Today’s multifamily companies and businesses across the board are turning to video marketing as a cost-effective and extremely effective way to grow their brand and business. And every marketer hopes that the videos they create, then push out into the world are well received and will help their business grow.
With all of the video content already floating around though and so many things competing for people’s attention online, how can anyone be certain that their videos are making an impact? Do simple view rates do truly do achieve that? If there is no tracking of important metrics, most marketers are just hoping and relying on their gut that their video content is working or assuming that increases in followers, engagement, or leads are a result of those efforts. But, as most know, feelings aren’t always correct, nor do they always give the full story.
In the multifamily world, every dollar spent is important – especially on marketing. And it’s important to show that the money being spent on your marketing efforts is having an impact. Video marketing is growing by leaps and bounds in the multifamily industry — likely due to the fact that it’s in demand. Real estate listings that include video receive 403% more inquiries than those that don’t. That is more than marginal and a number that cannot be ignored.
And yet, if leasing agents or their marketing teams aren’t recognizing the powerful information that tracking their video content can bring provide, then they are leaving critical knowledge and ROI on the table.
Leasing teams that harness the power of video tracking have the additional insight of knowing how both their current and prospective residents are engaging with the content shared with them…on an individual basis. Compare that to static content that just sits online, or videos shared without any trackability or insight into how it’s being engaged with, and it is incredibly powerful data to have.
Let’s take a look at how video tracking data can lead to more successful video marketing, more leads, and, ultimately, more leases signed and great ROI on your video efforts.
Isn’t it just about counting views?
Not quite. While views are obviously important, there is much more information available that can help leasing teams make smarter decisions with their video efforts. Would you find it valuable to know exactly when someone viewed a video that you sent them? What about knowing if they shared that video with anyone else or how much of the video they watched? Did they watch it on mobile or on their computer?
Think about it in terms of traditional, written content — this blog post, for example. After writing it, we post it to our site and share it out on social media. If all that we tracked was whether people clicked on our article to read it or not, we wouldn’t know much about the true engagement on our content. The real value is in where that person reading came from online. Did they click any hyperlinks in the article? How much time did they spend on the post? Did they share it with anyone else? Ideally we’d like to know how much they read as well, but that’s much harder to track than how much of a video someone viewed.
Today’s more sophisticated video platforms can allow marketers or leasing agents to track exactly when a prospective resident stopped viewing a particular video, if they skipped certain sections, how many full or partial views their video had, how many unique viewers, how many views, how many shares, and so much more. Tracking true engagement is what opens the doors to marketers tracking the ROI of their efforts and leasing agents strategically following up with prospective residents. Would knowing exactly what video a prospective resident watched and getting notified every time they watch it be valuable to how you follow up with them?
It’s not just theory.
A Village Green community in Ohio gives a real-world example of how this all comes together. The community received an inbound lead from a gentleman moving to Ohio from Germany. He reached out to the community wanting to learn more and expressed interest in a particular floor plan.
Having already filmed videos of many of their floor plans, the Village Green team sent him immediate follow up with videos for him to preview the units of interest that he could watch on his own time – and he watch them he did. Because the team had full tracking and analytics through the Realync video leasing platform, they were able to see exactly when this gentleman watched their videos, but were also able to see that he had watched one of them significantly more than any other. They followed up with him inquiring if he would like to see that particular unit via a live video tour, and he responded that he had already seen what he needed to see, liked that particular unit, and filled out an application on the spot.
Realync’s proprietary video tracking and analytics allowed that Village Green team to know that this gentleman was not only engaging with their content, but allowed them to strategically follow up in regards to his unit of interest. This information for their leasing team and others across the country has proven invaluable and proven a significant ROI on their video efforts.
The right video platform should be one of the sharpest leasing tools in your leasing toolbox and allow you to understand the impact of your video efforts by measuring and tracking your content and engagement. This insight truly can be the difference between a prospective resident signing on the dotted line or becoming a missed opportunity. Because of that, Realync enables full tracking and analytics behind every single video created and shared, as well as every live video tour hosted on our platform. We are multifamily’s video leasing solution.
Until next time…keep it real!
