VLOGGING
HANDBOOK DESIGNED FOR REAL ESTATE AGENTS AND LENDERS
“One of the best ways to grow and modernize your real estate business to stand out in a SATURATED market.”
AUSTIN SCHNEIDER
VLOGGINGU
INTRODUCTION. First off, thank you for downloading The Ultimate Guide to Vlogging. If we haven’t met, My name is Austin Schneider. I am a Real Estate agent here in the Seattle area!
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
About me, my background before real estate was marketing and advertising and I first started in real estate because I knew I could market the modern way and ultimately get business leveraging these tactics, over a majority of others still sending postcards. I knew that I needed to treat my business just as any start up would by leveraging the marketing techniques of today, which included vlogging. While creating hundreds of vlogs and a magnetic brand to my sphere of influence and those in the community, this led me to $8,000,000 + in cold, inbound business without needing to cold call, send postcards, or knock on any doors. Who wouldn’t want that? In addition to exposure, it led me to be more authoritative in the industry, seen, led me to press exposure through local media outlets including 30 under 30, and national exposure; sealing a deal with The Mortgage Reports, which gets almost 1,000,000 visitors per month. Over time, people started asking for help with their vlogging and I gladly accepted, walking them through the vlogging process and what it can do for their business. A natural teacher, I realized that I’m more passionate about HELPING realtors and lenders realize their potential with video and social media marketing, rather than have them try to navigate the complex process on their own, from someone they don’t know or trust, or who has never done it before. Video marketing has so many benefits that I’m so excited to share with you and help you realize your potential in the complicated world of “vlogging” and social media marketing. This guide is meant to help
VLOGGINGU
INTRODUCTION. Video marketing has so many benefits that I’m so excited to share with you and help you realize your potential in the complicated world of “vlogging” and social media marketing. This guide is meant to help guide you to start building your digital footprint with vlogging so you can get more deals, exposure, and commission checks.
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
Thank you again and I hope you enjoy it!
AUSTIN SCHNEIDER “Realtor turned marketer on a mission to help real estate agents and lenders get more business through social media and vlogging.”
VLOGGINGU
WHY VIDEO MARKETING? Video marketing continues to lead the pack when it comes effective marketing strategies. As humans, we’re naturally more attracted to video marketing. They’re more engaging, memorable, and provide the greatest amount of exposure versus any other form of marketing. These are facts.
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
• Viewers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video, compared to 10% when reading it in text. (Insivia) • Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and image content combined. (G2 Crowd) • Video increases organic search traffic on a website by 157%. (Conversion XL) • Video is expected to make up 82% of internet traffic by 2021. (Cisco) • 72% of customers would rather learn about a product or service by way of video. (HubSpot) Okay, okay, you get it. Now, when it comes to vlogging in the real estate industry; it’s the best way to humanize your brand with people that don’t know who you are, position yourself as an authority, build trust, and gain the most exposure when distributing it correctly. Honestly, it happens to me. I’ve met clients in person and they say “I feel like I know you” because they watched all of my videos. With future generations watching more and more online video (and even older generations), this is your way to get ahead of the curve and stand out in a saturated market full of real estate agents and lenders.
VLOGGINGU
THE VLOGGING FOUNDATION Before you start vlogging, there’s a few things that you need to know before you jump right into it and assume your strategy is going to pay off in leaps and bounds! First things first is what equipment do I need to buy? Truth is, if you’re just getting going in vlogging and you have an iPhone, this is a great foundation to start vlogging.
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
You don’t need to go out spend an arm and a leg on all of this fancy camera equipment to start providing value. Let’s face it, we are not film makers. We are here to provide value and be an authority, so don’t stress over this step right now. If you are starting with your phone, you can get a moment lens, a good microphone and a tripod or gimbal; then you’ll pretty much be good to go! Second thing is identifying your target customer. This is probably the most important step. Having a target customer will drive your marketing strategy, communication strategy, and the topics you’re covering. If you primarily work with first time home buyers, would you vlog about reverse mortgages? Probably not. Lastly, think about how you can commit to vlogging. You’re busy, we get it. Commit NOW by time blocking two hours each week to dedicate to creating video content. “You’re either growing or you’re dying” and a great way to not get passed is to commit yourself to actually doing it. Just like you have a system for your other marketing, create a system for your vlogging strategy.
VLOGGINGU
PLANNING THE VLOG Now that you have your equipment, target customer identified, and have committed yourself to vlogging, it’s time to start planning your vlog.
