Do you use videos to market your real estate? If not, you’re losing a lot of revenue and potential buyers. Videos are a powerful marketing tool to get into the heart of your property buyers. While you can use images to make sales, your customers need more convincing info to help make a property decision.

You can ink several deals with new real estate buyers this year. Though that isn’t a walk in the park, you’re assured of great results when using videos to promote your business. Videos capture audience attention in a way other content types won’t. Apart from that, you can get your buyers to trust and believe what you offer if you use videos.

Are you new and wondering how real estate video marketing benefits your business? You’re not alone. But keep on reading and get many reasons you need videos in your real estate marketing campaigns.

Benefits of Real Estate Video Marketing to Your Business

Better Marketing Services

Nothing beats other content types in promoting real estate than visual content. You can use videos to provide your buyers with more information in a unique way that doesn’t bore them. Today, many buyers want something interesting, but that adds value.

Compared to a text, your buyers will retain more info about your property when they see it than read. Using a single video, you can let your audience see the neighborhood, home landscape, interior design, and the number of rooms on your property. That’s why you need to consider real estate video marketing to grow your business.

Whether it’s a walkthrough or a testimonial real estate marketing video, it helps you reach a greater audience. Besides, many buyers love seeing visual content before making a buying decision. After creating your videos, you can post them on your landing page social media platforms or even attach videos to the emails you send to customers.

Videos Are Effective

Real estate video marketing is a sure way to achieve your goals. Compared to other types of content shared on social media, videos stand out and help you generate more income. Going by the statistics, over 84% of people who buy items online do so after watching a video. Therefore, as a marketer, you should adopt videos in your marketing campaigns to increase your revenue. When more buyers see your videos, you are assured of quality leads and increased sales, leading to good RIO.

You Are Not Limited to a Number of Photos.

An image means a lot when marketing your real estate. How about turning those beautiful images into a video? That’s a good way to get your real estate information across to your customers. With a video, there are no limits to what you can see. You have an entire video that shows you every part of the property on sale.

Remember, real-time evidence is what your buyers want to believe. Every buyer wants a video since it’s more detailed than an image, and using all your real estate pictures to create a video engages your buyers more. Take a photo of every corner of your property, and convert them into a video with the help of a good real estate video editor. Ensure to include text between photos in your real estate video marketing content.

A Video Conveys More Information

Your potential buyers could be busy and want to get a lot of your property info in no time. And you will easily provide them all that through a video. With only a single walkthrough video, your customers can check out the size of your rooms, features, landscape, and neighborhood with no intense research.

Real estate buyers want to know every detail of your property. Ensure to get neighborhood overviews but in a frame and a voiceover, interview community influencers and local businesses to give your potential buyers a wider range of info to make a choice. Apart from that, you can capture just-sold case studies and testimonials from happy clients. All that is vital information your buyers want to see. And through real estate video marketing, you will offer every prospective property buyer the answers they want to know.

More information means understanding the house’s environment, which includes the neighbors. Neighborhood videos are one of the best ways to understand the kind of environment you are set to join. It helps to know the schools, crime, traffic, spirituality, shopping and more. These videos seek to answer all the questions in the community. As a realtor, answering all these questions in a simple video makes you a local expert, and many audiences would trust you.

Easy to Embed A call-to-action

Today, you don’t have to redirect your buyers to another site. You can place a call to action right in your marketing video. That way, your audience knows what’s next after watching your video. A call to action in your video reduces the loss of clients. Initially, someone would just leave your site after clicking a link redirecting them to another site.

Increases SEO Ranking

Do you know videos increase your visibility on search engines? When your business becomes more visible, you attract huge traffic quality leads, resulting in increased sales. Google and YouTube are vital to search engines you need to focus on when creating video.

Give your video a good title, a description, and a tag. That helps to rank your real estate marketing videos for the visitors to see. It will be a done deal once your videos hit the first page of the search engine ranking page. However, you have to create quality videos and employ up-to-date SEO tactics for your video. 

It Builds Trust and Rapport for Your Business.

A video can help to capture the personality of your brand. You may not be aware, but someone can buy your property simply because they have been impressed with brand personality. Posting a real estate video can build trust around your business and lead to more traffic to your site.

Today, live video streaming has become a reality. When you conduct business to live, every step of buying becomes trustworthy. Selling is about creating trust with buyers. And with the help of a video, it is easy to win buyers’ trust.

