The Ultimate Guide To Video Marketing For Real Estate Agents In 2021

Video marketing is where video is used to promote a product or service, engage an audience on social and digital channels, educate customers or otherwise move people along the sales funnel from awareness to purchase. 

With 73% of vendors preferring to instruct an agent who uses video, it will be more important than ever for estate agents to incorporate video into their marketing efforts.

Whether working with a professional agency to produce high converting property trailers or creating simple “Question & Answer” videos for your social media, video marketing for real estate agents is an absolute must in 2021.

Why Video?

There are 3 crucial reasons that make video marketing is essential for your estate agent marketing plan in 2021:

  1. Boost results from marketing efforts
  2. Appeal to target customers
  3. Boost SEO (search engine optimisation)

Put simply, video marketing boosts results:

In 2019, 88% of video marketers reported that video gave them a positive ROI – this was a 5% increase on the year before. 

In addition to its positive effect on your marketing results, video marketing is generally well received by consumers, like buyers.

  • 84% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy something because of a video
  • 66% of people prefer to watch a video to learn about a new service vs 18% for text
  • People are twice as likely to share a video over other types of content

Lastly, video is great for SEO. This means that search engines like Google favour websites that use video and these websites are therefore more likely to feature higher in search results. 

To learn more about SEO for estate agents, click here.

With the majority of vendors beginning their search for an agency on Google, estate agents need to do all they can to ensure that they feature as high as possible in search. Video assists in this because:

  • Video is a positive signal to Google and, provided its of a high quality, helps the search engine to classify your website as relevant
  • Video tends to encourage people to spend longer on your website. Time spent on site is a factor Google takes into account.

Before we explore the ins and outs of actually creating video marketing content, estate agents should remember that video marketing, like all good marketing, should be used to move people along the sales funnel – this means to move them from being aware you exist to actually engaging your services.

Effective video will therefore do one of 3 things:

  1. Make buyers and vendors AWARE of your business / listing / service
  2. Arouse INTEREST and desire so they want what you’re selling or build trust so they are more likely to instruct you
  3. Help make it easier for people to take an ACTION such as instruct you, book a viewing or take some other step forward.

What Types Of Video Marketing Work For Estate Agents?

There are many types of video that work well for estate agents. Some of the more complex video types may require you to work with a professional video marketing firm or agency while others can be produced with a phone and tripod!

Here are some of the video marketing types and how estate agents can use them:

Video TypePurposeEstate Agent Use
Property Trailer To showcase key selling points of property and surrounding area. Impress vendors,  attract qualified buyers & reduce wasted viewings.Property Trailer showcasing a property’s best features and surrounding area.
Demo VideoEssentially to show how something works.Property Trailer showcasing a property’s best features and surrounding area.
Case Studies & TestimonialsDesigned to build trust by showcasing positive previous customer experiences.Video speaking to previous vendors where they describe how much they enjoyed working with you, how successful it was and how you exceeded their expectations. 
Brand VideoEssentially an “About Us” video.Meet The Agents video introducing staff, your mission and your promise to customers.
Expert VideoDesigned to help you build authority and demonstrate expertise.How To, Q&A answering common questions, describing process for doing something (such as first time purchase), local area knowledge and tips – eg: “Top 10 Areas To Buy In Brighton.”
360 & Virtual Reality (VR) 360 video enables viewers to see something from all angles. VR enables them to navigate through the experience.Smart Property Viewings, VIrtual Tours
WebinarAn in-depth tutorial teaching how to do something specific.“How To Sell Your Property In Record Time” webinar for vendors.
VlogA video log – vlog is essentially a form of a digital TV.“Behind The Scenes” “A Day In The Life Of An Estate Agent”
Personalised VideoA video where you directly respond/acknowledge someoneEmail responses, DM (Direct Message) responses, Comment replies
Explainer VideoA video explaining why or how a product or service solves the watcher’s problem. A video explaining how your marketing strategy will attract more buyers and sell your vendors’ properties more quickly.

4 Specific Real Estate Video Marketing Types That Work Very Well

  1. Property Trailers
  2. Case Studies
  3. Lists
  4. AMA

1. Property Trailers For Estate Agents

Property Trailers (Point of Interest Trailers) are professional property videos that attract buyers and increase their desire for a property because they showcase a property but also key aspects of the property’s surrounding area such as proximity to transport or green spaces. These types of property videos often include drone footage.

At Focal, all of our property marketing packs include property videos for estate agents because we’ve seen how much vendors love them. They are also very shareable and help reduce wasted viewings.

