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Real Estate Video: It's Not About What You Think It Is

By Stephen Garner

Services for Real Estate Pros with Hub Media Company

September 25, 2011 04:17 AM

Are you using real estate video yet? After 10 years in the title industry I can tell you that there are 2 types of real estate agents today: those that are using video in their real estate business and those that will be. Just like you HAD to get a website to compete in the real estate space, you will need to incorporate video in to your real estate business to do the same. Not because you want to or because it's fun [it is by the way], or even because it's cool - you will be using real estate video in your real estate marketing because consumers demand it. Period. Relax, it is not as hard or challenging as you may thing and it is most likely not about what you think it is.

I mentioned that I spent 10 years in the title industry, I left in March 2011 to co found an inbound marketing real estate company called PRO-Found Marketing. PRO-Found started as an inbound marketing real estate company and has morphed into a technology company with the upcoming release of an Indexable IDX Solution. Things are good, our ideal client is finding us. Not just through Google search but through YouTube Search and YouTube Related Search. With over 150 videos on the MyTitleGuy YouTube Channel [85 public, the rest unlisted] I can tell you that real estate video can have an amazing impact on your business. You just need to get over yourself and start making real estate videos of VALUE.

One of the things that kills me about real estate marketing is the me me me marketing. "I'm aweosme, I'm great, I sell more homes than anyone in my office, Top producer 2004" - IT'S 2011! Everytime I see a website that is more about the agent and their AMAZING team than it is about the consumer - I cringe. Every time I see an NAR commercial on TV - I cringe, because it is more about real estate agents than it is the consumer, everytime I see a real estate agent leveraging video in the wrong way - I cringe. One thing I have earned from my labor of love MyTitleGuy.COM [FORMERKY MYTITLEGUY.NET] is that traffic goes to the best content on the Internet. If your content - blog posts, video, pictures, podcasts, ebooks, etc is not of VALUE to the end user, it will most likely never be seen outside of the real estate agents friends and family.

I find that real estate agents that want to use real estate video in their real estate marketing are often at a disadvantage right away. Why? Mindset. Many real estate agents want to measure their real estate videos success by views, this is a huge mistake. We are conditioned to measure videos by the number of views, "it is a good video? I don't know, let's look at the number of views". This is the social proof, if millions of other prople watched a video it must be good - right? Wrong. When you are using real estate video for real it is not about the number of views, its about 2 things:

Traffic
Conversion

Period. It is a challenge for many as we are conditioned to look at the number of views when we see that latest video of a cat playing piano or a dog that says "I love you". Used properly, Real Estate Video can not only help you build your brand authority and position yourself as a thought leader - it can bring you qualified traffic to your website. I mentioned I have over 150 videos on YouTube, none of them have thousands of views, most are below 100, but because I know how to optimize video, because I know how to optimize my channel, because I know how to optimize my website to get found by my ideal client - title companies, title reps, attorneys etc, I get calls, emails and forms submitted all the time from people around the country that say "I found you on YouTube". There is a ton of competition for the 10 coveted positions on the 1st page of Google, MyTitleGuy.COM ranks on the 1st page #2 position for "Title Company Marketing", out of over 400 million results - not too bad right? Ever better, I have 5 videos for my ideal client on the 1st page of YouTube when my ideal client looks for "Title Company Marketing". I would much rather have a video viewed 80 times by my ideal client, someone that is in need of my or my companies products or services than 8 Million views by consumers that do not have a need and most likely never will.

Real estate is not only emotional it is also visual. If you are not leveraging video in your real estate business you are losing business. You would be amazed at how mand consumers go to YOUTUBE First when looking for information about a subdivision, short sale process, city, state, things to do, lifestyle etc. For more information about real estate video and how to change your mindset about getting in front of the camera check out the post I wrote Real estate Video: Vanity Vs Value

Lastly, they say that our body language says more about us than we could ever say about ourselves, if you are going to step in front of the camera and make Real Estate Videos you better have a strong Value Proposition and know exactly who you are talking to. Video is not about being all things to everyone, each video should be to a specific niche and present value to the end user. If you want to make videos about how awesome you are, you are missing the boat. Check out the post I wrote about How Consumers Search For Homes and why I believe real estate is more transactional today than it is relational [about relationship]. For more tips about Video, Video Optimization, Video Distribution, WordPress etc check out MyTitleGuy.COM.

Cheers