Conclusion

Many people go online to acquire information, solve problems, and get entertained. Using videos for your real estate website will help you do all three simultaneously. However, it is essential to note that your business will sell more than it would have without using videos. The use of videos is indispensable in the online marketing plan. Make sure to create relevant videos that will attract viewers looking forward to buying a home.

Are you using video email marketing in your business today? If I told your open rate would at least double would you consider it?

Many real estate agents get fed up because of dismal results their email marketing gives them, but it’s not because email marketing doesn’t work, it’s because of the way they are using it. If you want to see a better results with any of your email marketing results then you MUST check out using video email marketing.  

What is video email marketing?

Video email marketing is using video instead of text based emails.  So instead of writing a very cold email with no personality, you can now film your message and connect on a much deeper level with your recipients.

What if I don’t like being on video?

Do you like money?  Then get over it because it’s time to shape up or ship out because if you are not doing it one of your competitors is.

Why does video email marketing work better?

Using video in your emails is a much more impactful form of communication.

Did you know that:

• 60% of your effective communication is based on your tone.  You might be able to use emoticons on your emails, but no way does it have the effect a video would.
• 30% of effective communication is through your body language.  How do you express your body language in emails?
• 10% of effective communication is the actual content or point you’re trying to make. Most people aren’t going to remember what you say so your focus should be to stand out instead.

Video email is a more impactful email marketing strategy.

3 Simple ways you can use video email marketing in your real estate business

1. Stay in touch with your “database”.  Over 60% of all agent business is directly attributed to referrals and repeat business. You can very easily create a monthly video email marketing campaign as a way t stay in touch.  Your database DOES NOT want to always hear about real estate, which is why I loved the Hallmark greeting card strategy(watch video).  
2. Follow up with New Clients/Leads. When you first start working with a new client, the most crucial time is the first few days of establishing your working relationship. There is no better way to start the relationship off than with a video email.  Imagine what other agents are doing and how much you could stand out.  Video email helps you convert more leads.
3. Negotiate Deals/Transactional Updates.  What a great way to submit an offer.  One time this agent was in Mexico on vacation and our buyer was in a multiple offer situation.  The listing agent did not have cell phone service while he was pounding away on margaritas. Let’s just say our offer stood out the most and we got it!  You can also use video email as a way to enhance the client experience.  You can have pre-recored video emails for specific touch points during a transaction.

Differentiating yourself from the competition is one of the ways you ultimately run an attraction based business.  Video email is just one way you can do it.  If you enjoyed this article and would like to learn more about how to adapt video into your business, check out our services right here on our website.

Also checkout our YouTube Channel if you like the tips you saw here.

How To Market Your Real Estate Business During Corona Crisis

This post will show you a couple way on how to market your real estate business during Coronavirus Crisis. Right now is when you need to come up with creative ways to stand out and generate income? I’m going to share with you a few ways any local business can stand out during this unfortunate event.

First, STOP THINKING what you can’t do and start thinking what you can do?

For example, a restaurant based business is probably going to get their delivery game going as soon as possible and utilize friends, family, and social media ads to get the word out fast.  Help them do it!

A local gym or trainer, might come up with an online 30 day plan with workouts to do from home along with a diet plan to go with it? Local trainer home visits and you can train outside. Help them spread the word!

Get creative.

You should be getting out in the public and creating as much content as possible right now.  As a local community expert you should absolutely be sharing information as it becomes  available.  I want to give you a few ideas and scripts that you can create video content on right now.

Video Script #1- A  During Corona Time

Stay Positive Script

People in the near future are going to have some kind of change to their social life as large gatherings are being shut down.  Therefore come in with a positive message because everyone is seeing the same negativity on social media as you are.  Being a positive energy during times like this is something people will remember.

Video Script Idea #2- Help Small Business

There are going to be many small businesses affected by this.  I would go ahead and post on my social media right now for a local small business owner the following:

“ATTN Small business owners and friends: Does anyone have a small business that is being affected by coronavirus and needs some help adjusting to a promotion?  For example: restaurant moving towards delivery service fast?  I want to help spread the word with a local video with them”

You should get plenty of suggestions if you don’t already have someone in mind.

Here’s an adjusted video script you can use to promote small businesses that are affected.

