Millennials account for nearly 25% of the US population. This demographic represents the future of your business and it is imperative that you tailor your marketing content to them. But before you can start tailoring anything, you first need to know a) how this audience will access your marketing content and b) what kind of content this audience prefers. Knowing these two factors will ensure that your marketing efforts do not misfire but will instead remain targeted and precise. So what do millennials like? It’s pretty simple, really. By the end of 2014, 85% of those aged 18-24 owned a smart phone while 98% of 18-34 year olds watched video content on their smartphone on a daily basis. If 85% of millennials own a smartphone and 98% of them watch videos every day, then where do you think they’ll go when they start looking for a house? I don’t think they’ll check out the paper or head over to the local bank lobby. When millennials start searching for real estate listings, they will want to watch videos on their smartphones. Not all videos are created equal though. Videos that are too long, too boring or bloated with sales jargon will bounce viewers off of a page with the swipe of a screen. To truly connect with millennials you need to make the right videos; videos that your audience wants to see, videos that are optimized for their preferred medium. So here are five quick tips for renovating your real estate videos for the millennial audience.
1. Keep it short
Your viewers are using their smartphones to watch your videos. Videos eat data. Data costs money. Keep your videos short and the shorter, the better. Brevity ensures longer engagement and encourages the viewer to share the video with their social media circle. Remember that video is merely one component in your comprehensive real estate marketing strategy and it is not the only medium at your disposal. As such, your videos do not need every miniscule detail about the listing. Skip the boring stuff, keep the good stuff. Your viewers can learn about the boring stuff when they become a lead.
2. Get to the point; don’t get cute
You’re not a comedian; you’re a real estate agent. Avoid skits, dumb jokes, and punchlines. Getting cute with your video will most likely embarrass everyone involved and give the viewer the impression that you are unprofessional. Just get to the point and show the viewer what they want—a quick video of a house that they would want to live in.
3. Be mindful of over-branding
If you’re slapping on a 10 second branded title card at the beginning of the video, or putting a large watermark somewhere onscreen throughout, then you’re taking too much time showing the viewer something they care nothing about and creating noise that distracts the viewer from the images. You want to get the viewer’s attention right off the bat before they bounce off of your video. Again, the main goal here is to get the viewer to like the listing and then contact you; they won’t care what company you work for until this interest is first established. Keep your aesthetic clean, leave the title cards until the end and avoid the watermark altogether.
4. Choose a good song
Most viewers will bounce off of a video at the sound of the first ukulele strum. Choose a unique, high quality song with real instruments, one that the viewer feels good listening to and one that doesn’t make too much noise (smart phone speakers are not ideal). Having a good song will keep your viewers engaged in your video, which is already difficult considering they’re watching on their smart phones and distractions abound. You can check out some great options at musicbed.com or if you’re looking for cheaper alternative, premiumbeat.com.
5. Be honest with yourself
I recommend taking out your smart phone, pulling up one of your listing videos and putting yourself in your viewer’s shoes. Be honest with yourself. Do you get bored with the video and turn it off? Do you get distracted and swipe to your Facebook newsfeed? Do you put the video on mute? Does the video suck? More than likely, your impressions will mirror your audience’s. Only once you know what’s wrong with your videos can you can go about fixing them. At the end of the day, failure to consider the burgeoning millennial market puts you at risk of appearing outdated and antiquated, and if you’re unable to connect with this audience then they’ll find a real estate agent or brokerage that does. So take a long look at your real estate videos and get started on those renovations before this market matures.
