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Real estate agents and mortgage loan officers do a whole lot of marketing, but there is no better use of their time and resources than producing short and simple videos. We’ve covered the research behind this before, but here’s a compelling summary: 85% of home buyers and sellers admit that they want to work with a real estate agent who uses video. Homes for sale that have video marketing have 400% more views and inquiries than homes without any video. 86% of potential home buyers are using video to research communities, and 70% use it to view inside of a home. But, here’s the rub: we’ve known (for years!) that video is KING when it comes to social media. However, most Realtors and loan officers still are using it reluctantly – or not at all. And I totally understand that because it’s intimidating to get in front of the camera and “act natural.” I’ve found that if you have a carefully planned, focused and specific topic that’s offering a lot of value to your audience, it’s much easier to turn on the camera and just let your passion and expertise take over. So, here are 100 video topics for Realtors (and many of these will work for mortgage lenders, too) can shoot and share for their social media marketing: 1. Community videos (Introducing and covering general information about different neighborhoods and communities). 2. Listing house tours (of course!). 3. Architectural tours (talking briefly/showing one kind of architecture with a few local examples). 4. Listing presentation – have a short video to send to your potential clients ahead of the listing presentation. 5. FAQs for listing your home – convenient to send to new clients and have on your website/social media. 6. FAQs for buyers – same thing. 7. Special FAQs for first-time buyers (first-time buyers needs extra education and TLC!). 8. Monthly market updates. 9. What IS included with a typical home sale? 10. What ISN’T included with a typical home sale (but maybe negotiable). 11. About the loan/mortgage process (bring your lender into this one!). 12. About title and escrow and the process (same as above but with title and escrow staff). 13. Breaking down property taxes. 14. About your home inspection (including bringing in your favorite inspector for a cameo). 15. About pest inspections (same). 16. Answer a single question from your clients or audience – maybe even live! 17. Preparing first-time buyers for the stress, uncertainty, and fear they might experience. 18. Getting ready to buy with a mortgage lender (preapproval, etc.). 19. The benefits (and high Return on Investment) of home staging. 20. Fixing up a home to sell (including your contractor). 21. Fixing up a home once you buy it with tile, paint carpet, fixtures, and other cosmetic fixes. 22. About roofs, repairing or replacing roofs, roof certifications, etc. 23. Talking about the appraisal process with your favorite appraiser. 24. Revealing real estate agent secrets. 25. How to choose a good lender (what to look for, questions to ask, avoiding big internet companies, etc.) 26. How to choose a good listing agent (you!). 27. What to look for in a buyer’s agent (you again!). 28. What to do in a bidding war (for buyers). 29. How to create buzz that might result in a bidding war (for sellers). 30. How to get more for the sale of your home. 31. Negotiation tips, strategies, and tactics. 32. What goes into a purchase offer other than just price. 33. Breaking down and explaining a purchase agreement. 34. TESTIMONIALS! 35. Cover community events, local fairs, festivals, fun runs, etc. 36. Profile local businesses. 37. Interview local politicians. 38. Interview local school principals (although you can’t give school system ratings or rankings as a Realtor, so be careful with this one!). 39. Cover new restaurant openings or just give a shout-out to your favorite neighborhood restaurants/bars, etc. 40. If you lived in this neighborhood, THESE would be your local amenities…series. 41. Summarize all of your written blog posts. 42. Funniest things you’ve seen as an agent. 43. Home security does and don'ts (with an alarm company). 44. Why you DON’T want a discounted agent or a low-cost real estate brokerage. 45. Don’t be ZILLOW’D! 46. Covering the details of a Comparative Market Analysis, and how it helps determine a fair and accurate home price. 47. Youth sports and athletics in your neighborhood/community/city. 48. Yoga in your neighborhood/community/city. 49. The best gyms in your neighborhood/community/city. 50. Best coffee shops in your neighborhood/community/city (very important!) 51. Best ice cream shops in your neighborhood/community/city. 52. Parks and recreation areas in your neighborhood/community/city. 53. Common buyer mistakes to avoid. 54. Common seller mistakes to avoid. 55. Local holiday themes (Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc.). 