Small business crisis

I will keep page updated with several marketing ideas and scripts going forward.  Right now is when you double down on your content!

Real Estate Video Script #3- The Corona Virus Market Update & Proactive Report

Right now there is a huge opportunity for real estate video that can position your brand to win for years to come. People are going to be looking for information, especially on the real estate market. Here’s a real estate script you can use to take on a proactive approach . There are a lot of eyes on social media right now and it is a great time to keep learning about real estate video. The latest craze has just given us another reason to get used to being on video. This real estate video script will give you a good baseline to go off of. Hope it helps. We’ll also be hosting a real estate video digital bootcamp should you be interested in taking the time to learn how to do real estate video once and for all.

Corona Virus Update Real Estate Video Script

A referral marketing strategy is an ongoing series of communication to your existing database, past clients, and anyone who would relate to your business.  In other words it’s ongoing communication through sever channels that you your brand on top of mind. 

And don’t overthink it because it’s a lot simpler than you think. There is nothing magical about implementing a referral marketing strategy using video as it follows the same principles of direct mail farming.  When creating a video referral marketing strategy we build a local video series and that content in front of your entire database and in exchange, your brand remains on top of mind.

You’ll generate with referrals with videos once you start generating lots of attention!

UPDATED: 5-12-2020

The Video Referral Marketing Strategy- How It Works

One of the most uncomfortable conversations real estate agents have is the one asking for referrals.  The gurus tell you to pick up the phone and start calling, but let’s be honest,  it feels awkward.  It that’s your referral marketing strategy, you might be in for a rude awakening.  You go 6 months without speaking to someone and then all of the sudden you call them asking for business and favors?  I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a total dick move.

The main reason you will want to implement a video referral marketing strategy is so you don’t have to do that.

This isn’t 1987 anymore and those old tactics of prospecting are washed up, but the good news is they were dated anyways.  In this post,  I’m going to show why implementing a very simple video referral marketing system WITHOUT having to annoy people with market updates is how you attract referrals without ever having a conversation.

When people start seeing you “everywhere all the time” ,you begin occupying the minds of your database and local community. When you have their attention,  they are more likely to recall your brand when they think of real estate and YOU are more likely to generate their first call.

Generating referrals with video starts by differentiating marketing from prospecting.  Marketing is your ongoing communication to your database and local community that remind them you are still in business.  You do it to stay top of mind and to nurture your database. Think of “marketing” as a giant don’t forget I exist type of campaign.

Prospecting is the complete opposite.  It’s what you do to generate NOW business.  This is the traditional slimy stuff that the majority of agents HATE doing such as cold calling and door knocking.  I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying it’s not what we are talking about on this post.  We’ll save that conversation for another day.

What we’re talking about on this post is how to generate consistent referrals WITHOUT having to beg for them.

“You don’t prospect for referrals.  You manufacture them out of nurturing relationships”

The Video Referral Marketing Strategy- You Must Be Consistent

The best way to have your videos turn into referrals is to do it consistently.  In other words, farming your network with video content. It keeps your brand top of mind and maintains a strong relationship with your audience.  

What are you currently doing in your business that stays in touch with your database consistently?

The size and impact of your brand is only determined by how many people instantly associated your name with real estate.  Video isn’t a real estate thing, it’s an ATTENTION thing that works for all businesses. When you own the attention of your audience, you’ll be attracting business instead of chasing it.

But if you don’t do it consistently, the chances of them forgetting you are in real estate increase. I have a podcast for the very same reason.  Its allows me to continue to serve my clients and attract new ones without always having to sell something. I want to bring value to my community and in return over time I generate more sales.  I want real estate agents to think of the Real Estate Marketing Dude anytime they think of video.

In real estate 72% of people use the 1st agent they speak with

A referral marketing strategy is simple, nurture your relationships with video, build your brand, generate more referrals, and repeat business. Never before has it been so easy to communicate with your referral sources without breaking the bank through social media, but the question is, are you?

If you were to poll your entire database, how many of them think of you when they think of real estate?  Did you know that 80% of buyers forget their agent’s name after 6 month?

OR

Now imagine doing two videos a month that we’re emailed to your network, posted on social media, and even had Facebook ads targeted to your SOI, and you did this this for 12 months.  Now I’ll ask you the same question.  If we were to poll the same people, how many of them would now associate your name with real estate?  That’s branding.

