As video becomes increasingly popular as a marketing tool, it is becoming more important for businesses to use video in their marketing strategy. Commercial real estate is no different, with video becoming a lynchpin in a successful marketing strategy.
Although this would lead one to believe that many CRE marketers are not using videos or 3D tours of their properties, a recent survey found that 50% of them are in fact using them.
Video is essential for commercial real estate professionals at this time. videos are a visual storytelling medium that allows professionals to directly engage prospects in an easy way. Short videos can be shared quickly on social media and watched on any type of device.
We asked four leading video production companies—Kilograph, Arqui300, RiseMedia, and Cicada Design—to share their most critical advice for planning to shoot your property. But first, let’s review the main reasons why you should consider investing in video to market your commercial properties.
Real Estate Video Marketing Statistics in 2021
When it comes down to it, video marketing has proven to be immensely successful across all industries. In 2021, research shows that:
- Video marketers get 66% more qualified leads per year, and a 54% increase in brand awareness.
- At the same time, marketers who rely on video will be able to grow their revenue nearly 50% faster than those who do not.
- Videos excel on social media, since they are more engaging and more easily shareable than images alone. Video content can help generate 1200% more social shares than images and text combined.
Here are some unique real estate video marketing statistics (source):
- 50% of buyers find their new home online.
- Almost 51% of shoppers use YouTube as their number one destination for research.
- 84% of new homebuyers say the information they found online was crucial for their research.
It is essential for real estate businesses to improve their video marketing. Potential buyers are spending more time on digital and their phones are likely to be their first destination when researching a potential home. Create videos to ensure that your content shows up as they scroll.
Real Estate Video Marketing Services
If you’re a real estate professional who’s just getting started out with video content creation and doesn’t have a lot of experience with video editing tools – don’t worry! Here are two routes that you can take for improving your video marketing:
- Outsourcing – If it’s within your budget, there are plenty of video marketing services out there that will take care of every aspect of the video content creation process for you. Before choosing a company to handle your video marketing, be sure to do your research. Focus on finding out whether the company is reputable and worth your time and money.
- Use a Video Marketing Tool – If your plan is to create videos in-house, check out Boosted – a promo video maker app that enables you to create professionally-designed real estate videos, in minutes. You can use your own footage or select stock footage, and then add text and other elements to customize. It’s free to download and use (you can upgrade to access all video templates), which is always a plus for any bootstrapped real estate agent trying to grow his or her business.
Why you should use video in commercial real estate marketing
- You’re Taping Into a Larger Market – HubSpot estimates that 78% of people watch videos online every week and nearly 60% would prefer to watch than read. Video is what your prospects want to consume.
- You Can Leverage Social Media – Social media is a huge component of a successful commercial real estate video marketing campaign. All major channels have video tools and it’s easier than ever to leverage them to increase your reach.
- You Provide an Immersive Experience – Commercial real estate video, drone videos, and 3D tours go beyond anything you can do with text and photography to show a property in great detail.
Commercial real estate can really benefit from video because it is such a powerful platform.
Effective video marketing can impact every element of your business. Listing videos are important and will play a role in your CRE marketing, but there are several other type of videos that can support those marketing efforts, including:
- Drone Videos – Drone use has become ubiquitous in real estate. The low cost of drone technology, the availability of professional drone videography services, and the impact that an overhead view of your commercial property has make this a must.
- Property Tours – Property tour videos are short 30 seconds to two-minute videos emphasizing key building amenities, with simple narration and overlay highlighting key elements of the property.
- Digital Renditions – For new developments and properties under construction, digitally rendered property videos can help with the sales process before the property opens. These videos follow the same formula as property tours, but with digital renditions of what the space will look like when completed.
- Property Commercials – A step beyond property tours, commercials are similar to TV ads, complete with succinct, value-driven narrative, and call to action. These are generally slightly shorter than property tours and rely on B-roll footage and voiceover to tell the story of the property.
What’s your advice to clients looking to use video to market a property?
Create curiosity
Do not try to include everything about the property in one short video. Be concise and create curiosity so that your target audience will reach out to you for more information.
One way to make your property brand more appealing is to create a narrative that shows how it works well with the surrounding neighborhood. Being creative with this can go a long way; people are much more likely to watch a video multiple times and share it if they find it entertaining.
Jason Kinsella & John Michael Wilyat, Kilograph
Make video a part of your marketing strategy
A video is not the only thing you need to market your property. You should explore a full marketing strategy with your agency.
It is always best to keep things simple and this is especially true in a society where people only read the capital letters. Explore what your competition is doing so you don’t copy them. Be cinematic rather than institutional. Be visual rather than detailed. Be unique!
Consider your audience
When creating your property film, make sure it is structured in a way that appeals to your target audience. The way a property film is structured will determine how suitable it is for each type of prospective buyer. If you are marketing a trendy, small office to rent for small businesses, your property is likely one of hundreds that could be the right fit for your target buyer. In this instance, you need your property film to be fast and punchy to stand out from the competition.
