You can leverage YouTube to generate real estate leads at scale while you sleep, vacation, or simply perform other important work tasks. YouTube is the ultimate tool for real estate agents, but it does require some strategy, so here are 21 tips to help you get started.
1. Cultivate Consistency
In my book, there are two mantras for real estate: “Location, location, location” for selling a home and “Consistency, consistency, consistency” in marketing to generate real estate leads. You must remain consistent in input and output.
This includes when you record, how you structure your videos, what intros and outros you use each time, and when you upload. Each of these things must remain constant and consistent if you want to establish authority and show your audience you’re trustworthy and professional.
2. Curate Your Topic Selection
Develop a clear content strategy that caters to your target audience’s interests and pain points. Obviously, your expertise is in real estate, so use that to develop content that answers your audience’s most common questions.
For example, if you hear the same question over and over again from a client, create several videos answering that question from different angles.
Do people always want to know what title insurance is? Well, create a series of videos defining title insurance, explaining why it’s necessary, giving tips to find the best title insurance, etc. Make sure people understand not only what title insurance is but that YOU can explain it. You are the expert!
3. Start Simple
Start with what you have when it comes to equipment. You don’t need to create friction for yourself by trying to buy all the latest and most expensive gadgets.
In time and with more experience, you will likely want to invest in high-quality cameras, microphones, and editing software to enhance your overall production value. But to start, just use your phone and put SOMETHING out there!
4. Design Engaging Thumbnails
Unless you have a lot of graphic design experience, you’ll want to invest in a professional designer to get your thumbnails looking amazing.
On YouTube, click-through rate matters so much. If you go from even a 4% click-through rate to 4.5%, we’re talking thousands more views (with just a $5-$10 investment) to generate more real estate leads! Use Upwork, Fiverr, or similar sites to find a quality but inexpensive graphic design artist who knows YouTube thumbnails.
5. Optimize Your Titles
Title your videos concisely, conveying exactly what you’re talking about within the video. Initially, you’ll need to optimize your video titles, descriptions, and tags with relevant keywords to improve search visibility on YouTube.
With time and practice, titling videos will become an easy task. To get a good start, try searching for videos related to your keyword on YouTube to see what titles come up (don’t copy these, but use the keywords and structure as inspiration for your own). You can also use TubeBuddy or other SEO tools to help you create a compelling title.
6. Give a Call to Action (CTA)
Be clear about how you want your viewers to take action. Do you want them to comment, subscribe, share, call? Whatever you want from your video needs to be clear. Don’t be afraid to ask for it outright—all YouTubers do it! This is the best way to generate real estate leads that actually ACT.
7. Provide Educational Content
When people are looking for real estate information or agents, they want to find expertise. Your job is to position yourself as the expert, not only to help people trust you for online advice but also to get them to call you for personal help.
Provide valuable information about the real estate market, trends, and buying/selling tips. Show people that you know what you’re talking about and want to help them. They’ll be much more likely to come back!
8. Film Property Tour Videos
In addition to sharing educational content, you’ll want to feature virtual tours of properties you’re selling or promoting. These videos will give potential buyers a better feel for the space you’re selling.
These videos will also encourage buyers and sellers with knowledge of the types of properties you sell and the types of people you work with.
9. Share Testimonials and Case Studies
Share success stories and testimonials from satisfied clients. Doing so will help you build trust and credibility with your online audience, earning you more leads and referrals.
10. Collaborate with Influencers
Partner with popular real estate influencers to expand your reach, bring additional subject matter expertise, and make content that much easier to produce. When you film with an influencer, your job is to interview…you don’t even necessarily have to be on-camera! People will watch simply because they know the name of your guest.
11. Analyze Your Metrics
It’s crucial that you modify your efforts to get the best possible results. You won’t get everything right the first time and that’s okay!
Monitor YouTube Analytics to gain insights into viewer behavior and tailor your content accordingly. If a video is doing great, copy some of the stylistic and topic choices to other videos. If a video is doing poorly, try to pivot your strategy for next time.
