The 3 Mental Objections Stopping Agents From Getting On Video & How To Defeat It

Are you looking to enhance your real estate business with video marketing, but don’t know how to get started? In this post, I’m going to tell you about 3 common obstacles holding most agents back from using this vital marketing tool. You might be surprised to find that these obstacles are purely mental, but don’t worry—I’m confident that after reading this, you’ll have the knowledge to break through and get started. Most importantly, we’re going to make you excited to do so!

Real Estate Video Marketing Mental Obstacle 1: Make It A Habit

Think about the mental energy it takes to brush your teeth in the morning. Over the years it has become a healthy habit that you don’t even have to think about—but as a kid, it was weird at first and needed some getting used to. Video is the same: if you’re going to commit, then you need to commit. The more you do it, the more of a habit it will become.

Take direct mail farming as an example: the same concepts can be applied to real estate video marketing. If you decided to sign up for a farming campaign, your initial commitment would probably be somewhere between 6-12 months with about 500 doors you’d want to reach. It would be pointless to send out a single postcard; rather, you need to build a presence in the area over time to make it count.

As my “farming friends” tell me, typical results would be:
1-3 listings in the first year
3-5 listings in the second year
5+ listing in the third year

Why this trend? As you consistently keep showing up in their mailboxes every month, you’re branding is slowly recognized and imprinted in their brains: you become the local agent of that neighborhood. This happens over time, not overnight. The more consistent you are with building your brand amongst your farm, the more you will be recognized in the community.

It’s the same concept with video, only with much quicker and more impactful results. The radius of your audience is so much wider than direct mail, and you can effectively communicate your brand’s story in a way that direct mail doesn’t allow. Video enables you to put a personality to the name. No postcard or flyer can do that better than your face, voice, and personality on video can!
The impact that video has on the minds of your audience will allow your brand to be built faster and more effectively. There’s really no better way to build your personal brand amongst your SOI and local community than real estate video marketing.

Video doesn’t generate leads—but it does generate attention.

Videos grab attention, and this is important when we look at our SOI and the local community we want to reach. 10-15% of your audience will be moving this year; 100% of your audience knows someone they can refer to you. Why? Because you’ve been successfully marketing your brand to your audience, and they know your name. Reports indicate that 70% of consumers will use the first agent they speak to, so you can easily see how important your personal brand is in your business.

When you use real estate video marketing, you’re tapping into one of the most powerful tools available to build name brand recognition for your personal brand. It’s invaluable when it comes to your real estate business.

You know you’ve built your brand when your name instantly comes to mind when someone thinks of real estate. Until then? You don’t have a brand. The more people that make the mental connection between your name and real estate, the bigger your brand becomes.

As you create videos consistently over time, you will build a stronger relationship with your local community and SOI. This allows you to grow and nurture your SOI and database unlike any other form of marketing. Email and direct mail just can’t compete when it comes to the impact video can have on your audience.

Avoiding the mental obstacle of lacking commitment and irregularity in your advertising is the key to succeeding in real estate video marketing. You need to commit your time to creating videos, and then make it your main concern. It’s easier than you think! How do you get started? Put video content creation on the same level of priority and importance as prospecting.

Set up a video publication schedule and stick to it.

Planning your media calendar is extremely important, and it will help you keep your commitments and build good habits. To start, decide how many videos you want to create a month, and then divide that number equally over a month’s time. After that, you just need to stick to your schedule. By planning out your video publication dates a month in advance, you’ll give yourself the best chance to adhere to your schedule and be prepared to create content. For example the videos you planned and shot in February will publish in March, and so on. That lead time will allow you to stay ahead of the game and will help you avoid missing opportunities to post your video content.

There was a time when brushing our teeth had to be a plan, but it evolved into a habit. Now every morning, it’s something I do and don’t need to plan for. Make video marketing the same thing; you’ll need to start out planning it, but doing so will build it into a habit over time.

Real Estate Video Marketing Mental Obstacle 2: Perfection Doesn’t Exist

Nobody is perfect, and that includes you! Stop trying to be God, because he’s the only one in existence who can claim perfection. Perfectionism can mentally block you from moving forward and hinder your efforts to grow your business. Some of the main reasons agents hem and haw over moving forward with real estate video marketing have to do with fear. They’re afraid of:
– what they look like;
– afraid of what to say;
– afraid of being boring;
– afraid of what people will think of them.
No human is perfect, and no one expects you to be! Embrace your humanity, flaws and all.
Look at it this way: if you really don’t want to show anyone the videos you shoot, you don’t have to. So why be afraid to shoot to begin with? There’s no risk, and only benefits awaiting you.

Have you ever thought about the one thing that most viral videos have in common? They expose human nature. Let’s take this video for example: Harmon Brother’s shot this ad for PooPourri, a bathroom air freshener, and garnered 41,416,719 views on YouTube alone.

But Why?

Not only is it hilarious, but it’s also real human nature! The video takes an uncomfortable topic and manages to expose the truth about it with a comical twist. Do you think the owner of PooPourri was afraid to put this commercial out there? Probably, but they did it anyway, and it paid off.