As you can see in this video produced here at Focal, property trailers are highly valuable examples of video marketing that appeal to both vendors and buyers alike. 

2. Case Studies & Testimonials

With “trust” being one of people’s biggest concerns where instructing an estate agent is concerned, using short videos to showcase the positive experiences of previous customers is a really smart move.

Case study or testimonial videos can be really effective in the middle and bottom of the sales funnel as they help to build trust but can also be that final push that someone needs to go ahead and instruct you over a competitor.

3. Lists

An example of a List style video to promote veganism.

Lists make for great video marketing content because they are easy for people to consume and give estate agents an opportunity to address questions that your target customers may be asking.

For example, if you uncover that many potential buyers in your area wonder about what green spaces there are or what restaurants or cafes are in the vicinity, you could create a video listing various restaurants or green spaces in the area. You could also use a list video that helps to answer more specific concerns on topics like the selling or buying process or other issue that your potential clients face. An example might be something like “5 Reasons 2021 Is A Great Year To Sell Your Property”. 

Videos like this are helpful, easy to watch, easily shared and allow you to demonstrate your expertise about the local area, the market or other aspects of the industry.

4. AMA – Ask Me Anything

A long form video that was carried out Live to ask client questions

This stands for Ask Me Anything and represents another great way for estate agents to use video to demonstrate expertise. Ask Me Anything videos could be something you do “live” using a platform like Facebook or Instagram or they could be pre-recorded videos where you answer frequently asked questions or questions you invited people to submit.

How Do Estate Agents Produce Video Marketing Content?

Honestly, this is a BROAD question. The question of how to shoot real estate video depends on the type of video you’re shooting.

Chances are though, you’re not a professional video producer as well as estate agent!

This means that some of the video types that work really effectively for selling to vendors and buyers will require you to work with a professional visual content agency. This is most likely going to be the case for videos where more advanced equipment is needed, there are extensive shots that need to be included or where it would take a particularly long time to shoot or edit the video in question.

Video such as property trailers, property tours, 360 and VR, some sales videos or even brand videos may be the kind you want to outsource because they are more complex and need to be of an exceptionally high standard. 

Most other types of video marketing for real estate agents probably can be done in house with moderate to basic equipment.

Pre-Production: Setting Your Video Goal & Creating The Plan

Step 1: Plan A Video

Effective video marketing requires planning. If you go gung-ho and start shooting without any prior preparation, you’ll probably end up producing something that fails to meet any of your goals. 

Before you set out deciding what type of video to produce and what content to include, you should consider these questions:

  • What’s the goal for the video? 
  • What action do you want viewers to take?
  • Who are you talking to – buyer or seller?
  • Where is this person in the funnel?
  • What resources do we have to produce the video?
  • Where do you intend to use the video?

An extreme example, but you would not want to plan to produce a customer testimonial video to build trust if you cannot film with a customer who has good things to say about you. 

Shooting such a video with an unhappy customer would not help you achieve your goal and if it was physically not possible to film with a happy customer, you would essentially lack the “resources” to produce such a video.

As non-professional video marketers, the planning stage doesn’t have to be a drawn-out process, but consideration does have to be given so that you aren’t simply wasting your time. 

If you’re working with an agency to produce video, they will carry out the planning work. 

Step 2: Writing A Script or Storyboard

Once you know the overall plan and purpose for your video, you need to consider it’s content. To do this, ask yourself these questions:

  • What are you going to say?
  • What shots do you need?
  • What props do you need?
  • Where should we shoot?
  • Who needs to be involved?

You may consider writing a script or at least noting the specific talking points you want to address. This way you’ll avoid a lot of “umming” and “eerring” which can result in either a difficult video to watch or one that needs a lot of editing!

For videos where you plan to film in different locations or show different viewpoints, you may want to create a storyboard – essentially a plan of what shots you need to get. Again, videos like this would be more complex and it may therefore be preferable to work with a professional property marketing agency. 

Don’t be overwhelmed!!Remember, as an estate agent most of the video you create yourself will be more simple. You’re likely to shoot in one particular place such as in your office or at a property and you’re more likely to produce video that doesn’t require a high specification and intricate planning.

Some tips for your planning:

  • Focus your video on one topic
  • Play to your strengths – stick to things you are confident you can deliver on
  • You don’t have to try every type of video at once
  • Pick 2-3 video types and create plans for those
  • Create bullet points of the topics you can cover
  • Generally don’t plan for videos to be more than 2 minutes long (although this may differ for some video types such as webinars, Q&As etc)

Production: Shooting Your Video

Now that your video is planned, you know what you’re going to say and what you want your video to achieve, it’s time to shoot it! 