This is NOT lead Generation, It’s Branding.

You can only be referred when your brand is top of mind.  This is why we use video to farm our SOI and local community through video email and social media.  I don’t care of what kind of real estate videos you create, but as long as they REMIND everyone who sees them you are in real estate, then it did it’s job!

The key to an effective video referral marketing strategy is authenticity and consistency.  You don’t build a brand overnight, you do it by consistently communicating to the same audience over time.  If you and your significant other stop talking, your relationship will end.  If you stop communicating with your SOI and past clients, they forget you’re in real estate.

This isn’t theory, it’s mathematical.

• 10-15% of your network is moving this year
• 100% of your network knows someone they can refer you to.
• 60+% of business each and every year comes from referrals and repeat business.
• 76% of consumers use the first agent they speak to.

Video makes you unforgettable and therefore more referrable!

Memorize these numbers and get motivated by them. ATTENTION is the name of the game in a referral dominated business, which is what you are. Generating referrals and building a strong hyper local brand is crucial for a long lasting real estate business that is NOT dependent upon 3rd party lead sources YOU DON’T CONTROL.

The goal is very simple: don’t be a secret agent.  Instead, be the first person they think of when real estate comes to mind. This is what building a strong personal brand accomplishes. Don’t overthink this whole video craze, it’s a lot easier than you think. You don’t need to know how to ASK for referrals, you need to know how to attract them.

Do it with a video referral marketing strategy that farms your database.

Multi-purposing each real estate video you create  is one of the best ways to get the most exposure and use out of each piece of content. Creating the video is only half the battle, you still got to get it seen.

Multi-purposing each real estate videos is one of the best ways to get the most exposure and use out of each piece of content you create.

Shooting videos is one thing, but getting them seen is another. It’s important to have some kind of real estate video distribution strategy.  Remember, if nobody sees your video, then what’s the point?  The entire reason we went through step 2, Building A Strong Personal Brand Your Database Loves, was to establish the people who will see your video. We want to build your brand with those audiences.

In real estate, don’t forget who your most important audience is: your database.  The people in your database are responsible for a large majority of agent business, so we like to use real estate video to nurture these relationships. Interacting consistently keeps your brand at the forefront.

5 Ways To Multi-Purpose Each Real Estate Video You Create!

1.  Upload To You Tube

You Tube is a search engine.  Many people tend to forget that about it.  It is also a great place to begin building your hyper local library of real estate video content.  When uploading your video, it’s important to optimize it for search. The best way to describe optimization is it’s like SEO for You Tube. If you want your video to potentially show up in search results, you need to optimize it correctly.  In this example, I still have a video ranking #1 on You Tube under the search terms closing costs (still very surprised it’s still #1).

This isn’t hard to do, but it’s tedious and highly recommended for every real estate video you create.  This real estate video was the biggest surprises of my career. I did this video for a rental property, and I actually lost money making it. But, it has resulted in over $50,000 in commissions and many additional leads.  At the time of this writing, it had 26,000 views and continues to climb. The only reason I did it at the time was to please the client, but it turned out to be the gift that keeps giving.

2. Write A Blog Post On Your Website

The second thing we recommend is writing a blog post on your website and then put the video on top of the post, no different than in this blog post.  I found that when I had a video at the top of every page on my site, I better connected with people who would read my content.

Let’s say you are looking for a dentist in a new neighborhood and found 3 dentist offices that are close to you.  You decide to visit each of their websites to get a better idea of who will be the right fit.  Dentist A’s website has a couple pages on it and is very generic.  There are not any pictures of the staff and barely any information other than location, hours, and a poorly written about page.

Dentist B has a site that’s a little more in depth.  You visit their community page, and you see a bunch of pictures of the staff and what looks like a recent holiday event, but that’s really the extent of it.  Their site was much better than Dentist A, but they didn’t have a blog or any additional content.

Dentist C has a site much like Dentist B’s, but, in addition to the personal touch, they have a blog with about 20 articles.  You start reading through the blog and discover some interesting things about your teeth you previously didn’t know. Then, you visit their about page and see bright colorful pictures of the whole staff and satisfied past customers.

Which dentist do you choose?

Most likely, you choose Dentist C because you probably felt more connected and educated by Dentist C. This put him in an authority position. Content does that.

