YouTube videos are, without a doubt, an essential tool in any REALTOR®’s marketing toolbox. They’re a great way to showcase your brand and personality, gain views and followers, and increase your reach. They’re also excellent for engaging with and entertaining your audience.

There are other benefits to YouTube marketing as well. By shooting focused, hyperlocal videos that cover the aspects of every lifestyle whose niche you market to, you will:

• Rank higher in Google searches
• Position yourself as the expert in your market
• Avoid paying huge fees to third-party providers for lead generation

If you’re about to get your feet wet using YouTube for the first time, here are some strategies and topic ideas to help you get started confidently.

1. Topics That are Always Relevant

There are at least four topics you can cover in your content as a real estate professional that will never be unimportant, and those are as follows:

Appreciation and depreciation. Homeowners are always more empowered to make critical financial decisions when they’re aware of the appreciation or depreciation of their homes and properties, so keep them updated regularly whenever that changes. 

Cost-of-living updates. This is crucial information for potential clients thinking about moving to your area, and it’s also helpful for past clients who live there already and would like to keep an eye on inflation.

Monthly market updates. You can go about this by discussing the most recent month’s sales numbers for the specific niches you serve as well as for the general area where you do business (this usually covers the entire local zip code area).Financial subjects. Short videos explaining mortgage interest rates or financing are always popular and helpful. You can also cover the programs currently available to help buyers in your area acquire assistance making a down payment.

2. “Top 5” Lists

Top 5 lists have always been popular, whether online, in magazines, on radio ads, or in YouTube videos. And they’re really easy to come up with and customize to fit your market. Here are some “top 5” topics you can start filming right away:

     A. Top 5 places to eat in ___.

     B. Top 5 family activities in ___.

     C. Top 5 hiking and biking trails in ___.

     D. Top 5 tourist spots in ___.

     E. Top 5 outdoor attractions in ___.

     F. Top 5 outdoor dining establishments in ___.

     G. Top 5 local breweries in ___.

     H. Top 5 educational experiences in ___.

      I. Top 5 things you didn’t know about living in ___.

3. Give a Tour

This method became popular during the pandemic as a way to introduce relocation clients to their new neighborhoods while maintaining social distancing. Because of its convenience, it is likely to remain popular for some time. Make videos showcasing each neighborhood where you have properties listed. Highlight what makes each area different and unique, and point out any nearby businesses, restaurants, or recreation centers.

You can also do a broader tour of your town or city section, highlighting notable landmarks and sharing fun and interesting historical facts. The goal is to entice your audience to buy one of your listed properties, so showcase your appreciation for your hometown!

Make videos showcasing each neighborhood where you have properties listed. Highlight what makes each area different and unique, and point out any nearby businesses, restaurants, or recreation centers.

4. Use Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is an affordable extension for Google Chrome that provides data on the number of searches for each keyword in your video as well as the cost on a per-click basis. The Keywords Everywhere extension is helpful in two ways: a) it provides you with the most commonly searched keywords, which you can then use to tag your video, and b) it translates the audio from your video into searchable terms, which can firmly boost your SEO if you use these terms to tag your video and include them in your video’s description and your audio feed.

5. Film Open Houses and Walk-throughs

There’s hardly a better way to build interest and excitement about the properties you’re selling than to create a video showcasing each home’s best features and sharing the backstory of the properties and the surrounding neighborhoods. This topic gives you an excellent opportunity to be creative and enthusiastic and let your personality help you sell!

6. Take Advantage of Location Pins

Consider running your update videos as 30-second skippable ads on YouTube. You can then drop a pin with a mile radius at your location and the locations of some of your clients so that they and everyone around them will see your ad if they happen to be watching YouTube on their phone. It’s a great way to get exposure, especially if you drop the pins where people are likely to be looking at their phones, like the grocery store or a child’s soccer game. One of our Fathom agents uses this trick and has a 90% watch rate for his long-form, three-minute full video ad.

There’s hardly a better way to build interest and excitement about the properties you’re selling than to create a video showcasing each home’s best features and sharing the backstory of the properties and the surrounding neighborhoods.

7. Google “[Your City] Real Estate For Sale”

If you’re scratching your head for video ideas, type this simple query into Google and look at the first page of results, where Google will generate a list of highly searched terms. A search of “Asheville real estate for sale” yielded the following popular search queries:

     A. Is Asheville real estate overpriced?

     B. Why is Asheville so expensive?

     C. Is Asheville NC expensive to live?

     D. Is Asheville NC a good place to live?

You can easily address these questions with a frank, well-worded video to help convince potential clients who are on the fence about moving to your area.

8. Create Extra Content Easily

Once you film your video, feed it through Otter.ai, a transcription service that offers up to 10 hours of free transcription a month. You can then use the transcript to help you generate a quick, easy blog post for extra content.

Ready to take the next step with your Real Estate Career? We would love to connect to see if Fathom is a good fit for you.