Do I Need Professional Equipment?
The answer to this question really depends on what resources are available to you now and what quality of video they’re capable of producing. For example, if you’re going to frequently film in your office and it has really great lighting, you may not need a professional lighting kit.
Likewise, for more casual videos such as Ask Me Anything, How Tos or Vlogs, a high quality, ultra professional finish may not be necessary; whereas for your case study videos, you’ll probably need a higher quality finish which would generally require better equipment.
As basic guidance, you have the following to produce video content:External microphoneTripod for stablisationCamera (high quality phone camera can work or a DSLR with video capability)Lighting kit (depending on where you’re filming and how good the lighting is).

As we mentioned, a camera phone may work for casual videos but for those where you want a really professional finish, you may need a better quality camera. This is something to test!

SOUND is the most important aspect of great video. People are generally more forgiving of lower quality visuals than they are of poor sound. Therefore an external mic such as a lavalier, a shotgun mic or something like a Blue Yeti will be necessary for every video.

Equipment Set Up

We mentioned equipment above. Obviously, the extent of your equipment needs depends on what type of video you are shooting. For the most part, estate agents won’t be shooting overly complicated videos themselves and are therefore likely to only need:

  • An external microphone (such as labelier, directional mic or Blue Yeti) 
  • A tripod for stablisation / selfie stick if you’re doing a walk-through type video
  • A camera (high quality phone camera can work or a DSLR with video capability)
  • A lighting kit (depending on where you’re filming and how good the lighting is).

Set your equipment up and check that your camera is capturing the view you want. 

You’ll also need to prepare the room that you’re filming in. You don’t want the setting to be too distracting so remove unnecessary and untidy items and position any props.

Testing, Testing, 1,2,3

Great video production has two major elements: AUDIO and VISUALS.

Before you go ahead and shoot the content, check that both the audio and visual quality is good enough. Think customer first. If you were the person watching:

Would it be a good experience? 

Can you hear clearly? 

Does it look of a watchable standard?

Once you’ve done your tests and you’re happy with the quality, you can proceed to shoot your video content.

Remember to include a call to action in your video. This means, that at some point (usually the end), you invite the viewer to take the next action. This might be inviting them to send you a message, to visit your website or to download something. 

Consider your goal for the video and include a call to action that helps to meet it. 

Post-Production: Getting The Final Edit

Post-production is the editing process. This may involve correcting errors, any enhancements or adding voice overs.

There are 4 options for this part of the process:

  1. The agency you work with will carry out all post production. 
  2. You hire a freelancer to do all editing (you could use
    something like Freelancer.com to find one).
  3. You do it yourself.
  4. You don’t edit the video.

Leaving The Video Unedited

Many of the video types you’re likely to try won’t need any editing. This might include live videos, personalised video messages, Q&As or any video that meets your objectives without editing.

Do It Yourself

Some videos will either require only very minimal editing such as trimming the beginning or end or you may have skills that enable you to carry out other video edits yourself.

Simple editing like trimming the beginning or end of a video can be done in many free apps or even in Facebook / Instagram. 

If you are going to do more complex video editing yourself, there are some free tools you can try:

  1. Machete Video Editor Lite (Windows)
  2. Avidemux (Windows/Mac/Linux)
  3. WeVideo (cloud-based)

There are also paid video editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro or iMovie.

Adding A Call To Action Button

Where possible, you should add a CALL TO ACTION at the end of the video.

This is simply a visual marker inviting the viewer to do something – such as “Download Now” “Get Free Offer” or “Learn More”. 

Creating a Thumbnail

A thumbnail is an image people see before they click into your video. The purpose of the thumbnail is to attract someone and make them want to click into the video.

A thumbnail style typically used on a platform like Youtube

Different thumbnails work well on different platforms. For example, those with text or emojis can work really well on Youtube but may not be appropriate on your website.

A more professional thumbnail style to be used on something like your website

For this reason, you may want to create a few thumbnails to be used in different places. 

If you’re creating your own thumbnail, you can try using free software like Canva.

Promoting Your Video

The ultimate purpose of video marketing for real estate agents is to attract buyers and sellers and eventually convert them into clients.


Your video content cannot help with this if no one sees it! Therefore you need to strategically post and place your video in key places to maximise its views.

There are 3 ways to promote your video:

Places You Own

The great thing about these places is that you don’t have to pay to promote.