56. Awesome house amenities, appliances, new tech innovations, etc. 57. Covering one specific amenity like floor tile, countertop surfaces, fixture metals, etc. 58. All about swimming pools and real estate (prices, liability, renting with a pool, impact on sales price, etc.). 59. Homeowner liability. 60. Homeowner insurance (you can do several videos with your insurance agent!). 61. Interview a policeman about crime and safety in a specific community (but Realtors CAN'T give their own information about crime statistics and levels, just refer to a third-party source). 62. Common neighbor nuisances, disturbances, and issues (and who’s right?). 63. A day in the life of a Realtor or mortgage loan officer (you!). 64. All about HOAs. 65. Are condominiums really a good deal? 66. What to look for – and what to avoid – when buying a condo. 67. Rent versus buy broken down. 68. Radon safety. 69. CO2 detectors and safety. 70. Fire safety in the home, including the cause of most home fires and how to prevent them. 71. What buyers or sellers need to know about unpermitted upgrades, rooms, or structures. 72. Inside a real estate closing/document signing. 73. When is the best time to sell your home? 74. When is the best time to buy a home? 75. Septic tanks, sewers, and common plumbing problems. 76. All about closing costs – and who pays them? 77. About your company. 78. Why you love selling real estate. 79. About you, both personally as an agent. 80. Design trends, paint colors that are “in,” etc. 81. How to spruce up your curb appeal. 82. Landscaping tips. 83. Painting tips. 84. Energy saving/going green tips. 85. Money saving tips. 86. Cool and fun around the house hacks. 87. Is it a buyer’s or seller’s market? 88. Special offer, raffle, giveaway, etc. 89. New home buyers jumping for joy! 90. History of your community/neighborhood/city. 91. Great things to do in the summer in your area. 92. Or, great things to do in each season. 93. Or, even a weekly “What to Do in _______ (city name) This Week” series. 94. Video scavenger hunt/neighborhood/city trivia contest. 95. Profile of the area’s pro sports teams. 96. Buyer/seller regrets (and how to avoid them). 97. Investing in rental units. 98. Buying multi-family or multi-unit real estate. 99. Whiteboard instructional videos (there are some great services that can make these for you if you send them the written bullet points). 100. A breakdown of why home ownership is still the best way to build wealth – and the American Dream! Can you commit to doing all of these over the next year? (That's about one every three+ days). Or, maybe highlight the ten you like most and schedule them for next month to get started. Either way, you'll see the results with your marketing and client engagement almost immediately! Contact me if you need help or want to talk strategy! -Norm :-) 
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 Would you like to win a free iPad?
Of course you would! After all, who doesn’t like winning free stuff? And that’s the basis of an incredibly effective – yet underutilized - marketing tool for Realtors that I’ll talk about today: social media contests, giveaways, and raffles. In fact, psychologists have found a strange nuance of human behavior that's nearly universal – we love to win just about anything, and we love free. Studies have shown that people vastly overvalue an item, good, or service if the word "free" is attached. Such is the case with an advertising campaign conducted by Krispy Kreme years ago when they offered a free donut to each patron on one particular day. The lines were so long that people had to wait up to two hours just for one donut (how much is two hours of your time worth?), and the promotion was so frenzied that the donut retailer ended up having their most profitable day ever! Real estate agents can use this same psychology to promote themselves, albeit online and without the donut (eat that yourself). To give you a broad definition, we’re talking about giveaways, raffles, and contests (GR&C) as one interchangeable promotional tool, since they are basically the same things despite small and subtle differences. Likewise, these can be conducted online via your website, social media accounts, email blasts, or any combination. But today, I'll talk more about GR&C's for Facebook. The basic premise is simple: we offer something of value for free for the winner(s) of these GR&C’s as a way to promote your brand. The benefits can include: • More page likes • Increased sharing of your page/post • Increased engagement, energy, and interest in your page and services • Develop a fun rapport with your followers • Add new people to your database • Generate more reviews and testimonials • Build overall awareness of you, your brand, and your services So what might a GR&C look like on Facebook? Here are a few common ideas: -A quiz