To ensure your key messages are conveyed before the buyer scrolls past, keep the edit length shorter and the number of shots per area higher. This is especially important when marketing a larger, high-value property, as buyers will be looking at fewer options and will want to see more of the property’s details.
Consider video format
While considering a video production, think about how the assets you record can be reused and repackaged for various platforms and messages. Oftentimes, a bigger production can be cut down for shorter social posts. If this is your goal, you should be aware of the formatting options for those platforms, as the image aspect will affect how you frame your subject. Feature content for websites and email campaigns is usually longer, but rarely more than a minute and a half, while social content is more commonly 15-30 seconds. Certain aspects of the property can be singled out and celebrated as social posts.
Consider video promotion
Think about where you want your property film to be shown. You should have a plan for where the film will be located before you start filming. In addition to the usual places like property portals and estate agent websites, think about other platforms that might show your property film. For example, will it be on Youtube pre-roll? Or Instagram?
It is important to communicate with the videography team what platform you will be using beforehand so that the footage can be edited to the appropriate length and ratio.
Think outside the box
Don’t be afraid to explore different marketing avenues for your property. Traditional fly-through films are a great way to show off the property itself, but you could be missing out on a whole demographic by not considering other options, like lifestyle and local area films. Lifestyle films tend to be more expensive to produce, but they use models and actors to depict the lifestyle that your property could provide.
Films that feature local areas can help to show potential buyers the travel connections, local amenities, and open spaces near the property. These factors can be just as important to someone as the quality and size of the property.
What property features are the most attractive to capture?
Adjacent Amenities: Location, Location, Location.
If the property is located in a reputable neighborhood or iconic district, this can make it an attractive lifestyle choice.
Exterior, The Primary Workspaces, Communal Spaces and Boardrooms
When filming a video of a property, it is best to focus on the exterior of the property, the primary workspaces, communal/break-out spaces, and boardrooms as these are typically the most impressive areas. It is also a good idea to include window views, garden space, and impressive bathroom/shower facilities in the video. To create a sense of being “in” the property, it is best to choose scenes with depth.
Onsite Amenities
You should highlight the most special and appealing aspects of the property’s amenities to make the value proposition more convincing. This could include anything from a garden on the roof to private parking, or even digital amenities like a digital concierge or a branded smartphone app. Anything that would make tenants’ lives more convenient or enjoyable would be good to include.
Outdoor Spaces and Circulation
As we all get used to the “new normal” in our lives and workplaces, having access to fresh air and natural light is becoming more and more valuable.
Add motion graphics
The addition of motion graphics to a video can make it much more interesting and engaging, adding a layer of excitement, technical detail, or visual direction. Most productions will include a lower-third graphic, but there are many other story-telling techniques that can be used to make your video stand out from the crowd.
What should clients consider when commissioning a video shoot?
If you’re able to invest the time in creating these three components, you’ll be well on your way to having a productive, efficient, and successful production.” Pre-production is the key to success. The three components of a successful production are a creative brief, script, and casting document. If you can invest the time to create these three components, you will have a productive, efficient, and successful production.
The purpose of a creative brief is to explain the key message of your project, who the target audience is, and what critical information is necessary for the project’s success.
It is important to develop a script that describes the onscreen actions, locations, characters, and wardrobe choices. This will allow you to efficiently communicate and use your budget.
Casting Documents: You should prioritize your casting around showcasing specific user-groups. The talent represented in your custom shoot or stock photography should match your target audience. This will help you construct a more authentic narrative around your project.
Throw pillows also help make rooms feel more inviting. It is important that your property looks attractive. Hiring an interior designer is a good way to ensure that your property looks better than others in photos and videos. If you cannot afford to hire a designer, make sure that surfaces are clean and everything is in its place. Additionally, remove any furniture that makes the space appear smaller. Using furniture that is not touching the ground makes rooms look bigger. Throw pillows can also make rooms look more welcoming.
It’s important that all the lights are working in order to get good lighting for filming. The video team should bring their own lights, but there should also be plenty of working interior lights (called practical lights in film terms) to supplement them. Having one of the overhead lamps not working can ruin a shot.
It is important that you fully brief the video team on the properties unique selling points before they start filming. An experienced property videographer will have a good idea of what is important to film and what is not, but it is still important to make sure they know about the less obvious selling points of the property. For example, perhaps the property has original features that are rare to come by, or there are amazing nighttime lights outside. Make sure the video team knows exactly what you think are the properties’ best aspects in advance, so they can plan the best way to capture them.
Leveraging Commercial Real Estate Video Marketing for Your Properties
When done effectively, video marketing can have a significant impact on your commercial real estate business. Costs have never been lower, resources and equipment are available to provide professional-quality visuals, and prospects are generally more receptive to video than traditional text and photography. By combining drone footage, 3D camera footage, and traditional B-roll, you can create comprehensive video representations of your properties that are especially relevant now that remote viewing is so important.
If you want to produce video content for your commercial properties, you can either hire a professional production company or use retail drones and cameras. Whichever option you choose, you’ll see a significant difference right away.
