How to use Viral Marketing to Become a Successful Real Estate Agent

Are you a real estate agent looking to up your digital marketing game with viral content such as videos?

That’s a very good decision because recent surveys suggest that more than 70 percent of homeowners say they’re more likely to list with a realtor who uses video as a marketing tool.

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Surveys suggest that more than 70 percent of homeowners say they’re more likely to list with a realtor who uses video as a marketing tool. Click To Tweet

Indeed, using video makes a perfect sense for real estate agents for several reasons.

First, 99 percent of Millennials (ages 23 to 38 in 2019), 90 percent of Baby Boomers (between 54-74 years old in 2019), 70 percent of the Silent Generation (adults in their 70s and 80s) use websites for home search, according to the National Association of Realtors’ Real Estate in a Digital Age 2018 Report.

Second, of all people using the Internet to find homes, 37 percent visit online video sites, and this percentage is more likely to increase in the next few years due to the increasing popularity of online video.

Third, real estate listings featuring video receive up to 403 percent more inquiries than those without video. This means that video can have a huge impact on the success of your sales.

No wonder realtors are one of the fastest-growing professional groups using YouTube for marketing. To take your video marketing one step further and beating the fierce competition in the industry, you need to explore viral marketing, a strategy that encourages people to share the marketing message, thus increasing the message’s effect and visibility.

To get your viral marketing right and improve your sales figures, we’ve created this guide that you can use to create content that has the potential to go viral. We’re going to focus on videos but most of the tips below apply to other content types such as reports and infographics.

How Viral Marketing can Work for Real Estate Agents

Many real estate agents still market their listings using traditional channels such as their personal site, a broker’s site, open house, and yard signs. While they can work well, too, they can’t appeal to customers’ emotions and allow them to take a tour around the property without leaving their current home.

Videos, for example, provide an amazing opportunity to sample the amazing scenes outside of properties currently for sale, take a look at the neighborhood (like in the screenshot below), see tourist attractions and sights in the area, and even watch your previous clients praising you for finding them the perfect home for their families.

Source: YouTube

The reason we’re talking a lot about videos here is that they have the highest potential to generate viral marketing. A stunning, interesting video is more likely to be watched and shared by people within a relatively short period of time, delivering that much-needed viral effect.

Without a doubt, the visual component of viral marketing is a great approach to appeal to the subjective, emotional factors that impact the decisions a typical real estate customer. As a real estate agent, you know perfectly well how important these emotional factors are for people who contact you, so let’s give you the tips on viral marketing that you need to get everything right.

Viral Marketing Tips for Real Estate Agents

Unless you happen to be in the right place at the right time with a camera, you have to follow a number of specific rules to create a video that has the potential to go viral.

Get Inspired

Let’s be honest here: not every marketing video goes viral, so you need all your creativity to achieve your goal. That’s why we’ve collected this list of ideas for a viral video to get your creative juices flowing and encourage original thinking.

Explain the history of the neighborhood to show why it’s special
Re-enact a humorous or memorable situation from your professional life as a real estate agent
Ask a happy client to share their experience of working with you and make a testimonial video (91 percent of Millennials trust online reviews as much as recommendations from friends and family)
Parody a popular commercial or song (this parody of Adelle’s Hello song by a realtor is an excellent example of that)
Make a video of you pranking your employees during work
Create a high-definition mini-movie of a property
Make a compilation of the best (or the worst) properties you’ve ever seen
Make a video on how to choose the right real estate agent
Record a series of videos about the job a real estate agent.

Whatever option you choose, keep in mind that your video should be viewer-focused, e.g. have useful tips and takeaways for them, so avoid being too promotional.

Make it easy for your Customers to relate to your Videos

Your business has a specific target audience, so chances are you’ve studied it to gain the insights into their lifestyle, buying behaviors, preferences, and interests. This information will serve you well now because you need to craft your video around the people you’re targeting.

This means:

Using the language they’re using. For example, in most cases, it’s recommended to use natural, conversational language to connect with your target audience because it’s the easiest one for them to understand, therefore, relate to. Online tools such as Hemingway Editor, A-Writer, Grammarly, and College Paper can help with getting your tone and style right.
Using the content they prefer. According to The State of Video Marketing 2018 report from Wyzowl, 72 percent of people prefer watching videos to learn about a product or service. On top of that, your video must be created in a way that they prefer (scenes, quality of video, neighborhood information etc.)
Use a celebrity if possible. Your target audience certainly has some favorite actors, athletes, and other celebrities, so if you have a chance to recruit them, do so.

Tell the Story

If you watch videos on a regular basis, chances are that you’ve noticed that the many popular videos are made in a mini-movie format. The main reason for that is that people are sick and tired of hard sell advertising, so they crave something authentic and non-salesy.

And that’s why storytelling has become a hit in viral marketing today. It involves presenting content in the form of story to make it easy for the viewers to relate to the message and become loyal followers.

Take the following video for example.

It tells an incredible story which is also very engaging because it’s extremely relatable. The creators of this video did a great job because they showed a kind of life that customers can have in the home that’s available. And they did so by connecting with the viewers on an emotional level by showing family and their happy life. Everyone can relate to that.

There are several specific ways in which storytelling can contribute to your bottom line:

Improving branding. If you use the elements of your personal brand in the viral video, you can raise awareness of your business and build a positive reputation.
Highlighting your professionalism and creativity. Buyers don’t just want homes, they want perfect neighborhoods. By showing such important parts of the area as a local park, restaurant, or school demonstrates your ability to research and tell the story in a creative way.
Helping buyers connect with you on a personal level. This happens when you share videos of some important moments from your life, e.g. a successful project that resulted in helping a family to find a perfect home in the area they loved.

Make it Unexpected

In an effort to attract maximum attention, many businesses use an approach to presenting themselves that is a bit light-hearted. While some think that’s a risky road to take – and let’s be honest here, it kinda is – but many people like when businesses do that because it makes them stand out among the others.

In order to make an “unexpected” video or another content type that has the potential to go viral, you have to step outside the box a little bit. For example, the video below, made by Josh Altman, a luxury real estate agent, is an excellent example of how a business tries a light-hearted approach to present itself, and does so in a very humorous way.

The unexpected and humorous nature of the video helped the video to get 1.1 million views so far. As the number of views as well as the comments under this video show, a piece of viral content is inevitably going to be discussed by many people, and the creators aren’t going to get positive reviews from everyone. But that’s totally okay because the main purpose here is to get people talking about you and your services.

Wrapping Up

Viral marketing is something that you as a real estate agent should definitely try because it can attract a lot of attention to you and your business. We focused on videos in this article because they’re among the high-performing content types but keep in mind that a lot of tips here apply to infographics, articles, and other content as well.

Lucy Benton is a marketing specialist, business consultant and helps people to turn their dreams into the profitable business and currently works at Proessaywriting. Now she is writing for marketing and business resources. Also Lucy has her own blog Pro Writing where you can check her last publications.