Creating and sharing new content to drive people to your website is important for any business, but it can be a huge hassle, especially for busy title and real estate professionals. I’m sure you’ve heard how important it is to add a video to your marketing mix. It sounds like a lot of work, but don’t panic! There are some easy things you can do to get started, especially if you already have some content like blogs, PowerPoint presentations, or other content.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you hit the record button. In fact, you can repurpose what you already have to engage your audience with video, which is good since, according to Forbes, about 70% of B2B decision makers watch a video at some time during the buying process while for consumer-based traffic, video is expected to account for about 80% of the share in 2019. If you want to expand your client base and close more deals, you need to be doing video. Here are some tips to get started.
Things to keep in mind before you get started in video marketing:
- Video marketing doesn’t have to be a huge investment
- Stories stand out, not sales pitches
- Be helpful and educational
- Understand who your audience is and the goal of your video
- Good lighting is key, and there are lots of lighting options for a small budget
- Have fun
Start with what you already have
There are lots of ways a title or real estate company can repurpose various types of content to improve their marketing efforts. Video is one of the best ways to reach any audience. Whether you do your own marketing or work with a company that tailors and executes a marketing strategy for you, video should be an essential and growing element. According to a study from Business Insider, video advertising will account for 41% of total desktop display-related spending in 2020 in the United States.
Writing a script can feel overwhelming at first. I know first hand how getting started can be the biggest roadblock to overcome, but you may not have to start from scratch. If you have a blog on your website, review which ones have performed well and consider turning them into a video. Here’s an example of how I turned content from a blog about the Florida estoppel law into a simple spark video. Adobe Spark is a great option if you don’t want to be on camera. It’s easy to upload stock photos or upload your own graphics and videos to create a simple explainer video. Just remember that if your aim is to grab attention and make a connection with your audience, there’s no replacement for putting a face in your video.
If you don’t mind being the star of the film, just get out your mobile phone and record. When you’re done, you can use an editing app like Splice, Adobe Premiere Clip, or Vizmato. They give you the capability to edit, add music, filters, texts, and other effects to your video right on your phone.
Promote your video through different channels
How do you decide where to post?
Once you’ve recorded the video, what do you do with it? Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and the list of social channels seems to grow every day, but they all aren’t worth your time.
Remember your goal. If you want to reach more people with an educational video that answers a commonly asked question, YouTube is best for searchability, especially if you are answering a question where little or no video content already exists. Posting videos natively to Facebook and LinkedIn is a good strategy to build your fan base for your company page and get shares and likes. Videos constantly perform well when you are looking to boost engagement.
Even a quick, 30-second clip of something fun happening in your office is more likely to garner more reach and attention than a news article or photo.
However, if your goal is to drive a potential client to your site and entice them into engaging with more of your content, you’ll want to post directly to your website then promote that page on your social media profiles.
If you have the time and are interested in testing out what channels work best to reach your audience, you can try posting videos to each site for a few months to determine if one provides more traffic than another. But chances are blindly posting to every platform without evaluating your success isn’t going to improve your results.
Share your video on your company page and your individual profiles
When sharing a video on LinkedIn and Facebook, you’ll find that sharing it as an individual will often give you more reach than through your company page. This is because LinkedIn and Facebook have algorithms to favor content shared by a person over companies. They are trying to serve their users relevant information so they remain engaged on the platform.
In order to get as much reach as possible, be sure to share your company posts on your individual profile. You might also want to consider joining professional groups on LinkedIn and Facebook that would be interested in your educational content as well. Additionally, if you have the time or resources to manage it, creating your own community group and sharing content there is a great way to spark conversations with potential clients.
You don’t have to be live to go live on Facebook
According to Facebook, the average user watches a live video more than three times longer when it’s live. People are also more likely to comment on a live video than another type. So, obviously going live has its perks, but did you know that you don’t have to be live to use the go-live function?
If you are brave enough to press the live button and just go for it, there are some best practices to remember:
- Ensure you have a strong WiFi or 4G connection
- Write an eye-catching description of the video
- Broadcast for at least 10 minutes
- Use sign off with a good closing line to signal the broadcast’s end
- Remember the other tips above, especially what your goal of the live broadcast is
Some content ideas for going live include “hot topics” in the industry, Q&A’s, breaking news, interviews with an industry authority, company events, behind-the-scenes, and demonstrations.
But if you want to experiment with live video without the stress of a live recording, there are a few tools that can stream pre-recorded video as if it were live. Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is the only free option for video marketing at the moment. The only drawback is that you will need to end the live stream manually. You can find out how to setup OBS to live stream to Facebook in this article. The initial set up is a little clunky and you may have to try a few times before you get the process down, but this is the best free solution for title and real estate marketers looking to live stream pre-recorded videos to Facebook.
