06 Jan
I was just reading an about.com article stressing the need for video on real estate websites. I have always been a believer in using video to showcase real estate but I have yet to touch on the topic here on Idea Views. As we begin to formulate our 2010 marketing plans, I hope you will include video in your marketing budgets.
Bottom Line: Video Is King
For starters, video allows you to show a broader picture of your property. Still images can be beautiful and useful, but video will give potential buyers a better look at your product. Adding narration to your videos can make all the difference to buyers. The audio gives you a chance to explain what the viewers are seeing.
Besides the obvious benefits of product display, Internet video is highly rewarded in search engines. Google places a great emphasis in video results compared to photos or text. A video displaying your property will be more searchable than its photos. Google treats videos in this manner because of demand. Internet users desire video over images. The astounding growth of YouTube since its launch is proof of this. This is why Google purchased YouTube. In 2009 we saw a considerable boom in internet video viewing on a worldwide scale. Below are some points taken from a Masternewsmedia.org article.
- In Q3 time spent watching online video in the U.S. grew up 34.9 percent, according to the latest Three Screen Report from Nielsen.
- n April 2009, comScore reports that U.S. viewers watched over 16.8 billion videos online.
It is also important to note that YouTube is the second most commonly used search engine on the Internet. (The first being Google)
I would highly recommend that you not only place property videos on your website, but also on YouTube and other video sharing networks. Posting videos to YouTube is easy and very useful. You can even take posted videos from YouTube and embed them right onto your website. I would actually recommend doing this instead of having your own video player. Using YouTube will inevitably increase traffic to your website.
The numbers don’t lie. Consumers want to see video. Businesses everywhere are using YouTube to sell their products. Are you? Do your competitors have an edge because they are catering to their consumer’s desire for video?
I would suggest breaking videos into small clips and not just posting one long video. The more specific the better. Nobody will watch a 10 minute video on YouTube. Make a video for each aspect of your property. For example, give the amenities its own video.
Also, what other kinds of videos could be posted besides property listings? What about community events? Let me know what you think.