With social media becoming more prevalent in digital marketing, people are turning to video to find new ways to drive clients to their sites. A clear cover video for your social networks or website is an easy (and highly effective) way to introduce yourself to new clients. Here are 3 things you need to know to make the perfect real estate video.
Tell a story
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of how to make the perfect video, you need to know the story you want to tell clients. Telling a story not only helps drive a strong emotional appeal to first-time watchers but will help you drive your visitors to your call to action. Real estate agents have a perfect opportunity to sell themselves with all the people and homes that they sell.
Sit down and write short stories of the clients you have worked with, and how you have helped them and why you love helping people find the perfect home. For example, you could tell a story about how you were able to help an expecting couple find the perfect home with the nursery, or how you searched high and low for the perfect backyard for the couple that fosters dogs. Once you have the perfect story you can work on creating and choosing the best images and video clips to feature.
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Images and video
Choosing the right images or clips to include in your real estate cover video can be hard since there are so many opportunities that you can include. However, here are some must-have image and video clips to include:
- You: There’s a reason why real estate agents include their headshots in advertisements—people are more willing to trust someone they can see. However, first impressions are everything, so be sure that you look presentable and approachable.
- Working with clients: Clients want someone to help them through the difficult and complex process of real estate transactions. Showing that you are easy to work with and that past clients enjoy working with you is a great way to demonstrate that you are friendly and competent.
- Images of sold homes or signing days: According to Loren Howard of Prime Plus Mortgages, “Before and after photos, just sold and just listed photos are the top performing images that real estate agents share. The reason why these images do so well is they sell the dream. It’s showing how you can live in a house, sell your home quickly, and achieve that dream of buying your first home.” Just be sure that you have the homeowners’ consent.
- Behind the scenes: This could be you working in your office, meeting with clients, or interacting with the community.
Even if you are a bit camera shy, at the end of the day, the purpose of a cover video is to show clients why they should work with you.
Optimizing Your Video
Now that you have the perfect story and images for your cover video, it’s time to optimize your video. Having your video at the right pixel size and length of time for your site and social media will help not only more people see it, but also lead to higher conversions.
For Facebook cover videos your videos should be 820 x 462 pixels, with a standard 16:9 aspect ratio. This will change for mobile viewers, and about 25 percent of a video will be cropped out of frame, That’s because only 312 pixels show up on the desktop viewer. Depending on the software you use for your video you can make multiple versions of a video for different devices to easily combat this issue.
Your video length should fall anywhere between 20-60 seconds. Depending on the story, if you have a shorter story, but want to maximize your video, you can loop your video, or add additional clips or images.
Last but not least, publish your video by uploading it to your personal and professional social media pages and encourage your friends and family to share it. Social media can be a powerful tool for real estate agents to use to make the most of their network, so if you have a great video you are proud of, make sure to share it.
Summary:
- Video is a great way to grow your business and drive new customers to your site.
- Share stories of how you have found the perfect homes for clients, or even helped someone sell a home easily.
- Choose images of you working with clients to demonstrate that you are easy to work with.
- Make perfect-sized videos for your website, social channels and proper lengths.
About the Author: Catherine Way is a content marketer for business, mortgage, and real estate industries. She has written real estate articles for Prime Plus Mortgages, The Paper Source, Active Rain, and Progressing Income. She currently writes and reports for Prime Plus Mortgages. Find out more about Catherine here.
