Wav whitepaper- video-5.5.14

Video Marketing – The Secret to More Effective Lead Generation
1

Video Marketing – The
Secret to More Effective
Lead Generation
Marilyn Wilson
Founding Partner
May 6, 2014
www.wavgroup.com

2
Table of Contents
Video
Marketing
–
Becoming
Mainstream
..............
3

Did
you
know?
.......................................................
4

Consumers
EAT
UP
Real
Estate
Videos
....................
7

Why
does
Video
Help
you
Build
Traffic
to
your

Website?
................................................................
9

Make
them
Easy
to
Find
.......................................
13

Improve
the
Value
of
your
eLeads
Program
..........
14

EASY
to
Produce
Automatically
............................
14

Case
Study
–
Century
21
Hometown
-‐
Successful

Video
Marketing
in
Action
....................................
15

What
to
look
for
when
choosing
a
Video
Marketing

Partner:
................................................................
19

For
More
Information:
.........................................
20

About
WAV
Group
...............................................
21

3
Video Marketing – Becoming
Mainstream
With all the tools at your disposable in marketing, what should you
use to stand out from the competition? Staying ahead of the curve
allows you to maximize your marketing ROI and attract new clients.
We are all looking for the secret sauce – the way to differentiate our
business from the pack and gain a strong leadership position that
none of our competitors will ever be able to match.
While we can dream, we can never realize this goal unless we
continually look for ways to re-invent our business. To be a star in
real estate, we always need to be evolving to stay ahead of the
competition. If we simply rely on using the same tools and processes
we always have used in the past, our chances of becoming a star are
pretty limited. If you take nothing else away from this paper, learn
from one of the greatest life coaches of all – Stephen Covey. He
says, “Whatever you focus on you will get.” If we simply focus on the
day-to-day issues and never step back and look for big leaps of
innovation and breakthrough thinking, our business will never
change. In fact, it will probably continue to weaken over time. So, if
you want to grow your business and improve your position in the
market in 2014 you should read on.
This paper outlines a simple, but extremely important trend you must
address in your business if you are going to be successful over the
long run. You must tap into a very important consumer behavior that
grows exponentially every year – watching videos. It’s so simple, yet
so foreign to many in the real estate business. It's time to start
engaging and captivating your audience with video - they are waiting
for it.
Here are a few important stats that demonstrate the importance of
video and its role in your marketing plan.

4
According to an article published on Digiday, the authority on digital
media, marketing and advertising, video is becoming ubiquitous as a
business-marketing tool.
Video is Ubiquitous
More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month,
spending more than 4 billion hours watching videos (YouTube).
According to A.C. Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages
18-34 than any cable network.
Did you know?
Today 89 million people in the United States are going to watch 1.2
billion online videos (ComScore). That’s nearly 1 in 3 people in the
United States.

5
Globally, online video users are expected to double to 1.5 billion in
2016. (Cisco)
Video is taking over the Internet
Globally, online video traffic will be 55% of all consumer Internet
traffic in 2016. (Cisco)
Still an Opportunity to Own it, but not
for Long!
Only about 24% of national brands are using online video to market
to consumers (Kantar Media). Ironically, NAR stats suggest 1 in 4
listings includes a virtual tour or video today, yet real estate is one of
the most visually appealing businesses. Consumers cannot get
enough of a depth of photos and videos that highlight all of the
beauty and key features of a property.
76% of marketers plan to add video to their sites, making it a higher
priority than Facebook, Twitter and blog integration (Social Media
Examiner).
Online video production will account for more than 1/3 of all online
advertising spending within the next 5 years. (Borrell Associates)
Video is Mobile Too
89% of new home shoppers use a mobile search engine at the onset
and throughout their research.
Online video now accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic and up to 69%
of traffic on certain networks (Bytemobile Mobile Analytics Report).
Video has to Load Instantly or Else
Consumers give up on an online video if it doesn’t load in 2 seconds
(University of Massachusetts Amherst and Akamai Technologies).

