Video Is Important - What Are Your Doing?:
I've written about video, and particularly the marketing exposure on YouTube and similar, though less popular, sites. I also believe that the days of the panoramic virtual tour are waning. They made me dizzy anyway. Video is one of the best ways to take a virtual buyer through a property.When we place videos on sites like YouTube, we gain exposure back to our sites as well. There are those who would tell you that the video tour must be Hollywood quality, but I disagree. They should be well done, but you can do them yourself with the right tools.
Use Equipment That Works For You - Or You Won't Get It Done:
I've written a bit about the Flip Camcorder, and there is a new competitor at a lower price, the Vado Compare Prices on Vado. Though they work best on a tiny tripod for interviews of your sellers, they can do a virtual tour easily as well.Whatever equipment you use, it should be easy enough so that you aren't discouraged from doing the videos. Quality is important, but it isn't always tied to cost. I stopped using a $400 full-featured camcorder and switched to the Flip for convenience, and I'm making more area videos.
How About Convenience and Time Savings in Uploading Videos?:
I wanted to place my videos on YouTube, Google Video, Yahoo's new video site, and MetaCafe.com. However, I usually just placed then on YouTube due to the time and effort involved to post to four sites.Then I found TubeMogul.com. I can upload my video once, enter the details and descriptions, and have it automatically placed on all four of those sites. So, now I'm marketing my clients' listings on four major video sites with one submission.
Taking Your Videos Viral:
Tubemogul has a feature where you can promote your video on the social and bookmarking sites as well. It's convenient to click on the site icons and do a quick description touting the video.I've found that I can do a complete video submission, upload and promotion in a half hour or so. That gets it on all four sites. There are other sites that Tubemogul will upload to, but I am still checking to see if they're appropriate for real estate exposure. They also state that more are coming.
Client Reporting - Letting Them See You At Work:
We all know that we can be a super marketer, but we need to let our clients know on a regular basis just what we're doing for them. Tubemogul tracks your video views across all the sites where they've been placed. You can select a graph of views for any time period and have it sent to the client via email.Actually, they get a link, and they are able to check it from then on at their convenience. They'll see that you are marketing their home via video in multiple places around the Web. This is differentiation at its best.
For Most Real Estate Agents This Will Be a Free Service:
Tubemogul allows 150 "deployments" in their free account. A deployment is one video distributed to one site. So, one video distributed to five sites would be five deployments. This should work for most of us. If you have so many listings that it isn't enough, they have paid plans to accommodate you.Video Is Not Going Away - Use It To Differentiate and Market Your Listings:
Video views on the Web are growing exponentially. With cell phones and cell plans moving to mobile web browsing inexpensively, YouTube has instituted mobile video viewing as well. Video is here to stay. If you're not doing video tours of your listings, you're in the vast majority, but don't rest there.Differentiate yourself at the next listing presentation by showing your prospect how you'll have videos of their home on multiple sites in a very short time. Show them how they can monitor the video views as well. You'll have a distinct advantage competitively with these marketing tools.
Once you get into the video habit, you'll probably want to do more of them about your area, what to do, where to go, and events of interest. It's easy to do, and every video that you place on the Internet is a link back to your site. You just may be surprised by a buyer who calls you because they saw your video of the local parks and appreciated it.
