When most people think about YouTube, they think of music videos, how-to trainings, or maybe video marketing. However, YouTube can be used for so much more than that, especially in real estate. Whether you are using YouTube to promote your properties for sale or rent or to help stay Fair Housing compliant (yes, you can do that), there are certain things that will make your videos more effective.
Here are four tips for perfecting your YouTube videos and channel to make them as attractive and easy to view and find as possible:
Tip #1: Create Channel Art to Personalize Your YouTube Page
The artwork on your page will be the first thing people see when they arrive. Be sure to make it pleasant to view and stand out, but also create a clear visual link to your business. This is also a great place to add links to your other social media profiles as well.
Tip #2: Don’t Forget the Tags
Tagging in YouTube allows the system to more accurately and favorably categorize your videos. This means better positions in search results! Tags on your videos identify what the video is about. They may range from the extremely simple, requiring no background knowledge about the topic at all (for example, “real estate”), to the very refined user, who already knows a great deal about your topic or you, specifically (for example, “Fair Housing compliance”). You can use tags to attract new viewers or maintain your existing audience.
Tip #3: Add a Thumbnail to Every Video
YouTube is a visual medium, so appearance is everything! A thumbnail image with a video helps catch a viewer’s eye and motivates them to click. You can use Canva to make custom thumbnail images pulled directly from your YouTube videos.
Tip #4: Remember Your Call to Action (CTA)
Even if you are just recording a training video, include a call to action in your video to let people know why they should come back to your channel and where else they can find you. Remember, if you don’t tell your audience what you want them to do, they won’t know and are far less likely to do it. Your CTA can be as simple as “Watch the next video for more information on (insert your topic here)” or a more specific direction to a webinar or other webpage.
Bonus Tip: Just Click Play!
Everyone feels self-conscious in front of the camera. Just click play and start recording! You are the only one who will notice how nervous you are, and those nerves will fade over time.
Fair Housing Compliance and YouTube Videos
I promised I’d tell you about what YouTube has to do with Fair Housing compliance. The Fair Housing Act was created to prevent landlords from discriminating against certain protected groups, but sometimes landlords and even other real estate investors find themselves accused of Fair Housing violations when they had no intention of discriminating. One place this often happens in the leasing process is when tenants are “onboarded” into your system. If you fail to treat every tenant identically when explaining your policies and procedures, rent collection process, or other logistical information, you could end up in violation of Fair Housing Law.
YouTube videos are a great way to prevent any discrepancies in treatment and training when you are dealing with tenants. Record short, simple videos dealing with your processes and ask each tenant to watch them. Many landlords actually require tenants to confirm with a digital signature that they viewed these trainings. This way, you know that the information has been conveyed and there is no chance of one tenant getting different treatment than another because they all watched the same video.
YouTube is also a great place to store basic training videos on other tenant-training topics, such as how to change a lightbulb or air filter. You may find that your smaller maintenance request volume will fall significantly if tenants have a basic trouble-shooting guide for issues like burned-out bulbs and clogged toilets, but you also want to be sure that they are resolving these issues the right way. Online video trainings are a good way to guide them.
Contributor Recommendation: Canva
Canva is extremely easy to use and has great channel art outlines to help you get started that are also free.
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