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Video Marketing Examples for Small Business

Video Marketing Examples for Small Business

Its easy to say… you should do video for your business. Its harder to actually do it. I have had the pleasure of working with some business people in the past few years to actually make it happen for them, and for my own businesses like Sauce. So I thought it would be worthwhile to actually show you the types of video marketing that we are doing, and give you a chance to think about what kind might be a match for you.

Sauce Super Bowl Video

This is an example of how you can use video to start a conversation, we put it right on our website’s front page this week, and have shared it through our social media channels as well. Its fun and not supposed to be a hollywood blockbuster. Video is a threshold breaker, it is an investment of time and creativity that the vast majority of business people wont make. How many wing places in the state of Massachusetts made a video marketing their their super bowl catering? I would venture to say one.

Century 21 McLennan and Company

This is an example of video marketing that educates the consumer, it is intended to demonstrate the knowledge and partnerships of one of the Merrimack Valley’s most successful real estate brokers, Matt Mclennan. His investment in video and online marketing have set him even further apart from his competitors. Those who hire him to sell their home or help them buy one, know at once that he will leverage both modern and traditional media to sell their home. Hell he sold mine and got one of the highest per square foot prices for any home sold in my town in 2012. Oh and he did it in one month… These videos are an opportunity for Matt to shed light on his company and his knowledge of how to get deals done. Examples are his video series on Short Sales where he and his short sale specialist discuss the various short sale specifics, to his current series on mortgage questions with a mortgage broker he works with (above), Matt uses video to both spotlight his properties and also educate the public. He is a front runner in our market on many levels and his use of video is definitely one of them.

J Borstell Property Video

Jeff Borstell is a Real Estate Advisor from J Borstell Real Estate in Tewksbury, they are a multi-generational brokerage that not only sells homes, but also helps builders find property to flip. Jeff has begun using video to document the process as he finds the properties and sees them through to completion. The video above highlights one of his current projects and as you can see he uses the medium to virtually show the property. Much as he would in person, but in this way he is able to immediately vet out if a home is a potential fit for a buyer, and also reach buyers that he may not otherwise.

Video marketing is daunting to start, you have to be on camera in most cases, and in the end it is all about whether you are comfortable enough to stand out from the crowd. If you want to discuss any of the above with me, just let me know. @spirocks on Twitter or:

I am Spirocks on Twitter.
Filed Under: Just Think, Realty Marketing, Restaurant Marketing
Video Marketing Online Destroys Competition by Leveraging Time

Video Marketing Online Destroys Competition by Leveraging Time

Video represents the holy grail of online marketing, its ability to communicate with viewers trumps all other forms of online marketing.

Why is that?

Well if you were marketing your Real Estate Company for instance it would give you the ability to all at once show your personality, your expertise, as well as the unadulterated view of the homes you are selling with people in them. It demonstrates and explains so much more than can be read or spoken in that amount of time.

Why is time so important?

Time matters for a crucial reason which is that your audience will only give you a tiny bit before they move on. So if you spend 15 seconds explaining your knowledge of the industry, that is all you will get and you won’t have the chance to talk about what you are selling whether it is a home, a 45 day dry aged rib-eye, or anything for that matter.

Video allows you to address time in two important ways.

First it allows you to make the most of the time a viewer is watching, the visuals aid in telling a story that doesn’t need to be spoken or read. Secondly video stretches the time you have with your audience, studies have shown that more than 3 out of 5 said they would watch videos for at least 2 minutes. That is an incredible amount of face time in today’s 140 character message world.

A real estate agent might garner two minutes or more of face time with prospective clients by creating informative videos answering common questions about the market. Like this one: Matt Mclennan

Which may get you results like this:

Time also matters if you are paying for your marketing to be distributed, for instance if you are deciding between a direct mail campaign or a television spot on local cable, how much are you spending and how much of a message are you communicating? If you do direct mail you can cram as much info as you can onto a over sized postcard for a relatively affordable amount. I did that for my wing joint Sauce, and found that I could get a few pictures on the mailing side and the whole menu on the face of the card. But it left a lot of questions unanswered and we got the phone calls to prove it. Recently one of my clients decided that his money was best invested in a short TV commercial on local television. I am currently editing a 15 second spot for his store which will be able to convey so much information that we would have been unable to otherwise. Like they say a picture is worth a thousand words and a video may be worth 10,000.

When that video is finished I will link to it here as well.

Video is the best medium for dealing with the two biggest issues that time presents, attention span and cost.

