As a savvy real estate entrepreneur, you recognize the value of using social media to grow your real estate business. However, if you feel like you’ve hit a wall trying to generate qualified leads online, starting a real estate YouTube channel may be your breakthrough. Here are a few key reasons why:
- Viewership Potential. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, with more than 1.9 billion active monthly subscribers who watch approximately 1 billion videos daily.
- SEO Value. Google owns YouTube, which allows your videos to rank favorably in the search engine and outrank competitors spending thousands of dollars per month on Google pay-per-click ads.
- Lead Generation. 51% of home buyers use YouTube for their homebuying research, while 73% of homeowners say they are likelier to list with a real estate agent who uses video to sell properties.
If you’re thinking of starting a real estate YouTube channel to scale your business, read on for
- A step-by-step guide on how to start a YouTube channel for real estate agents
- Reasons why you should consider YouTube marketing to promote and grow your real estate business
- YouTube marketing best practices for real estate agents
- How to use YouTube to grow your real estate viewership and generate leads
Find It Fast
A step-by-step guide on how to start a YouTube channel for real estate agents
Creating a YouTube channel for your real estate business is simple. All you need to get started is a Google account. You can either sign up for a new account or log in with an existing one. Since this channel will be used to promote your real estate business, we recommend moving forward with a Google account that is professional versus personal.
Once you have your Google account, you can follow the below steps to get your channel set up.
How to set up your YouTube channel (a step-by-step guide)
With your Google account, sign into YouTube. Then, click on the menu icon on the top left of the page.
Click “Settings” and then “Create a new channel” to create your real estate YouTube channel.
Next, decide how you will use YouTube. Choose your real estate or personal name depending on how you market your business. Once you’ve updated your name information, click the “Create Channel” button.
- NOTE: If you plan to give other people access to manage your channel, but do not want to give them access to your Google account, we’d recommend creating a brand account. You can find more details about how to create a YouTube brand account here.
From your newly created account home page, click on “Customize Channel” in the top right corner to add details about who you are and your channel.
In the “Basic info” tab, add a short description about who you are and the type of content your viewers can expect to see on your channel. Then, add links to your social media accounts, website, and any web address reflecting your business. Also, be sure to include your business email address. You should make it as simple as possible for viewers to find more details about your listings or contact you for more information.
Lastly, click on the “Branding” tab to customize your channel by uploading your logo and other relevant brand assets.
Branding your real estate YouTube Channel
The profile picture you upload will vary based on your business. If you are a single real estate agent, we’d recommend uploading a high-quality professional photo of yourself. If the channel is being created for a team of real estate agents, an easily recognizable brand logo would be better here.
The banner image should be reflective of your brand. Here are some tips to keep in mind when designing the banner image for your real estate YouTube channel:
- Follow the recommended dimension guidelines so that your banner image shows up in high resolution. Any artwork smaller than the recommended size will look pixelated and unprofessional. We recommend you use a dimension of at least 2560 x 1440 px for your YouTube channel banner.
- The graphics or images you include in your banner art should also be high quality. We recommend sticking to PNG or JPEG files of at least 1920×1080 pixels.
- There are tons of design programs you can use to create your banner image. Photoshop is always a safe bet. For a free alternative, we recommend using Canva.
- Keep your YouTube channel banner clean and simple. Consider designing your banner with lots of negative (empty) space and overlaying your logo so that it’s easy to view across multiple devices and formats.
- Incorporate a clear call to action in your channel banner. Decide the most critical action you want your viewers to take when they arrive at your channel (e.g. subscribe, visit your website, etc.) and include that within the dimensions of your artwork.
The video watermark will appear at the bottom righthand corner of all of your videos. This image should be your personal brand or team logo.
Creating YouTube videos
Create a channel trailer and description
After you create your YouTube account, you need to create your channel trailer. When people come to your page, they will see this trailer first. The channel trailer should briefly describe the content and why someone should subscribe.
In the video, introduce yourself and your real estate business. Also, mention why you are qualified to create a real estate YouTube channel. Please remind your audience to subscribe and turn on the notifications. Ensure the trailer videos are not longer than 120 seconds.
Keyword research
The very first step to creating real estate YouTube videos is keyword research. Proper keywords help your video appear in search engines.
