For the 401st episode of Mail-Right Show, Robert Newnan and Jonathan Denwood explore how to get real estate leads using YouTube in 2023. Robert Newman has worked in the real estate SEO business for over a decade. He is the CEO of Inbound REM, an inbound marketing firm. Meanwhile, Jonathan Denwood is the joint founder and CEO of Mail-Right, which provides WordPress websites with CRM, IDX, and lead generation platforms, all combined at a reasonable price. This episode explains the relevance of YouTube in real estate, what you should talk about when speaking to buyers or sellers, what a niche could theoretically be, and how to do different videos that have historically been proven to produce much business.
Technology is a tool to get you in front of possible clients, but it is still a person-to-person business. Technology in real estate is there so you can have conversations. However, you must make a difference in how you’re driving people. People signing up on forms is less rare, and the only exception to the less rare is when you’ve done a video to make somebody feel like they know you. And in those rare cases where real estate agents are doing traditional marketing methods, like driving people to a site.
Advantage of Video In Digital Marketing
If you want to make money in digital marketing, consider using videos as part of your strategy. About 80% of internet usage in 2022 is video. Technically, much of it comes from Instagram reels, Facebook reels, and YouTube, and there are many different ways that video is transmitted on many other platforms.
But why is video powerful? Because most of us are learners of it. We have a way of learning or a way of processing information. Some of us are visual, some of us are auditory, some of us are kinesthetic, and video is a combination of all these three. So when we pass a message along through video, people are also passing along the greatest variety of information simultaneously that somebody can absorb. That is why video is such a powerful marketing tool. The reason it’s also so powerful inside the real estate space is because realtors realize the value of video in their marketing efforts and a medium they can use effectively.
When you want to learn about a house, you often start by searching on the internet. Most people first visit the “Search Portal,” which has many property listings, and you can find them on many websites. On the other hand, videos that show the lifestyle of an area are unique, as they give a real sense of what it’s like to live in a particular place. These videos aren’t something you can easily find all over the internet. Unless you live in an area with thousands of real estate agents making similar videos.
Video is also vital because voice search is 20 % of searches now. Suppose you have audio files, which include video. In that case, you can have people automatically start to listen to you with some voice searches that are coming up. So, somebody can listen to you in their car, all without ever actually watching anything. And if you don’t have anything with their audio files, such as a video on your site. In that case, you are losing out on a bleeding-edge opportunity.
If you want to be found on Google, if you’re doing paid advertising, add a video to it, and Google will show your advertisement to more people. If you want to do organic SEO with Inbound REM, they will tell you that if you can add video to the content, it will rank much higher. If you do Facebook advertising and add videos, the advertisement will be shown more. If you are doing an organic Facebook social media or Instagram, paid or non-paid, and add a video to your marketing, your digital marketing will do a lot better.
Find Who You Want To Speak To: “Buyers Or Sellers?”
Do you have a content map in mind when you start or working on your channel, when you have a playlist on your channel, or wherever you post your video? Map content should be the first thing you must think about when you are trying to appeal to buyers and sellers. If you don’t get this first sorted out, then you are going to be all over the place, and you need some strategy or focus map.
When talking about video content, buyers are looking at the lifestyle, relocation information, and cost of living. Inside the Google search insight function, where you see search trends, the cost-of-living searches are up to 40%. As the economy and market have changed, inflation happened; thus, what used to be a relatively low-volume keyword quickly became medium to high volume. Cost of living is one of the primary subjects that everybody is interested in, and you could do videos about it, the changes you have noticed, both good and bad, pros and cons. Affordability is not something to hide from people, and you need to pay attention to it now. Think about it: you walk into a house that costs $375,000, and a decade later, it’s on the market for $880,000 to $900,000 – almost triple the initial price. But here’s the catch: your income might not have tripled in the same timeframe.