What is the state of your website?  Do people get an idea of who you are?  What about your expertise? Do you have any content on your site that isn’t generic? We use content to drive people back to your website, but to also build your brand. The more content you have, the bigger your brand can grow as each piece generates more attention.

Look at how I market the “Dude”.  You are here either because you found it directly online in a Google search, saw it on social media, heard my podcast, or you’ve been following my content for sometime.  It’s the content on my site over time that has built my brand so that agents like you develop some trust in me. Without it, I’m just another dude.

What do you think people think about your brand when they visit your site?

3. Video Email It To Your Database

Your database doesn’t want any more crap email boiler plate content, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t send them anything.  We are consistently seeing over a 40% open rate using real estate video email.

We recommend using video email to keep in touch with your database and past clients.  A hyper local video series does a great job of entertaining your database, while keeping your brand top of mind.  Your database doesn’t want to always see some kind of sales pitch from you, but they are interested in what’s going on in their community!

If you were to showcase 2 community real estate videos a month and you distributed them to a list of 150 people, do you think they might remember what you do for a living?

4.  Post Your Real Estate Video On ALL Social Media Platforms

Your social media channels are nothing more than additional ways to stay in front of your database.  These are perfect spots to splash your video content, because the people you are connected with are your largest source of business.   One of the biggest mistakes I see daily is agents only posting their real estate video content on Facebook when they can be sharing it on all of their profiles.

TIP: Sharing from your business page to your personal page is a NO NO.  Upload each real estate video organically so you get more reach!

Don’t over think this part.  Start overlooking all of your platforms as independent database marketing tools going forward. Your business page is different than your personal page.  Your Instagram is different than your Facebook.  LinkedIn is different from Instagram. Treat each of them independently and don’t be lazy.

I have generated business from each of these platforms because I am consistent in the way I distribute my content.  Your database uses social media differently than you do. This is why I suggest treating them all independently.

Just remember this, 10-15% of the people who see your real estate video will need your services this year.  Everyone who sees it can refer you to at least one person this year, but are they?  76% of people use the first agent they speak to, so that’s exactly why you do it!

5.  Run Paid Ads To Your Database

We also recommend throwing some kind of budget with every real estate video you create.  Creating real estate video ads on Facebook and You Tube is extremely inexpensive (relatively speaking). Never before has an individual been in the position of reaching the masses with a relatively low budget. Let’s talk about the 2 types of targeting we recommend.

Audience #1 – Your Database

The first audience you want to put your  real estate video in front of is your database.  Inside Facebook, you are able to upload an email list of clients and past customers.  The reasoning for doing this is simple. Once you upload the data, you can now run ads to this list.

Only about 20% of your “Friends” will see your posts on your personal page due to the Facebook algorithm, which means nearly 80% of your “friends” are not seeing it. This is exactly why you want to place ads to reach more of your network.

Typically I would say to stay away from boosting, but it makes sense in this case because the objective is brand awareness and engagement.  We are looking for engagement, and we aren’t trying to run some advanced Facebook ads funnel. So, keep it simple.

Audience #2- Your Farm

The second audience should be your farm community.  If you plan on setting up a digital farm, I would recommend matching the demographics up that match your brand message. Realtors attract like people, so make it easy to stand out by targeting yourself!  Know who your brand resonates with.

Conclusion

Building your brand with real estate video involves two things.  First you need the right content to create. Secondly, you need to make sure they get seen.

Part of creating an authentic real estate video marketing strategy, is to FIRST determine what your brand is.  What kind of content do you want to create?  How is your tone and what will your style be?

It’s hard to market a business without knowing what it stands for or who it caters to. The first step of getting authentic with real estate video  marketing is to dial it into what your brand really is.

YES, YOU ARE A BRAND. God made each of us unique and that’s pretty cool, embrace it!  Using video to build your real estate brand isn’t rocket science, but unless you’re excited about it, it will never work.

1. Realize You’re A Brand

Why Your Brand Determines Your Real Estate Video Marketing Strategy…

How many people, when they think of real estate, automatically associate your name to it?  The answer to either of those questions will determine how big your brand is.

Your Brand (in real estate) is nothing more than how people remember what you do and how you do it.

The reason most agents have trouble building their brand is because they don’t think of themselves as one.  It’s hard to look at your individual as a brand, but if you were to open up a bakery or a store wouldn’t that be a brand?

