Video content is all the rage nowadays. There is no doubt about that. And YouTube is the queen of all platforms you can post your videos on. However, there is a lot of competition on YouTube. Here’s how to get your real estate videos watched on YouTube.
Everybody wants a piece of it, and the organic reach of your videos might not be as high as you would expect. Especially with real estate videos, that are probably some of the least optimized types of videos. In my opinion that is.
Given the fact that video content actually works really well with real estate though, because what better way is there to showcase a piece of property other than video, YouTube might actually be a gold mine for you.
Anyways, enough with the jibber jabber. Let’s see how you can promote your real estate videos on YouTube effectively and get more views.
Don’t start with property & sales videos
I know this sounds a bit counterintuitive and you probably want to showcase a nice piece of property and make the sale. Heck, over at Veedyou.com we do a lot of real estate video editing and I can tell you right off the bat that most property videos these days look so cinematic that you would expect them to get tons and tons of views. I will give you that.
But the truth is these videos don’t really do well at all on YouTube. Nobody actually searches for property videos on YouTube. So you want to skip those, at least in the very early stages of developing your YouTube presence.
Insead build up your channel first a little bit. Put out some videos that will get you some subscribers and view counts. Later on you can start adding property videos that you will actually have an audience to show them too.
But how do you get your channel off the ground? Here are some tips.
Answer questions related to your industry
YouTube works pretty much like a search engine. People type in a search query and they get back a bunch of different videos as search results.
Make a list of potential questions prospect buyers ask before moving in your area and start answering those in your videos. These could be questions that are specific to your geographic area for example.
Such as: “How much does it cost to live in X area?” or “What are the pros and cons of living in X area?” and so on and so forth.
You can get a ton of ideas by simply using YouTube’s suggestions in the search bar or tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner.
Optimize your videos for higher YouTube rankings
Like I mentioned above, YouTube works like a search engine. Videos get ranked for different search queries based on a bunch of different factors (aka the YouTube algorithm). Obviously no one know what is the exact combination of factors that will get you the #1 spot in the search results. But here are a few things that will help.
First and foremost you want to target searchable keywords and put those keywords in the title of your video. That will tell YouTube that your video is about that specific topic.
Next, use your video description box to explain what you cover in the video. Again, it’s a good idea to use your targeted keywords here too. You can even go as far as providing a full transcript of your video inside the description box.
Lastly but not least make sure to mention the keywords and/or words that are related to the topic inside the video. YouTube uses a speech recognition automatic software and actually “listens” to what your video is about.
So always make sure to use these keywords in a natural sounding way so that YouTube figures out what is the topic of your video.
Pay attention to social signals
YouTube is also a social platform and it uses a variety of different social signals to decide how it ranks videos. The number of comments, likes, shares but also more advanced stuff such as the average view time or click through rate will determine how well your video does.
And there are no tricks or shortcuts here. You simply need to create super helpful, engaging and fun to watch videos that provide real information. That is what keeps your audience watching until the end and that’s what makes them appreciate your work by liking the video or subscribing to your channel.
Don’t neglect thumbnails. Go the extra mile and put in the time you need to create catchy thumbnails that make people want to click on your video.
I found that videos that do well in the first couple of hours after they have been publish tend to do better in the long run. So always post during the day when you know your audience is online and make sure to let your email list (in case you have one), friends or family know that your video is up.
The more views and likes you get right after you posted the more YouTube will push your video and show it to other potential viewers. Which leads us to the next and final tip I have for you.
Suggested and recommended videos
A large portion of all the views on YouTube don’t really come from search queries.
YouTube suggests and recommends new videos to it’s users based on their behaviour, like what type of videos they normally watch, how they are interacting with those videos and how likely they are to enjoy a suggested/recommended video basically.
Now, there is not a step by step recipe to get your videos appear in people’s suggested and recommended tabs. But one thing that helps is to create videos on a topic that already has some hype around it or on something that’s of high interest for your audience.
For example, I bet something around the lines of “How Covid 19 Will Impact The Real Estate Market” should do well, given the context.
Before we wrap up, there is also the option of running paid campaigns to promote your Youtube channel. Which is a whole different kind of animal. So if you have the budget, maybe keep that in mind as well.
Over to you
That’s about it from my end. I know video content creation is a lot of work but I dare you to give it a try. It might get you out of your comfort zone, it might be something new or challenging but it is the way to go forward if you want to keep up with your competition. Or better yet, get in front of everybody.
Author bio:
Cristian Stanciu is a freelance video editor, owner and post-production coordinator of Veedyou Media – a company offering video editing services to videographers, marketing agencies, video production studios or brands all over the globe. I can catch up with him on his blog or on LinkedIn.