6
Video Gets Shared…. a LOT!
92% percent of mobile video viewers share videos with others
(Invodo).
Users sharing video on retail and brand sites chose Facebook 46% of
the time, with email accounting for 40% and Twitter capturing 14% of
shares. (Invodo)
Videos Drive Engagement
52% of consumers say watching product videos makes them more
confident in online purchase decisions. (Invodo)
Mobile and tablet shoppers are 3 times as likely to view a video as
laptop or desktop users. (NPD)
Mobile video ads that include social media buttons drive 36% higher
engagement (Rhythm NewMedia).
According to NAR, 73% of sellers say they would list with a real
estate agent who incorporates video to market their listing.

7
Consumers EAT UP Real Estate
Videos
Real estate consumers are hungry for rich information about
properties they may be interested in. That’s why there are over 100
million visitors looking at properties every month.
Consumers also use video to learn about neighborhoods, market
performance and even staging tips. According to The Digital House
Hunt study published jointly by Google and the National Association
of REALTORS®, consumers use video to learn about communities,
tour the inside of homes and review customer testimonials.
The same study shows brokerage websites and listing aggregator
websites are strong places for consumers to view videos in addition
to YouTube. From first sight until purchase, real estate is a visual
experience for the consumer. Video is the tool that combines visuals
and information. You can even ask consumers to generate their own
videos and share them with you. You could ask them to share videos
from their favorite festival, parade, or restaurant. Consumers can also
contribute videos in their neighborhood, favorite hiking trail, beach or
sunset.

8
In the graph above you see the affect video has on the way
consumers do research real estate. YouTube, brokerage websites
and Google videos are used regularly now to learn more about real
estate.
Do all of these charts and stats help you understand why I believe
video is important in real estate today? In a word, video makes every
element of your online marketing mix more effective. If you have not
been taking video marketing seriously in your business you cannot
avoid it any longer. Video is not a fad and it’s time for it to have a
larger role in your marketing strategy.
The bottom line… Video is engaging. In fact, viewers spend 100%
more time on pages with videos on them. (Source: MarketingSherpa)
We live in a video-centric world today. That’s why companies like
YouTube, Instagram and Vine are so successful.

9
Why does Video Help you Build
Traffic to your Website?
In simple terms, video is great for getting and keeping traffic on your
site. Not only does video engage users, but search engines see it as
“rich” content! This means video will help your site get better
exposure and more likely to be viewed by more potential clients.
Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, all have varying
formulas to determine which sites show up at the top of search. They
are looking to provide the best consumer experience possible with
every search. Video can help increase this user experience.
Video also helps increase the amount of time a consumer will spend
on your site since they are viewing videos.
There are additional steps you can take to ensure that any of your
video efforts pay off fully.
First, ranking in today’s search engine requires regular management
and focus. It’s critical to find partners that will provide you with the
systems that allow you to create attractive and engaging video
content automatically.
Second, it’s crucial you find programs that help you maximize your
video investment to build traffic and engagement with your website,
blog, mobile sites and social media.
Third, finding ways to leverage the traffic generated to your listings
from inside the MLS and to generate traffic to your website thus
capturing the leads from your listings can also help make your video
content investment be much more effective.
Own Your Own Content, Own your
Own Destiny
Today, your listings are likely available on tons of websites, many of
which probably have better search engine rankings than your site

10
created by a cleaner user interface and rich, engaging content around
every listing. So how do you compete with that?
There’s one answer: Offer potential clients content that they cannot
find other places. Don’t you want your agents and your company to
be perceived as the “go-to” company in your area? If so, then you
need to take advantage of your local knowledge. What’s the best
way to share your local expertise? Video, of course; the more local
the better. Individual property listings can be great. Video coverage
of local events can be great too. Here’s a great sample of local
content offered via video as an example.
All Property Videos are Not Created
Equal
There are tons of companies that claim to build property videos. It
isn’t just about the video, though.
With plenty of options on the market for video producers, here is what
we would recommend to look for when you’re choosing a video
partner.
Calls to Action
Let’s walk through the ways you can engage a potential new client
from your listing. Say they find your listing online and it catches their
eye for some reason. They might not quite be ready to buy or even
look at the property. They might not want to connect with an agent to
see the property, but they would like to learn more about it on their
own. How can they learn more about the property? In most cases
today a consumer would likely take the property address and type it
into Google and probably find information on third party sites, NOT
yours.
Not to worry though, because you can have some control.
You can offer videos with strong ways for consumers to continue to
learn more about the property and become more interested in it.

