Millennials account for nearly 25 percent of the U.S. 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 adapting anything, you first need to know how this audience will access your marketing content, and 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.
By the end of 2014, 85 percent of those aged 18 to 24 owned a smartphone while 98 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds watched video content on their smartphone on a daily basis.
If those are the stats, then where do you think they’ll go when they start looking for a house? I doubt they’ll check out the paper or head over to the local bank.
When millennials start searching for real estate listings, they will want to watch videos on their smartphones.
Not all videos are created equal. Videos that are too long, too dull or bloated with sales jargon will bounce viewers off of a page with the swipe of a screen.
To connect with millennials, you need to make the right videos; videos that your audience wants to see, videos 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 — 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 might want.
3. Be mindful of overbranding.
If you’re slapping on a 10-second branded title card at the beginning of the video or putting a large watermark somewhere on screen throughout, then you’re taking too much time showing the viewer something they care nothing about. And you’re creating noise that distracts the viewer from the images.
You want to get the viewer’s attention right off the bat before they bounce away from your video. Again, the primary 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 you establish their interest in the video. 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 (smartphone 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 smartphones and distractions abound. You can check out some great options at musicbed.com or if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, premiumbeat.com.
5. Be honest with yourself.
I recommend taking out your smartphone, pulling up one of your listing videos and putting yourself in your viewer’s shoes. Be frank with yourself. Do you get bored with the video and turn it off? Do you get distracted and swipe to your Facebook news feed? 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, they’ll find a real estate agent or brokerage that does. So take a long look at your videos and get started on those renovations before this market matures.
Nick Gaede is a video producer at Lone Wolf Real Estate Technologies. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn.
