Video marketing grows up.
By Daniel Rome Levine
Once a week, Jeff Wu gets to feel like a movie star.
Wu, CRS, a broker associate with @Home Real Estate, in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Tysons Corner, relies heavily on video marketing to establish himself as the areas go-to REALTOR®. Working with a professional videographer, Wu produces videos that are about 90 seconds long and may feature him narrating neighborhood tours, conducting interviews with notable community figures or profiling local businesses. He uploads the videos to YouTube and his blog.
Wus photographer teasingly calls him the talent. He sets everything up and then Ill swoop in for 10 minutes, do a couple of takes and leave, Wu jokes.
Across the country, REALTORS® are realizing the power of video marketing. With over 90 percent of homebuyers today using the Internet to search for a home, according to the National Association of REALTORS®, it makes sense to market yourself online in a way that sets you apart. Video does just that. Because there are far fewer video Web pages online than text pages, videos stand a 50 percent better chance of appearing on the first page of Google results than any given text page, according to Forrester Research.
Cutting Through the Clutter
Wu agrees that videos help him grab the attention of potential clients who search for homes online. Because many of them are looking for information about the area where they plan to live rather than for a specific REALTOR®, he produces videos about local points of interest, such as stores, restaurants, popular neighborhoods and schools. Not only does this establish him as a local expert, but it increases the chances his videos will pop up when homebuyers search using keywords related to these points of interest. Search pages are so cluttered with all these links, says Wu. When that little video box pops up, it cuts right through the clutter and really gets viewers attention.
When Wu first started making videos about three years ago, he produced them himself using a small Flip video camera. Now he uses a professional because it saves time and the quality is better. Wus cameraman, Brian Nemiroff of Photographic Utopia, in Washington, D.C., shoots the videos using one of two digital single lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, a Nikon D7000 or a Nikon D4S. His favorite lens is a Nikon 14-24 mm f/2.8 for its ability to fully capture wide rooms.
In Burlingame, California, just outside San Francisco, Raziel Ungar, CRS, with Coldwell Banker, Burlingame Properties, produces videos that not only help educate potential clients about the areas neighborhoods and other points of interest, but also show how he can add value to their homebuying experience. On his websites blog page are three prominently displayed videos, each about 90 seconds long, which feature him talking about his approach to buying and selling homes and what it is that sets him apart.
TRICKS OF THE TRADE
In Oswego, Illinois, outside Chicago, Rich Ayers, CRS, managing broker and owner of the Ayers Realty Group, uses an Internet video creation service called Animoto to produce videos of his listings as well as of subdivisions where he is active. Animoto allows Ayers to turn still photos, video clips and music into attention-grabbing video slideshows that he posts on his company website and uploads to YouTube. For those for whom money is no object, Film House, a production company in Nashville, Tennessee, creates Hollywood-quality videos for clients selling high-end luxury homes. The so-called mini-movies typically cost anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 and feature professional actors playing out storylines in and around listed homes.
Focused on Success
When people view Ungars videos, along with any of the nearly 100 others he has posted on YouTube, they begin to feel like they are developing a personal connection with Ungar and that he is knowledgeable and trustworthy, he says. One recent example was the wife of a tech company executive who was moving from the East Coast to San Francisco. She called him after coming across his videos and he is now helping the couple shop for a $3 million to $4 million home. This is a client I never would have had if I didnt create my videos, he says.
Ungars videographer, Paul Keller of Paul Keller Media in Redwood City, California, uses a Canon EOS C100 digital video camera. Some of Ungars most recent productions have been 90-second videos of the nine communities he serves featuring fast-moving, time-lapse footage. Theres definitely a wow factor, says Ungar. He also enlists the help of a captioning company so that the hearing impaired can access subtitles for his videos, as well as real-time translations and closed captioning in Mandarin Chinese.
As REALTORS®, we have to stand out and provide exceptional value to our clients, says Ungar. Video is the most effective way to do both of these. When done well, they set you apart from the crowd and create lasting value.
Learn more by taking the CRS Online Course Video Marketing to Enhance Your Business.
