3 Simple Steps To Launching A Video Marketing Strategy That Attracts Clients

Do you keep hearing about real estate video marketing, but feel stuck trying to figure out where to start?  Everyone keeps telling you it’s so important for your real estate business, but no one is telling you how and why it really works.  If you’re completely lost and confused, you’re not alone: realtors aren’t traditionally taught how to do video marketing for real estate, and it can be daunting to figure out how to start at first.

Maybe you’re wondering how the hell a video about your community could lead to more clients.  In this post, I’m going to break it down for you and simplify the who, what, where, when and why of real estate video marketing.

For all those agents stuck pondering how creating a video that is unrelated to selling a house could lead to an influx of new business, this post is for you!

Step 1: Real Estate Video Marketing:  Understanding Human Communication Face to Face

The purpose of marketing videos is not to give a sales pitch.  Rather, video is a communication strategy that allows you to put yourself out there to an unlimited amount of people all day, every day, without ever having to be present.  If you’re looking at each video purely as a way to increase sales, you will disappoint yourself in the end.

Your potential clients want to know the person they’re thinking of working with, and video lets you connect with your community face to face.  It’s an opportunity for people to check you out and see how you operate; if they can picture themselves working with you, they’ll be more likely to pursue your help when it’s time for them to sell or buy a home.  A deeper connection via video will help them make their assessments.

Are you trustworthy?

Are you fake?

Do you have a family?

Are you articulate?

So much about your personality, goals, life and the way you do business can come across in just a few minutes on video.  Be sure to focus your video on communicating effectively rather than just selling effectively.  Do this, and the rest (i.e. sales) will follow.

Your tone is the basis for 60% of all communication.

Have you ever noticed that the same thing said in different tones can completely change the way you receive what others say (or what you say to others)?  That’s because tone is everything.  People aren’t really listening to the actual words you’re saying as much as the way you are saying it.  On video, you’re able to give your audience a real idea of what it would be like to work with you.  Have you ever noticed that you tend to attract clients who are just like your friends?  There’s no coincidence there; that’s human nature.

Let’s hear from someone who is famous for his comedic voice: check out what Jerry Seinfeld has to say about tone in the video below:

How do you measure up?  What’s the tone of your video?  Is it passionate, exciting, or boring?  Can you tell by your tone that you love what you do?

The more you infuse your tone with energy, the more your SOI and community will pay attention to your content!

Your body language is the basis for 30% of communication.

Body language is a fascinating aspect of human communication.  Have you ever watched someone talk almost exclusively through body language?  Most humans can, and the next time you talk to someone, take note of what message their body language is conveying.  We can usually tell from body language whether someone is happy, sad, excited, or mad, with a full spectrum in between.

When you’re thinking about creating your videos, make sure you take body language into account.  It’s extremely important and will speak volumes more than what actually comes out of your mouth!

Is what you’re saying making you feel excited, or uncomfortable?

Energy will come across in animated body language, and the more animated you are, the better your message will be delivered.  What are you more likely to remember, in a positive way: someone jumping around excitedly, or someone with their arms blandly glued to their sides?  Depending on your body language, you could be saying the same thing but deliver two completely different messages.

The actual content of what you say is the basis for 10% of communication.

Crazy, right?  It seems impossible, but only 10% of your words will actually be retained by your viewers.  With that statistic in mind, stop focusing on what you are saying and put the emphasis on how you’re saying it.

Remember the ShamWow guy?

I don’t even know what the hell this guy is saying, but I want to buy it!  The facts and selling points he mentions throughout the video aren’t nearly as important as his delivery and tone.  The fact that I’m sitting here talking about it 20 years later is proof that it’s a great video!  I don’t recall ShamWow because of the product, but because of the dude that’s selling it.  Now that’s the power of video!

Imagine if everyone you know instantly associated your name and face with real estate: how beneficial would that power be to your business?  Video allows you to build strong connections with your audience and achieve the best top of mind brand awareness you can.  When you command their attention, you’ll easily start attracting clients.

Step 2: Real Estate Video Marketing:  Defining Your Audience

Now we know the purpose and process of communicating with your audience via video, but we still need to determine who we are creating videos for.  No marketing strategy can work without knowing your target audience.  In real estate, your video marketing should focus on two types of audiences: warm and cold.  Your warm audience will be your contact list of relationships: family, friends, past clients, and your sphere of influence.  Over 60% of your business each year will be a result of these contacts, in the form of referrals and repeat business.  Your cold audience is the community in general that you have yet to personally connect with: those in your targeted neighborhoods and those likely to move there.