Buyers and sellers very rarely choose the brokerage. Statistically, 97% of consumers chose the agent over the brokerage they work for! This is exactly why you should always be marketing your brand over your brokerage’s. People hire you, not the office you work for!

There are many ways you can build a brand, but when doing it with video, but the first step is realizing that you are one.

2. Determine Your Brand Story & Theme

Meet Eric Eby. Eric needed a way to market his real estate business in a way that didn’t always involve him “selling”.  He’s great at lead generation and conversion, but poor at staying in touch with past clients and his sphere of influence. He decided he wanted to begin building his brand with video so he didn’t have to 100% rely on prospecting or cold lead generation.

So we created a real estate video marketing strategy by getting to know him personally vs professionally.  We want Eric to be excited about what he’s creating video content on, which is why your videos should be on things you personally like doing yourself.

“People don’t remember what you do for a living, they remember why you do it”

There is a major difference between real estate video marketing and advertising. Marketing is your ongoing brand presence that keeps your business on top of mind. It’s your ongoing conversation you have with your database.

The main roadblock that 99% of agents face when thinking using real estate video marketing are…

• What do I say?
• How often?
• I’m too ugly to get on camera
• No idea what to do to start
• No way!! My videos are too boring and embarrassing.

Defining your brand story ELIMINATES these obstacles because it defines your voice, passion, and interests.  For example, I’m a dude.  I write like it. I talk like it. It’s just who I am deep down inside. I’m a laid back dude who just tells it like it is. That allows me to have a lot of fun with my marketing.  It’s also much easier to remember.

Let’s go through how we built Eric Eby’s brand from scratch.

Eric isn’t just a Realtor, he’s a local.  When I met Eric, we had to sit down and do a deep dive so we get a clear picture of his personality.  He knows all about Northwest Arkansas, and we wanted to “position” him as the local expert.

Your brand needs to be based on your persona.  In Eric’s case, he’s a laid back local.  He is also a huge Razorbacks fan and bleeds NWA.  In other words Eric represents everything Northwest Arkansas and is very “natural” to the area.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Be You, Nobody Else Can” quote=”Be You, Nobody Else Can”]

Eric’s central message or theme is based around the concept of being “natural” or “authentic”.  When we talk about crafting a centralized theme, we are crafting a consistent message that fits the personality of your brand.   It’s this consistent theme that Eric follows for all of the real estate video marketing content he creates.   Everything has to be “natural”.  If it’s not, it won’t fit his brand’s message.

It’s crucial that your real estate video marketing be focused on creating content that excites you because, when you do, it’s authentic.   Eric can pull this off only because he’s a raving fan of his area.  He absolutely loves Northwest Arkansas, and this passion shows on his videos.

Your theme will determine all of the real estate video marketing content you create going forward.

3. Create A Video Series Or Show

After you crack your brand’s theme, it’s time to name the show series.  Having a show series gives you an excuse to remind everyone that you’re in real estate.  If you were to just get up and film a bunch of random videos, there would be no centralized story that ties everything together.  Having a show series is what ties your real estate video marketing strategy together.

People don’t want more boring content focusing on market updates or interest rates. You don’t have to ALWAYS be talking about real estate either! In Eric’s case the name of his show is called “Naturally NWA”. Let’s take a look of the different types of videos he can create with his show.

Business Owner Interviews- Eric focuses on the “mom and pops” of the area vs. the corporations and franchises.

Local Points Of Interest– Eric can create content on some of NWA’s most exciting points of interest that are very natural to the area.  He would be giving a history lesson essentially on different aspects of his market.

Neighborhood Tours– Eric can go through the evolution of neighborhoods and the history behind them

The point is that his real estate video strategy is now defined.  Every video he creates going forward has to have a natural component to it.  The reason this works is because it allows him to consistently REMIND his database he’s in real estate vs. having to tell them.

People don’t remember what you do, they remember how you do it.

Fancy equipment doesn’t make cool real estate video,  the right story and the right editing does.  On this blog post I share with you the 4 tools needed for shooting real estate video with iphone.

Before you get started shooting real estate video with iphone, you need to know which kind of equipment you need.  We have tried every gadget, tripod, and tool that exists and wanted to inform you with what we found in this post.

And guess what…. you don’t need anything expensive.

