5 Ways to Multipurpose Your Real Estate Listing Videos
(25-30 minute read)
photo credit: HUB Media Company
You hire a professional videographer to shoot your real estate listing videos, then a couple of days later you receive this amazing cinematic footage that you want the world to see, but you’re not quite sure what to do with it or how to go about making that happen. If this sounds like you, then keep on reading. We’ll be showing you five ways to multipurpose your real estate listing videos. Let’s get started.
Multi-Purposing Your Content
Whether this is your first listing video or you’re a seasoned video marketing pro, multi-purposing your content will help you maximize your video’s reach, ensure potential buyers see your video, attract new sellers, and grow your brand and business.
BONUS .... if you follow the steps below (in order), you’ll also gain some of those highly sought-after SEO ranking points from Google (and that’s always a good thing!).
One last important note before we get started. These steps are still incredibly impactful even if your client’s home immediately goes under contract. Don’t miss the opportunity to maximize your video’s reach just because the property has sold. Simply change the messaging in all of these steps to “an evidence of success” versus a featured listing. This can be a very powerful lead magnet for attracting new sellers. Are you ready? Let’s dive in!
STEP 1: Upload Video to Your YouTube Channel
If you’re going to be consistently shooting real estate listing videos, we highly recommend signing up for a (free) YouTube channel if you haven’t already done so. Simply create a Gmail account. Once your Gmail account is setup, navigate to the Google apps icon (see below) on your computer desktop - located next to your profile pic - and click on it. From there, a variety of Google apps will pop up. Simply click on the YouTube icon and finish setting up your account and upload your first video. Once your video is finished uploading, copy the YouTube’s URL and you’re ready for step #2 …but first ….
Why is YouTube important? First and foremost, Google owns YouTube, so if you’d like to maximize your reach and exposure amongst your target audience, utilizing Google’s various apps will help your videos stand out better in organic search results. It’s also important to note that YouTube now has 2.3 billion users, worldwide - that’s a lot of potential eyeballs that could see your awesome videos. Lastly, Google will always rank content posted on their platforms first in the search results before any of their competitors (i.e. specifically, Vimeo, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn).
PRO TIP #1: When you upload your video, be sure to keep it as unlisted (do not make it public just yet ... we’ll get to the ‘why’ further down).
PRO TIP #2: Be sure to use your key search terms in the heading and description of your video (example: North Central Phoenix Luxury Home for Sale in 85016) so that Google can quickly find and index your content.
PRO TIP #3: Be sure to include a Call to Action (CTA) in your description to make it easy for people to find you without having to go back and re-watch your video.
STEP 2: Write a Blog Post for your Website and Embed the YouTube Video
Okay, I know I might have lost a few of you here but stay with me as this is probably one of the most important steps in this whole process when it comes to maximizing reach and driving traffic to your website. That being said, if you don’t have a website or your site doesn’t have a blog section, feel free to skip this part and head to Step #3.
NOTE: If you do plan to continue incorporating video into your overall marketing plan, a blog will be essential for maintaining your marketing strategy, creating a steady stream of website traffic, growing your audience on social media, building a solid reputation within your industry/market and attracting new prospects.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
If you’re relatively new to SEO (search engine optimization) or unfamiliar with how organic search works on Google, we’ve included a link here from the ‘big guys’ (Google). Here they explain what SEO is, how it works, and why it’s important when it comes to your ideal customer finding you online.
Basics of How Google Search Works
Read Here >> https://developers.google.com/search/docs/beginner/how-search-works
Okay now back to Step #2. If you’re already familiar with SEO and you have a blog section on your website, go ahead and write a blog post about your newest listing.
Remember, no need to re-invent the wheel. You’ve already written a description about your video for YouTube so half of the work is done. You’ve also got your MLS description to add more details about specific features, location, upgrades, pricing, etc.
PRO TIP #1: Don’t forget to use the same key search terms (as you did in your YouTube description) in the heading and description of your post (example: North Central Phoenix Luxury Home for Sale in 85016) so we keep consistency and help Google easily index that content.
PRO TIP #2: To maximize your page indexing be sure to create short, meaningful page titles, use page headings that convey the subject of the page and be sure to annotate your video (if there is speaking) and your images with alt text.
Need some inspiration to get you started? Here’s a sample video blog post for reference: https://bit.ly/3rA55jl
Once you’ve got your blog published on your website, it’s now time to go back to your YouTube channel and turn your video to public and share. The reason we want you to do this in this particular order is so that your website/blog is deemed “the original content creator” and you get the SEO ranking points for your blog versus YouTube. In general, the purpose of content marketing in business is to use content to generate and nurture leads or to build awareness and the best way to do this is by consistently driving traffic back to your website versus a third-party app. (the exceptions to this of of course is if you don’t yet have a website)
STEP 3: Upload your Original MP4 Video file to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
Now that you’ve got your video content posted to your website, it’s time to share with all of your followers on social media. Let’s get started.
