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Video is everywhere. By 2022, online videos are projected to make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic. Videos have already become a significant part of real estate listings on major sites like Zillow. You could be making them work for you.
In this guide, you’ll be introduced to 7 different marketing tactics that you can use to reach motivated buyers. You’ll learn what kind of effect they can have and how to put them into practice for each one.
- Use videos to build your brand
- Host zoom Q&As with followers
- Build expertise by hosting discussions with home professionals
- Create attractive virtual tours of your properties
- Create attachments to the properties by documenting renovations
- Explore the great attractions around your properties
- Create videos to demystify the process of home buying
Let’s start by looking at how you can use fun videos to develop your overall brand.
1. Use videos to build your brand
Videos can be an effective part of a content marketing plan. Content marketing is the creation of valuable content that is used to engage visitors and develop a brand’s personality. Any type of business can use content marketing, and videos can be really effective in this role.
Here are some examples of ways you can use videos to create an interesting brand or to reinforce your expertise as a property investor:
- Explain your process for choosing properties
- Warn people about mistakes beginners may make when getting into property investing
- Talk about some of the best properties you’ve invested in, and what factors made them such a good investment
- Talk about great cities to invest in
- Share interesting stories about working in the industry
Using videos to build your brand isn’t difficult. If you don’t have a strong budget for video, you can get started with just a free YouTube account and your cell phone camera.
It can take a while to build an audience, but you can develop it further by hosting videos Q&A once you have one.
2. Host Q&As with followers
During the recent lockdowns, webinars and video meetings have become a much bigger part of everyone’s life. You can take advantage of consumer’s growing familiarity with this format to develop a closer connection with anyone who is following your property investing journey.
Q&As are a great way to interact directly with the people who are checking out your content (and properties).
Their questions can tell you more about what’s interesting to your followers, and what kind of content might interest them in the future. That knowledge can help you reinforce any content strategies that you’re using.
This is a simple tactic to put into practice. Any mass-meeting platform such as Zoom will allow you to host groups. Alternatively, you can request questions from your followers and then read through them during a weekly or monthly video.
There’s one more content marketing tactic you should consider before we jump into how you can use video to market properties directly. You can emphasize your expertise and build a bigger audience pool by working with guests.
3. Build expertise by hosting discussions with home professionals
One effective way to build compelling video content is to invite guests who can reinforce your own expertise. Property investors who are trying to cultivate an audience that may serve as leads can create interesting content by speaking to:
The guests you choose should be people who have something to say about property investing. All of the following professionals can make great guests for your property investing channel:
- Other property investors
- Tradespeople who handle specialized work with home remodels
- Contractors who cover repairs for unique events like floods or fires
- Landscapers who focus on home-value upgrades
To get started with this tactic, you’ll need to perform some outreach. For all the types of guests listed above, you’ll be able to find people who use social media to promote their own work. They’re likely to respond to requests for collaboration if you let them link to their own companies.
Now that you understand a few tactics you can use for content marketing, let’s explore some of the ways that video can be used to promote properties more directly. We’ll start by looking at the importance of creating attractive virtual tours of your properties.
4. Create attractive virtual tours of your properties
A virtual tour is a sequence of video scenes that takes people through properties. When they’re well-made, they can provide an experience that is close to being there in person. They can be far more compelling to potential buyers than a series of photographs because they help potential buyers understand the house as an entire unit.
Virtual tours were once a novelty, but now, they are becoming an essential part of selling properties. The recent lockdowns helped drive the demand for these videos in property listings.
A hot housing market has also led to many people buying houses “sight unseen” in order to get ahead of other offers. Virtual tours give these eager buyers a lot more confidence.
Virtual tours can be difficult to create if you don’t have experience with them. You can use your cellphone to create a continuous video of yourself moving from room to room. However, many property investors choose to use software or professional videographers.
If you do decide to invest in some better video tools, you’ll be in a much better position to try the next tactic on this list: You can create an attachment to properties by documenting renovations.
5. Create attachments to the properties by documenting renovations
You don’t have to wait until a property is ready to show before you start motivating buyers. If you buy a property that needs renovations, you can build interest in it while it’s being improved by keeping a video renovation journal.
The idea of this tactic is that you document all of the major steps you take to make the property look its best. You can use before-and-after timelapse videos, or even show the work as it’s being done.
These videos can have a powerful effect. Viewers can develop an attachment to the property from seeing if featured multiple times. You can also use renovation journals to show off the quality of the work that is being done on the house. Videos like these are an excellent opportunity to show off attractive features that are being restored, such as classic carpentry.
You can promote properties by doing more than just showing off the home itself. Showing off the attractions around the home can be a great way to endear someone to the whole community.
6. Explore the great attractions around your properties
If you want to go a step beyond the people who are posting virtual tours of their listings, one great way to stand out is to add tours of the community the home is in.
Photos of local parks, historic downtowns, and bar districts can look pretty underwhelming on their own. Videos can give these attractions the sense of life and vibrancy that they really deserve.
This tactic is relatively simple to put into practice. Any handheld camcorder or mobile phone is capable of capturing small destinations like these. You can create the impression you want by circling the area for a 360-degree view or traveling through every corner.
This step and the two before it offer you a chance to highlight the best features of the property. However, there is another tactic you can use to break down the barriers to buying. You can use videos to demystify the process of buying a home.
7. Create videos to demystify the process of home buying
Some people—particularly first-time homebuyers—may be excited about the idea of owning a property yet still intimidated by the process of buying a home. You may be able to help them get past this hesitation by posting some explainer videos.
To put this into practice, just find some samples of the documents that you would use for a home sale, and take your audience through the steps of closing on a property. You may find that this kind of informational content does well. If it does, you can easily expand into other parts of the process, such as finding the mortgage, doing inspections, and other tasks.
Use videos to find motivated buyers for your properties
Now, you know seven tactics that you can use to put video marketing to work for you.
Remember, videos make excellent content for content marketing strategies. You can use it to build your brand, interact with your audience, and establish expertise by hosting discussions with guests.
You can also use video marketing to promote your investment properties directly. Reveal their best features with virtual tours, build attachments with renovation journals, and bring real life to exciting nearby attractions.