Tag: video

How to get started with video marketing

Anne Ewasko Leave a comment

Video-enhanced real estate listings generate 403% more interest than those without, and while video marketing is extremely powerful for agents, it remains highly underutilized.

According to the NAR Research Group’s 2021 Technology Survey, 37% of participants claim they use video in their marketing, while 27% admitted they don’t. The other 35% said they are not presently using video for marketing but plan to do so soon.

For agents still putting off video marketing, it’s not too late to get started in learning to create high-quality video content for each property you list and to market it yourself.

Four advantages of using video marketing

  1. The facts are self-evident. Customers are increasingly interested in videos more than other mediums, such as text and photographs. You will generate leads, beat out competitors and showcase your properties and services in a visually striking manner.
  2. One of the most important aspects of real estate is trust. Helping clients buy or sell a home entails winning their trust and demonstrating your integrity. Video can be used not only to showcase an agent’s skill or property, but also to build trust — thus building a good relationship with potential clients.
  3. Time is money. And with the initial investment of your time to create your marketing videos, it will pay off, as you can reuse them again and again to promote your business, saving you time in the long run.
  4. Google and the other search engines love videos, and with fresh content, your website will rank higher and higher as you go.

Getting started

A wide variety of tools is available for creating videos. If you are a beginner, I’ve found that WeVideo works best. It is easy, fast and flexible. You do not need prior experience or sophisticated equipment to create fantastic videos with WeVideo.

Advantages of WeVideo

The free online video editing application combines the ease of use of a simple editor with the functionalities of professional editing software. You can quickly upload videos and begin editing them in the storyboard thanks to its JumpStart feature.

It has an easy-to-use interface and dashboard that allows access to all features with a single click or through drag-and-drop.

With a paid subscription, you have over 1 million videos, stock images and audio clips at your disposal. You can also integrate a wide range of media resources into your project.

It gives you the ability to work on high-resolution videos up to 4K Ultra HD, allowing you to provide your audience with an unforgettable experience. And, because these high-end videos take up a lot of space, the software includes cloud storage, where you can keep all of your data, including ongoing projects.

WeVideo syncs all of your work across multiple devices, ensuring that everything stays in sync even if you work on a project on multiple devices.

Create videos on any device, including Chromebooks, Macs, Windows machines and smartphones. In addition, WeVideo mobile apps for Android and iOS smartphones allow you to edit videos on the go.

After you’ve finished editing, you can share your work with the rest of the world directly from the app on social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube.

Disadvantages of WeVideo

WeVideo offers practically everything you need for editing. However, it lacks some advanced features that professional video editors frequently use. For example, picture-in-picture, multicam editing, support for 3D and 360-degree videos, LUTs and other features are absent.

More advanced options

WeVideo is great for beginners, but if you need something more advanced, there are many available, though you will need some prior experience to navigate through some of them. Here are a few of the better ones:

Adobe Premiere Pro CC
Shortcut
HitFilm Express
Final Cut Pro X
Lightworks
Corel VideoStudio Ultimate
Blender

The bottom line

Our real estate industry is one of the few sectors with significant video potential yet to be exploited. As a real estate agent, you’ll find that video offers a level of value that images and text simply cannot match. So, start making use of videos today and take your business to a new level.

Anne Ewasko is a veteran Realtor in the Chicago area and a longtime techie. Visit her at anne.luxhomechicago.com.

Visual Marketing for Different Kinds of Properties

Marci Sepulveda Leave a comment

Most real estate agents will tell you that quality photography is one of the most important tools for marketing their listings. In fact, great photography is at the very heart of marketing any property, allowing potential buyers to make an emotional connection to the home, even before seeing it in person. On the other hand, poor photography can also be an immediate turn off to potential buyers, causing them to bypass the listing entirely. Done poorly, it can even lower the perceived value of the property.

Photos Can Make or Break a Listing

These are more than just anecdotal opinions. NAR’s annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers is a long-standing resource from the association which evaluates consumer behavior and preferences. It has shown that listings with photography will hold a potential buyer’s attention for at least 20 seconds, compared to a mere 2 seconds for a listing without images. Most shockingly, 84 percent of home buyers said they wouldn’t even consider a listing if it didn’t include photos.

Use the Right Media for the Property

Different kinds of properties benefit from different kinds of visual marketing approaches. While you might want to set up an entire landing page with aerial video footage for a luxury property, the same approach would be overkill for a home that’s more closely aligned with the national median price point.

What’s more, visual marketing strategies and tactics are different for various types of homes (luxury condo, single-family home, vacation home, city vs. rural, etc), making it even more complicated. What works for your type of property in your particular market just depends.

You may wish to do a little competitive analysis and scope out how other colleagues are making their visual marketing stand out. If comfortable doing so, you can even go to them for tips and advice on how they got to where they are with their photography skills.

The Elements of Quality Real Estate Photography

So, given the importance of photography, how do you know the best way to visually market your listings? Whether you choose to work with a professional photographer or not, it’s important that you understand the basics of quality real estate photography. 

#1. The Right Skills

Only after you determine the type of visual content that will work best for the property—photo, video, aerial—can you determine who will be best to do the work. There is no right or wrong answer here (unless you’re talking about who is legally authorized to operate a drone). Depending on your skill level, in some cases you will be able to do the photography yourself. In other instances, you will definitely need to hire a professional.

#2. The Right Equipment

If you’re doing to work yourself, you’ll have to rent or purchase the right equipment. To get the shots that will really help sell your property, it’s time to consider putting down your smartphone. You may need an ultra-wide-angle lens, an external flash, a tripod, and editing software. It might be a great idea to make friends at your local photography store so they can advise you, or find a good online resource or tips guide.

#3. The Right Styling

There are some simple tips for preparing the home for your photoshoot. Prepare the house much in the same way you would for an open house—turn on all available lights, declutter the space, remove all cars from the driveway to freely show the entire exterior of the home, and more.  Learn from trial and error, as sometimes the only way to know what works is to play around with the variables of the shoot onsite and see what works best.

#4. The Right Composition

For real estate photos, there are some tips that you can use to help ensure that your shots of the home have the best composition. For instance, always show a third wall, show your rooms in thirds, use the lines of the room to draw the eyes through the space, utilize objects in the foreground, and more. It cannot be overstated how much of an impact lighting can have, so it will make sense for you to spend more time and resources on good lighting.

Taking It to the Next Level

While many real estate agents choose to work with a professional photographer, other agents choose to photograph their listings themselves. To learn more about the equipment you’ll need to shoot professional-looking shots, how to get the right exposure, tips for making your property photo shoot ready and more, sign up for our course How to Shoot Real Estate Photography Like a Pro today. This course was co-developed with VHT® Studios, a leading real estate consultant and service provider located in the Chicagoland area.

AgentEDU® is a platform where agents at every level can come to watch 10-minute video courses for the many situations that successful agents must master. From essential to advanced level and everything in between, AgentEDU® courses help agents become top producers with increased earnings and a plan for continued growth. For a 7-day free trial sign up here.

AgentEDU® is an Agent Publishing brand. For nearly two decades, Agent Publishing has been committed to providing residential real estate professionals with the information and training required to build successful and meaningful careers in their local markets. Agent Publishing’s influence extends to every career stage and reaches agents across print, digital, events and online learning.