Videos created for your warm audience can simply be made with the goal to stay at the top of their minds.  When planning and creating this type of video, your aim should be to cultivate that relationship and build your brand.  It’s like waving a big sign in front of them that says, “Don’t forget I exist,” a little reminder of the connection you already have.  It’s similar to direct mail farming, but your focus is on your carefully collected database.

Here’s why:

10-15% of them will be moving this year!

100% of them can refer you to at least one person in the next 12 months

For this audience, your goal is to generate attention, not leads!  The goal is to have your name pop into the minds of your SOI whenever the term “real estate” is mentioned.  When you achieve this type of personal brand recognition, your business will attract new clients.  Remember that, statistically, a person moves every 5-7 years (depending on where in the country they’re located).  It’s not a matter of if anyone in your database is going to move, but rather a matter of when.

This is not merely theory or speculation: we’re doing simple math here.  Reports indicate that the average American moves 9.1 times, starting at the age of 18, and 2.7 of those moves occur after age 45.  The larger your audience is and the broader your reach, the more opportunity you will have to attract business and gain referrals.  If you want to learn more about the psychology of why people refer others to realtors, check out this article for more in-depth information.

Your cold audience, or local community, are the people you have yet to build a relationship with.  Using video is a great way to build your brand amongst this farm of potential connections.  The same way you would begin your relationships offline also applies to online interactions.  Employ the same practices you would when farming a neighborhood, just with a digital twist: your videos should include content relevant to the area and should be created consistently.  As time goes on, you can create content more focused on real estate that can be sprinkled in throughout your cold audience.  As you get more advanced, you can also focus your content to highly targeted groups of people most likely to move.

Step 3: Real Estate Video Marketing:  Distributing Your Videos So They Get Seen

You’ve taken the work to create compelling content and define your audience, but it will be worthless if your videos aren’t viewed.  A real estate video strategy must include getting your content to the right people.  I’ve seen many agents that only put their videos on Facebook, which is a huge mistake; you’ve already gone through the trouble of planning, shooting and editing this valuable piece of marketing, and you should share it as many places as you can!  If you don’t, you’re missing the point.  Real estate video marketing is all about cultivating and nurturing your relationships with the right content that will represent and build your personal brand.  You can’t do that if no one sees it.

Here’s my step-by-step recommendation for every video you create:

Video Email Your Content! Be sure that you are using some type of email marketing service to send your videos.  Most CRMs include them, but there are many other options you can utilize that include this feature.  We include this in the subscriptions of all our clients to make sure they are taking part in this important aspect of marketing.  Our video emails get open rates of over 40%, which is 4 times the national average.  You don’t want to send boring emails that your database will ignore or opt-out of; well-shot videos with great editing will drive engagement and increase the contacts on your list (check out this article to learn more about video email.)

Post Your Videos Organically To ALL Social Platforms! Staying away from 3^rd party tools and uploading to each platform organically is essential.  Upload independently to each channel, make separate posts, and don’t just share contact from your business page.

Run Ads To Your Custom Audiences.  While it might seem complicated, creating custom audiences of your database inside Facebook, Instagram, and even Google is very easy to do.  Facebook Ads, for example, will give you a variety of step-by-step options to target any audience you choose.  You can upload your email list or phone number list to create custom audiences, and more advanced options will allow you to target those most likely to be moving (we’ll get to that in another post).

Post Your Videos On Your Website. Your website is the launching point for your audience to connect with you, and you should always upload your video content there.  Not only will it build your brand over time, you can reuse the content over and over as you grow your database.  Add a small blog post with each video, or have your video transcribe for just a few dollars.

Upload Your Videos To YouTube. It’s not enough just to upload your videos to this powerful platform; you want to make sure your videos are optimized for maximum ROI.  YouTube optimization will get your videos to rank highest on search results, and many agents neglect this part of the process. Here’s an example: if you shoot 2 videos per month and correctly rank them under targeted search terms, your video can potentially pop up in over 24 terms in just a year.  That’s powerful marketing.