YouTube Ads For Real Estate AND Local Marketing Boss

Google recognizes that videos are harder to create than just written content, so they weigh video differently when computing their web page rankings. Using this service ensures videos are seamlessly integrated and supported in their search results.

YouTube Ads For Real Estate AND Local Marketing Boss

Video has become one of the most powerful tools available to business owners. Video adds more dimension and personality to visual listings and your brand, and the Internet public is hooked on videos. Statistics don’t lie: Making videos is another great way to build your reputation online, share your professional perspective and increase your search rankings and leads. Because real estate listings with videos receive 403% more inquiries than those without videos

3 reasons YouTube is a great place to host your video content online:

Youtube is owned by Google, it’s the #2 search engine in the world, and
YouTube is extremely reliable for streaming (essential in today’s short-attention-span market).
Google recognizes that videos are harder to create than just written content, so they weigh video differently when computing their web page rankings. Using this service ensures videos are seamlessly integrated and supported in their search results.

In this article we will cover the following topics:

Contents

Real Estate Video Marketing Tips and Tricks: Optimizing Your YouTube Channel
Optimizing YouTube Videos for Local SEO
5 Real Estate Agents on Top of Their YouTube Marketing Game
Real Estate Video Marketing Tips and Tricks: Optimizing Your YouTube Channel

YouTube has seen many challengers in the online video market in recent years, but despite the competition, it remains the premier real estate video marketing platform — after all, 1 billion users can’t be wrong. You don’t want to reach all one billion viewers, however. Rather, you need to reach a select, targeted niche. That requires a real estate video marketing plan and detailed knowledge about how to optimize your YouTube channel. In this section we’ll cover both topics.

Design: Make your channel page look as good as your website.

The visual aspects of your brand should be reinforced anywhere you have an online presence. Your real estate YouTube channel is no different. Atop your channel’s homepage you’re allowed to add a banner and profile image, so create ones that feature your headshot, company name, contact info, and a stylish photo of one of your best listings. Here are four stellar designs expert agents (from top to bottom: Broderick and Burke Sales Representatives, Gabe Fitzhugh, Bob Burke, and Megan Shaw Williams) used for their YouTube channels.

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Company Details: Include all your agency information in the About section.

A great rule of thumb for your real estate marketing strategy: There’s no such thing as oversharing your company’s contact information. Never assume your audience knows where to find you on social media or even how to find your website. Provide links that allow them to easily locate you in the digiverse or contact you by email or phone — especially in your YouTube channel’s About section. Look at Shorewood Realtors’ about page to see a prime example of how to provide ample information for users and show them where you can be found online:

Content: Devise a real estate video marketing plan for the long term.

It’s important to have a long-term vision for what you want to achieve with your YouTube channel and be consistent with your production, video length, graphics, and value proposition. The best way to craft this plan is to first figure out what subject matter and angles will best inform your audience, then hone in on the intricacies of each type of video you plan to create:

How-to videos: Explanatory clips highlighting tasks every home buyer and seller needs to know about (e.g. securing a home loan, setting an asking price) can position you as a convenient resource.
Market updates: Buyers and sellers alike want to know if the market is likely to see growth in areas like home values and employment opportunities.
Interviews: Those with interesting stories, backgrounds, or knowledge (e.g. local restaurateurs and business owners) are ideal people to chat with on camera to highlight your local market.
Listing videos: This is probably the most common format in agents’ strategies for video marketing for real estate, but nonetheless very effective. Flaunt your listings in the best light possible (literally and figuratively).
Neighborhood overviews: Though not as common as listing videos, these recordings can get buyers to imagine what their lives would be like residing in your market. Highlight the best attributes of your community.

Don’t reinvent the wheel with your real estate videos. Look at what’s made other agents successful with their YouTube video marketing and examine how you can spin your own version of their clips for your channel. For instance, if you like the way in which a fellow agent explained what it’s like to live in their market — the neighborhoods, businesses, and restaurants there — write a script for your own video that does the same. Just be sure you use long-tail real estate keywords in your videos’ titles, tags, and descriptions so they’re discovered by home buyers and sellers in your market.

Titles: Create captivating headlines that get found and inspire clicks.

Just as you need to fashion SEO-friendly, witty, enticing real estate blog post titles, it’s imperative to craft headlines for YouTube videos that incorporate relevant keywords and makes users want to watch your clips. The good news is there’s really no difference in approach between writing titles for blog articles and titles for YouTube videos.

Head to Google AdWords’ Keyword Planner (or one of the countless other keyword research tools out there) to identify which terms are the most applicable to your videos and overall marketing strategy. Organize the keywords so you can distribute them across your video content, maximize your reach (since you’re taking advantage of multiple terms), and discern over time which words and phrases bring about the most clicks on your recordings.

Once you have a keyword list to work with, it’s time to get imaginative and develop titles for each video. Think of a few different options for each clip and select the one that both sounds natural when reading and is different from other videos on the topic. A great way to determine both of these things is to search for similar videos on YouTube and see what headlines have been used already.

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Should you implement a series of videos, think of a recurring title you can use and add in subtitles for each new episode. For instance, if you dispense tips on searching the market for the right home each week, you could call the series “Searching the [Town/City/County Name Here] Market with [Your Name Here].” Subtitles for each episode could simply be whatever you’d normally call the episode (e.g. a video in which you describe how to use search engines to find the right listings could be called “Google Your Way to a New Home”).

Calls to Action: Add Cards and Annotations throughout your real estate videos.

Annotations have been the core calls to action (CTA) marketers have added to their YouTube videos over the years. A new CTA type, however, is on the horizon. Cards were announced by the video platform in early 2015 and will eventually take the place of annotations as the primary mid-video marketing method brands can use. Whichever CTA you implement in your clips, remember the essential structure for promotional pop-ups: succinct copy that explains why you want viewers to click, and a link that brings viewers to the page they were promised.

This goes back to having a concrete real estate content marketing strategy to support your YouTube channel. Create website pages and blog posts that offer your audience ample value. Then, you’ll have plenty of places to send those who click your CTAs. This annotation used by California-based Mainstreet Realtors for its innovative Google Glass listing tour video is another avenue you could take: Keep viewers on your channel and checking out as many properties as possible:

Thumbnails: Ensure viewers know your videos’ focus with appropriate images.

Besides attractive headlines, the thumbnail images that appear in the video list on your YouTube channel need to convey exactly what each video is about. The images don’t even have to be a frame from the video itself, but they have to relay the focal point of each clip. For example, if one of your videos explains the difference between buyer’s and seller’s agents, an image showing the title of the video, your name or agency branding, and a photo of you helping a client should be more than enough for viewers to interpret what the video is about.

Conversely, pixelated or irrelevant photos, small or missing copy explaining a video’s subject matter, and a lack of cohesion among all of your videos’ thumbnail images can lead to poor click rates and even hurt your overall real estate branding efforts. Consumers crave quality and consistency in the content they check out. Fail to offer both and your video creation could be for naught.

Below are examples of thumbnails Placester has used for our Marketing Academy Secrets video series, in which we presented advice on a range of marketing topics. The copy color, style, sizing, and placement are consistent across the board, as is the use of the photo of Placester VP of Sales & Marketing Seth Price, who speaks in each clip:

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