Keep Buyers Interested
The importance of video within the real estate industry applies more to listing agents than buyers’ agents, at least according to a six-year-old study. Results of the study found that 73 percent of homeowners want a listing agent who uses video to market homes.
Avoid the top 3 mistakes
Despite knowing that videos may not be popular with all homebuyers, offering them to your listing clients is mandatory. As mentioned above, most want a video of their home and they expect it. Not giving your listing clients what they want is a big mistake.
As long as you are committed to creating a video, why not create one without the mistakes, so often seen online:
- Overly-dark videos
- Camera shake
- Amateur/homemade look
The following are the three most common listing video mistakes and how to correct them.
Mistake 1- Penny-pinching
The old saying that “you get what you pay for” might not have been coined by a real estate agent who pinched pennies and obtained poor quality work, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.
Videographers do charge money for their services, but they may not be as expensive as you think. In fact, we did an informal, non-scientific, cursory web search for prices and find professionals offering their services for as little as $200.
There are some photographers who offer packages which include a video walkthrough of the home. For instance, one Phoenix, Arizona photographer charges a reasonable $400 for a package that includes 25 photos, HD walkthrough video, twilight photos and a virtual tour.
Remember, your listing videos will most likely become examples in the marketing plan you show potential listing clients. Will they be examples of how you cut corners or will they show home sellers that you will pull out all the stops to sell their homes?
Mistake 2 — Not ensuring your videos do double duty
Sure, the purpose of the video is to market your listing, but videos do double duty, according to Forrester Research. Videos are 50 times more likely to show up on the first page of Google search results than text pages, if they’re optimized, according to research.
Why not leverage the power of YouTube to benefit your business while also promoting your client’s listing?
The Fix:
Mashable’s Nate Elliot suggests doing the following:
- Use your keywords in the video’s title, tags and description when you upload it to YouTube.
- After uploading the video to YouTube, embed it on your website. According to Elliot, Google considers “how many times a video is viewed, and any views embedded videos receive on your own site get added to the ‘views’ tally on YouTube.”
- Create a video sitemap
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Mistake 3 – Too long, didn’t watch
When something becomes such a common, annoying practice that an acronym is created (tl;dw) stands for “too long, didn’t watch”, you know it’s best to avoid the practice.
Americans are busy. We also tend to have the attention span of a kitten – and are as easily distracted. YouTube says that visitors typically watch for 3.5 minutes.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information, on the other hand, claims that the average amount of time spent on a single video is 2 minutes and 42 seconds.
And, if you don’t get their attention in the first 10 seconds, kiss them goodbye.
In fact, research shows that you’ll lose 30 percent of viewers within the first 30 seconds of your video and, when it reaches the one-minute mark, another 45 percent will leave.
So, plan on putting the most important stuff up front and keep the entire video as short as possible.
Nearly 90 percent of the homebuyers surveyed by NAR found “photos very useful,” while only half of them said the same for real estate videos. Don’t make the common mistakes of other agents that result in unwatchable videos.
Follow the above guidelines to produce listing videos that enhance your marketing and sales efforts and keep your clients smiling.
Another way to capture the attention of home buyers is to send Property Showcase Just Listed postcards to the area surrounding your new listing.
Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!
PLUS: When you have time…here are 3 free ways we can help you CRUSH IT in 2018!
1. The Free 2018 Real Estate Business Plan.
Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan – Click Here
2. The Free Online ROI Calculator.
Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! – Click Here
3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan.
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here – Click Here
Also…check out these cool tools 
Three Click Postcards – Just snap a home photo & create a postcard all from your mobile phone
MLSmailings.com – Automated Just Listed, Just Sold Postcards
Market Dominator System – Become a neighborhood brand
Want to Refer a friend or colleague? Refer them, Here. THEY get a Free $25 Gift Card and YOU become their hero!
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