The reason is very simple.  We are not trying to create videos longer than 3-6 minutes (anything longer is going to bore your audience unless you are a real cool dude or dudette). Fancy equipment doesn’t make your videos good, the shots you take and the editing does.  It’s more important to learn the right shots to take with your cell phone rather than having the best equipment. Your skills are what’s key to shooting real estate video with iphone.

The right shots, with the right message, is the key to making real estate videos that people actually watch.

The following list is what we use for all the videos we create. This is the exact equipment we buy for every one of our clients and use daily ourselves.

1.  Wide Angle Camera Lens

You can buy a wide angle camera lens from anywhere between $15-$50 for your cell phone.   I highly recommend shooting real estate video with iphone using this, unless you already have the Iphone 11.  This will give your footage the extra width a DSLR camera would and a much better shot overall.

As a real estate agent, you are most likely going to be shooting real estate video with iphone or whatever smart phone you are using.  You can create vey cool visuals such as listings, neighborhood tours, small business owners, local points of interests, fundraisers, community involvement, or even case studies.

All of these types of videos would normally be shot with a wide angle lens if you were to hire a videographer, so this puts you in line with the pros.

If you want more examples of shooting real estate videos with iphone you can view some on this blog post.

8 Real Estate Videos Agents Can Record With Their Cell Phones

This is the wide angle lens we use and it’s only $10.  Here is the link in case you’d like to purchase it.

2. Tripod + Cell Phone Holder

There are many kinds of tripods out there, but this has been our favorite to use when shooting real estate videos with iphone.

We also like using the tripod as a shot stabilizer!

You don’t need a gimbal.  We have found it much easier to use this for all kinds of b-roll shots.  None of the shots we teach need a gimbal and it’ is our opinion that gimbals only make the task more challenging.

Gimbals don’t create goods shots, they create stability.  A good shot is created by the movements of the camera.  We found that it was actually easier to shoot the same quality video using this tripod as a stabilizer and just holding it with two hands making nice and steady movements.

If you would like to get this tripod, it’s a whopping $30. Click here to buy it on Amazon.

3. Microphone

Good sound is crucial when shooting real estate videos with iphone. People will muster through a bad shaky video, but they will not muster through bad sound.

If you are going to put in the effort to create a real estate video that has some structure and story to it, you should match it up with good sound too.  There are many different kinds of microphones to buy, but we have found this mic to be the most convenient.

Videos such as small business owner interviews or case studies would need the additional microphones with multiple people speaking and this makes it very easy to plug in.

If you would like to purchase this mic set you can do so on Amazon right here.

4.  Green Screen Studio(optional)

If you plan on shooting real estate videos with iphone that are content related, you probably need a green screen studio. A green studio is nothing more than a green sheet and a set of lights.  It allows you to create very fun interactive videos, but you will need a good editor who understands green screen.

We like using green screen for real estate content videos, because real estate in general is pretty boring and this is a fun way of making it more interesting and more memorable.  This is an example of a green screen video.

You can purchase everything you need to begin shooting real estate videos with iphone for a about $140.  The equipment is not going to make the video, the content or story is.

You can purchase this green screen kit here on Amazon.

Shooting real estate videos with iphone doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive, it just needs structure.  If you have any additional questions on video or need a team of editors to assist you we would love to help you! We will build out your series and then show you how to shoot it and handle everything for you!

Video marketing is not scary, it’s just new.  I want to show you how to overcome the 3 mental video marketing obstacles that hold most agents from getting started.  I am confident that after reading this, you’ll have a better idea of how to get started, but more importantly you’ll be excited about doing so.

Video Marketing Obstacle 1.) Make It A Habit

If you are going to commit to real estate video marketing, then commit to video.  The best way to approach it is to no different than how you first approached brushing your teeth in the morning when you were a little kid.  It felt weird at first, but over time it became a habit.

The same concept used in direct mail farming is also applied in video marketing. According to my “farming friends” and based upon 500 doors, these results are expected;

1-3 listings year one.

3-5 listings year two.

5+ listing in year three.

The reason for that is because over time as you consistently keep showing up every month in their mailboxes your brand slowly gets imprinted in their brains as the local agent of that neighborhood.  You build your brand amongst your farm overtime, not overnight.

Real estate video marketing is no different, but it’s impact and results come in much faster.  Overcoming your video marketing obstacle is not as hard as you think, it just requires commitment.