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
The saying “separation is in the preparation” is extremely true when it comes to vlogging. When figuring out what to vlog about, there should be two components of your video marketing strategy; to educate or to entertain. Educational content can be as easy as point and shoot home buying or selling 101, talk about the market and what happened this month in the real estate industry, or jump on camera with your referral partner. When it comes to entertaining, these can be simple house tours, talking about local events, interviewing local business owners, or talking about neighborhoods in your farm area. When coming up with your vlog topic, it’s EXTREMELY important to have your target customer pre identified, so you can ask yourself “What would they be interested in?” Once you have your vlog topic chosen, all you have to do is create a vlog template. Every good vlog has an intro, body and closing to it. The intro introduces your vlog topic or the problem you’ll be solving. The body is the “meat” of the content and is meant to address the topic and or problem your’e solving. The closing simply wraps up the vlog and this is your opportunity to put a call to action at the end. What you’ll want to do is physically write or type each part of your vlog out so you can remember what you want to talk about once the camera turns on.
VLOGGINGU
EXECUTING THE VLOG Okay, now that you have your blog topic identified and your intro, body, and closing written out; it’s time to VLOG!
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
Let’s talk location. When choosing a place to vlog, it’s extremely important to ensure that your location has good lighting. Lighting should be a priority; if you have a window near you, face it so that the natural light is hitting you in the face, otherwise you’re not going to show up on camera. Location wise as a whole, focus on minimal backgrounds and areas that you can be focused with no distractions. Background noise will be picked up and also cause you to lose your train of thought. Pro tip, get to your next open house an hour early and vlog there! Once you have your location set up, ensure you have your notes nearby and they’re well studied. It’s going to be easy to lose your train of thought when filming and the notes will keep you on track. Okay, now it’s really time to start. The key to an effective, authentic, personal vlog is to turn your enthusiasm up to 120%. Let’s face it, a camera isn’t a great crowd and if we aren’t intentionally overly enthusiastic, it’ll look like we’re “dull.” In a profession where we want to be approachable, this doesn’t look good. Get caffeinated and role play a few times. You’ll see a difference. When executing the vlog, we want to keep it as SHORT as possible and as DIRECT as possible. This is why it’s important to have studied your notes to keep you on track. If you catch yourself rambling, it’s okay, just quickly glance at your notes and get back on track. We can always edit that part out. Just keep going! Your videos should be no more than two minutes in length. Multiple studies (including this one from Wistia) have shown that for most videos, engagement tends to fall off sharply after the two-minute mark.
VLOGGINGU
EDITING THE VLOG Great, now that you have a vlog filmed that you’re happy with, it’s time to start editing the vlog. Some great editing programs include iMovie (free), Premier Rush, and Final Cut Pro (my choice).
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
I know you want to edit this on your phone and get it out, but it’s important your editing is professional, so it shows that you care bout your brand and your branded more professional. Apps on your phone don’t have NEARLY as many features as a desktop editing platform. As you start editing your vlog, you’ll probably notice a bunch of clips of you either referencing your notes, saying um, or maybe you said something that’s irrelevant to your point. That’s okay, you can simply edit it out. It’s okay that your vlog wasn’t done in one take and by editing clips out, it’s a better user experience because you are getting to the point and shortening it up as much as possible. When it comes to background music; I love sites like Epidemic Sound, Musicbed, or you can simply find a TON of royalty free music from YouTube. After you have your music selection and vlog edited to a nice flow, now it’s time to add titles. I don’t suggest overdoing it with flashy graphics at every single opportunity. I suggest you add a title for your name, company, and title. Then throughout the video add text on MAIN points of the video. Not all of them, just main points. Finally, add a closing graphic with your logo and call to action to ensure you’re well branded. Editing shouldn’t take that long because you were straight to the point and knew your talking points AND we are simply just cutting out the “ bad” clips or dead space we want to get rid of. Once your vlog is edited, it’s time to WATCH IT FLOURISH!
VLOGGINGU
DISTRIBUTING THE VLOG When it comes to distributing your vlogs, this is another beast in it’s own. Ensure that you have your captions ready from rev.com, a sleek thumbnail, and a good description typed out.
