Optimizing your Videos
Maybe you’ve already made a few fun and informative videos true to your personality and your real estate business. You’ve posted them on YouTube but haven’t gotten any views for weeks. You understand the appeal of video marketing for real estate agents, but you are unsure of what to do to make the videos work for your business. It’s great to do live Facebook streams and create videos for YouTube, but what if there were steps you could take to get more eyeballs on your videos AND more YouTube subscribers and social media engagement so you can grow your e-list and close more deals and sales? In this episode, I give tips on how to film effective videos and optimize them for YouTube. I am also excited to share my favorite tools to make it all easy!
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How can commercial real estate video marketing help real estate investors?
Videos are an extraordinarily important marketing tool for real estate investors for attracting prospective customers through their unique personality and real estate know-how. Where else can your personality, sensibility, AND knowledge shine so brightly? Videos can be used as a seamless segue into introducing your viewers to what you and your business are really about. But videos hold much more power than that – they can include additional hooks to attract and engage even more viewers who are then more likely to choose your business. Videos can be scripted or spontaneously filmed, or they can be taken from Facebook and YouTube live streams and other similar platforms. YouTube is by far the most popular video platform and is essential in video marketing for realtors. If you are a Facebook live fan, you can use the Repurpose.io automation platform to publish your Facebook live videos directly to your YouTube channel.
What kind of videos should I create to grow my real estate business?
How you structure your videos can make or break your YouTube engagement, weakening your real estate video marketing strategy. To make an effective video, focus on the specific topic of the video right away – show your real estate chops first before you dive into who you are and what services you offer. Throughout your video, don’t be afraid to engage with your audience and ask your viewers to post questions and comments in the comment section of your videos. You can also ask them questions in your videos which they can answer in the comments. Some ideas for engaging phrases to use when filming are “what do you think about this idea…” or “what has your experience been with…” or “have you ever felt like this…tell your story in the comments below.”
Calls to action are another essential component of a well-made marketing video. Ideally, you would insert a call to action somewhere in the middle and at the end of your video. In the middle, you can prompt your viewers to click on a link on the screen to, for example, download your ebook, see another video you made, follow you on social media, or sign up for a complimentary strategy session. In your outro, you can say to the viewers, “if you found this helpful, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe to my channel” or “if you want to grow your business, click on the webinar link in the description where you can join our free webinar focusing on real estate video marketing tips and strategies” or “if you like my content, you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook below for more helpful information like this.”
Including graphics, music, sound effects, and other stylistic effects during the video editing process can give you even more power over how your potential customers will receive your business. One of my favorite phone video editing apps that you can use is InShot. If you are editing your video on your desktop, you can use video editing programs such as Windows Video Editor or Final Cut Pro that come with your computer or some of the free programs you can find online. My personal favorite is OpenShot Video Editor and Lightworks is also a wonderful option. After you have created and uploaded your video on YouTube, the next step is to optimize your video so it can be seen by as many potential customers as possible.
How do I optimize my video title and description to get more views, engagement, and opt-ins?
Once you upload your video to YouTube, there are a few more steps before your desired audience can find you. First, you will need to create a title that not only accurately describes the video topic but also uses tags (or keywords) that correspond to what your prospective customers would search for on YouTube. Appropriate tags will eventually help you rank higher in the search results once you get more views, engagement, and likes. You can research relevant and effective tags by using YouTube’s auto-suggestions (they appear when you type in keywords in the search engine) and a YouTube tag generator Rapidtags.io.
Once you have created a winning title, you can add a video description below the video. This description should include as much information about your video’s subject as possible and should cover all the key points. You don’t have to worry that you are giving too much away! This is your opportunity to include tags that you’ve previously researched. In addition to tags, YouTube allows you to add hashtags that you can use to categorize your video and to let YouTube know what your video is about. Using some of your important tags as hashtags is a good idea but you can also use hashtags that are brand-specific to you such as #smoothsailing or #realestatepro. There is another important part of your description, which I will delve into below, that will help others find and engage with you.
What is a description template and why should I use it?
You might be asking, how will my viewers move from YouTube to my website and social media platforms? The video description area is the perfect place to include your personal and business information. I call this part a description “template” because you can copy it from a saved file and paste it right below the video description for all your videos. The template saves a lot of your precious time and helps your viewers find your service details so you can get them right to your sales funnel. Some of the information you can include in the description template is your website url, social media channels, calls to action, links to free content and sign-up sheets, links to sponsors and collaborators, and much more.
Why video thumbnails matter and how do I create them?
A Thumbnail is a still image from your video used as the video’s a cover image on YouTube. Thumbnail images are generated automatically by YouTube, but you can also upload your own. I recommend that you create your own thumbnail to show off your brand colors and style and to grab the viewers’ attention with your unique presentation. You can create a unique thumbnail image by using TubeBuddy, a thumbnail generator that works within YouTube to extract video stills that you can choose from. Canva is also an excellent thumbnail tool since you can add text and other graphics to the still image. You don’t necessarily need to use an image generated from your video as your thumbnail – you can substitute it with a photo or an illustration of your choice.
Where can I post my videos beyond YouTube?
You can post your YouTube videos on many different platforms including your social media, blog posts, forums, and anywhere on your website including the landing page. On Instagram, you can post your videos through IGTV and you can easily share them on Facebook through YouTube. On many websites, there is a way to embed a YouTube video within your blog and many other places on your website. Don’t hesitate to include clips of your new videos on Instagram and Facebook Stories to get people excited about your new content.
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