11
Video can be used to invite a potential client to learn more about a
neighborhood, local market stats, local festivals, 5k races, or their
favorite restaurant. Videos can also be simple testimonials from
residents talking about why they like living in their neighborhood.
This information, of course, can be married with agent contact
information and profiles. While you’re at it, you can include
testimonials and ratings from past clients providing potential new
clients with the
performance
transparency
they are looking
for too.
Without inviting
consumers to
engage with you
in a non-
intimidating way,
you will likely
lose them to
other sites that
allow them to be
anonymous and
invite them to
learn more about
the area.
One of the video
producers we
researched told us they see 12% of consumers that viewed a video
clicked on another link back to the broker site. Given that the
average click-through rate on the Internet is about 2%, video proves
to be a great tool to improve the traffic to your site, encouraging
homebuyers to click-through to your site to learn more.

12
Videos MUST be Mobile-Friendly
According to Zillow’s 4th
quarter, 2013 earnings report, they say that
more than 2/3 of their traffic is viewing their site from a mobile device.
Let’s face it – everybody has a smartphone, iPad or other tablet
device today. It’s easy for potential buyers to bring their iPad with
them while looking for properties in a neighborhood. Consumers can
also look at properties while they’re watching TV or killing time at their
child’s soccer practice. If brokers don’t recognize it’s important to
make it FUN to look at properties from a mobile device, they are
going to lose!
When looking for a video service, make sure their formats are
completely responsive – meaning your videos are just as easy to
view on a smartphone and iPad as they are on a laptop. Don't require
the consumer to download an Application to see your listings easily.

13
Make them Easy to Find
There are lots of tricks and ways to be sure that if you spend the time
and money to build videos they are going to be seen by the audience
you intended them for.
You don't need to be an online expert, but you do need to find a video
partner that knows how to help you get the most out of your video
investment.
Videos MUST be SEO-Friendly
It’s important that your videos are built to be easily searchable to
ensure that your video gets seen. First, make sure each video has a
unique, searchable URL or web address. Ideally the URL will have
the full address of the listing embedded in it along with other unique
identifiers. Also make sure that the tool you choose allows the
thumbnails of your videos to show in search engines.
One of our customers told us when they implemented a program
where the system automatically created a video for every one of their
listings and they experienced a 20% increase in traffic in just a few
weeks. They were thrilled. The platform they chose had many search-
engine friendly components built in.
Easy to Publish on Social Media
Social Media is a great place to leverage an investment in video too.
Once a video is posted on social media it is much more likely to get
shared exponentially increasing opportunities for broader exposure to
potential new buyers. Find a program that makes it easy for you to
push your videos to your social media sites automatically.

14
Improve the Value of your
eLeads Program
Many brokers are now starting to launch eLeads programs designed
to help generate warm leads for their agents. This is intended to help
speed the time from inquiry to close and improve lead conversion
rates. Video can help these programs as well. Every communication
to your clients can include one or several property videos based on
their area of interest and their stage in the sales process. What better
way to help them get comfortable with a neighborhood than providing
them “edutizing” information? Content designed to entertain and
educate while gently promoting why your brokerage is the best choice
to work with.
EASY to Produce Automatically
Okay, all of what we’ve talked about might seem interesting to you.
Then reality sets in…. Who will produce these videos? How do I
motivate each of my agents to take the time to commit to making
video work? Or you might be thinking, I know how to coach my
agents on selling, but I have no idea how to execute an effective
video program. If you’re like most brokers, it is these types of
questions that will stop you dead in your tracks.
Here’s one of the most important things to look for – A company that
creates videos for each of your properties AUTOMATICALLY! Find
one that takes property photos and makes them into professional,
engaging videos that bring each your properties to life. Programs like
this can be orchestrated at the brokerage level – no need to sell each
agent about the value of the program. You can deploy it
automatically. Let’s be honest, anything that depends on gaining
universal acceptance and usage by all of your listing agents is
destined to failure. Programs that recognize that it’s almost
impossible to get full participation are much more likely to be worth
your time. They will help you automate the process for your agents
that are not proactive. The same system must also be easy to use for
those agents that are vested in their own marketing efforts.

