Once upon a time, it was believed that the key to selling a house was “location, location, location.” But how do you truly showcase a property’s prime location if your target market isn’t there to see it? Increasingly, the answer lies in video marketing.
In fact, today’s homebuyers aren’t just looking to home videos when they can’t visit the property in person. Research shows that a large percentage of consumers is seeking out property videos in the early stages of the house-hunting process, using these tools to help screen even local properties before investing the time and effort to do an in-person tour.
That means that if you’re not using videos to market available properties, you could be missing out on a great opportunity to boost your sales. The good news is that integrating video marketing into your business model isn’t terribly difficult. You just need a good plan and some basic video production skills.
Why Video Real Estate Marketing Matters
Ours is truly a visual culture. However, in today’s social media-saturated environment, even the most alluring still images are likely not going to be sufficient to attract, let alone retain, the interests of your target market.
To confirm this, you need only to look at the ascendancy of video-focused social media platforms, such as YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and compare it to the eclipse of more traditional channels, such as Facebook.
The preference for video among today’s consumers doesn’t just apply to their social media habits, of course. For these consumers, videos can, and do, have far greater use than just providing an evening’s entertainment when scrolling through social media or surfing the internet. They can also help consumers make more informed choices about where, how, and on what they will spend their hard-earned money.
This is especially true when it comes to buying a home. For most consumers, a home will be the most significant debt, as well as the greatest source of household wealth, they will ever incur. Even more important, though, is that the home is the center of the family, the place where memories are made and lives are built. Homebuying is not a process to be taken lightly.
That’s why, now more than ever, homebuyers want the best and most powerful tools possible to help them make the right decision for themselves and their family. That’s also why it’s incumbent upon real estate agents to optimize their digital marketing strategy by integrating property videos. Your bottom line will thank you for it.
Learn the Basics of Video Production
If you’re not quite sure how to incorporate videos into your real estate marketing, take heart. You don’t have to have a Master's degree in video production, nor do you need to recruit some award-winning Hollywood cinematographer, to create videos that get results.
In fact, with the right tools, making professional-quality property videos can be quite easy, even for a novice. The key is to find the right software and spend some time learning the basics of video production, from planning and production to simple post-production editing.
What this means, for example, is that you’re going to need to do more than just walk into a property with your smartphone and start recording. At the very least, you will want to sketch out a plan for how you will present the property, what you will say, and even how you want the property to appear.
Then you’ll need to do some prep work, including decluttering the space and, ideally, staging it for mass appeal. Ensure ahead of time that you have the proper lighting for the video, especially if you plan on live-streaming a virtual tour. Do some test videos to confirm that everything looks and sounds like you want it to before you go live.
Sell the Lifestyle, Not Just the Space
One of the most important things to remember when you’re making a property video is that it isn’t just about the house, it’s about the lifestyle. Consumers want videos because they help them to place themselves in the space, because they are better able to envision themselves living there.
So focus not just on the property’s specs, but on the heart and soul of the home–and of the community. For example, you can use your videos to highlight the neighborhood as well as the home. This can be a terrific way to help consumers decide if this is truly where they want to live and, perhaps, raise a family. It’s also an excellent way to expand your target market, as you can use these community-focused real estate videos to market to consumers contemplating a move out of state.
The Takeaway
If you want to boost your real estate sales, then video marketing isn’t just a luxury, it’s a necessity. Fortunately, making top-level video content doesn’t require an enormous investment of time and money. All you need is a plan, the right tools, and some basic production skills and you will be good to go!
