Rethinking Real Estate Video Marketing Strategy
by ph0t0 {condemns content filters}
In conversations I’ve had recently around the launch InmanTV, I’ve been thinking a lot about the future of video on the Internet and how it relates to real estate. Particularly around video search and how that affects what your presence online and how you should a syndication strategy - that is, to make sure your videos are seen by the widest audience reach.
So just out of curiosity, I thought I’d explore Google’s video search function with a simple search for “portland real estate“
Right out the gates, Google tells me it’s indexing videos from YouTube, Yahoo, Metacafe, IFILM, Revver and Dailymotion - so in terms of syndication, all of these hosting providers should be on your radar. You’ll want to maximize your chances of being picked up in the search index by getting your videos to at least one of those providers.
One thing is clear however, looking at the Google search results. Video search is fairly primitive right now. It is still largely dependent on key words or tags provided by the producer - it reminded me a bit of the way the text based search used to operate (remember all the emphasis on keywords in metatags on HTML pages?). Obviously, the next step is to index the content itself for relevancy, but this is much much more difficult; though some companies like Blinkx are seeing some decent results using speech-to-text technology and media analysis on closed captioning data, for example.
In any case, what was particularly interesting in this exercise were the results that Google returned. And this got me thinking on what kind of content a Realtor should be creating.
The top results is a quick video profile of a local real estate team.
A fairly standard video - it didn’t blow me away creatively, but it was short and to the point. If I were a buyer, I’d probably consider giving them a call just to feel them out. (I wonder if they’ve been able to track any new business as a result of this video advertisement?)
There were also the fairly standard home tours. Not really my thing, but I guess some people dig ‘em.
Big problem here - there’s no context. Is this house still for sale, for example?
(Also, I still think if I want to watch a video tour, I want a proper video tour… If you’re just going to give me static pictures strung together, I can click through a photo gallery myself thank you very much - and not have to suffer through your bad music and cheesy narration.)
Lower down, I stumbled on a video market report. The Portland Report is produced by a local Realtor and mortgage loan officer, which seems like a pretty good pairing.
Too bad this particular production was marred by some cornball shots in the opening montage and really bad audio quality - but their later videos are far better. Their more recent on-location update was much more entertaining; the person-on-the-street approach really works for this format.
This concept is perhaps the most interesting to pursue further. Delivering a monthly or quarterly video report on the local market is a smart way to provide valuable information to the community. Much more so than a stuffy advertisement, a video market report actually demonstrates your expertise and personality (much like a blog does in written form really).
For most, searching video is certainly a fringe activity right now; so, as far as a web marketing strategy, Realtors should probably still focus on building their profile in the text-based search results. But with high ranking organic results becoming harder and harder to come by and with video fast becoming one of the most popular activities on the Web - it could be worth experimenting with building your video profile and locking down a great position in the video search results too.
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15 Comment(s)
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Tony | Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
“And this got me thinking on what kind of content a Realtor should be creating.”
We have a good mix of property videos and informative videos on our site. Our data based on about 60,000 to 70,000 real estate videos viewed per month on http://vidlisting.com and associated sites shows that property videos are on average watched more than 3:1 when comparing the top 35% property videos and the top 35% informative videos on our site. This ratio not only holds true across the three languages in which we release videos (English, spanish, and Portuguese) but also when comparing US visitors and non-US visitors. Note that this ratio is only for our site and not counting videos watched when our real estate video infrastructure is extended to other sites which would make the ratio even higher.
Just another datapoint…
Tony
Fred Light | Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
I upload property videos to about 12 sites right now, and I can pretty much GUARANTEE that the video (usually along with a link back to the agent’s website) will be on the first page of Google in about 2 days. I just checked my town “Nashua New Hampshire real estate” on Google and I have TEN video entries in the top 50 in Google for that search term - a couple were filmed just 3 days ago. Many times I have occupied up to 3 or 4 entries in the top ten for the #1 search phrase for real estate.
It’s all about the property subjects, keywords and tagging - just like everything else on the net.
A helpful site is http://www.tubemogul.com, which not only tracks your views on these various portals, it will also automatically upload to a half doze of them with one upload (which is nice when you’re uploading 50MB files to 12 different video sites!)
Vernon | Jul 25, 2007 | Reply
Tony and Fred thanks for those links. Good vid sites
derherold | Jul 26, 2007 | Reply
Again - great article concerning real estate video !!
