Not only do consumers clearly prefer video, videos says so much more about a property, an area, your team, marketing plan, the lifestyle and the real estate agent than any other medium possibly could. This is because video is emotional.
Emotion is a necessary aspect of any sales process. Unlike the traditional mediums real estate agents used to market themselves and their properties like pictures and direct mail (postcards and flyers) which only use one sense – sight, video uses sight, hearing and can even convey feeling when done right. Given the choice, 80% of consumers will choose a video compared to pictures. Read: Zillow Now Supports Pro Level Video
Different Is Everything
Last year we created over 600 property videos. That’s a lot of properties and a lot of real estate agents. It used to be good enough to just “do” video. That was when only the top agents were using video. This is no longer the case as their competition has started to move towards video as well which means different is everything.
Last week I got a call from one of our luxury real estate agents. He said “don’t take this the wrong way but you work with us and all of our competition which means our videos need to be different than theirs”. He is exactly right, different is everything.
The Story
As a real estate agent you want to stand out from your competition. You want to be different. This starts with the story. But who’s story?
When a real estate agent calls us they often have an idea of what they want their completed video to look like. Often the examples they send us are videos we’ve done for other agents here in Phoenix or areas of the country like Southern California – Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Rancho Sante Fe, San Diego or even Australia where real estate video is more risque etc. Often they want to copy what another agent did, often because it was different.
But by copying it, it’s not different anymore. It’s the same. Often real estate agents are crafting stories based upon the story they want to tell without thinking about the story their target audience, their ideal client wants to be told. The best real estate videos will focus on the needs and the wants of the consumer – not necessarily the real estate agent. As a real estate agent you want to differentiate yourself from your competitors not imitate them. Read: Where To Find Real Estate Content
Different Gets Noticed
Most consumers are now spending most of their time on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat etc. You only have a few seconds to grab their attention. Today’s consumer is quickly scrolling past pictures and text updates but they just might watch the video, and watch it to the end. So your videos need to be different.
You Need To Be Different
I remember when I learned how important different was in marketing. As a sales exec for numerous title companies here in the valley I started out trying to be like my competitors. I said the same things “we have great escrow officers, we are a fortune 500 company, we have locations across the valley, we do postcards” and hanging out where they did to get business – SEVRAR, SAR, WEMAR, trade shows, office meetings, walking through brokerages – and got mediocre results. It wasn’t until I had MyTitleGuy.com built and started filling it with content – blogs, videos, tutorials, white papers, classes – that my business began to grow. This is the path that brought me to video in 2008. While my success provided a road map for future execs I was still the innovator. I was different. The top agents were sick of hearing the same message, receiving the same sales pitch – they wanted different too. Different is entertaining.
The Consumer Wants Different
If your marketing is like everyone else’s you will still have a percentage of consumers watch it, but they will start to lose interest as the space is filled with the same style of video marketing. Like I did, you need to find who you are and more importantly – who you are not. Be controversial. Controversial is different. You want the viewer tuning in to your videos to see what you will say, what you will do next. Draw inspiration from TV commercials, what are they saying, how are they saying it, how is it being presented? Repurpose those videos into the real estate space and add your own spin on it. Your goal in the first 5 seconds of your video is to get them to watch the next 5 seconds and so on.
Level Playing Field
In the old days the only way to reach mass audiences was though expensive mediums like TV, radio and billboards. Social media and websites has leveled the playing field because this is where the consumer is. As a real estate agent you have the same playing field as national ad campaigns, production companies, national real estate companies and real estate brokerages. But your message needs to be entertaining. It needs to be exciting. No one wants to do business with a person or company that is vanilla or boring. Read: Videos Uploaded To Facebook Receive More Engagement
We Can Help You Be Different
As a leader in the real estate video space in Phoenix we can help you be different. We work with some of the most talented videographers, editors, animators and copyrighters in the space. If you can think it, we can help you realize it. Whether you are looking for a story told about your team, brokerage, market, community or listing – dream big, come up with something different. Maybe it’s a property video told from the dogs point of view or a child’s, whatever it is you can count on our team of professionals to bring your vision to life – differently.
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