Video has a host of uses in marketing, the most compelling of which is to get a longer or more complicated message across, and also for people to get a sense of knowing you.
Let's assume you're looking for realtor or loan officer marketing ideas to increase business. You want to spend as little as possible, see results as fast as possible, and ideally see results before you commit much money or time.
Sound fair? I think that fits most realtors and mortgage brokers.
Your options are using a service like ours, or if you can pick up a webcam, or download Adobe Flash trial offer for free, you may be able to produce your own movies using this advice. There are also tools you can find online to convert powerpoint files into web-ready flash movies, or you could use a presentation product like Camtasia or Webex for online education based on other people seeing your screen.
Let's just speculate what we'd want video to do for us. Here's our wish list:
1. Generate high quality exclusive mortgage or real estate leads as inexpensively as possible.
2. Get you more referrals from past clients and other referral sources, i.e. realtors, mortgage brokers, financial planners, tax professionals.
3. Save you time explaining things, i.e. once the deal is already in processing or under contract.
4. Get you other streams of revenue with no change to current business
We'll cover just point one here and look at points two through four in articles to follow, on this site or ours.
Now that we know our goal for video number one is specifically to generate leads, we can assume the easiest logical place is your website, though you could certainly use them in seminars or burnDVDs. The easiest, fastest way to make that work would be to add videos to your website, and buy traffic on a pay-per-click basis from Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc., though can certainly get free traffic off craigslist, yahoo groups, or even reviewing books on amazon.com. You can also show off your expertise by uploading a video to YouTube.com or MySpace Videos. For a free report on generating traffic to your site, check out our site below.
Next, you need to convert the user. What's amazing is that this is the payoff, but so few websites focus much effort here! People spend substantial time, money, and effort to get traffic to their site, but not enough on optimizing their site to convert this traffic into money. If you change your conversions from 10 to 30, you have just tripled your income with virtually no change to expenses or your time moving forward. Using well-produced videos on websites has been proven to raise visitor-to-contact conversion ratios by 20% to 500% and on average 250% increase in marketing studies. People relate to video. People are busy, overworked, and lazy (speaking frankly) so serving it up via video helps them on their preferred terms. Viewers also see and hear the message simultaneously which increases retention and comprehension, and you have a chance to help them to better control their first impression of you as "expert" and "winner" and "this person can help me".
Your #1 goal is to get visitors into your "funnel" which means open some form of relationship, be it subscribe to your newsletter, or contact you about a property or "find out interest rates" or "what school district this is in" – which are, of course, buying signals.
Here's the opportunity then: warm up a visitor so they get to know you, see your expertise, and see a difference in you from the competitors. The best tool for this job is online video – because it's immediate, available, and opens a personal, emotional instinctive connection. It's the next best thing to speaking with them in person, before you know if it's appropriate to waste your time, and before they want to allow you "in".
It's then up to you to give them what they want (information), preferably by answering their question with more questions, in order to both maintain control of the sales process while leaving them with the feeling of control. Did you note that? Don't just answer an online lead's question. Ask with another question, and mirror the style and media of their inquiry. If they call you, they probably like the phone, so call them back. If they email you a seven word email, mirror their style and email them back in a short manner – but be sure to ask them another question upping the ante, and also, be crystal clear about what next step you want them to take – be it "please call my cel, I'll be out in the field" or "I'll check...what school district do you want to be in?" (which implies they'll email you back). Buyer's who buy will buy, and take every relevant step along the way. If you gave them a clear and relevant next step and they don't take it, then don't waste your time chasing them, but keep them on your email newsletter and perhaps they'll convert later. So make sure, in every step, you know and communicate in a crystal clear fashion what next step you want them to take.
Movies you add to your site should provide a mix of answering questions and also creating more questions, so that the viewer's natural instinct is to ask you for more information. A real life conversation is push-pull, listening and talking.
One of the best ways to open communication is with "free reports". Offer something of value, but only if they register. This relies heavily on the headline, since they can't see the content until they register – but that works to your advantage. It's all benefit and no cost at that point, so you're casting the widest possible net. Also, mixing up some PDF e-books with webcam videos for the actual free report is a great way to show off your expertise. It's not just information – it shows off your skills and knowledge.
The importance of showing your own picture, voice, and/or video like a webcam cannot be overstated. People make emotional decisions then back it up with rational reasons or justifications. You can be your best on camera, and if you need to do fifty takes on your webcam to get it perfect, you just duplicated your time while ensuring a consistent first impression. Make no mistake – people really will make a first impression of you from video, and that impression counts.
Wrapping up: what next?
Selling over the internet is not a passing fad, and video is the best tool for certain aspects of the sales process. Producing the video can be as simple and easy as finding movies you can brand to yourself, or as easy as talking into a webcam. Online movies can help you triple your income while working fewer hours. The first step is to determine what clients you want more of, then deliver what they are looking for in a way to open a relationship with you. The more of your time you duplicate, the more scalable your services will be – along with your paycheck.
