5 Ways Real Estate Pros Use YouTube for the Win
by Mary Jackson, Marketing Manager at Cook & James
This blog is a forum to curate expert commentary, opinion and thought leadership resources. In the past we’ve profiled topics including real estate cyber insurance issues, RESPA compliance best practices, communication issues that can impact a closing, commentary on real estate trends, and most recently, an overview of the ins and outs of flood insurance. Today, Mary Jackson, our ace marketing manager here at Cook & James, offers some basics about how YouTube can be a winning strategy for real estate pros. If you want to learn more, attend one of the continuing education classes we host about YouTube and other social media strategies.
You’re familiar with that 1979 song, Video Killed the Radio Star? As The Buggles so accurately stated four plus decades ago, video did replace radio, just as radio usurped print before that. It’s a fact of life that technology keeps marching forward and today, if you don’t stay ahead of the curve – or at least on the front edge of it, professionals are going to get left behind. Ever-changing video channels proliferate like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and IGTV (that property’s newest platform), Facebook (video and live streaming) and other apps keep evolving at warp speed.
Today, we’ll discuss why YouTube can be a good platform for pros to showcase topical knowledge and expertise in the real estate arena.
Generally, most social media platforms rely more on storytelling to communicate their message, but YouTube gives agents and industry professionals a unique outlet to advise a bit more flexibly on everything from first time home buying, to how to increase your curb appeal, to staging tutorials, to opinion pieces about the best seasonal timing for buying and selling. From a marketing perspective, your video possibilities are nearly endless with YouTube. Armed with my five tips below, real estate pros should not feel daunted about becoming proficient at and using YouTube as an effective social marketing tool.
# 1 – Optimize
This is my first piece of advice for every platform, including YouTube. It’s relatively pointless to create content if your page is not optimized (ready) to receive visitors. Upload a professional headshot or logo and use the banner space to showcase your brand, expertise and other important information. Add links and update them often to the designated links area, and include all your social media pages, applicable website links, important landing pages and home search sites so you can actually capture visitors. Also, spend a few minutes crafting an informative and captivating bio or description to differentiate you from other pros.
#2 – Create Fresh Content
Often agents create a channel and leave one stale video up for months on end before attempting a second one. When asked why, the reason is always the same: “why would I spend time working on another video – my first one only has a handful of views!” Well, that’s really a cart-before-the-horse question.
If you plan to be successful with YouTube as an advertising and awareness platform, you must post fresh content to get higher YouTube rankings. If you don’t get higher rankings, no one will find you because YouTube looks at user engagement metrics like the length of time videos are viewed, your number of likes and your number of overall clicks/subscribes. Then YouTube pushes that content up or down accordingly. So, if you’re waiting to hit 100 subscribes on your channel before you upload your next video, it isn’t going to happen. Instead, bank on your multiple short videos getting watched to increase your overall engagement ranking.
# 3 - Build Around Tags
Build your channel around keywords or, as YouTube calls them, tags. This is a topic we cover in fairly great detail in our continuing education classes, but suffice it to say here, there are many different tools to gain insight into the traffic each tag or keyword generates. Spending 15 minutes doing some research will pay off in the long run. Armed with tag data, you can organically garner more views without incurring paid promotions or needing to constantly push content across other platforms. You also want to use a good mix of keywords including single-word, broad-term and multi-word tags. Using an assortment of search terms and types helps you attract a broader audience, which is always the goal.
#4 - Topics Hiding in Plain Sight
I once had an agent say, “I really don’t have anything to talk about so how can I create something other than a walk-through video?” I asked her to jot down every question she got about real estate for a week and report back. In just that brief time, she had 25+ questions, any one of which would make a perfect short, two- to three-minute video. Some were even appropriate for a series, so, voila, she had content right under her nose. Some examples were:
· “How long is the home buying process from start to finish?”
· “My husband and I just bought a car - will this affect our rates?”
· “When do you know it’s time to sell your home?”
· “What happens if I want to sell my home and buy another before my house sells?”
· “My husband and I are getting a divorce – should we sell our home now or wait until divorce is final?”
All these questions were posed by curious friends and family, potential clients, and some even over social media. Real estate agents often forget how much knowledge and advice they have because it’s so commonplace for them – jotting down everyday interactions will greatly improve content because the best topics often come from real life interactions, many hiding right in plain sight.
#5 - Advertise at the Right Time
In our classes we teach agents how to build ads for their YouTube channel and how to gain leads from these ads. But my biggest piece of advice about paid ads is to steer clear until you have a solid base of followers, lots of content, and have mastered the art of content creation and scheduling. Pouring money into YouTube ads to get people to follow your channel or click a button when you’re only posting once a month will leave you with empty pockets and no leads.
Unfortunately, the ads platform can be quite confusing and lead to frustration if you’re not prepared to spend time learning the ins and outs. So, walk before you run. Put in some legwork and research, get comfortable with using YouTube, and consult online forums and ongoing learning opportunities (like the seminars and classes Cook & James offers) before you make a premature ad buy.
Mary Jackson’s vast marketing experience and leadership skills made her the perfect fit to lead the Cook & James marketing team. She was drawn to the firm because of the culture, where she can work with other passionate, innovative and gregarious people like herself. She’s also drawn to the outdoors -- her ultimate goal is to hike through every national park which she’s working on with her husband and two dogs.
Mary leads ongoing educational opportunities for Cook & James professionals, colleagues and collaborators and has offered classes in YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, advertising, and a variety of traditional marketing strategies and techniques. Contact info@cookandjames.com for an updated schedule or to learn about bringing these classes to your office.