Recently, WellcomeMat has been fortunate enough to find that many of the objections to the use of video in the real estate space have come to the surface. We want to say thanks to all of those who helped launch this discussion, and we hope the following blog series will help shed some light on the subject. Please be aware that this post is not an anti-video post, as our title might suggest.
Our last post covered the fourth most prominent objection to the use of video: “Objection #4: Video is Only Good in Certain Niche Scenarios” We had a great time writing about why you should not confine your video efforts to high end listings, neighborhood tours, and profile-like presentations. In today’s post, we will discuss the 3rd most popular objection:
“Objection #3: I Can’t Do Videos Myself”
We are here to say that most of the rules about the use of the word “can’t” hold true when talking about everyday people creating video content. Many real estate marketing “experts” are building a mountain out of their reasons why you shouldn’t use video for anything other than your most expensive listings: you need scripts, good lighting, a great videographer, a fat bank account, and a huge amount of time to get a video production done. Scary isn’t it? Here’s one word that proves that video is not beyond the common man/woman: YouTube.
Before we go diving into a huge argument on why you should be producing your own video content, we do believe that you should hire a videographer whenever there is a justifiable return on investment. Based on the professionally-created content that WellcomeMat receives, justifiable ROI on video productions typically means the following: homes that are $300,000 or more, neighborhood tours, news-related segments, and agent/team/brokerage profiles. Here’s the good news: Generation X and especially Generation Y expect the most real presentation of a place that you can provide. To meet this expectation, you needn’t spend massive amounts of cash. In short, they want to know what the “human scale” of a property is, regardless of the production quality. They want to know exactly how it would be to live in a place: how does it navigate, where is the master bedroom in relation to the electric garage door, etc. Perhaps most importantly, they will be nothing short of irate if your touchy feely marketing misrepresents a property.
The Echo Boomers
“They are the most sophisticated generation ever when it comes to media. They create their own Web sites, make their own CDs and DVDs, and are cynical of packaged messages. They take their cues from each other…”
You might be thinking, “these WellcomeMat guys are off their rockers if they think that I am going to put anything less than professional video productions on the web.” You’d be hurting yourself in a big way if you don’t believe that your marketing only has to make sense to your target buyers/renters. YouTube itself doesn’t make much sense to most grownups: does that mean we should doubt its importance? Heck No! Additionally, Team WellcomeMat has the luxury of knowing for a fact that homeowners get video. We won’t be winning any friends on Active Rain by stating that we are the guys/girls powering video on ForSaleByOwner.com. But, what is important is the fact that the number of videos being uploaded on their site (videos shot by homeowners themselves) is more than doubling every month.
The finale to our “Why You Should Not Use Video in Your Marketing Initiatives” series will be a how to guide on video tours. But, in the meantime, here are some links that you may find helpful:
Check out this 3 Part Do-Video-Yourself Series by Fred Light (videographer for hire in NH):
Part One
Part Two
Tutorials on Video:
iMovie Tutorial (Mac Users)
Moviemaker Tutorial (Windows Users)
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