Let me know if you have questions how video can integrate into your small business marketing plan.

yoga

I am Spirocks on Twitter.
photo by: Neil Kremer
Filed Under: Just Think, Local Market Strategy, Realty Marketing, Tools Tagged With: , , ,
Real Estate Listings Written Well

Real Estate Listings Written Well

How the language you use to describe a home affects the sale price:

The success or failure of a listing can be attributed on some level to how well you use language and other forms of communication to communicate its virtues, frame its flaws, and deliver the message that gets the sale done at the right price. Let’s define success, because I think there may be a few variations of it floating around right now.

Success is completing the sale of a home for a seller, at a price that makes them satisfied, not like they took a low ball offer. That leads to a positive view of your performance and in all likelihood the best chance at a repeat customer and one that will recommend you to others. That is the success I am writing about here.

Unless the next home you sell is the last home you want to sell, you need to have a higher threshold for success than simply a closing. One tool that you need to use is right at your fingertips, in fact its not some new technology, its the description you write for your listing. Yes, the words and phrases you choose have an immense impact.

I am asking more of you in this department, but only because you want to be the best.

Flipping through listings, I am flabbergasted at the mediocre to negligent descriptions for homes that some realtors list for sale. It is as if the descriptions are an after thought:

Nice two family, good street. Income potential.

If I ask why they would write that, I hear all the lame excuses.

“Oh yeah that is a REO sale, there is no owner client, it’s a bank.”

Just so I don’t hurt anyones feelings face to face, this is the deal. That is a bullshit answer, a cop out, and the only one you are fooling is yourself. This is your career, not the Bank’s and it is your time to be professional, and that means put your best foot forward, treat each home like it is your mother’s pride and joy, and take the time to do the right thing. Do you have to be perfect? No, but you have to do the best for your client whether they are a ginormous bank or a family member. One more time, this is your reputation, and your career.

It matters because people look through listings to see where their house measures up BEFORE they call an agent and before they list their home. When they see an agent’s half ass listings are they the one getting a call? Yeah you got it, no they are not.

Those of you who didn’t get uncomfortable and click away, here is what I mean:

Learn the reasons why certain words, phrases, and descriptions work, and use those things. Then get creative when you have a property that needs help. You might feel at a loss sometimes when you have a property that has issues, but knowing which issues are killers and which ones just need to be framed right can help you craft the right description and help you make the deal you need to make.

Don’t just listen to Me:

  1. A study by Trulia, (of 2.5 million listings) has shown that the type of street name a home has affects the sales price. Boulevard has the highest price per square foot and street the lowest. Once you know that, you prominently mention the address for homes on a Boulevard and much less prominently mention those on a street. In other words you need to know what to flaunt.
  2. Another study has shown that homes with country in the listing sold for 4.2% more with an additional 5.1% added when the word club was added. Here is a link to that study.
  3. Here is another study that says words such as beautiful in the listing can add up to 12.5% to the listing. WORDS
  4. Finally here is a great article about this subject that can cement the following facts for you: Houses that real-estate agents describe as “move-in condition” sell 12% faster than homes listed without those words. “Starter homes” sell 9% faster. But be careful: A house called a “handyman special” sells about 50% faster, but the final price is 30% lower than listings that lack those words. WSJ ARTICLE

I Hope that gets you believing… Here is what I suggest for you.

Understand the common theme in these studies and articles: The words you choose matter.

I believe that the bottom line is the best descriptions have the following attributes:

  • They highlight verifiable, non-subjective, qualities of the property being sold.
  • They use language that relates to the property which a buyer would be interested in, ‘sophisticated black granite and enamel cabinets’ as opposed to a ‘futuristic looking kitchen’ or even worse a ‘new kitchen’
  • They are honest in what they say, and precise in what they do not.

All in all the work you do as a seller’s agent must be designed to achieve the success you want. That success is two fold:

  1. For each particular home you want to be a positive force driving the home to an early sale at a price as high as can be reasonably expected.
  2. You want your communications, in the description and elsewhere to inspire others to sell with you, past clients to come back, and current clients to recommend you.

In short what you put out there, is a product and representative of your skill as a realtor, and anything less than your best is selling your client, and just as importantly yourself, short. It is time to make a concerted effort to focus on the language you use when listing the properties you have been contracted to sell.

___________

Please Find me on Twitter at twitter.com/spirocks I love to talk about people’s business and give them a fresh perspective on the way their business communicates so please say hi.

My Next Real Estate Post will be on creating a relationship with potential clients with video. 

I am Spirocks on Twitter.
Filed Under: Realty Marketing
Marketing Strategy: Is your business communication disjointed?

Marketing Strategy: Is your business communication disjointed?

Fusing your online and offline business communications is Essential to maximizing the results of your marketing strategy.

When you are marketing your business these days, it is easy to get caught up in your online efforts and think of them as their own entity separate from any print, direct mail, in house, or broadcast marketing you may also be doing. That just isn’t going to get the same results for your brands as if you integrate on and offline marketing efforts.

