Every salesperson knows that the consumer, before buying from you, especially if you’re in B2B (business to business), has essentially two questions:
1) Do I want to do business with this person?
2) Do I want to do business with this company?
Most title agencies don’t really have salespeople. Or so they think…
What a lot of companies fail to understand is this: everyone that comes in contact with your customer, or the outside world in general, is actually a salesperson. They represent your brand, no matter if they’re front desk or an escrow officer.
Coming back to the two questions above, any real estate agency, lender or mortgage broker have, let’s dissect them a little and see why video content is actually the best route.
Do I want to do business with this person?
If I am a Realtor and this is the first time I hear of your title agency (let’s say I’m visiting your website), and all I can see is just a logo, a tagline and a pretty stock photo, chances are you as a title agency are not giving me enough reasons to trust you. You’re not effectively building credibility. And besides anyone can write anything on their webpage. Anyone can claim they’re the best. It’s just not enough.
Your business is very similar to a doctor’s or a lawyer’s.
I, as a real estate agent or lender, need to see that expert in closing, that expert in escrow. I need to see a face and hear a voice, someone that I can relate to, that I can think to myself “I think me and this guy can do business together. He seems knowledgeable.”
Now, a lot of people don’t do video because of preconceived notions about how they look. “Oh, I’m not going to do video because I just don’t look good on camera”. That’s silly. First of all, your business partners will pay attention to your message, not your looks. Yes, it’s an added benefit if you look good, but it can also be a distraction, so it’s debatable.
Do I want to do business with this company?
If they like YOU, and they consider you an authority or at least knowledgeable from your video snippets (you can talk about the closing process, how you handle it, but also offer insight that helps your agents get more deals, educate and inspire them), then the next step is they’re going to be more attentive to the company in general.
That’s when they will look more at how your website looks like. How clean it is, how modern, what is the overall customer experience. These are all attributes that, even if they are only technically related to your website or blog or PDF whitepapers, they will be attributed to your company as a whole, so be careful how you execute your branding.
Where to start?
Do this for starters. Place a desk in front of a natural light source, such as a window. Shoot video with an iPhone’s back camera. Have a clear theme for each video and only talk about that. Don’t get side-tracked. Download the video from the iPhone to your computer and use iMovie to edit it. Upload the movie on your YouTube channel and then promote the video on every channel you have access to (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter), all this while targeting your agents (paid or organic).
As this proves to be a good fit for your business, you can invest more in lighting, a good DSLR camera that shoots video (we recommend the Canon 70d and a RODE mic), editing software such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere, or just hire a kid that knows all about video.
Remember, advice is just advice. What matters is you applying it, experimenting, testing things and doing more of what works. So let’s get to work!