My opinion: it will be decisive to use high quality videos. Low-level videos are able to “destroy” my prospects.
Nick Krautter | Jul 26, 2007 | Reply
Joel:
Thanks for the comments on the Portland Report and for linking our videos. James and I are refining our approach and content with the Report and originally came up with about 20 production styles for the show. So far we’ve been able to use about three [behind the desk, on the street interview, and voice over]. James comes from a TV production and I come from a music business background. We are also trying to address in this format things we’re hearing from our clients, and see them as a microcosm to the greater publics concerns. The hardest part is keeping the show short! We try to hit 3-4 minutes but haven’t done it just yet.
Albuquerque realtor | Jul 26, 2007 | Reply
Very interesting article. I will have to keep this in mind (using videos for marketing). Thanks!
Freelin | Jul 27, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the interesting article, Joel. You are right on point regarding the still-to-video tours that some people are putting out. Why in the world would I want to download thirty images per second when a still photo provides all of the same information the “video� does? These are obviously being marketed to agents who want to offer something above and beyond, but who are not aware of the alternatives yet (or who cringe at the thought of spending more than $79).
John Bracken | Jul 29, 2007 | Reply
the problem with speech to text search (like Blinkx, Everyzing — which I think does a much better job than Blinkx and actually lets you see the text after they convert it) is that it only searches what people say.
unless you say in the video: this is a real estate search, for X location, for a house for sale at this period of time, at this address, etc., you lose out on the value.
the problem is most people don’t do that. they put the address and location, the context, in other words, somewhere else.
tags are still key to getting context in search. Blinkx and Everyzing also don’t do any relevance ranking, and Google uses pagerank, which means people have to link to your video before it goes higher.
all these search systems will have to rethink their search for real estate scenarios, or this isn’t going to work well. but we can do more to make it work better.
there are other search systems like Dabble and Searchvideo.com/Truveo which do do relevance, and have a better ability to take social information and do something with it.
Real Estate Blogger | Aug 1, 2007 | Reply
I couldn’t agree more about the static YouTube vid. These can be awesome tools if used correctly. Of course the best use not only involves creative and appealing production but also sharing and spreading the video in innovative ways.
NancyD | Aug 13, 2007 | Reply
Like Fred Light, I, too, am having phenomenal success with video marketing (in Northern California). Within 18-48 hours, my videos are skyrocketing to PAGE 1 of Google for nearly every keyword search term imaginable. I sometimes “own” 5-6 of the Top 10 spots on PAGE 1! My Realtor clients are very pleased, and I am ecstatic! I’m sold on video marketing!
John Schroeder | Aug 18, 2007 | Reply
Thank you Fred for your comment on your using of http://www.tubemogul.com
I tried it the other day and really like it. It makes it very easy to upload your video to multiple sites.
Does anyone (Fred) know how to edit the tags on a Google Video? It is fairly easy on all of the other sites that Tube Mogul uploads to but for some reason I can’t figure it out on Google.
Carson - Real Estate Remix | Aug 19, 2007 | Reply
Wow - that portland report intro is funny… Good to see people who can poke a little fun at themselves. My only hope is that they were really kidding.
Spanish Property | Aug 22, 2007 | Reply
Its good strategy to use real estate video for marketing but is it really neccessary to upload video to enhence the site position in Google rating.
Christopher Walkey | Sep 13, 2007 | Reply
http://www.OneStopView.com gives everybody who knows how to film and upload a video of their property onto their computer the chance to market it for Free.
100% Free to use, no fees or commissions, http://www.OneStopView.com is a worldwide property marketing platform dedicated to property using video footage to aid marketing.
They also deal with rentals, land sales and commercial.
Visit the website at http://www.OneStopView.com to view property already listed with us and register your free account. Video uploading is simple and straight forward and best of all its all a totally free service.
Regards,
Christopher Walkey.
Charleston Video | Feb 3, 2008 | Reply
My strategy is to create a video site that could be used for travel and real estate. I have created videos for each of the different areas in Charleston, SC. My hope is that people will link to the travel/real estate site because it is not seen as completely “Real Estate” oriented but could be used for tourism as well. I also link out to some real estate sites like http://www.LoCountry.com, http://www.CharlestonAddress.com and a tour company as well.
This site is in it infancy and the design is very basic, but that can be changed over time. It is already ranking well in Google for the “Charleston Video” and “Charleston Real Estate Video” terms.