If you are able to do that you will be pulling together the two in a way that benefits your brands, the response rate to your marketing, and the results that you seek.

Mise en Place

In the grand scheme of things you have a ton to do, but if you are investing time and dollars into marketing at all, you should make the over riding theme be clear, and be sure your brands speak to their audience in the same way on and offline. It is a simple yet elusive task. There are three key points to consider when aligning your marketing strategy:

Imagery

The visual design of your website, email marketing messages, and social network images should be congruous with your menu, in store graphics, direct mail, and print ad graphical designs. Both online and offline marketing materials are visual mediums whose success may be determined by the initial (before reading) response an audience member has to the imagery contained. That imagery can be a reminder to someone aware of your company, it can create interest in someone who is just now being introduced to your brands, and it can bridge the mental gap between the time they saw a post from your facebook page shared by a friend to the direct mail piece they just found in their mailbox.

Images are some of the most powerful tools in marketing and they should work together stylistically where-ever you use them.

Language

Your brands speak to their audience in many ways, one of the most powerful is through its language. It can communicate the style of your restaurant very effectively by choosing its linguistic voice. Once that voice is established it is important that consistency is maintained and nurtured in each of your marketing efforts. Whether you portray a playful vibe or a serious one, the style should work together across each message. Your brand should understand its target audience and craft messages in a voice to speak to them. This is one of the essential parts of your marketing strategy that too many companies overlook.

Offers

Your brand makes an offer to your customers every time there is an interaction, being in business is making an offer. Know that, remember that, and do that in a way that leverages the medium of choice effectively. Your audience may be divided, with some seeing your communications online and some seeing them in print. Do your offers transcend these boundaries too? If not you are effectively reducing the chances your offers can help you increase sales and convert casual members of your community into devoted customers. Online you may use coupon codes to match the coupons you mail to people with direct mail, you also make an offer without offering a discount and that is important. Sharing picture of your food online should be matched in your offline efforts as well.

If you simply share a picture of an amazing burger, that is making an offer. When I see a picture like that I want to eat that burger… so would a lot of others.

Lets focus on the overall message style more in our marketing strategy:

Takeaway from this a renewed effort to bridge mediums, and self evaluate the way you communicate today. The medium should not dictate the message, it may adapt it, but the medium always transmits the message.

What ways do you integrate offline and online marketing?

I am working with my clients this month explaining ways that they can do this with their companies marketing messages and I cant wait to help them do it. If I can help you feel free to ask.

I am Spirocks on Twitter.
Filed Under: Just Think, Local Market Strategy, Realty Marketing, Restaurant Marketing, Tools
Issue delivery and the Cult of Solving.

Issue delivery and the Cult of Solving.

It happens all the time, someone points out a problem. Most of the time it is an employee, someone who is paid to be at your business. They have a front row seat after all, nobody is more aware of the intricacies of your business than a full time employee. Out of nowhere they will let you know that one of the AC vents in the dining room is dripping on a table, that the beer delivery guy came and left because the driveway was blocked, or that a cook was wasted last night and is trying to get his shift covered…

Problem delivery is not an Issue.

Most of the time the employee who is delivering believes they are doing you a service, that they are clearly better than the other employees because they are delivering the problem to you not creating it. They are right about that. They are better, but are they significantly more valuable? To me true value in a business organization comes from somewhere else.

Value is derived from problem solving.

A standout employee delivers solutions to problems you may not know existed, and when that is not possible a standout employee finds solutions to problems you can identify but dont have the time to tackle. A business owner does this by nature, they see a market and construct a business to satisfy it. They have no one to pass the buck to so they find a solution to every problem or it goes unsolved. A business owner teaches himself how to do things he does not know, there is not always someone to tell him what he should to do in every situation.

You enter the Cult of Solving When You Put Your Ass on the Line

If you are an employee today, you can cut your teeth for future business ventures by finding solutions to the problems that your company faces. Be the defacto leader your co-workers may need. That does not mean just finding someone to buy something from, money matters, and if you solve a problem and your company makes less money… you created a bigger problem. When you own a business your ass is on the line, its not a job, its your investment and your name, its your chance to make it or break it… when in those shoes you are consumed with solving issues that others only choose to point out.

You are not Born with it.

A business owner is not better, smarter, or somehow otherwise more gifted than an employee… he/she is someone who is dedicated to solving problems others feel are too complicated or time consuming, and he is the one that will benefit when they are solved.

A good business owner will reward an employee who takes steps to solve problems in the best interest of the business. Make sure you are doing that, and putting your best people in the position to either show you they can or can’t take that step.

I am Spirocks on Twitter.
Filed Under: Just Think, Realty Marketing, Restaurant Marketing Tagged With:
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