As opposed to direct mail, video allows you to effectively communicate your brand’s story to a much wider audience.  It also allows what direct mail does not by putting a personality to the name.

This has a much bigger impact on the mind’s of your audience and therefore your brand gets built faster. This is an excellent way to build your personal brand amongst your SOI and local community.

Real estate video marketing doesn’t generate leads it generates attention.

You will build a stronger relationship with your SOI and local community as you create videos consistently over time. It’s serves as a way to nurture your SOI and database in a way email or direct mail could not.

The key is to to commit the time to do them, but it’s a lot easier than you think.  It starts by making video content creation as big a priority as prospecting.

Set up a video publication schedule and stick to it.  

It’s very important to plan your real estate video marketing calendar. Start by deciding how many videos you want to do a month and then divide it equally over a month’s time, then just stick to it. Planning your video publication dates 30 days in advance is what I suggest.  For example; the videos you shot in January will publish in February, the videos you shot in February will publish in March.

Making video a habit only involves planning.  I brush my teeth every morning, but it’s not part of my plan, it’s habit.  Make video no different.

Video Marketing Obstacle 2.) Perfection Doesn’t Exist

Sometimes overcoming your video marketing obstacles begins with realizing you aren’t perfect. One of the biggest reasons people avoid creating real estate videos is because they are scared of what they look like on camera or have no idea of what to say.

You are human, embrace that.  Nobody is perfect nor does anyone expect you to be either.

Have you ever noticed that MOST of the videos that go viral have one thing in common? They expose human nature.  The Harmon Brothers came up with this video for PooPourri, which is a bathroom air freshener.  This video has 41,396,715 views just on You Tube.

Why?

It exposes the truth on a very uncomfortable topic.  It’s not only hilarious, it’s human nature.  Do you think the owner of this company was scared to put this commercial out there?  Most likely yes, but they did it and it paid off BIG TIME.

The Laughing Chewbacca Mask

Have you ever seen this video?  It was not planned and most likely the first take.  This video had 11,489,605 views at the time I pulled this. There’s no script or plan of action. It was shot on the fly and is hilarious!

Do you think she checked her hair before she shot this?  Do you think she put on makeup?  You can’t fake or stage authenticity!

In my opinion, the goal of creating real estate marketing videos should be to build your personal brand amongst your audience and local community + connect with them on a human level. Your videos should always represent your authentic self.

“But everything I say on video makes me nervous”

If what you are talking bout on video makes you nervous, my advice is to stop selling and start story telling.

Understanding the next mental objection is the most important!

Don’t be scared to be you, nobody else can. Own It!

Video Marketing Obstacle 3.) Determine Your Brand’s Story

One of the largest video marketing obstacles agents have in getting started is identifying their central message or theme.

What do you talk about or how should you say it?

Your brand is what others think of when they think of you!

For example: I’m a dude.  It’s just who I am. I don’t do it in purpose, it’s literally how I talk.  Most people have an idea  of what to expect from me before we ever speak because of HOW I create my content. My brand is reflected in the tonality of my videos, my podcast, blog, and logo design.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”I’m ok if someone doesn’t like me” quote=”I’m ok if someone doesn’t like me”]

The jack of all trades is the master of none and when you try to create this one size fits all type of message because you want to serve EVERYONE, I believe you are doing yourself a disservice. Ultimately people do business with agents they know, like, and trust.

Everyone has a brand, but don’t overthink it.  Your brand is nothing more than what people think of you as a person.  Let’s go through an example so you have more context.

Eric Eby lives in Northwest Arkansas, home of Walmart headquarters, which is known to be one of the corporate centers of the world. Northwest Arkanasas is home to many company headquarters setting up shop near Walmart HQ.

So Eric overcame his video marketing obstacle by dialing in his strategy to focus on the mom and pop business owners. He wants to position himself as a local expert and does so by creating “natural like” content about his area.

His brand is based on one thing, being original or “natural” to the area. Eric now has a centralized message to tell stories on, he will never run out of real estate video content to create.

Once you crack your brand story, content creation becomes easy.  Look at as an excuse to remind people about your real estate business without hitting them over the head with your lockbox.  Do that consistently and over time you will build a strong personal brand that attracts clients!

The video marketing obstacles you are facing are mental.

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