As a real estate agent, you should focus on your local market keywords, specifically those involving your city’s name. Use keyword research tools like Semrush, SpyFu, or Google Ads to identify keywords that have high-volume searches but low competition.
Once you have an appropriate list of keyword phrases, type each one of them in the YouTube search bar and check if any additional keywords come up.
Choosing a suitable topic
Though you are creating real estate videos for your YouTube channel, you do not always have to stick to property-related topics. For example, you can discuss your city or other real estate-related topics on your YouTube channel.
The goal is to keep your channel in front of your target audience so they can connect with you whenever they seek the service of a real estate agent. You can find good ideas on how to do so by surfing through other real estate YouTube channels and seeing what kind of videos received high viewership.
Filming real estate YouTube videos
There are several key components that go into making a quality real estate video. We’ve outlined the basics below, but you can also read this article for a more comprehensive guide on everything you should know about real estate videography.
Hook
You have the first 15 to 20 seconds of the video to capture the audience’s interest. Use the exact words as your video title to reassure your audience they are watching the right video. Also, be sure to mention what your viewers can expect after watching the video.
Introduction
In the introduction, introduce yourself and explain why they should listen to you. Share a little bit of your story to help first-time viewers connect with you. This part of the video should not be more than 30 seconds long.
Content
This section is the central part of your video and could vary in time length considerably depending on the content. However, remember you should focus on your content and avoid rambling. We do not recommend you memorize a complete script for your videos. It is important you come off authentic and genuine, not scripted and robotic. Instead, prepare a few bullet points in advance to finalize your thoughts and help your video look well-prepared.
Offer
Never forget the call to action (CTA). Remind your audience to like, subscribe, share, and comment. If need be, you can also share external links on the topic of your video for anyone who wants a one-to-one consultation over the phone or via video conferencing.
Editing
You should properly edit your real estate YouTube videos. You can find many editing tools for your video editing—both free ones and ones for purchase. Most tools make it easy to learn the fundamentals, like cutting and slicing clips together and adding text and transition effects to your videos.
You can find more about the video editing tools later in this article.
Uploading YouTube videos
After you’ve created your real estate video content, it’s time to upload it to your channel. Hit the upload button and upload your video with “unlisted” visibility at first since the feature gives you time to add appropriate tags, write a title and description, create a thumbnail, and schedule a particular time to publish.
Add tags
Tags allow YouTube to understand the video’s content and help share the information with the relevant audience. Your tags should be specific to the real estate videos you create. You can also use tags that are not real estate specific but are related to some of your video content. Adding these tags helps reach a broader audience for your videos.
Write a proper title
Your video’s title should have keywords and a solid hook to convince someone to click it. To make the title effective, keep it within 70 characters.
Create a thumbnail with a hook
The video thumbnail visually catches the viewers’ attention and makes them want to click on your YouTube video.
Visit the thumbnails of similar real estate YouTube video creators, and use them as inspiration.
Write a proper description and include a CTA
Your real estate YouTube video should have an accurate description of the content of the video. It should be 200 to 300 words and include all the relevant keywords, phrases, and a call to action (CTA).
The CTA could be a link to sign up for a seller or buyer consultation, join your email list, or contact you for selling or buying in your local area. You could also add links to YouTube videos related to your video content that you think would add value to your channel.
Now you’ve completed reviewing the guide on how to create a YouTube for your real estate business. Here’s why you should leverage this kind of marketing as a real estate agent.
Reasons why you should consider YouTube marketing to promote and grow your real estate business
Creating engaging and helpful videos is a powerful way to reach potential clients, and YouTube is the number one video-sharing platform in the world to do just that. Since YouTube’s launch in 2005, it has become the most popular video-sharing platform globally. It has approximately 2 billion monthly subscribers watching 1 billion hours of video content daily.
Here are some more specific reasons why you should consider using YouTube marketing as a real estate agent.
YouTube has simple SEO
Every year, SEO for real estate agents to rank high in Google organic searches becomes more and more challenging. It takes months to move up the ranking system and get featured on the first search page.
However, this is not necessarily the case with YouTube. Google promotes YouTube videos aggressively in its organic search results. All you need is a good headline with effective real estate keywords and a detailed, attention-grabbing description.
If you publish videos regularly and follow the SEO guidelines, your videos will start getting views from both sellers and buyers within a few months.