Regarding sellers, you will talk about buying a new home. The most common concern sellers have is how to buy another home after selling their current one. They often wonder if they can purchase a new home outright with cash. However, it’s not a wise move, even when interest rates are high. It is crucial to have a comprehensive financial discussion to make informed decisions, and if you need clarification, you should seek advice from experts like mortgage brokers, bankers, or financial planners. They will explain that, even with high-interest rates, it’s better to secure a loan when buying a new property. But if you want to get people off the bench and sell their homes, you’ll dive deep into this subject.
Overall, the content that you produce from the buyers’ or sellers’ side needs to be quite different. Suppose you focus on both buyer’s and seller’s markets. In that case, you have to understand that some of the top case studies over the years focused only on one, and they’re doing one video a day focused on one subject.
Find A Niche
As a real estate agent, you are not going to find a niche straight away in your career. However, for a year or two and you are already generating any production or have enough clients, then you should find what’s your best niche and what’s best for your clients. Is it an area? A type of property or a type of client? There are many different niches you can choose from. And once you pick a niche, learn about it.
Niche should be specific to make somebody comfortable with your credibility and time inside, like selling homes. For example, a real estate agent specializes in ranch homes. However, it is not just a ranch home, but a ranch home to raise Appaloosa specifically. Diane Williams in Palm Springs also has a dual niche — golf course homes and country clubs — where she made millions of dollars.
These people who dare to define a niche or expertise always make far more money than people who don’t.
Online Location or Talking Head?
Regarding video format, think about what videos you will produce. Are you going to drive around in your car to discuss your content or sit at the desk at your home? Once you decide what type of video format you want to do, stick with that, and make sure that you have sound so that people can hear your message. Doing a location video is much easier because you may choose not to get a video editor and can use your phone. You can do tours, which are prevalent videos and one of the simplest things to start doing.
Regardless of what video you will do, try to do a reasonably good job at video production, where it will make people stay tuned in the content’s message to create a connection and leads.
Equipment & Services
How do you shoot your content, and what equipment do you have with you when you are creating a video? The type of video you will produce will end up being part of what you have on hand in terms of your equipment. When you are creating a video, the things you should consider are camera, audio, and lighting, especially if you are targeting a more professional audience to avoid damage to your views.
Sound is very important to consider. People will put up with out-of-focus videos but not on lousy audio. If the sound on your content is bad, like a background wind, there’s a high chance of people dropping out watching the video. Consider buying a noise-canceling microphone, especially if your market is an oceanside location.
You can try surrounding yourself with light when recording for better video quality. Lighting will cost around $300 or cheaper than that.
When it comes to the camera, you can use your phone. The new iPhones have cameras that give depth in the field, which is helpful, especially if you are doing tours. If you have the budget and have a camera already, you can buy a lens for a depth of field. At some point, getting an editor will also help you, but you don’t have to do it straight away.
Sometimes, you don’t need expensive equipment; you can use a $30 Logitech camera or just your phone to shoot different types of content. What’s more important is how you pass along the message through the video. If you feel like an expert in the category, the message is more important than the production or equipment. But, if your brand has a lot of pixel-perfect representations to it, which many luxury agents are connected to. You should use a better camera, a nicer microphone, and a green screen. If you have more budget, you can invest in reorganizing your room into a studio.
Video Speed-Up Technique For Reels
Eric Cervantes is a brilliant 19-year-old who does Instagram Reels for one of Robert Newnan’s clients. Eric created 60-second videos that led to an impressive 21 transactions and earned them $195,000, all while being just 19 years old—the secret lies in their speedy approach and applied techniques inspired by video games. In gaming videos on YouTube, when you watch someone play a video game, they speed up the parts that aren’t very exciting, which keeps the attention of gamers who might have a short attention span. Someone also does the same and goes by the name alexcer21 on Instagram. He fasts forward through the uninteresting parts and starts at the driveway of a property, walks around the yard, and goes inside through the front or back door. He then shares the price and location of the property on Instagram, along with some additional information in the description. It’s like a quick and to-the-point tour of the property for those who want to avoid sitting through a long video.
