The short answer: NO. The long answer: Definitely not.
But to hear the new wave of video technologists talk, you’d think that all other media are officially dead. They’re telling us to throw away our digital cameras or be declared obsolete, even though these videos are just another form of virtual tour. These new videovangelists are even defying people to argue otherwise.
I hate when people defy me to do things. Especially people who don’t know what they’re talking about and prove it every time they open their mouths. Bill Leider is not too fond of this kind of empty rhetoric either. Bill's introduction to this topic is: The Whole World Is Going To Video - Or Not. So over the coming weeks we’re going to explore the depths of Internet marketing, analyze its various elements, define what makes for great and not so great presentations, connect all of it to what it needs to be in order to make you more successful and, most importantly, invite your input.
First, here’s a preview, expressed as three reasons why Video will not kill, or even hurt, good virtual tours:
1. Quality – communicating emotion vs. information.
I've written before about the importance of emotion in your Internet presentations. And Video has so much inherent potential to effectively communicate emotion. Done properly it is, experientially, the next best thing to being there. But good video production is complex. So its potential can only be achieved when all the elements of a good production are present. It’s a lot of work and it has to be done by people who really know what they’re doing.
You must have a good videographer or everything turns to garbage.
Whoever is doing the narrative must have a pleasing voice, a warm presence and a well-written script. The script content must communicate feeling - the joy of living in the space - not just a description of the rooms and the building materials and the prestigious brand names of the kitchen appliances. The narrator must communicate love, not the fact that he/she took voice lessons.
Lighting; appropriate background music; the timing and connection between the narrative, the music and what is being seen; the visual flow of all that is being shown; overall show length – all these must be flawlessly executed or the great potential is not only not achieved – but the viewers’ experience turns ugly and negative.
So far, great videos, much like truly great movies, rarely happen. Which brings us to…
2. Cost. It costs money to do video right. And cost has three components:
First, there is the cost of a video in absolute dollars. Even though we don't do video, I was one of three panelists on Video And Your Business at the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference in San Francisco. Both of the other panelists, when asked what a typical video presentation cost, replied that it depends on the cost of the videographer, and that cost ranges between $125 and $1,500 or more – per video.
Second, there is the relative cost of the video as a component or percentage of your overall marketing budget for a particular house. This, of course, must be reasonable as a percentage of the price of the house and should take into account the other kinds of advertising you must do to address the traditional audience of potential buyers who don’t rely heavily on the Internet.
And third, there is the cost of your time. If you believe that you can abdicate your responsibilities, hand them off to a Video production team/person and just ignore the process you are seriously mistaken. You’re the real estate professional. You are in charge of and responsible for marketing the home. You answer directly to the seller. You need to take an active role in achieving the desired result of the marketing campaign. And Video, well done, requires more time than all other forms of media presentation.
That's why video is the right solution in a relatively small number of situations. The right situation is where the price of the property allows for the highest quality video production or in situations where the video can have a relatively long shelf life without the potential need for post production modification. Ease of creation and the flexibility to change or modify post production is important - especially in today's market where property stays on the market longer.
If you think that you can save time and money by doing it yourself, and still create a good Video, go back and re-read Items 1 and 2 above. And finally…
3. Ease and Flexibility.
I hope I’ve given you a sense of the complexity and relative difficulty of doing a video well. And I hope you understand the importance of doing it well and the consequences of doing it badly.
Doing a video just to say you’ve done a video makes no sense. The result is the goal, not the medium. Well-done virtual tours can communicate far more positive emotion, positive energy and effective results than mediocre or bad videos. And they can be created with far greater ease because you can work on the components separately. You can focus on photography without simultaneously bringing in the narrative. Making text changes to the narrative does not require any re-shooting. The entire process is far easier.
Even more important is the flexibility. There is a flexibility you get with a well-architected virtual tour that will never exist with a video presentation.
In today’s buyers’ market, homes stay on the market far longer. That often triggers the need to periodically change, modify or update your Internet presentation. With video, you must re-shoot parts of, or even the entire Video. Cost. Time. Yuk.
Today’s virtual tours are not the difficult to produce 360 degree tours of yesterday. They are dynamically created from still images, and allow you to simply change out the photos you don’t want and insert new ones. Or change the narrative. Or add additional photos. Making a change takes a few minutes and zero dollars extra. Nice.
Lessons From Real Estate Connect.
At the recent Inman Real Estate Connect Conference, Christian Sterner, CEO of Wellcomemat, showed a video that is the perfect example of what I described above, although that was not his intent. Admittedly, the example he used was a sped up version of the actual video. However, his argument both at the conference and on their blog, is that this is far superior to any virtual tour. See for yourself.
Information with insufficient emotion.
Bad lighting.
Plain vanilla words with no real story.
All the cost with none of the benefits.
Now, if you’re going to respond by telling me: “Who cares, the client wants video,” then my answer is, I completely understand, and I intend to address that topic in a future post.
For all other issues, just look at the video and let me know what you see and what you don’t see.
Personally, I strongly believe that well-done video has an important role to play in Internet marketing. But it’s far narrower than the videovangelists would have you believe. Your job, as a professional, is to know which approach to use in which situation to give your clients and you the best results and the best return on investment.
Bill Leider's response to this post is here: http://activerain.com/blogsview/197334/To-V-Or-Not
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Jeff - when I get over the headache of having to watch all the jerky motions of the video I'll have an opinion!
It's so true that you would have to have a great (not good) videographer, which these were not. I think I'll stick with your RealEstateShows.com that have me totally hooked!