Everyone knows that the continuing pandemic is affecting both the home and commercial property market, but not so many truly understand the impact of video content on property sales.
The property market was already starting to embrace the use of increased visual content – including video – before 2020, but since the world shifted to being more online dependant, its use has grown exponentially. Yet still many do not understand the power of video and hold back from committing to it more comprehensively.
A recent survey has found that 1 in 4 Americans will be working remotely during 2021 – and that by 2025, 36.2 million USA citizens will be doing so – an increase of 87% from pre-pandemic levels.
“We have vaulted five years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in a matter of around eight weeks”.
These figures are being reflected in many different countries around the globe in all sorts of industries and markets – including the property market.
With more and more consumers staying at home and adapting to a remote lifestyle, visual content has never been more important.
The problem is that the changes came so fast, it caught many businesses on the wrong foot – a year on, and many are still struggling to understand and come to terms with what this means for their business. A lot of them are still treading water, waiting for the ‘return to normal’ that is simply not coming.
Even back in May 2020, McKinsey was explaining to us that “…we have vaulted five years forward in consumer and business digital adoption in a matter of around eight weeks”.
This was reflected in a shift in the real estate market – in the seven weeks up to 4th May 2020, TV ad spots saw a rise of 124% in property adverts, compared to 2019 (Nielsen). This is a clear indication that some in the property business understood that the rules of marketing had changed.
Looking ahead, Cisco estimates that by 2022, a huge 82% of all created content will be video.
But knowing all this is one thing; knowing what to do about it is another.
As a property agent, the important questions you should be asking yourself are these:
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- How does this knowledge affect me?
- How can I benefit from it?
- Where exactly should I be spending my marketing budget?
In the next few minutes, we aim to answer these questions for you.
To attract more visitors to your website – use video!
If you are not already using video in marketing both your properties and your business, then you need to begin today. The figures speak for themselves.
On your website – whether it is listing a property or promoting your agency, video captures and holds visitor attention:
Including a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80% (Unbounce) – and the reason is simple. Take a look at this graph – time spent on web pages is significantly more on pages that utilise video.
Source: Wistia.com
What this means to you is that visitors to your website will stay longer and see more – if you use video on your landing pages. Not only can this translate into better conversion rates, but it also improves your SEO, as visitors dwelling on your page for a longer time lowers your bounce rate (Google likes lower bounce rates).
Also, viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in a text (Forbes).
In other words, video has a huge impact on the viewer and leaves a lasting impression – enough to not only hold attention for much longer but also to positively affect their buying decisions.
In 2018, 52% of buyers initially found the home they purchased online (NAR). Today, that figure is probably approaching 100%.
To sell more properties – use video!
OK – use more video. That’s easy to say. But what videos work best, and what difference in results can you expect to see?
Here is a rundown of just some of the available property video types and video elements, and the impact they can have (if done well) on your property sales:
Property walkthrough videos
According to one Australian real estate company, property listings that include a video receive over four times more enquiries than those without (this, and following figures from the NAR, unless otherwise stated).
Video use in property marketing has become even more important during 2020 and 2021 as travel and social distancing regulations make ‘normal’ viewing very difficult.
Today, 73% of homeowners say that they are more likely to list with a real estate agent who uses video. Unfortunately, only 9% of agents currently create listing videos.
Compare this to the latest 2020 survey report which reveals that 58% of buyers want and expect to see video of a home they are looking at online.
All this is good news – especially if you are not already using video – because it means that simply by starting now, you are getting the jump on approximately 90% of your competition, and first access to over 70% of your selling clientele.
Property listings with videos are more appealing to view. Property listings with video are easier to understand in terms of layout for many people (as opposed to just having a floor plan).
Property listings with videos are better at engagement and authenticity – viewers know that photos are staged to show a room in its best light – but video is somehow more real to them. It gives the impression that nothing is being hidden or left out.
And this makes listings with video more trusted.
As we said above, this, in turn, has an impact on your conversion rates; if a property is already liked and trusted by the potential buyers before they see it in a personal viewing, then they have already formed a positive opinion of the property by the time they set foot in it. This feeling is very difficult to subsequently overcome.
Property area videos
As well as showing off the property itself, video is a brilliant marketing tool for advertising and promoting an area. This can be a part of the listing video, or if your agency covers several areas in a region, you can create a number of separate videos detailing the highlights of each area.
Either way, this can place a property in the context of a desirable location.
The NAR also reports that of all homebuyers who use video in their search, 86% use it to research a particular community, so give them the grand tour yourself.
