4 Ways to Use Video Creatively for Business

Today I’m giving a talk in Malibu titled Video for REALTORS®: how real estate agents can effectively use video to market their business. I’m joined by the smarty Laurie March (Chief Designer at Improvemental.com) and the talented Jerel Taylor (with American Trust Escrow).

In preparing for this presentation, I scoured the web for good examples of how REALTORS® are using video to creatively market their businesses on the web. You’d be surprised what you can produce with a little bit of creativity, patience and a modestly priced camera like a Flip UltraHD Camcorder (affiliate link) or a Kodak Zi8 (affiliate link); priced at $140 and $100 respectively.

Why Video is Relevant and Effective:

Simply put, video accelerates the know, like and trust factor. People can hear the nuances and tone in your voice. They can see the expressions in your face and they can familiarize themselves with you a whole lot faster. They remember a whole lot more of what they see and once it’s published on the web, it’s available 24/7 for a web audience to see (how’s that for round-the-clock marketing).

Some Statistics:

The growth of online video and consumption of video content are reason enough for small business and real estate professionals to consider the opportunity. Did you know:

• 32,410,866,000 videos were viewed online for the month of January alone. That’s a lot of video consumption!
• An estimated 76% of the U.S. internet audience watched a video in the month of January.
• A video result is 50x more likely to appear on page one of Google search results for a search query than a web page for that same query.

4 Creative Ways to Use Video for Business:

1. Do a video tour of the neighborhoods you cover.

Kevin Levy, a Portland Real Estate Agent does this well with his 1 Block Tour segments. Something he describes as follows:

2. Produce a series of video educating buyers/sellers on different aspects of the buying/selling process.

Walter Burns with Weichert Realtors does this well with his Hoboken Condos video series. Taking this approach, consider what you can talk about:

• Getting Pre-Approved for a Loan,
• Pricing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them,
• The Home Inspection Process,
• Negotiating An Offer, etc.

What might seem like common-sense to you, might be confusing to a buyer/seller because it’s not terminology that they’re familiar with. It’s your job to educate them on the process so that they feel confident in their decisions. So sit down, and write out a list of various talking points, then put them together into a series of videos that you can publish over time.

Here’s a GREAT video from REALTOR® Ted Mackel where he explains the 2010 Borrower’s Good Faith Estimate for Simi-Valley home-buyers:

3. Do a video tour of a property (and build it into a series).

That’s what Broker Associate Irina Netchaev and Laurie March (Chief Designer) did with their Foreclosure Friday series. Watch the video and look at how they creatively tackled previewing the property, making design recommendations and displaying it all ever-so elegantly on the web. All through the use of a flip-cam and some basic editing skills on iMovie (mac).

4. Get creative and have some fun with it: <insert Mojito 411>

Ines Hegedus-Garcia, REALTOR® extraordinaire in Miami did something really clever, she captured something as simple as having a drink and turned it into content that’s been viewed and shared world-wide. It’s her Mojito 411 series. David Meerman Scott, author of “World Wide Rave” (affiliate link) would be proud.

You don’t have to stick to just reviewing cocktails. You can do restaurant reviews, business reviews and so much more! The trick is to have fun with it while you’re at it…

Over To You:

How are YOU using video to creatively market your business on the web? What kind of equipment are you using (to record and edit your content)? If you’ve been at this for a while, what would you recommend to the novice vlogger?

PHOTO CREDIT: kochtopf