter are perfect for inviting users to ask you some questions, and their implemented notification systems will ensure you’ll always have an audience to interact with.
Let satisfied clients handle marketing for you by asking them to record brief testimonial clips. Get into a habit of requesting a brief interview during the high points of their purchasing experience – when the offer is made, when the deal is closed, and after six months.
The biggest advantage of this idea is that such videos require nothing more than a phone and a lavalier microphone. Keep all such clips in a dedicated folder and use them whenever you need to put together a testimonial video that will help promote your buying or selling expertise.
You can upload testimonials to Facebook as regular posts or paid advertisements. Additionally, you can create a YouTube testimonial playlist on your channel to make finding such videos easier for potential clients.
Appropriate usage of humor is beneficial for both gaining new clients and building a relationship with them, and introducing your brand as well. Regardless if you choose to ride the tide of the newest memes or come up with a unique idea that you'll prepare a script for and film, the results you receive are bound to be worth it as long as you ensure your video isn’t offensive and won’t damage your reputation.
Sometimes people get tired of marketing footage and want to watch behind-the-scene videos that reflect your brand’s individuality. You can prepare them in advance or broadcast them live while streaming in FB Live, Vine, Snapchat, or Periscope to demonstrate the day-to-day life of your company.
Such videos must be quite short, from 30 secs to 1.5 minutes maximum, and show your team getting ready for the recording, taking part in some events, or just working in the office.
Simplify the buying process by educating your audience on how to handle and finalize a deal properly.
First-time buyers will love to watch a “Home buying 101” tutorial that covers aspects like price estimation, tricks for receiving multiple rate quotes, and tips on fixing credit report issues. Meanwhile, commercial buyers will be more interested in a video that showcases the financial benefits of purchasing a specific property and promotes it as a more worthwhile investment than other nearby listings.
Evaluate your past year and create a review. Tell about your achievements, satisfied clients, and sold listings. Additionally, you can prepare real estate agent photos for the end of the year to advertise your services.
Thanks to such videos, you can become a trustworthy source of real estate information for all potential buyers and sellers. It’s advised to produce such videos monthly and share them on all your social media accounts and YouTube channel.
Market update videos can talk about the latest industry trends, interest rate fluctuations, new policies, notable investment opportunities, and any other information that you consider to be beneficial for your current and future clients.
Produce a video that goes into detail on what a property contract consists of while taking time to explain all its crucial clauses and conditions. Buyers will appreciate the fact that they won’t have to read through the entire thing later to understand what’s what, and the chances of them choosing you as their representative will increase significantly.
Reach out to experienced real estate agents and have them help you produce some videos. Content in the vein of “Property Selling 101”, video tutorials, and online courses don't demand expensive equipment but can help you get a lot of new clients as long as they contain useful and relevant information.
Follow the tips below to produce better content and improve your real estate video marketing approach, ensuring you reach new audiences, engage potential clients, and continuously grow your business.
Matt King, a reputable video production expert, states that your video production routine should consist of 50% planning, 20% recording, and 30% editing.
Planning can be broken down into these stages:
Decide what your video is going to cover before you begin recording. Once the camera starts rolling, you won’t have enough time to come up with real estate video marketing ideas on the spot.
Additionally, properly planning your videos allows you to start advertising them before you share them, which is particularly useful for property tours, as such an approach lets you amass an audience for the tour before you post the video.
At first, you may try to record videos with your smartphone, but the features they offer are greatly inferior to those you get with professional DSLR video cameras.
For example, Canon EOS 5d Mark IV can offer reliable image stabilization, top-tier interior and exterior video shooting capabilities, advanced video editing tools, impressive memory and battery life, in-depth zoom characteristics, etc.
In addition to the camera, you’re also going to need:
Don't make the mistake of buying a fish-eye lens. While it can make a property look larger online, you can be certain you'll get a lot of backlash from the buyer once they see the venue in person.
Scripts are vital for adding a sense of coherency and direction to your real estate videos. If you need help producing a quality script, follow these steps:
People often make purchases while being driven by emotion, while later trying to support that decision with facts. Presenting appealing facts is important, but making someone emotionally invested in a property and then reinforcing that investment with facts is even more effective.
Try to evoke emotions that a buyer might experience when they make a purchase – pride, excitement, accomplishment. Alternatively, think about what emotions selling a property evokes in a person: optimism, relief, anticipation. Afterward, provide facts that will help the client justify those emotions once the deal is finalized.
People that watch real estate videos want to know as much as possible about the property. Though most listing videos contain the address of the house/flat, they lack pricing info, the number of bathrooms, bedrooms, size of rooms, etc.
I highly recommend including all the important details in your video, so people can see it during the first 20-30 seconds.
When selecting a property, people want to know all about the local stores, sports centers, parks, cafes, restaurants, bus stops, etc. So, don’t omit these details and tell as much relevant info as you can, without boring your viewers.
People with kids like having information about nearby kindergartens and schools, while the older population group is more interested in the proximity of healthcare establishments.
Ensure your video sells real estate properties more efficiently by creating a thumbnail that has an engaging play button. If you’re willing to dedicate the extra effort, you can set a GIF of you gesturing or pointing at something in the video as the thumbnail since such videos have proven to gather significantly more views.
