With less Americans interested in reading year after year, video marketing rounds out your real estate marketing strategy.
As it happens, 87% of consumers say they’d like to see more video from brands in 2019. People digest information in different ways, and you never know when or where people are going to consume your content. With more people browsing the internet on their phones, videos are much easier to absorb than written information, although combining the two creates the ultimate marketing powerhouse.
The demand for more video content means that its conversion rates are through the roof right now. Adding a video to marketing emails can boost click-through rates by 200-300%, while embedding videos on landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%.
This all makes sense considering people, i.e. your prospects, are visual creatures. They want to see you and get a read on you, which is completely reasonable since searching for a real estate agent implies that they’ll be trusting you with high ticket transactions.
Even if you don’t consider yourself a great writer and that’s been your excuse for not keeping up with content creation to market your business, all of the evidence pointing towards big opportunities with video marketing proves that you can’t afford to ignore this trend.
How real estate agents can leverage real estate marketing
Real estate practically lends itself to video marketing. Homes are a highly visual product to sell, so you should have no trouble creating consistent video content.
From an introduction video on your “About Me” page to Facebook Live property walk-throughs of just-listed properties, video lets people get up close and personal with you and your listings without any risk involved.
It also allows you to better reach ad serve out-of-town prospects who need a way to see your community and get to know you without the time and financial investment of planning a trip to your area.
Putting yourself and your offer in front of a camera also suggests a degree of honesty that you can’t always feel through text alone. And really, who doesn’t want to house hunt from the comfort of their own couch?
Besides fostering trust, video marketing addresses the fact that not everyone wants to sit and read your every page of your website or read a long pillar post about your marketing strategy. If you have videos echoing your written content, then you’re going to get that important information cross anyway, meaning that video marketing helps you eliminate missed opportunities.
Video marketing helps you increase organic traffic
Video content has the potential to drive a 157% increase in organic traffic from search engine results by lowering your “bounce rate”, which tracks the amount of time people spend on your web pages.
When search engines see that you have a low bounce rate paired with a high average amount of time spent on certain pages, that signals to them that those pages must be an authority on whatever topic clusters or keyword groups are on those pages.
Strategically speaking, these are the best pages within your website to embed videos:
- Your home page
- Your “About Me” page
- and your lead magnet pages
While the most effective SEO still requires a holistic approach to get the best return, adding a video where it makes sense can give you that extra competitive edge.
Video marketing gets more shares on social media
Want to guess how many hours of video are watched every day on Facebook? 100 million.
Facebook’s own video marketing superpower right now is the Facebook Live feature. Facebook Live videos produce 6 times as many interactions as traditional videos, get 10 times more comments than regular videos, and Facebook Live’s search popularity increased by 330% in just one year (99 Firms).
The hype around Facebook Live is easy to figure out: people like authenticity..
You can leverage Facebook Live by using it to do property walk-throughs, host virtual open houses, or schedule a weekly Q&A session so people can always have a time and place to ask you about listings or the community.
Outside of Facebook Live, videos that are between 2-3 minutes long get the most engagement. Simple videos like standing outside of a restaurant and filming a two minute review or taking a minute to address a frequently asked question create the perfect trifecta of interesting content, trust building, and community influence.
Something you might also notice is that the videos that are shared the most are ones that you can easily watch without volume, so if you do decide to up your video marketing game, getting your videos transcribed by a website like Rev so people can watch your videos on mute can further increase your engagement.
Video marketing consistently increases conversion rates on landing pages
Video marketing can increase conversion rates on landing pages by 56%. That means that whichever landing pages on your website are geared towards making prospects take action or give you their personal information, like signing up for your email list or making an appointment with you, will perform better if you include a video.
The reason is because again, videos foster trust. A short video that quickly introduces yourself and explains the value someone is getting from your lead magnet can instantly quell any hesitation a prospect might have.
Where to start
What holds most real estate agents back from creating video content is the mindset that their videos need to be perfect. Instead, a less intimidating way to look at it is that video marketing is just another vehicle for the information you already know.
As long as you keep it professional, informative, and fun, you can’t go wrong with adding video content into your mix of marketing strategies.
Start by creating short, pre-recorded videos for social media about your community and your services, and work your way up to scheduling Facebook Live videos once you get comfortable.
Need help with your marketing strategy? Talk to one of our experts to set up a consultation.