Sidenote: Chances are you won’t be creating videos about very real bathroom issues—though if you did, they’d probably get way more attention than a video of you giving a market update.

The Laughing Chewbacca Mask

If you haven’t seen this video, the rest of the internet already has: with over 11 million views, there is no denying the popularity of Chewbacca Mom! You can tell when watching that this video most likely wasn’t planned and was shot on the first take. There’s no script and no plan of action, but that’s what makes it hilarious. The genuine joy and laughter of the creator are contagious in a way not even an actor could imitate.

Can you imagine her putting on makeup, checking her hair, or overthinking what she was going to say before she shot this video? You can’t fake or stage authenticity!

My experience has shown me that the best real estate marketing videos are the ones that will showcase your personality and allow you to connect with your audience on a human level. Your goal in creating videos should be to build your personal brand amongst your local community, while at the same time always representing your authentic self.

“But saying anything on camera makes me nervous!”

If the things you are talking about in your video make your nervous, then start storytelling and stop trying to sell. You’ll put both yourself and your audience at ease, and this will come across in your video.

Don’t be afraid to be you; nobody else can, so own it!

The two previous blocks to implementing real estate marketing can be easily overcome and will make a world of difference. Understanding the next mental obstacle, though, is the most important.

Real Estate Video Marketing Mental Obstacle 3: Determine Your Brand’s Story

One of the biggest obstacles most agents encounter when creating videos is identifying what they want their central theme and message to be.

What do you want to talk about, and what should you say? How do you talk about it? Where do you even begin?

These questions can all be answered when you have identified your central message, or what we refer to as the brand story. Your brand is not simply just your logo. While that may be part of it, your brand is really your overall centralized message and reputation. It’s basically what others think of when they think of you!

Let’s take myself, for example, I’m a dude. It’s just who I am. By now you probably know that I swear a lot, but it’s just part of how I express myself. It’s not done on purpose; it is literally just how I talk. My brand, though, allows me to be me. I know that it will connect with some, but at the same time will also turn off others. Because of the brand that I’ve built, most people have an idea of what to expect from me before we ever speak. My brand is reflected in the tonality of my videos, my podcast, blog, and logo design.

I don’t want to relate to every person, and neither should you: thinking you will, or even can, is NOT realistic.

I believe that speaking to an audience you would naturally relate with will attract more people than trying to speak to everyone. In real estate, your audience is your SOI and the local community. Every community is different, and within that community, you will not be able to serve everyone; thinking you can is doing yourself a disservice. A “one size fits all” type message will not help you to target your audience and get people to respond. In the end, people are going to choose agents that they know, like, and trust. Your job, then, is to make it easy for them to know, like and trust you. A personal brand story that is authentic and true to you can accomplish this.

Don’t overthink it; everyone has a brand, but it’s not as complicated as it might sound. Your brand is simply what people think of you as a person, it’s what comes to mind when your name is mentioned. To give you more context, let’s examine the way one agent delivers her brand story.

Ask Mama is a San Diego Realtor who is a mother first and realtor second. Her voice and identity are expressed in creating relevant, parent-friendly content. Mama expresses her expertise by showcasing kid-friendly places and activities around San Diego with the kind of local expert knowledge that people look for in an agent. By branding and positioning herself as the local expert in family-focused hot spots around the county, Mama builds her authority and also stays in touch with her SOI. She’s confident in who her content is being created for. If you can figure that out, you’ve won 90% of the battle.

Her video series focuses on interviews at kid-friendly places; her video titles include:

“Kid Friendly San Diego Breweries”
“The Top Beaches With Changing Stations”
“Kid Friendly Beaches”

Her main identity is being a mom, which is a great excuse for her to share her brand story to her audience without appearing fake or staged; she’s staying true to her authentic self. In this way, she can stay at the forefront of her SOI’s mind while connecting with others she’s yet to meet.

Meet Eric Eby

Another great example of agents that know their brand story is Eric Eby from Northwest Arkansas, which also happens to be the home of Walmart headquarters. Many other companies have established their corporate offices near Walmart’s HQ, making the area known as one of the corporate centers of the world.

Armed with this information, Eric focuses his attention on local, mom-and-pop business owners of the area instead to offer a refreshing change from the big corporate players. Creating content about his community, and doing so in a natural, comfortable way, allows him to position himself as a local expert. Eric takes that naturalness one step further in a new video series, where he showcases the natural beauty surrounding Northwest Arkansas.

The message and focus of his brand is centralized into one concept: being original, or “natural,” to the area. With that message firmly established, he has created a jumping off point for telling an unlimited number of stories that will provide him with real estate video content for as long as he’s in the business.

Once you’ve identified and solidified your brand story, the rest is easy: content creation will flow naturally, and you’ll have plenty of ideas to create videos from. You’ll have overcome your mental obstacles and fears, and your calendar will be filled with video ideas and publishing dates to put yourself in front of your SOI without feeling pushy or uninteresting. Your real estate business will attract more clients as you build your brand story strong over time.

Do all of these things, and you’re on your way to becoming a pro at real estate video marketing!