If you spent $100,000 producing your first HD, broadcast quality TV commercial, but fail to buy any airtime on TV to run it. Well, you have pretty much wasted your money. The same thing goes for online video in this web 2.0 world in which we live.
Internet distributed video works its way into our lives more and more with every passing week. It started on the PC, moved its way to the laptop and now it's on your phone. There is no escaping it, your customers are, and will continue to be bombarded with the newest and coolest high tech media tools designed to get their attention. Online video is near the top of that list. Delivered to the palm of your hand on 3G networks and beyond, it is a a highly effective way to communicate with people at the very point when they are making a buying decision. Soon enough, relocaters to any popular city will be able to 'iPhone flick' their way through hundreds of real estate agent video profiles. Once they find the agent they can review the video tours for the coolest properties in the hottest neighborhoods around town.
If you want to build your business or to sell real estate, it is important to consider the broadband of multimedia which is envelopes us. Even if you don't find yourself with the latest laptop or the smartest phone out there, be there no mistake. A lot of your potential new customers are firmly plugged into this network. It will influence the way they make their decisions. Your only choice is, do you want to plug in or not?
Much like producing an expensive TV commercial that never runs, if the property video tours you are shooting only sit on your web site, then you’re reaching a fraction of the people who could be viewing them. If you happen to have spent a lot of money on search engine optimization (SEO) for your web site and can boast hundreds or thousands of viewers per month, then you've done a great job. However, most small business people have no idea what SEO means or even why it is so necessary. They see tens of hits to their site per month and most don't even prompt any business opportunities.
That is why you need to bring your wares to where your “soon-to-be customers” are. Syndicating your video to the newest and coolest places on the Internet is your best means to be seen by more people. It’s a numbers game, you have to show the property to so many people before someone bites and makes an offer. During strong economic conditions and within popular areas, the days on market may be short. But in times like these when you are looking at an average of 90 days before you sell a given listing, you need to upgrade your marketing plans. The bottom line is that if you want to sell the place quickly, you won’t find a fruit tray large enough to accommodate all the walk throughs that you’ll need to do.
The goal of any well produced video which is also is proactively marketed, is to reduce the number of days on market. When you are dealing in luxury homes and downtown condos, it is a great way to increase the number of visitors to the property without even having to turn on the AC. High end homes often have beautiful architectural and design features or wide open spaces which are hard to capture with a still picture. In addition, having a live person within some of the shots offers a great perspective for how the space looks wrapped around a typical human being. When that typical human being also looks just like your property’s target demographic, then you start getting some real views. Oh yeah, if the hosts are actually cool enough, they may even get a Twitter following in their own right. How’s that for some great free press?