YouTube videos can also help your website’s SEO indirectly. You can embed your videos in blogs and other types of content. People will stay on your site for more time to watch the videos, and the elevated time on site will enhance your content ranking.
YouTube recommends videos based on viewing history. So, even if someone has watched your video and forgotten about it, YouTube will give more video recommendations from your channel the next time they use YouTube.
YouTube is a great inbound marketing tool
The inbound marketing business process attracts customers by creating content and experiences relevant to them. While outbound marketing interrupts your audience with unwanted content, inbound marketing develops a connection with prospective customers and gives them what they want or need.
YouTube is an excellent inbound marketing tool that familiarizes your audience with your products before you talk to them and put them through a sales funnel.
YouTube videos can be easy to produce
Creating YouTube videos can be easier than writing content. Just be yourself. Prepare a few talking points, use a video recording device (a phone is a great video recording device), and shoot a conversational video of yourself speaking.
Most real estate agents get stuck on the video editing part. Many video editing tools like iMovie or Final Cut Pro for Mac users or Filmora and Adobe Premiere Pro for PC users can make your work easier. You can also hire a professional video editor through freelance sites like UpWork or Fiverr.
YouTube videos are more engaging
Our brain is more able to retain visual information for a long time. Hence, you will remember a face, a business logo, or a specific message seen in a video more than hearing or reading it. The same principle works for real estate YouTube videos. If your video content is engaging, people will remember whatever you are trying to convey.
Original YouTube videos are valued
You don’t have to be a professional to create videos on YouTube. However, your real estate YouTube videos should be crisp and should be able to convey information appropriately.
Original video content can help you connect with your prospective customer more personally. Just be yourself to impress your prospects with unique content and factual information.
YouTube videos help you stand out from the competition
When a user goes online to search for properties, the search engine fills the screen with hundreds of property listings. It can confuse the user, but a video presentation of a property can make you stand out from the competition and help you get a client faster.
Not only will your prospects be happy about getting easy-to-consume information, but they will also view you as an expert in the real estate field. Happy prospects will lead to more referrals and clients.
YouTube video content can be repurposed
If you have created a YouTube video on real estate, you can leverage video marketing at scale. After editing them per the platform requirements, you can republish videos created for YouTube on other social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Videos have more organic reach on various platforms than text-based content.
A real estate YouTube channel produces a more personalized sales funnel
You should use a real estate sales funnel to collect online real estate leads. Embed YouTube videos in your drip emails instead of just sending textual messages for a more significant impact. Including videos in your emails will make your branding message feel more personalized.
Personal branding is necessary for real estate agents because they are local businesses. A personalized real estate sales funnel allows you to build your personal brand much faster. Your leads will know you better by seeing you in action rather than reading about you.
Real estate YouTube marketing best practices
When you create a real estate YouTube channel and post videos on it, you should keep certain specifics in mind. These specifics will help you market your YouTube real estate business effectively.
Following YouTube marketing best practices will ensure you get the maximum out of your real estate video marketing efforts.
Coherent visual branding
Keep these factors of YouTube branding in mind:
- YouTube intro
- Thumbnail
- Titles and subtitles
- Animations
- YouTube banner
All these aspects of visual branding must be consistent. This includes logos, fonts, colors, titles, subtitles, and the overall color theme you use to create animations and texts.
If you are unsure how to create a YouTube intro, thumbnails, animations, etc., you can hire professionals, including video editors and animation experts, at a reasonable price.
Always focus on viewer intent and never overdo self-promotion
Self-promotion is essential but never overdo it. Many YouTube video creators for real estate focus too much on themselves and devote a considerable portion of the visual content to self-promotion, which is a big mistake. People watch real estate videos to get information, not learn about you.
It would be best if you found a delicate balance between self-promotion and factual information. Your videos should never seem spammy. Instead, keep the viewer’s objective in mind and focus on the value you offer through your visual content.
Use multiple calls-to-action in your real estate YouTube videos
Below are some essential YouTube CTAs to use in your videos.
- Prompt audiences to subscribe to your channel and click on the notification bell.
- Suggest related videos in your channel at the end of your videos.
- Put your social media links in your videos.
- Place links in the video description.
- Direct audiences to your website with pop-up CTAs.
- Ask your audiences to comment and share your videos. This is good for SEO and viewer engagement.
