As the world moves further into the digital age and more of our time is spent online, creating and maintaining a strong online presence is becoming increasingly important for businesses—and real estate is no exception.
Video content, especially online listing tours, is a key tool that industry professionals can use to support their business. However, for a variety of reasons, many are not using videos to their full potential. Pixelated, shaky cell phone listings are all too common in an age where high-quality cameras are plentiful, affordable, and used by the competition.
Given this lag in technology adoption, here are three reasons why investing in high-quality videography can improve your real estate business, from winning more listings to generating more leads.
High-quality video content strengthens your brand
Suppose a viewer is presented with two videos. Both describe agents offering a virtual tour of a listing. The first was recorded on an iPhone, while the second was shot on a high-resolution camera equipped with autofocus, various lenses and all the bells and whistles you’d expect to find on a DSLR or mirrorless camera. After watching both videos, what impressions would the viewer leave?
Research from Brightcove, a Boston-based provider of video cloud services, provides the answer. Through a survey, they found that there is a significant relationship between video quality and viewer perception of the brand. When presented with a poor quality video, 62% of survey respondents had a negative brand perception associated with the video. Additionally, 23% said they would think twice about buying from a company that publishes poor quality videos.
So the next time you post videos of your listings on Instagram, TikTok, or any other social platform, consider how the quality of those videos can reflect back on you and your brand. Higher quality content is likely to be associated, in the viewer’s mind, with higher service.
Top-notch video content will attract viewers who will retain your message
It will come as no surprise to know that video is the most engaging form of content on the Internet. Roughly 40% of all users and most millennials – a group that now makes up 43% of home buyers – find it more engaging than other forms of content. In fact, videos on social media generate 1,200% more shares than image and text shares combined, according to Brightcove. Additionally, HD or relatively higher quality video content outperforms poorer quality content on social media. For example, HD videos make up the majority of YouTube search results, with 68.2% of first-page videos being HD, according to an analysis of one million videos by Backlinko, an SEO strategy firm. Further, if your high-quality videos generate solid engagement from your followers on social media, there is a greater chance that the platforms’ algorithms will promote your content even further, doing the hard work for you. Also, including videos on your website is likely to increase your search engine rankings.
Viewers retain 95% of a message when viewing it via video, compared to only 10% via text. Further, there is also a clear relationship between sound quality and retention, as illustrated by research conducted at Texas Tech University. So if you want to increase visibility and increase retention among your viewers—perhaps you want them to remember a standout amenity or a surprising asking price—then investing in a high-quality camera may be the way to go. for you.
Buying property ‘sight unseen’ is becoming more and more common
One of the reasons why high-quality video content is vital to real estate professionals is that the stakes associated with it are now higher than ever. A decade ago, winning a well-edited, top-notch video tournament posted online would be an in-person tournament. But these days, especially after the pandemic, more and more buyers are taking the plunge and buying homes without ever stepping foot in them. Given the fact that these high-stakes home buying decisions are increasingly being made without a real-life tour, that’s all the more reason to improve your video content. Your video tour is likely to be one of the last things a potential buyer sees before making a decision.
One final thought
Rather than do the filming themselves, many agents outsource the work and choose to hire a professional videographer to capture a listing in all its high-definition glory. In addition to traditional videography, many also offer drone footage, an increasingly popular tool that has been shown to sell homes faster.