Leaving a successful real estate business in the Bay area was difficult after Karin Carr decided to move to Savannah, Georgia. She knew she had to figure out quickly how to market herself as a new agent in Georgia. Karin knew she had a talent for writing, and she loved doing it. She began to blog about Savannah in hopes she could grow a following to welcome her to the Peach state.
Her writing led to her thinking about video and the power of YouTube. With so many people watching videos online, could this medium help her gain traction quicker. She grabbed her IPad and quickly recorded herself listing the top 10 reasons to move to Savannah. She spoke about the very things that helped sell her in the city. She paid a contract worker on Fiverr.com to help her with editing and some graphics to complete her video. A video she says can also very easily be edited using IMovie, a software found on Macs.
Next, she started studying about keywords. She wanted to be smart about the words she attached to her video that could help her be discovered by more people searching the internet for information about Savannah.
Within a week of releasing her YouTube video, she had 4 leads waiting for her before she even arrived in Georgia. With each passing week, she got more leads. She had stumbled upon the success of using video and content marketing to prospect in her new city. The best part, she was able to get clients before she was living there.
“It’s all about the benefits of a search engine. When I sit and think I’m going to make a video, I have an idea of a topic. Then, I do some keyword research using www.keywordseverywhere.com. It will tell you how many searches are being done for that exact keyword phrase, and it will let you know how competitive it is. It will tell you what it will cost you per click,” says Carr, Realtor Keller Williams Coastal Area Partners.
She embeds her videos in her blog to help make her blog better and more enticing to read. If anyone googles moving to Savannah, her video is the first thing to pop up. She says it landed at the top of the search helping it to get quickly, more than 10,000 views.
“People watch the video, and then ask to work with me, because they tell me they feel like they already know me from watching my videos. My videos are helping people feel like they can trust me as their realtor. They’re helping me to build relationships with potential clients.”
You just have to relax and smile. Don’t be too salesy. Just inform, don’t sell.
The first time she heard someone tell her they already felt like they knew her, a huge light bulb went off in her mind, she says, “they were already invested in working with me. They would tell me, I choose you.”
Carr tells agents, don’t be afraid of using video. “You just have to relax and smile. Don’t be too salesy. Just inform, don’t sell. Be genuine and solve their problems. It gets easier the more you do it.”
It’s time to step up your marketing by using video. It’s a great way to personalize yourself to your clients. It’s also more likely someone will click on something you want to show them instead of choosing to read about it. Grab your phone and start recording a reason why clients should choose you, or why they should take a look at a property you’re trying to sell. Then follow Carr’s steps for making sure your video gets watched.
Carr is the creator of YouTube for Agents Online course.
You can view Carr’s blog and videos here.