YouTube is always a shifting marketplace, so follow the numbers and keep adjusting. You’ll get the hang of it eventually!
12. Know Real Estate Trends
Stay updated on the latest real estate trends and incorporate them into your content to stay relevant. You may find people fixated alternatively on interest rates, inventory shortages, moving patterns, etc. Keep on your toes because trends are ALWAYS changing!
Use trends to create relevant content with your unique insights and expertise. You have something to say; don’t be afraid to say it! That’s how you stay relevant and keep viewers coming back for more.
13. Create Video Playlists
Organize your videos into playlists to make it easier for viewers to find content on specific topics. In general, each person coming to your channel is looking for very specific information, so you want to make it easy for them!
Create playlists around buying tips, selling tips, market trends, house tours, etc. Help people find what they’re looking for.
14. Leverage Storytelling
Use storytelling techniques to make your content more engaging and relatable to your audience. People like to hear about other people…just think about what your daily in-person conversations are generally full of!
Use success stories from clients, use your own success stories, and, perhaps most importantly, use funny stories or failures from your life to create relatable content. Show people that you’re human, you work with humans, and real estate happens in REAL life!
15. Respond To Comments
Respond to comments and messages promptly to foster a sense of community and build relationships. You want people to know that you’re engaged and ready to chat!
Our team spends hours a day responding to comments for our clients. That’s because we have discovered that responding to comments is crucial to fostering a healthy YouTube community, engendering trust, and gaining more leads.
16. Analyze Competitors
Study your competitors’ YouTube channels to identify successful strategies and areas for improvement. No one starts out a master at YouTube, so you don’t have to feel ashamed that you’re looking for strategies elsewhere!
Use the mistakes others have made and learned from to get ahead. Use competitor channels to inspire content ideas, design ideas, and more so you can create a professional channel right from the start.
17. Engage in Email Marketing
You can create a great circular marketing campaign with YouTube. Use YouTube to capture email leads by offering them a free resource (linked under your video) in exchange for their email address.
Incorporate these leads into your real estate email marketing campaigns. Use your emails to share videos you film and thus drive people back to your YouTube channel. This campaign strategy will get your more leads, more views, and more success!
18. Focus on Evergreen Content
Create evergreen content that remains relevant over time. While keeping up with trends is crucial, so is driving continuous traffic to your channel. You can do this by creating videos that speak to questions people ALWAYS have and sharing answers that NEVER change.
19. Maintain Compliance
Adhere to all real estate regulations and ethical standards in your video content and promotions. You will need to read up on YouTube standards as well as those which regulate the sharing of home addresses, affiliate links, and any other potentially sensitive or lucrative content in your videos.
For a detailed explanation of maintaining compliance, check out Real Estate Compliance for YouTube.
20. Welcome Feedback
Pay attention to feedback from your audience. You will get lots of feedback, and while some of it will be trolling, some of it could really help you connect more closely with your audience.
Use feedback to refine your content and address any concerns or suggestions. Always reply to comments with feedback right away and with encouragement so that people know you’re listening. Then, don’t fail to follow through with the suggestions as often as you can!
21. Follow Up with Leads
As with any other lead generation strategy, following up is crucial. If you get leads from YouTube and ignore them, all the time and money you spend on your channel will be a waste.
Create a system and a schedule so you have time to follow up with leads and bring them into the fold. If you need help, hire a VA to assist you in calling leads and setting up appointments! Whatever you do, don’t forget to follow up or your hard work will go nowhere.
YouTube Leads for Real Estate Success
YouTube is an amazing resource for real estate agents looking to generate real estate leads. If you follow these tips, you’ll get plenty of YouTube leads for real estate and start building an incredibly successful business!
If you’re interested in extra help to create, optimize, and maintain your YouTube channel, reach out to my team to learn more about our Done for You YouTube program.