As a realtor in today’s world, it’s important to consistently find ways to stand out amongst your competition, especially if you’re in a competitive market like New York City.
It’s no secret that this need for realtors to stand out exists, but you probably aren’t sure of exactly what type of marketing efforts can help you grow in a way that is both practical and effective.
Today I want to focus on a marketing channel that I would really love to see more realtors explore, which is starting a YouTube channel. Not only are people on YouTube there to be entertained, but as I’ll show you, it’s still early enough to start building an audience on YouTube that can help you get more clients and raise awareness around your offerings as an agent.
In this article, I am going to talk about 3 reasons why I believe that every single realtor should have a YouTube channel.
If you’re not 100% familiar with why you should be on YouTube or how it could help you reach your business goals, this is for you. Towards the end, you’ll also see a real-life example of the power that YouTube can have for realtors.
1. There are A LOT of people using YouTube at every moment of the day
Do you watch anything on YouTube? If you’re like me, you look forward to getting home, grabbing a glass of wine and turning on your Firestick or device that you use to access YouTube. Whether you are familiar with that scenario or not, the facts support the idea that this is normal behavior for most people now.
Google found that 6 out of 10 people prefer online video platforms to live TV.
But the amount of YouTube people watch doesn’t just end at home. Statista recently reported that YouTube accounts for 37% of ALL mobile internet traffic.
Accounting for 37% of ALL mobile internet traffic sounds nearly unbelievable when you consider the fact that applications like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook & WhatsApp are all fighting for our attention already.
Knowing that most people are using YouTube serves as concrete proof that there are many of your potential clients on the platform. If you want to begin connecting with your target audience, it’s better to start sooner than later.
Who knows, maybe you’ll start on YouTube and be a smashing hit! But for most people that probably won’t be the case. Although YouTube is powerful, for most people it takes time to really start seeing the benefits of it.
There are ways to cut that time in half (more on this later), but you should want to get started today.
Here is why you should view the time it takes to create YouTube videos as an investment…
YouTube requires a (small) investment of time to get started, but the payoff can be HUGE
Most realtors I talk to know that they should be creating content but never seem to get to it.
This happens for many different reasons, but it usually comes down to:
- Fear: You are afraid of the camera and hate the feeling you get when you are in front of it
- Direction: You’re not sure what to say, but you do want to put out meaningful content
- Time: You don’t think that the time you are putting into YouTube is worth anything
I help real estate agents get over their fear of being in front of the camera and provide direction through my services.
There are many different ways to handle fear of the camera and/or figuring out what you’ll talk about, but for the purposes of this article, I want to focus on the last point about the time investment.
2. Times have changed in the marketing world and people are tired of being treated like cash machines
There are still (way too many) people who approach marketing from a direct Return on Investment perspective, meaning that if they put $1 into their marketing efforts, they expect to get at least $2 back.
Although this way of marketing make perfect sense at the surface and still works for many, it’s no doubt that what it takes people to buy things online takes more than saying BUY NOW! Over and over and over again.
Let’s be real.
You would much rather feel like you are getting to know someone through their content before they try and sell you things. Although this shift is clear, the majority of marketers still have not adjusted to it.
Most of the marketers you encounter today will approach marketing from a direct ROI perspective. This isn’t a bad thing necessarily as there is a time and place for all marketing activities, but is no longer what should be the starting point for most.
Video content, especially on YouTube, makes building people’s familiarity with you much easier. They help you develop 3 key things that make people feel much better about buying from you – know, like & trust.
- People want to KNOW who you are at some level
- People want to LIKE you for one reason or another
- People want to TRUST you because you show up
Approaching marketing from this frame of mind will help you shift to seeing YouTube content vas an investment towards your future. Another way to invite people to become more familiar with you and what you offer.
However, If you’re still concerned about the time you are about to invest, there is one way to “speed up” the process.
3. Advertising on YouTube Still Comes With Major Opportunities
As of March 2019, YouTube advertising is extremely under-utilized.
In fact, Entrepreneur recently published an article titled “It’s Not Too Late To Be an Early Adopter of YouTube ads”. YouTube advertising has been part of marketing conversation for years, but many people are just waking up to its range of advertising targeting capabilities.
I won’t get too far into it in this article, but YouTube has amazing targeting capabilities that let you target things like specific YouTube channels, keywords, and even specific videos!
For example, let’s say your target audience is watching a video about Island Spice Grill, a delicious Jamaican restaurant in New York City. YouTube gives you the ability to make sure your advertisement shows up right in front of your audience before they get to the Island Spice Grill video that you already know your audience is watching.
Capabilities like these make YouTube advertising very powerful, but the beauty of them is that they have proven to be extremely effective in many ways.
- Ipsos found that YouTube mobile ads are 84% more likely to hold attention than TV ads.
- Ipsos also found that YouTube mobile ads receive viewer attention 83% of the time while TV ads average around 45%
Of course, platforms like Facebook, Twitter & Instagram are also places you could advertise, but is anyone even hearing your ads? Because they are on YouTube.
Google found that 95% of YouTube ads are audible. In comparison, 15% of Facebook video ads are audible.
These facts paint the perfect picture of the opporotunity that is available to many on YouTube because it is so popular.
But does this work for real estate specifically? Let’s look at a real example.
Let’s look at a successful example of what happens when YouTube for agents goes right
Karin is a realtor who is based in Georgia and is seeing GREAT results by using YouTube to gain new leads and drive results.
In the video above, Karin touches on a few ways that realtors can get started with YouTube videos.
On her website, she also shared that she gets 75% of her business from YouTube and has become a local mini-celebrity & public speaker in the span of 12 months.
75% of your business from YouTube?! I am sure that you can imagine how easy it would be to not only attract but also close clients based on your YouTube channel.
Let’s make it happen together.
My name is Farouk and I run by ‘rouk.com where I share marketing, branding & videography related tips for realtors!
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