or trivia -A random drawing for new people that like our page -Random drawing for all of your followers -Random drawing for people who say they want to be eligible, either by liking or commenting on the post But my favorite GR&C’s involve some form of a photo contest: -Take a funny selfie in or around your house -Take a photo of a DIY home improvement or decorating project you did around the house -Take a selfie in front of one of your For Sale signs -Take a selfie somewhere recognizable in the city/neighborhood you sell real estate in -Take a photo of a home you’ve helped buy or sell -A social media scavenger hunt, where you give clues, and people have to take a photo at those places around town or per your instructions The possibilities for great GR&C’s involving photos are endless, and they also gain far more interest than text alone and give you important social proof, humanizing your brand. You can also extend this to videos, but you'll get far fewer participants. The key to a good GR&C is that you make it simple and document the rules clearly. That includes who is eligible, what they have to do to enter, what exactly you’re giving away (and how many), how they can enter, and how long the promotion will run. Create a big, clear, nice image for us that explains the contest, the prize, the terms, etc. You can also post about the GR&C on your blog, website, on Instagram, and via email blast. When the deadline ends for submissions, there are several ways you can decide the winner. It can be a random drawing based on names-in-a-hat or random number selection, or you can simply choose your favorite. But my preferred method for picking a winner is by posting all of the photos from the participants (assuming you ran a giveaway with photos) and let your followers vote for their favorite. The photo with the most likes, wins! That also encourages participants to share their photo/your post to encourage their other friends to like your page, follow you, and vote. To step up the promotion for the sake of enhancing your business, partner with a local business in the city or neighborhood where you sell homes. Businesses will often gladly give away a restaurant coupon for a free meal, a free car wash, a free massage, a free coffee, etc. just because of the advertising it will yield them. By bringing in a local business, you also encourage them to share it with their extensive customer database on Facebook and elsewhere, so you’re really gaining massive new exposure to a new audience. But, before you fly off and start setting up GR&C’s on Facebook, there are some rules and regulations you should be aware of. From what I’ve read, you can only run these GR&C’s on your business page (not personal). You also have to clearly define the terms and rules, who is eligible, and share a standard Facebook disclaimer that states that Facebook isn’t involved in any way. You also CAN’T ask contest participants to: Recommended you or your business on their page Share your Page to be eligible Tag themselves in a random photo (one they aren’t actually in) Post something on their own timeline Share your page or raffle on one of their friend’s timeline Here are Facebook’s specific rules for promotions like this: E. Promotions 1. If you use Facebook to communicate or administer a promotion (ex: a contest or sweepstakes), you are responsible for the lawful operation of that promotion, including: a. The official rules; b. Offer terms and eligibility requirements (ex: age and residency restrictions); and c. Compliance with applicable rules and regulations governing the promotion and all prizes offered (ex: registration and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals) 2. Promotions on Facebook must include the following: a. A complete release of Facebook by each entrant or participant. b. Acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. 3. Promotions may be administered on Pages or within apps on Facebook. Personal Timelines and friend connections must not be used to administer promotions (ex: “share on your Timeline to enter” or “share on your friend's Timeline to get additional entries”, and "tag your friends in this post to enter" are not permitted). 4. We will not assist you in the administration of your promotion, and you agree that if you use our service to administer your promotion, you do so at your own risk. My advice is to start small, with a simple Starbucks card giveaway or random drawing. But begin to do it regularly – like Free Giveaway Friday, as an example, or on the first day of every month. Eventually, people will flock to your site regularly as word gets out and they realize that you're consistently giving great prizes away. *** Need help setting up a Facebook giveaway, managing your Facebook marketing, or with any real estate marketing? Contact us! |
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