By promoting yourself as a ‘location authority’ via your area overview videos, you will also be attracting visitors to your website who otherwise would not have found you.
So these serve both as a property sales tool and a marketing tool for your agency – a double win!
Drone footage
The results of surveys conducted by RISMedia shows that listing agents who use drones for property sales could see an increase in the interest of listings by as much as 73% – with subsequent increases in sales by as much as 68%.
Meanwhile, Sold by Air state that 83% of home sellers prefer an agency that uses drones for video content creation.
Currently, according to the NAR, only 29% of agencies hire a professional drone pilot, although a further 14% plan to use drones in the future.
360° Video
According to Matterport, 74% of estate agents using their 360° video system win more listings, and 95% of people are more likely to call an agent about properties with a 3D virtual tour as a part of their listing.
Additionally, in their survey of 1,000 property buyers, they discovered that almost 80% of them would switch to an estate agent offering immersive 3D tours of listed properties.
More interestingly, a staggering 55% said they would buy a property sight-unseen of there was a 3D tour available online.
This fact alone makes for interesting reading when we stop to consider the current difficulty of in-person viewings. It is also worth noting that this survey was conducted in January 2020 – before the pandemic shifted people to online living, so it is reasonable to assume that the figure is now even higher.
Finally, 99.4% of sellers responded that offering an immersive 3D tour would improve the competitive edge of their property listing. Whether it does or not (although we firmly believe that it does), the fact that sellers believe this means that by offering 360° video, you are going to win more of the listing opportunities more of the time.
In other words – it is another technology that wins sales and gives you better marketing exposure at the same time.
Click on this image now to see an example of this great approach to interactive home marketing:
Virtual staging
A staged home sells for 17% more, on average than a non-staged home. Additionally, 95% of staged homes sell in 11 days or less (Forbes).
According to the NAR, 83% of buyer’s agents said staging a home made it easier for a buyer to visualize the property as a future home.
So what to do if the property is currently empty?
This is no longer a problem – thanks to today’s tech, you can digitally stage a property and create a staged video – even without furniture!
This is the latest trend that has started to emerge in real estate sales – again, driven forward at a faster pace by the pandemic and complications of real human interactions.
To run your business more efficiently – use video!
Here are a few more uses of video that will help run or improve the marketing of your agency.
Video email
Using video clips in your emails can be a powerful addition, as your email address book is already filled with people who like your brand!
According to Forbes, including a video in an email can increase the click-through rate by 200-300%.
Make sure you include the word ‘video’ in your subject line, this can increase open rates by 19% and reduce unsubscribes by up to 26%.
Make your videos mobile friendly
According to the NAR, (image below), 73% of people use a mobile or tablet to access property details – so if you are using video, make sure that it is mobile-friendly. This means small file sizes for fast downloading and small data usage, and greater device compatibility.
Communications with clients
Communication is a two-way street and if you rent as well as sell, you can assist your tenants by encouraging them to use video as well.
One innovative sales and letting agency we spoke to have been encouraging their tenants (during lockdown restrictions) to video their homes instead of requiring the agents to do face to face inspections.
This has enabled them to continue to fulfil their letting management obligations but without putting their tenants – or their colleagues – at undue risk. All in all, implementing video content as part of your sales playbook is fundamental for your sales team to effectively communicate with potential buyers.
Promote your brand – promote your agency!
As we have already seen, video is not just for selling properties, it’s for marketing yourself as well. If you have found this article useful, then you may also like to download a free copy of our report ‘How to sell more properties with video’, which you can obtain by following the link. It discusses many more ideas for utilising property videos both for selling and for marketing and increasing your customer base. Follow the link now for more details about how to receive your free copy today.
One final statistic for you – the NAR found that 48% of all real estate firms cited keeping up with technology as one of the biggest challenges facing their firm in the next two years.
The good news is that is need not be a challenge – for video and photo at least.
Splento has experienced property videographers all over the globe – and local to you – who can produce world-class property and marketing videos, just like the ones above, yet for a fraction of the price you would expect.
That’s because we have scaled our production in such a way that everyone can benefit from the savings usually reserved for larger enterprise customers.
Video is only £149 per hour – and that includes delivery of the finished deliverable in just 48 hours, guaranteed.
Splento provides full Matterport and drone services as well – an ideal complement to your own video productions, even if only until you decide you are ready to take that technology in-house.
Photographer services are just £99 and delivered within 24 hours.
Want to know more about how Splento can help you break the technology ceiling? Call or email us today for a no-obligation chat.
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