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
Next, decide on your distribution methods. To me, I put it anywhere and everywhere, but again, this is where your target customer is going to come in handy. Where are they looking? What platforms are they on? That’s where you need to be. • Facebook - Facebook still reigns supreme when it comes to social media. In fact, at 2.27 billion monthly active users, over a quarter of the entire world population is accessing their Facebook account at least once a month. (via Sprout Social) • Instagram / IGTV - The Facebook-owned photo sharing app has grown in both features and its user base since its inception in 2010. For starters, general Instagram user demographics include 35% of all US adults with 1 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active users. Its Stories feature alone boasts 400 million daily active users. (via Sprout Social) • LinkedIn - LinkedIn is the number one platform when it comes to B2B social media marketing. Known for connecting professionals, LinkedIn has over 590 million registered users. (via Sprout Social) • YouTube - YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and third most visited site after Google and Facebook. We watch over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos a day, more than Netflix and Facebook video combined. (via Brandwatch) Ensuring your posts are optimized to these platforms is also important. Don’t just post, sit, forget. Do your diligence where your customers are to get it out there. In addition to social methods; share these with your newsletter subscribers, past clients, and more! Pump it out :)!
VLOGGINGU
HOW TO GET BUSINESS Truth is guys, you’re not going to get business from doing one vlog. You may not get business from doing two, or three, or ten for that matter!
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
Sure, you’ll get a ton of exposure early on which is a great success metric. You’ll likely start having people “talk about” your brand and how much they love your videos. Which is great and all. But we want an ROI! What you need to be focusing on is being consistent with it. We both know that real estate is a long game and so is branding with vlogs. The beauty about vlogs is that they’re timeless and live forever. If you’re constantly in front of thousands of people via vlogs, you’re probably the one that the consumer is going to choose. Don’t expect an overnight success and do expect to be consistent with it. Try committing to one vlog per week for six months and see how that goes. I’m confident you’ll get some really good traction. So throw away your post cards and old school marketing tactics and whip out your camera. It’s time to start!!
VLOGGINGU
WHY VLOGGING IS KEY Vlogging positions you as an authority: What better way to SHOW you know your stuff by jumping on camera and sharing your knowledge. It shows you know what you’re doing versus just “reposting an article� or writing a blog. Get personal. It works.
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
Vlogging provides an “introductionâ€? to who you are: Vlogging allows your potential customers and referral partners to get to know you on a deeper level. They read your body language. They see how you connect. It shows your personality Plus, it also attracts people that YOU would want to work with. Vlogging makes you stand out :There are so many realtors NOT taking advantage of vlogging. It’s almost mind-boggling. đ&#x;¤Ż So, why wouldn’t you want to stand out and be the unicorn in your market? Take advantage of it. Vlogging gets you major EXPOSURE: Including a video in a post increases organic traffic from search results by 157%. (Search Engine People, 2017), According to Webdam, video on social media get 3 times the number of inbound links than plain text posts. Social video also generates 1200 percent more shares than text and images combined. In short - social media favors video content native to the platform it’s on. Vlogging gets you business: I can personally tell you that vlogging will get you business. Bringing this all together will define your brand, get you more exposure, and build your connection list like non other. There are countless brokers that I work with as well that have had clear ROI from this as well. So, the proof is in the pudding. Plus, it’s a WAY easier sale when they’ve been watching you for the past 3 months on camera :). It’s easier than it seems: While vlogging can be intimidating, scary, confusing, and a “time suck,â€? it’s really not that bad. It starts with an action, which will lead to improvement over time.
VLOGGINGU
Still unsure how to vlog? Enroll in VLOGGINGU!
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
In this easy to navigate online course, you’ll learn how to take your brand to the next level, build a loyal following, and start leveraging the power of VIDEO to grow your real estate business.
√ Step-by-step vlogging process √ 7 lessons, more than 20 videos √ Private Facebook group with bonus content √ Live Q&A’s 2x/month √ PDF’s, scripts, and guides included
LEARN MORE
VLOGGINGU
VLOGGING FOR REALTORS Vlogging brought me $8 + million dollars in my first two years without cold calling, door knocking, or relying on friends & family & has resulted in being featured in both local and national publications, 30 under 30, and more.
VLOGGING HANDBOOK
I say all this not to impress you, but to impress upon you the importance of establishing yourself as the expert in your target customer’s mind’s eye in order to grow your brand and your business through vlogging. When you get licensed in real estate, they DO NOT teach you how to market yourself. You are on your own. That’s honestly why I feel so many realtors and lenders are behind in this game. My mission is to change that and help you market better. I can’t wait to go along for this ride with you and be YOUR resource.
INSTAGRAM | LINKEDIN | FACEBOOK
VLOGGINGU
EQUIPMENT
CLICK IMAGE TO SHOP
thank you. NOW GO CRUSH IT.
VLOGGINGU VLOGGINGU