These places include:

  • Your website
  • Your Social Media profiles
  • Your emails (for example weekly newsletters, welcome emails)
  • Your blog
  • Your Youtube channel

You should always endeavor to promote your videos in these places, in particular on your website and blog. Remember, video helps with SEO so placing your video on your website and blog should have a positive impact on where those pages appear in search results. 

Tips For Adding Video To Your Website & Blog

  • Add the video on pages with text that relates to the video’s topic. For example, property trailers work well on listing pages or “Services” pages. A brand video would work well on your “About Us” page.
  • Optimise the video’s title – use your main keywords in the first few words of the title.
  • Optimise the video’s descriptions and tags with relevant keywords.
  • Add video frequently.
#PROTIP As places you own are such a great place to share any of your content (including video), it’s a good idea to spend time and effort to increase the number of people you see it. For example, you may want to run ongoing marketing campaigns to increase your Facebook and Instagram followers or your email subscribers.

In Places You Pay For

Sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate.

In terms of video marketing for estate agents, this means it’s probably a good idea to consider setting a budget for paid advertising of your video. This will help you get your content in front of more people which will maximise the chances of you getting what you want from the video content.

These places include:

  • Search Ads (such as Google Ads)
  • Social Media Ads
  • Youtube Ads
  • Partner Ads
  • Paid Influencer Promotion

At this time, Google Ads are not optimised for video so you would use these ads to target keywords and link to a webpage where your video is hosted. 

With the other ad types, you could directly promote your video. For example, on Facebook you can create an ad where people will see your video on their Facebook timeline.

In order to promote your video effectively using social media or Youtube ads, you will need to be clear on who you want to target as you will need to include this information when you are setting your ads up.

Have a look at our blog on social media marketing here to learn a little more about this.

Partner and influencer ads could be really effective if you can identify people or businesses who have an audience that consists of the people you want to target. For example, a local home furnishings company may have an audience of homeowners who you could target with a “free valuation offer” video. 

These are obviously details you would need to discuss with the partner or influencer you identify. 

In Places Where Other People Have Promoted For You

Other people promoting your video for you is a best case scenario; especially where their audience consists of the people you want to target. 

This happens when someone shares or promotes your product without a fee. It may happen because you have customers who love you, you’ve established a good relationship with a local business or sometimes, just because you asked!

Some Tips For Getting Other People To Promote Your Video (and other content)

  1. Ask! For example, ask people to “tag” someone or share your video with someone who might benefit from it.
  2. Create competitions where people have to share the content in order to enter.
  3. Tag or mention local businesses / influencers in your captions to increase the chances of them sharing it.
  4. Create video with local businesses / influencers / customers so they are as motivated to share it as you are. 
  5. Do the same for others (where appropriate) – they may just return the favour!

Measuring Your Video’s Success

Once your video is out there, you’ll want to know if it was a success! Success in video marketing can’t be simply put down to “did it result in a sale?”. 

There are different things you’ll want to look at in order to determine whether your video was on the right track. These different things depend on what the goal for the video was and what part of the funnel your video was intended to address.

This is not a complete list of things you can use to measure success. As people who are not full time marketers, it is likely you will only be able to look at a few measurements so we have included some of the most important ones to consider.

Top Of The Funnel – Awareness:

If the goal of the video was to attract people, the things you’ll want to measure to determine success are:

  • Impressions
  • Views 

If the number of people who looked at your video was really low, you may need to address who you’re putting it in front of and whether it’s something they are interested in seeing.

Middle Of The Funnel – Interest/ Desire/ Trust:

If you’re video was intended to work the middle of the funnel to build trust or to increase your target customer’s interest or desire in what you’re offering, you could look at:

  • View through rate
  • Watch Time

Video marketing success at this stage can be a bit harder to measure but it is a good indication if people are watching all or the majority of your video. Comments and shares are also a good sign at this stage.

Bottom Of The Funnel – Action:

If you’re video is intended to get people to take a specific action such as visit your website, subscribe to an offer or download something, you could look at:

  • Clicks
  • Sign Ups
  • Sales

At this point, you will be looking for an indication that people did or wanted to take the next step. Clicks and conversions are the best indicators of this.

Conclusion

Video marketing should be incorporated into your 2021 real estate marketing plan. Whether you work with an agency to produce property trailers that attract buyers and impress vendors or you create a weekly “Ask Me Anything” video series to answer your target customers’ frequently asked questions, estate agents should consider what types of video they can produce and how they can use it to meet their business goals.

To speak to Focal about our Property Marketing Packs which include video content (such as property trailers), professional property photography and more, click here.

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