Head to your business Facebook page and click on Videos in the left-hand column. Click +add video and walk through the same steps you did with both YouTube and your Blog post by adding a searchable title and description. Again, don’t forget to add your CTA (call-to-action) at the bottom of your description so interested followers can easily get in touch with you.
PRO TIP #1: Maximum length of a video that can be uploaded to Facebook is 60 minutes.
PRO TIP #2: Be sure to fill out the CC captions (closed captions) so that followers who are either hearing impaired or have videos muted in their feed “on scroll” can still see what your video is about without having to use the sound.
Once you’ve published your video to Facebook, head over to Instagram and begin uploading your video to this platform as well. (Feel free to copy and paste your description from your Facebook post to make things consistent and easy).
PRO TIP #1: Maximum video length for an MP4 video to your feed is 60 seconds. If your listing video is longer than this (standard is between 2-4 minutes), we recommend uploading it to IGTV instead (don’t worry, it will still show up in your feed as a post). Maximum video length for IGTV is 60 minutes when uploading from your desktop or 15 minutes if uploading from your mobile device.
PRO TIP #2: Don’t forget to use relevant, industry-specific hashtags at the end of your posts to ensure your desired audience sees it.
For a complete list of real estate industry-specific hashtags, please refer to our Ultimate Hashtag Guide for Real Estate Agents in 2021.
Yep, you read that right, LinkedIn. To be honest, when most people think about a video strategy, they think of YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram, but LinkedIn video offers better organic reach potential.
Why is this important? Most people on LinkedIn aren’t posting any content—period–and of the 740 million members on the platform, less than 2% are posting content on a weekly basis. And for the small percentage who are, their content tends to be text, graphic, or link posts, not video. So, as you can imagine, there is a huge opportunity on this platform for promoting your video content to an already highly, engaged audience.
Example of a Real Estate Listing Videos Post on LinkedIn >> https://bit.ly/2OaFfox
PRO TIP #1: The maximum time limit for uploaded video on LinkedIn is 10 minutes.
PRO TIP #2: At least 60% of your LinkedIn video content should be micro-content, which is short video that helps you get people’s attention, promote your services, stay top of mind, or leave breadcrumbs for people to follow that lead them back to your website. This video content can be anywhere from 5-10 seconds and up to 3 minutes; most people won’t watch anything longer than that. (source: Social Media Examiner)
STEP 4: Run Paid Conversion Ads on Facebook & Instagram
PPC (pay-per-click) or paid ads, is a model of internet marketing in which advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. A conversion ad, simply put, is an action that's counted when someone interacts with your ad (for example, clicks a text ad or views a video ad) and then takes an action that you've defined as valuable to your business, such as traffic to your website/listing, an online purchase or a call to your business from a mobile phone. (source: Facebook)
This step is not crucial, but it certainly helps with getting your real estate listing videos directly in front of audiences that most closely match your homebuyer criteria - at a very low entry cost. (You can run Facebook conversion ads for as low as $5 per day)
Not sure how to set up and run Facebook/Instagram Conversion Ads?
That’s okay. We’ve included a step-by-step tutorial below from one of the most respected Real Estate Facebook ad specialists in the business, Mike Sherrard. His YouTube tutorial easily breaks it all down step-by-step for beginners and is a great refresher for those who may not be familiar with Facebook’s new Special Ad Category requirement for Housing.
Step by Step Guide to Facebook Ads for Real Estate (using the Special Ad Category for Housing)
STEP 5: Send out an Email to your Sphere or Target Audience
Depending upon which CRM or email management software system you use (i.e. Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Hubspot, BoomTown, Salesforce, etc.), the steps for designing and deploying your email may vary.
The important part is to remember that email marketing is still an incredibly effective tool in real estate to remain top-of-mind amongst your clients, nurture prospective leads through the sales cycle, drive traffic to your website, and deliver timely, relevant market data or blog content.
What's more impressive is that email marketing on average sees a 4300 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses when used efficiently and consistently.
PRO TIP #1: Before you send, ensure your audience lists are up to date and that your campaigns are mobile friendly. Also, make sure you are personalizing your email content based on their email preferences. Sending the right emails to the right mailing lists will increase your open rate and build trust with your audience.
PRO TIP #2: Remember that the quality of your email marketing campaigns always trump quantity. We do not recommend spamming your audience as this is not an effective strategy to convert or maintain existing clients. If you find you’re getting a bunch of people “unsubscribing,” have a look at your analytics and consider changing up the design/layout of your emails (yes, looks do matter when it comes to email marketing) or dialing back the amount of times you’re sending out your campaigns.
That’s a Wrap
And there you have it my friends. Five different ways to multipurpose your real estate listing videos. We know that this was a LOT of information - so if you’ve made it this far, BRAVO! We sincerely hope you’ve found this information useful. If so, please let us know in the comments below. We’d love to know if you try any of these steps with your videos.
Conversely, if you’re feeling completely overwhelmed after reading all of this, and would be interested in having our team take on these marketing tasks for you, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email at hello@onyx-communications.com or book a 15-minute discovery call.
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