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Case Study – Century 21
Hometown - Successful Video
Marketing in Action
Century 21 Hometown Realty is based on the central coast of
California with 21 offices across three counties, 8 MLSs, and 400
agents. It received prestigious honor for being one of the fastest
growing Century 21 franchises in America in 2012 and 2013.
Virtual Tours have long been part of the Century 21 Hometown
Realty marketing program. In the beginning, it was manifested from
the company’s long time commitment to great photography. Even
before the company offered a virtual tour solution, photography
services were provided by the company on every listing. This
primarily served the marketing efforts in print media.
Transition Away From Print
In the mid-2000s, Century 21 Hometown was spending around $1
million on print advertising. The company also published and
distributed its own full format, full color real estate magazine each
month. The economics of this marketing effort could not be sustained
through the recession. Century 21 Hometown shifted all print
marketing spend into online marketing and allocated the investment
to a new broker IDX/VOW website, online marketing and listing
enhancement on portals.
Virtual Tour 1.0 - DIY is not as easy
as it looks
The story with tours represented a painful lesson. The first effort
involved the company building a media server to host its own tours.
Although Hometown enjoyed the flexibility of a self-managed solution,
it was dying the death of a thousand cuts with debugging the code
(Flash), enhancing features, and security and server maintenance.

16
Fortunately, the evolution of responsive design and video in virtual
tours was the motivation the company needed to evolve. The
company tours were built on Flash and that simply does not work on
Apple’s iOS.
Virtual Tours 2.0 – Do not try this at
home
The first run at virtual tours did not go so well, although the strategy
was sound. While the company found a contemporary solution which
worked on all types of mobile devices, offered branded and
unbranded tours, and provided high quality videos, the program failed
for a couple of very important reasons.
Using these requirements, the company issued a “request for
proposal” to a number of qualified virtual tour vendors and selected
the one with the lowest price and entered into a two-year agreement.
Why it Didn’t Work – MLS Integration is KEY
The biggest failure in rolling out the program was the decision to
power the tours off of MLS data. This would not have been an issue if
the company operated in only one MLS region. However, multiple
MLSs require multiple feeds, feeds that change and break. Moreover,
because their markets are contiguous to one another, some listings
were in more than one MLS, which caused duplication and confusion.
What the company learned over the two-year agreement is that its
vendor was great at many things, but managing MLS data was not
one of them.
No Automatic Population of Agent Data
There was one other fatal flaw. Although the video tour provider
automated the listing data, it did not automatically populate agent
information. Since the vendor failed to automate the agent branding
many of the company’s listings appeared on tours with incomplete
agent bios and contact information.

17
Virtual Tours 3.0 – Third time’s a
charm
Integration with Franchise Data Feeds
When the Virtual Tour contract expired, Century 21 Hometown issued
a new request for proposal to a number of qualified vendors with new
requirements. This time around the vendor was required to integrate
directly with REALOGY’s data rather than the MLS. By connecting to
REALOGY, they eliminated the multiple sources of data that were
causing the tours to break with the old vendor. That was a
breakthrough. It solved all of the problems that the company was
having with data.
Automatic Video Tour for EVERY listing
There’s one very simple reason that Century 21 chose their video
tour solution – Real Biz Media - their agents don’t have to do
anything! The system they chose creates a high quality video for
EVERY property they have for sale. This automated property
marketing shores up the company’s commitment to every seller,
every time, and removes agent and staff labor. No agent has to touch
it.
Strong Recruiting and Retention Tool
According to Century 21 Hometown, an effective video tour solution
can also be used as an effective recruiting and retention tool. In
recruiting, they can demonstrate a $50/month or more savings that
the company provides to their agents because the company covers
the cost of the tours. This program ensures that one of the broker’s
listings is going to be promoted effectively while providing a valuable
reason to join or stay with the company. The company regularly
reminds the agents that they do the heavy lifting of online marketing
so they can focus on customers and sales. Many of their top
producers, especially those that are less tech savvy really appreciate
the value of this program.

