So, it's old news that we can reach an enormous audience via social media platforms.

We all know that we should leverage these platforms to tap into our audience for engagement and to drive sales.

You may even be aware that YouTube accounts for 40% of all mobile internet traffic and takes second place only to Google as the largest search engine on the internet.

In an online landscape where new social media platforms seem to pop up every day, eventually, when you think about your marketing mix and content strategy they all start to blur together. 

So what are the benefits of YouTube over other social media platforms and how can you get your real estate YouTube videos to drive sales? 

Make it Personal

People like to work with other people, not a sterile business persona.

Think of your YouTube real estate videos as a place to share a side of your brand's personality that your audience can't experience on other platforms. 

View this as an opportunity to build trust with your audience by showing them some behind the scenes moments between customers and your business. This could be a video review or a fun interview with staff members.

YouTube is the new TV

According to IPSOS only 45% of TV advertising time gets noticed by viewers while YouTube mobile ads have 84% more engagement than TV ads.

Viewers come to YouTube with a different focus. They often know what they want to watch and search for it, making them more engaged from the start.

In a sense, users have already "opted-in" to their YouTube experience by deciding what they want to view and searching it up. They tolerate advertisements better in this scenario than a viewing experience they are not necessarily engaged in.

Ads in the digital world are also targeted to their audience and are more relevant, apposed to broadcast television that is more a luck of the draw.

Why Not Just Use Facebook?

Both platforms have their place, but YouTube outperforms Facebook for Video in a couple of ways. Here is a bit of a breakdown. 

YouTube videos have more "sticking power". By this, I mean that they are found by your audience long after they are posted.

This is because people use YouTube to search for video content, whereas users only see what they are served up by Facebook's algorithms. Think about it, have you ever used Facebook to search for video content? 

The fact that YouTube's primary function is video content also means that viewers usually view video with the sound on, creating a better experience with your content.

Most FaceBook video content is viewed with the sound off because people aren't going to FaceBook to find videos, it's more something that they stumble upon. 

You can add subtitles to your video but part of the experience will be lost. 

Another big difference between these platforms is what they count as a view. A viewer has to watch 30 seconds of a YouTube video before it counts as a view in your analytics (and you are charged for it in paid advertising).

Facebook counts a view after just 3 seconds, which means a lot of your paid advertising can get sucked up by viewers who scrolled on after 3 seconds. It's also misleading when you start trying to measure your video's performance.

Lastly, YouTube videos will usually show up in Google before a Facebook link because Google owns YouTube.  

Real Estate YouTube Marketing Strategies

Now that we've covered the who's and why's of using YouTube for your realtor videos lets take a look at some strategies for marketing on YouTube.

Get The Foundations Right

First things first, before you start driving traffic to your YouTube channel make sure it looks great and is seamless with the rest of your branding. Get channel art made specifically for YouTube's channel art specs and include your logo.

Fill out all of the relevant information in your channels about tab, including a link to your website, phone number, and business address so that viewers can easily find out more by getting in touch.

Make sure you choose a video thumbnail that is appealing and draws your viewer in. This is the cover of your video, think of it as your video's visual title. You can also make your thumbnails a part of your branding by keeping them uniform with a thumbnail template.

3D Virtual Tours

Virtual tours are significantly more engaging than still image and give potential buyers a feel for what a property is like before an actual visit.

They also create an opportunity for investors who are "buying blind" to experience a property visually if they won't get the chance to see the property physically. 

Video tours present an alternative to holding an open house inspection. According to The National Association of Realtors, home buyers are more interested in properties that have a virtual tour available online. 

This kind of engagement can be created in a video listing for YouTube that gets embedded onto your real estate website.

Content Marketing

YouTube presents a great opportunity to share useful information with your audience to build trust and brand awareness. 

According to a study conducted by the National Association of Realtors and Google, 86% of video purpose for home shoppers is to research a specific community.

Creating YouTube real estate videos that give a rundown on local areas will put you in the line of a lot of YouTube (and possibly Google) search traffic.

House buyers also search YouTube for "how-to" videos during their research so create content that helps your audience during their purchase. 

Paid Advertising on YouTube

YouTube advertising is easy to set up and allows businesses to work within their marketing budget. There are a number of targeting options that allow you to get your realtor videos in front of your audience.  

The options for advertising on YouTube are:

TrueView Instream Ads

This is a skippable ad that plays before the video the user has chosen.

Bumper Ads

A short form 6 second ad that is designed for mobile engagement.

TrueView Discovery Ads

This is an option to get your video displayed as native content on YouTube's homepage, search results and alongside other videos.

Work Your SEO

Optimize your videos for search within YouTube and Google by including keywords in your titles and video descriptions.

Including a video transcript will also help your SEO by giving your video extra text to crawl.

Embedding your videos onto your website will get them seen by Google in two places. Google will usually only crawl one video on your site, so embed the video you want to rank as the first video on your page.

Include a CTA

YouTube has a CTA feature knows as cards. You can add these interactive buttons to your videos to provide a way for viewers to subscribe to your channel or click through to your website. These are a great idea as they show up in the video as it's being watched.

It's also a good idea to encourage your viewers to comment by inviting them to share their feedback in the comments.

Embed Your Videos to Your Website

Use your website to promote your YouTube channel by including a page of your site dedicated to your video content. You can embed YouTube videos into your webpage so that viewers don't have to leave your site to watch your videos.

This makes it easier for your content to be viewed and to bump up your number of views as well as being good for your SEO.

Get Found Based on Your Location

Include geotags in your videos to show YouTube where you are located. This will help your videos to show up for searches that are specific to where your business is. 

You can also help Google sort your video to your location by including your address in your video script.

Spread Your Video Content Across All Your Marketing Channels 

Now that you've created quality content for your YouTube channel you can repurpose this across your other marketing channels.

Share your videos to your other social media platforms and promote them in your EDM's. Embed them into your blog and flesh them out into a written post to give your audience another way to digest your content. 

Measure, Optimize, and Repeat

The best strategy for marketing on any platform starts with knowing what your goals are and how you're going to measure them. A YouTube content strategy is not a set-and-forget-it operation. 

You can access your video's analytics from your YouTube profile to see how your videos are performing. You should do this regularly and make adjustments to your strategy based on your results.

Not only will you learn how to make your content perform better over time, but you can also reduce your marketing costs and maximize your ROI.  

Wrap Up

The National Association of Realtors has found that 51% of home buyers use YouTube as their video platform for research before making a purchase. This makes real estate YouTube videos a marketing opportunity that your real estate agency should be taking advantage of.

Feel free to check out the rest of our blog for more information on trends in the real estate market.