To attract attention to your channel or social media pages as a whole, you’ll also need a real estate cover photo. You can create one with the help of pre-made templates available online.
Studies show that two-minute-long videos are perfect for viewer engagement. The optimal video length for real estate videos is also usually the same.
However, there are some exceptions you have to know about. Firstly, live streams should last at least 10 minutes to give your audience ample time to join in. Secondly, Facebook organic videos have to be at least 3 minutes in length since otherwise they will be lost in the shuffle because of how the local algorithm works.
Posting short videos is also important if you care about how they rank on sites like YouTube. Even though the platform’s algorithms are constantly being updated, the recent trend of promoting short videos is still in full force.
You can save some money by recording realtor videos on your own, but their questionable quality may cause even more expenses in the future. Check Craigslist, Facebook, Instagram, or visit local colleges to find aspiring real estate videographers who are looking for a job, regular income, and a strong clientele base.
Your clients may be interested in buying/selling a house, but they don’t want to monitor the local property market all the time. Do them a favor and provide video updates, so they can check the listing whenever they want. Make your presentations informative and short, and upload them to your channel/website regularly.
To make your real estate marketing videos more interesting, use different speeds (slow-motion, regular, and fast) and various transitions. For example, you may start with a slow-motion video in the hall, and then make it more dynamic when showing the living room, or even add some drone footage to raise the speed even higher.
You can change the playback speed by using video speed up apps:
FilmoraGo – Fantastic choice for professional use.
iMovie – For iOS devices.
Videoshop – For social media posts.
You can complement a video with a story about the property or by adding background music. Remember, music easily evokes feelings and emotions, so think about what you want your clients to experience while watching a video. To add music, I suggest using one of these music over video apps:
Premiere Rush – Comes with advanced features that can be accessed on both phones and PCs.
VivaVideo – Allows adding multiple audio tracks to the same video.
Audio Video Mixer – Great for changing the background music.
Judging by real estate marketing stats, a staged housed look is more interesting to potential buyers and fetches higher prices, while empty spaces may sit on the market for a long time.
Advertising empty buildings won’t be such a problem if you use the best virtual staging software. It will allow buyers to imagine how everything will look like in the house and see it in a completely new light.
Captions are not only essential for hearing-impaired viewers, but they are also useful for letting people understand what your video is about even if they have their smartphone or laptop on mute because they're traveling or working in a busy environment.
Finally, adding captions will allow websites like YouTube to decipher your content better.
You can add subtitles by using software like:
Rev Captioning – Allows adding transcriptions, captions, and subtitles.
MixCaptions – Available on iOS devices.
All successful real estate videos have one common thing – they motivate the viewer to act. That’s why you should provide your contact information (name, phone numbers, website, e-mail, social media profiles) at the end of the video so that people can easily get in touch with you and visit the property.
Beautiful videos with colorful shots receive more responses than low-quality clips. You can enhance a video with a single click by using free LUTS that are designed to quickly adjust the colors in your footage.
If you also need to stabilize the footage, add music and transitions, then you should make use of professional services. The time it will take to complete your order depends on the length of the video and your specific requirements.
It’s vital to attentively research your target audience and determine who your perfect buyers are. Knowing what kind of client you want to attract will simplify the task of producing relevant content and help develop a targeted real estate video marketing strategy.
To paint a portrait of your audience, you should study the social media profiles of several clients and find out what they’re talking about on forums. Send a survey to loyal clients and ask them what type of videos they would like to see more often. Carefully read the comments under your videos, as they will help you understand what the audience likes and dislikes about them.
Before you finalize your content plan, it’s advised to study what kind of videos are produced by your competition. Look for competitors on social networks and YouTube by typing in relevant hashtags.
Some of the best real estate YouTube channels are:
Tom Ferry – Enhancing all facets of your real estate enterprise.
Graham Stephan – Provides fantastic real estate industry advice and courses.
Loida Velasquez – Infinite source of creative video ideas.
Everyone even partly engaged in the real estate business knows about Zillow, a marketplace with about 200 million monthly visitors.
If you dream of growing your client database, hurry up and create a Zillow account. Your videos placed on this platform will get 3 times more views than the ones you have on your website.
There are hundreds of articles online about when you should post on social networks, but the consensus is that the time between 8 AM and 12 noon allows you to get the most views. It's also a rule that weekend posts receive less engagement than workday posts. Unless you have content prepared for each day, strive to publish your posts only on weekday mornings.
That said, it’s highly advised to publish a video every day and if that’s not possible, then you should at least keep a posting schedule, as it will help your audience know when they can expect the next video from you.
Even if you already covered a topic on one platform, it shouldn’t stop you from dedicating another video to it on a different platform. The trick here is to record new footage for each website, as this way you both engage new viewers that aren’t following you on other platforms and give something new to watch to loyal clients that are subscribed to your accounts on all platforms.
Add relevant keywords to the title of the video and its description. Pick an attention-grabbing thumbnail that won’t get lost among other search results. Finally, encourage viewers to share your content, as this will help increase your organic traffic, which is a vital part of video marketing for realtors.
Proper tags allow YouTube to correctly suggest your videos in relevant search results. Here are some tips on how to choose tags:
Additionally, you can use YouTube Tag Generators like Keywordtool.io, Rapidtags, and YTube Tool.
