Key Takeaways
- You don’t need to spend a lot of money on fancy, expensive video equipment when the smartphone in your pocket will do just fine.
- Learning a few video strategies, such as shooting with light behind you and turning the phone or tablet to the side, will boost the quality of your videos.
- You don’t need to script out your entire videos, but it is good to have a plan of what you’ll say and cover in the video, along with a call-to-action you’ll end the video with.
In these fast-paced, visual times we live in, we all know the power that video offers to reach an audience and spread a message. And while real estate video marketing can be a powerful part of any investor’s marketing toolbox – especially those property videos – many investors get overwhelmed by the prospect and ask themselves two questions: How do I use video to reach my creative real estate marketing goals? Better yet, how do I ensure, when I do use video in a marketing for real estate context, that I don’t end up looking foolish?
One of the best tips you can follow, when creating real estate property videos, is to not worry about the fancy equipment – just shoot with what you’ve got. It’s also good to have a plan for what you’re going to shoot, and be sure to have a call to action at the end of the video that lets people know how to follow up with you.
Here are five tips to make you a real estate video marketing expert in no time:
5 Real Estate Video Marketing Tips
1. Don’t Worry About The Tech
Many a real estate investor think they need to go out and buy the latest SLR camera in order to create viral videos and reach their real estate internet marketing goals. Chances are, the device you need to create great property videos is there sitting in your pocket, in the form of a smartphone.
If you are going to explore using something beyond your smartphone or tablet, a GoPro camera can be a good investment, so long as you know how to use them.
2. Worry About Some Tech
You don’t have to buy a lot of gear when it comes to creating videos for your real estate social media marketing campaigns. However, investing in some form of tripod – either a traditional, tall version or a smaller, flexible model – will help your videos avoid that shaky, vertigo-inducing quality that many online videos contain.
This doesn’t mean you can’t shoot video as you walk through a property; showing off your listing this way is one of the great values of a property video, but holding the camera as you talk into the camera is one of the best ways to ensure you create dizzying video that will turn potential viewers off.
3. Master A Few Basic Skills
You don’t have to go to film school in order to learn how to create great property videos, but it can be helpful to add a few, basic video-creation skills to your toolbox, so you can churn out videos that people enjoy and respond to.
These basic skills include:
- Keep the light behind you: It’s okay to get splashes of light, when walking through a property, but if you plan to set up the video recorder for an extended period of time, such as with you addressing the camera, point the camera so the light is behind it, to avoid shadows on the subject.
- Use natural light, if possible: Sure, you can shoot inside, with plenty of indoor lighting filling the frame, but natural light looks great on camera – especially if you shoot in the photographer “magic hours” of early morning and late afternoon.
- Turn the phone or tablet to the side: One common complaint viewers have of online video shot on a smartphone is that everything is aligned vertically, up and down – with tons of black space on either side of the video. This wastes valuable space for your video and makes your property videos look less than professional. Simply turn the phone or tablet to the side and shoot.
4. Have A Plan
Nothing turns off viewers of a video faster than content that rambles incoherently and doesn’t seem to drive toward a point. Though you don’t have to write out a script, word-by-word, it is a good idea to have some basic plan for what you’ll cover, and in what order.
This usually means the following:
- Start with outside: What does the property look like from the curb? This will generally be the most important part of the video, so be sure to start with this and show off your property in all its curb appeal glory.
- Narrate the highlights: You don’t have to show every single room in a property, especially the ones that are less than remarkable. If there are a three to four sizzle features you want to mention, be sure to walk through them, and talk about what makes them so attractive.
- Focus on the details: This one should seem obvious, but it’s still a technique that many investors neglect to cover: When pointing out a particular part of a property – such as the granite counter tops – be sure to either zoom in or move the camera lens toward the item mentioned, in this case the granite counter tops. It may not sound like much, but people viewing your video really want to get the vibe and feel of a property through a video. The more you can move in and share those sizzling details, the more interest in your property you’ll get.
- End with a call to action: What would you like people to do after they view your video? Visit your website? Call your toll-free number? Text their number and sign up for updates? Be sure that every video ends with a specific call to action that tells people what to do next.
5. The Human Element
Yes, of course, your property video should be highlighting your investment property, but it’s important to remember that people respond to people, and that giving a human face to your videos – perhaps you or someone on your team – is a great way to add some personality to your online videos.
Personality doesn’t mean a perfect performance or a flawless video. In fact, some of the most interesting videos you can create might have mistakes in them. Just be yourself, talk about the property and let people in to your way of doing business.
Have you learned something in your real estate video marketing efforts? Let us know in the comments below.