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Significantly Improves Search Engine Rankings
Search engine rankings are another key reason why Century 21
believes video marketing is key to their success. The company is the
market leader in its markets, gaining market share regularly from its
competitors. The video marketing program they have in place helps
the company secure high rankings for each of their listings on major
search engines. This helps keep consumers coming to their site and
steering them AWAY from third party sites.
Great Promotion of Listings on Mobile Devices
Century 21 also recognizes the ever-growing interest in viewing
properties on mobile devices. They chose their solution because it
works seamlessly on all mobile devices. This is NOT the case with
some of the other programs that were not optimized for tablets and
smartphones.
Invites Consumers to Engage with Listings
The video solution Century 21 Hometown chose gives every one of
their listings a chance to be viewed by consumers to learn a lot more
about the property than they could with just a few images. The
company is leading their local market and is doing so by incorporating
video as a major tool.
Seamless Integration with CRM and Listing Data
Many brokerages have an eLeads program hosted either by their
franchise or they create programs for each of their agents to help
them generate and nurture online leads. In the case of Century 21,
Hometown they were looking for a product that provided a seamless
integration with LeadRouter™, Realogy’s lead management system.
This allows their agents to go to one source to manage their leads
from any online marketing effort. Leads generated from their video
marketing program are automatically populated in the LeadRouter™
system, creating another meaningful source of consumer interest in
their listings.

19
Effective Training and Support for ALL types of
agents
Without really effective training and support, just about every
technology rollout in the real estate industry fails. Century 21
Hometown was careful to find a company that offered training for all
levels of comfort with technology. They have programs for agents that
think of technology as a “necessary evil” as well as programs for
those that just can’t get enough of effective online programs. Real
Biz Media worked closely with Century 21’s sales trainer to help their
agents understand how video marketing will help grow their business.
This training partnership has helped create much stronger adoption
than earlier virtual tour programs Century 21 Hometown embarked
upon.
The roll out went great. The company’s choice to require the vendor
to offer beginner, intermediate, and advanced webinar classes to
agents each week was probably the smartest decision made. That
took the burden off of the company trainers, managers, and office
staff. Training 400 real agents about anything is a huge task. The
company’s mantra was to point the agents to the training schedule or
invite them to call the support helpline.
What to look for when choosing
a Video Marketing Partner:
Here are the criteria that Century 21 Hometown Realty used to
choose their video partner. WAV Group suggests that you look at
your own needs and use their list as a basis for creating your own
requirements document before choosing your video tour provider.
• Tours automatically created via a data feed from the MLS
• Tours published to social media including Facebook, Twitter,
RSS
• Branded and unbranded tours

20
• Agent notification of tours going live and being updated
• Engagement stats on visits and inquiries accessible by agent
and company
• Served on the company domain (for example, vt.c21home.com)
so that the company receives credit for the traffic and
engagement created by the video tours
• Tours converted to video and published on YouTube.com
• Agent and Broker cobranding template
• Community Information – schools, lifestyle, etc.
• Ability to add and display unique video content
• Responsive design (works on all browsers and mobile) (no
Flash)
• Weekly webinar training for agents – beginning, intermediate
and advanced sessions
• Telephone support – at least 12 hours a day in the time zone of
the brokerage
• Online tutorials
• Integration with eLeads solution (for example, REALOGY’s
LeadRouter™)
For More Information:
There are several high quality video tour companies that
automatically create videos that you might want to consider:
Real Biz Media
WellcomeMatt
Animoto

21
About WAV Group
WAV Group is the leader in providing research and thought
leadership to the MLS industry seeking to create a wave of positive
change with every subject that it tackles. The firm is comprised of
corporate executives with a depth of expertise in the real estate
industry proven to catalyze new approaches leading to more
customer-centricity and business success.
For more information or to register to receive report releases and
newsletters please contact Marilyn Wilson at 805-473-9119 or
Marilyn@wavgroup.com
WAV Group supports of many of the nations largest real estate
Multiple Listing Services, REALTOR® Associations, technology
vendors, brokerages and franchises, in the US, Canada and Europe.
WAV Group has expertise in the areas of strategic planning,
technology evaluation, product development, market research,
recruiting, sales & marketing plan development, technology selection
and implementation.

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