Why video marketing is such an important part of selling your home

If you’re thinking of listing your home for sale, you want to work with a  real estate firm that offers cutting-edge technology and online marketing. Likewise, if you’re a home buyer, your time and effort are best used viewing video tours of homes.

Either way, video is now a critical part of the real estate marketing process that can’t be ignored.

For that reason, The Alfano Group real estate agency wants to share these statistics and facts about videos in real estate with you:

The prevalence of video in our daily lives

Every day, about 100 million people watch video on the Internet in the U.S.

In fact, the average video watcher sees 32.2 videos per month (more than one per day) and spends an average of 24 minutes each day watching them.

Astoundingly, 74% - nearly three-quarters – of all Internet traffic in 2017 will be video!

Why is video so powerful for marketing real estate?

According to Forrester Research, just one minute of video is the equivalent to 1.8 million words to the human brain – about the same amount of content as about 3,600 web pages filled with text!

We also retain what we see in video much better. A study by the Online Publishers Association found that 80% of viewers recall a good portion of the videos they viewed online.

In fact, 8 out of 10 internet users remember a video ad from a website they visited within the past 30 days!

Home buyers LOVE video!

At least four out of ten (40%) of home buyers surveyed say that virtual video tours of a home for sale are “very useful.”

Surveys reveal that 58% of current home buyers are looking for (or even expect!) an online video of the home they’re viewing online.

Even more swaying, research proves that home listings with videos as part of their marketing strategy receive 403% more views and inquiries than listings with no video.

What kinds of real estate videos are buyers looking for?

Home shoppers love watching online videos of the homes they’re considering viewing. In fact, 70% of online buyers watch video tours of the inside of the homes they’re browsing.

But home buyers aren’t just looking for quick videos spanning random listings. Instead, they’re looking for specific and tangible information that will influence their decision to make an offer and buy – or not.

Reportedly, 86% of home buyers use video to research the community they’re thinking of buying in.

Thanks to a tandem study conducted by Google and the National Association of Realtors, we have some key insights into the videos that consumers most want to see.

In their published findings, “The Digital House Hunt: Consumer and Market Trends in Real Estate,” they reported that consumers want to see:

            •          86% videos that educate them about the community

            •          70% video tours of the homes for sale

            •          54% educational videos about the buying and selling process

            •          30% testimonial videos from past clients and referral partners, which is important for building trust and a comfort level

            •          25% videos about the real estate agent they’re working with and his or her company

Video and mobile are BFFs

For the first time ever, mobile was king. In 2017, social media and Internet browsing on our smartphones and mobile devices surpassed Internet browsing on desktops, laptops, and other devices.

In fact, almost 80% of time spent on social media is now on mobile devices, and we're expected to have 6.1 billion additional smartphone users by 2020.

Home buyers, too, are going mobile, and looking for content, conducting searches, and watching videos on their phones and devices – often on the fly as they go home shopping or walk into an open house.

In fact, consumers these days are watching videos for an average of 1 to 3 minutes on their mobile devices – much longer than on their traditional computers.

Video marketing your listing gets more clicks, likes, and shares

Just by including a video link in an email (such as one promoting new listings), your click-through rate goes up by 200% - which means more exposure for your house for sale.

A fascinating study of consumer behavior actually mapped the eye movements of participants as they browsed the Internet. The study found that when viewing Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) like Google and others, video results drew and kept our attention at a higher rate than other content.

Google, Bing, Yahoo, and the other search engines also give heavier relevance to video content as they’re algorithms rank them. In fact, once a video reaches the first page of Google rankings, consumers are 41% more likely to click that video thumbnail instead of just a link or photo.

Other real estate video facts:

Where are home buyers are searching for these real estate videos? These are the most popular platforms for buyers, sellers, or anyone interested in real estate videos to find them:

51% YouTube

41% Brokerage websites

37% Google results

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Are most real estate agents properly utilizing video?

According to independent statistics, only 15% of agents are using videos for marketing, and only 12% of real estate agents have a YouTube account. But even more telling, of that 12% with a YouTube account, only 5% are active on that platform, creating and posting new video content regularly.

However, 85% of buyers and sellers are looking to work with a real estate agent and company that integrates video as part of their home marketing strategy!

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Please contact The Alfano Group real estate agency if you’d like more information about how video marketing can help sell your home or make home buying more fun and productive!