If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is surely worth a million… and that’s why Ray White are providing video packages for all listings.
The Ray White international network have always taken the role of technology seriously when it comes to the marketing, buying and selling of property. In 2005 Ray White New Zealand recognized the power of a new online trading service called Trade Me, and thereafter became the first large real estate franchise group to place its properties for rent and sale on the site. Now, Ray White has invested in the development of video for every listed property, with a range of options available to our offices depending on the goals of each of our vendors.
Videos mean you can communicate a lot of information on a property in a simple, short format, and videos essentially offer potential purchasers a 24/7 open home on a property. International research shows that viewers often stay longer on websites that use video, so it’s not surprising that there’s high viewer interest on properties featuring videos. Video can be used not only to showcase a property, but can also help in: establishing profile; showing your local expertise and knowledge; and showcasing the local area. Video marketing can play dividends for the agent too – with some international reports indicating that 73% of home-owners are more likely to list with a real estate agent, or agency, who offers to create a video for them and their home. The same report acknowledges data from an Australian agency who utilise video marketing- noting that their properties which featured video received over four times more enquiries than their average listing.
There are a range of benefits to utilising video marketing and capitalise on the benefits of putting your property on YouTube, the second biggest search engine in the world. – The first thing you’ll hear from the experts is that video marketing is one of the trends that has a large impact on search engine optimization, mobile marketing, capturing attention and traffic. Yet – one of the biggest challenges in real estate marketing today is still creating video content. Let’s face it, whilst many are excellent in this space, agents are not meant to be self-producing video creators. We encourage our members to inspire, sell, educate and entertain through this medium – promoting a property’s key features while sharing insights of the home and area in fun and factual way – but there is a learning curve to production, post-production, presentation, storyboarding and promoting a video in full. Ray White New Zealand have partnered with MyAgent to help bridge this gap with a team of professional videographers. Jim Janse, Director at MyAgent tells us that they have “seen a large increase in high-definition video over photo tours. Their cost has come down which has helped and there’s no question of the enormous gain in agent profiling when they put themselves in front of the camera. Our team can easily help the agent overcome any issues they might have in trying to prepare for a video. It really is much simpler than one realises when working with a professional company, and the agent will soon see the benefits of profiling themselves with each property.”
Since the video service launched in New Zealand in December 2013, internationally Ray White have uploaded 31,000 videos to its websites. These videos have received 2.1 million views (including 629,000 in January and 573,000 in February), with browsers spending a combined 701,000 minutes watching video in the first two months of 2014. 71% watched via a personal computer, 16% on a tablet and 13% on mobile phones. More mobile apps may be developed, and the team is exploring the possibility of creating a reporting mechanism that will in real time update a vendor on how many people are coming through an open home – updating the vendor as soon as they sign in at the front door.
Carey Smith, Ray White New Zealand’s Chief Executive says success in the eternally competitive real estate industry comes from finding new and innovative ways to engage with vendors and buyers. “The real stars of our industry are those who build a network and are constantly expanding it, investing in relationships and planting deep roots in their community over time. The technology developments are all part of that – people rely heavily on the web and mobile for all manner of services and information, and everything we do needs to cater to that drive for connectivity and engagement.”
Here are just a few of our favourite videos from the Ray White New Zealand team:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=338m5xtlpnk[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7MPvQv7EvE[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I7FFHMq25Q[/youtube]
Some article information sourced: MyAgent; Videobrewery.com