Use video marketing to build brand awareness, trust, and loyalty for your commercial real estate business, whilst adding fuel to your other marketing techniques.
By James Maile || October 26, 2022
The Importance of Video Marketing for Commercial Real Estate
In the current social media landscape, CRE brands need to have a video marketing strategy. This is nothing new, but what has changed is the importance of video.
Since the explosion of TikTok, short-form video content is being peddled and pushed by all social platforms attempting to replicate their success. We have seen the introduction of Meta’s Reels and YouTube’s Shorts which function very similarly to TikTok’s 15-second videos.
Social media algorithms are prioritizing short video content because they keep audiences engaged and entertained, increasing the average time spent on their platforms.
The change has been a pain in the neck for most users, especially those in CRE, who are used to uploading static images as their standard form of content. But there is a silver lining for those that adapt.
These new algorithms are rewarding short-form video creators by pushing the content to new audiences, widening the reach of organic posts without having to spend a dime.
Along with a larger reach, it helps increase engagement, accessibility, and overall brand awareness. It’s a no-brainer.
Although making video content is getting easier, knowing where to start and how to create the content can be incredibly daunting.
But don’t fear, ATYPICAL is here to help.
The ATYPICAL Guide to Creating Video Content
1. “Stop Thinking, Let Things Happen, and Be the Content” – Dylan Joubert, Caddyshack (1980).
If you are nervous to get in front of the camera and film yourself, take this advice from the ATYPICAL Stratman Dylan (A.K.A. Ty Webb): Remember that YOU ARE THE CONTENT.
Get someone to film what you naturally do in CRE. This could be someone filming you doing a walkthrough of a property as if the camera is a potential tenant, highlighting the key points of a blog you just wrote, or simply talking about interesting facts about your area of CRE expertise.
Restaurant Real Estate Guru Kyle Inserra explains this perfectly:
What we love about this video is that Kyle has done exactly what he is explaining you should do. He has someone put the camera on him, clipped the 7-10 seconds of useful information, edited out anything he doesn’t want you to see, and added some text.
2. Any content Is Better Than No Content
Don’t worry if your content isn’t as good as an influencer’s. If you’re starting to make content, you’re still learning and by consistently putting in the effort, you’ll only get better. Everyone starts somewhere.
You’re never going to win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket - the same goes for content. If you don’t make content, no one will ever see it, and you’ll never know what could have happened. Also, you have a far better chance of getting 10,000 views on your short-form video than you do of winning the lottery.
The legendary Beth Azor is a notable example of this in the CRE space:
Beth doesn’t fit the demographics of your average social media user, but she puts in the effort and ends up making amazing content that resonates with the audience within her niche.
3. Use Captions!
All of the videos we have shown you use captions in their videos. For short videos like these, captions increase the accessibility of your content. It helps people stay engaged, and allows them to easily follow along with what you’re saying.
For longer videos like CREview's that you're publishing on YouTube, adding your own captions isn't always necessary.
You may be in a location where there is a lot of background noise, or the audio quality is just poor. Additionally, many users mute their videos when scrolling through social platforms so having captions will still allow them to take in what you have to say.
A great app that we use is the Captions App, it’s amazingly simple and automatically adds captions to your video.
4. Hook Your Audience in The First 3 Seconds
With shorter videos, comes short attention spans. Audiences that consume short-form videos are looking for quick bites of information and if you don’t hook them early, you’ll lose them.
Right off the bat, your video should have a quick hook to immediately grab a viewer’s attention. This could be with a stat, a hard-hitting fact, a question that you encounter often, etc. From there, you go into the topic.
Gennaro Realty just knocks the ball out of the park here:
Straight away, the video hits you with an interesting stat, then goes full sales mode. It’s short, effective, and gets amazing engagement.
5. Act As If You’re Having a Conversation
You don’t need to formulate complex scripts or come up with crazy creative writing, save that for your advertisements. Keep it simple and treat your video as if you are answering a question as straightforward as “what do you do?”
Audiences can pick up you are not being genuine and will ignore what you’re saying. After all, you are trying to build a relationship with your audience, so act as though you are talking to them.
Creating video content will only serve to benefit you! Use video marketing to boost your conversion and engagement rates, your SEO ranking, and your awareness.
If you could only take one thing away from this blog and the value of video marketing, then it would be this:
Don’t forget to have a peek at our recent CREview episode on “Getting in front of the camera in CRE” for a firsthand example of how it’s done! Don’t forget to like, subscribe, ring the bell icon, and all that jazz.
Until next time,
Stay ATYPICAL 😉