- Create a lead magnet. You can offer your viewers freebies in exchange for giving you their contact information. For example, you could give a free ebook on the home selling and buying process or a free home valuation estimation in exchange for contact information. Recommend this lead magnet at the end of your video, and inform your viewers to find the link in the description box. When viewers click on the link, have them redirected to the landing page of your website, where they will need to fill up a web form with contact information to access the freebies.
Make engaging real estate YouTube videos and ensure effective edits
You must ensure your video informs the viewer of what to expect once it starts. All of your real estate YouTube videos should be to the point and professional.
To become a pro in creating the best videos, watch popular videos of other real estate agents and try to learn from them. Also, spend a good amount of time editing your videos. The editing should look professional, and there should be no cuts that make your video seem amateur.
Again, you can hire a professional to help if needed.
Post real estate YouTube videos regularly
One of the most beneficial goals you can have is to upload videos frequently. Have a posting schedule and stick to it—even if that means posting one video on the same day each month.
Use evergreen informational content
When creating a video on selling, buying, or investment guides in real estate, make sure your content applies to all seasons. Evergreen content will help keep your videos relevant.
For example, if you create a video on a “guide to buying a new home,” focus on the classic requirements versus current events. The current scenario might change, but the evergreen content will remain pertinent. If you need to inform your viewers about the present market situation, create a separate video.
How to use a real estate YouTube channel to grow your viewership and generate leads
After you make your real estate YouTube channel and upload videos, you will have to start experimenting to understand how your audience responds.
First, you need to understand who comprises your YouTube audience. Then, gather some information to get a better picture.
- If they are current homeowners or first-time buyers
- Their budget
- Which neighborhood they prefer
- If they are moving by themselves or with family
- What type of property they want
This information will help you create your visual content. By narrowing down the data you gather, you limit your content to specific topics. So, instead of targeting a wide range of audiences, target fewer viewers to have a better chance of generating the right kind of leads to grow your real estate business.
Creating engaging content is a must for your real estate YouTube channel
Below are some of the most favored types of YouTube content:
- Explanations
- Product demos
- How-to guides
- Testimonials
Here are some ideas that can help you generate new content using the kinds of videos listed above.
- Post videos discussing a real estate trend. For example, in your videos, you can talk about mortgage rates for first-time buyers or the current trends in the real estate markets.
- Post videos of client success stories. Make a reel on how a client bought or sold a home. This reel can also become your channel trailer, giving viewers a sneak peek at how you add value to your customers.
- Host webinars on real estate. “How-to” video searches are very popular. These videos are growing at a rate of 70% each year. So talk about “how-to” topics for an open house in your videos. You can give before and after examples or even take interviews with professional home stagers. Cover anything your viewers find relevant.
Implementing strategies to increase viewership of your real estate YouTube channel
Increasing your channel viewership is crucial to growing your company’s brand awareness and generating more leads.
Here are some strategies for increasing real estate YouTube viewership:
- Post videos consistently. As discussed earlier, your video posting should follow a specific cadence. It can be weekly, monthly, or more frequently. Even if you post a video once a month, never skip it. Consistency helps grow a loyal audience who will share your videos and refer new leads.
- Share your videos across multiple platforms. You should not restrict your videos to YouTube alone because you have created them for the platform. You can share your videos as email links, on your website, or on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to drive traffic to your channel. You can generate leads from multiple platforms, so continually optimize those platforms to drive your YouTube channel.
- Always use subtitles. Surprisingly, 85% of Facebook videos are viewed on mute. If your videos include subtitles, it’s more likely viewers will watch them since they don’t need sound to understand the video. Your subtitles on a real estate video should consist of information related to the video and essential to your specific audience.
- Use SEO while creating your video. Remember to use keywords in your description box and titles the same way you use keywords in blogs and articles. Your keywords should be related to the content of your video. If tagged correctly, your videos will start ranking higher over time.
- You can also use YouTube Analytics to check how your viewers engage the most: likes, shares, comments, and more. Also, you can use data to enhance the content by giving more of what the viewer wants.
Now it’s your turn to start and grow your real estate YouTube channel
Now that you understand how to create a YouTube channel for your real estate business, you can get started. Experiment with your content, video length, and keywords. See how your audience responds. Adapt as you learn.
When you make a decision, remember the factors essential for ranking your YouTube channel and increasing online traffic. If your channel follows all of the guidelines, you will eventually receive the desired success.