Dont let anyone fool you - real estate video is advertising. As such, success in advertising is measured by a set of fairly concrete metrics - namely some combination of views, leads, and sales.
This post is an overview of the factors that contribute to those advertising metrics. By knowing the factors, you can then make informed choices as to how to best get the successful results that you need with a minimum of effort.
THE MODEL
Most people only think about and judge real estate video in terms of the flash video player. There is much more that should be considered as part of a successful real estate video strategy. I've included a slide that we've been using in our Business Value of Real Estate Video that gives a broad view of those factors. The training goes into far deeper detail than this blog post.
Each of the areas should be considered individually. I'll start from the bottom of the chart (that's you the real estate guru) and work my way to the top (that's the customer).
EXPLANATION OF THE MODEL
Creation/Receipt: This factor is all about the supported content types and codecs as well as ease with which new content can be brought into the system. The most supported types means more usefulness and less work for you. Can content be brought in from a mobile device?
Interaction: This factor is about the mechanics of organizing and manipulating the content within the system. The ability to flexibly organize and group content is key to being able to get in front of prospective buyers.
Collaboration: This factor is about the ease and effectiveness that others in your professional work circle can share content and communication among themselves or from the customer. The ability for other stakeholders to easily gain access to content and collaborate about it can increase the effectiveness of that content once it is public.
This factor is also built around communication back from the buyer. Collaboration in the customer context is key to the leads portion of the views=>leads=>sales cycle. Anyone else see the problem when the collaboration tools around lead generation point to your web developer or videographer rather than you?
Syndication: This factor is about the ease and breadth of making your content available to others. Automatic syndication is key here - the more manual the cutting/pasting, creation of podcast feeds, uploading craigslist ads, or moving of content in group networks is, the less time that you have to engage in your core compentency: finding new customers and selling them properties. Higher quality syndication tools leads to greater discovery of your content by well qualified buyers. Syndication is key to the views portion of the views=>leads=>sales cycle.
Discovery: Discovery is the first real customer facing factor. It isnt just about where customers are finding you online, it's about how they are finding you, absorbing your brand, and being brought into your fold. We believe that real estate agents dilute the investment in their own brand, SEO, and website when prospective customers consume content away from the organization's own website or Google indexes their content on a different site. Discovery is key to the views portion of the views=>leads=>sales cycle.
Presentation: This factor is the most visible representation of real estate video. At Vidlisting, we believe that the presentation of real estate content should be on the agent or brokerage website. You've made the investment there and search engine should be indexing you there as well. That said, the prettiest video player in the world is useless to you from a business perspective if it is never found or discovered by prospective buyers. If you think that features on a video player are important, ask yourself this question: "when was the last time that you DIDNT watch a video because of the player that was used on the site?"
Hopefully, this provides an starting point for thinking about how important your real estate video platform is as part of supporting the views=>leads=>sales cycle. If you or your organization wants a deeper dive into this topic, contact me at tony@vidlisting.com for online or classroom based training.
Tony
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Tony Grey is a technologist and real estate video buff. His mission is to lower the barrier to real estate video by making deceptively powerful and innovative tools for REALTORS to use in their online marketing. These tools are in each of the above areas in this post. For instance, he just launched a way to upload and convert real estate video using email and has built a online real estate educational website on the Vidlisting platform collaboratively in use by the National Association of REALTORS.
He is available for consulting and speaking engagements on a variety of technology topics.
See Also
The Platform: Applying Broader Multimedia Technology To Real Estate Use
Real Estate Videos That Customers Dont Want To See
Are You Giving Away Your Branding To Your Video Provider
Things YouTube Cant Do: Upload Video Directly Into A Online Listing On Your Own Site
Defining "Enterprise Ready": A Guide To Online Video Platforms For Brokers, Agencies, Associations, And Listing Portals
Understanding The Real Estate Video Space
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