If you’re not yet using video content in your marketing strategy, then you’re missing a trick. Video is fast becoming the preferred method for consuming information online and its popularity is set to grow over the coming years. And this is just as true in the world of mortgage advice as it is in any other business.
Not convinced? Then let’s look at some stats:
- By 2022, it is estimated that online videos will account for 82% of consumer traffic on the Internet. This is a huge amount and is fifteen times higher than 2017 levels.
- 6 out of 10 people say they prefer to watch online videos over regular terrestrial TV.
- We consume more than 1 billion hours of YouTube content every day.
- 78% of people watch online videos every week (not just YouTube) and 55% watch something online at least once a day.
People prefer to watch videos rather than reading articles because attention spans are becoming shorter all the time. Using video effectively can help you build relationships with your clients and prospects, and give them a glimpse of the person behind the brand.
But despite all the evidence, many mortgage brokers still shy away from video because they don’t understand its importance or have any idea of where to start. Well, don’t worry because help is at hand. This article will demystify video marketing for mortgage brokers and guide you through the ins and outs of using it.
Which Video Marketing Platforms are Best for Mortgage Brokers?
The internet is huge and there’s a wide array of video marketing options available to you. Here is a brief guide to the biggest and best platforms:
YouTube
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YouTube is the premier video website on the planet with millions of views and interactions each day. Its primary focus is video, making it is a natural fit for video marketing.
Pros
- YouTube is free to use with no advertising fees or pay per click costs
- Sharing videos is easy and you can even ask for shares and subscriptions in your video
- No limits on video length so if you want to upload a 30 minute infomercial, you can
- YouTube has a huge audience
- You can make money with YouTube by displaying adverts on your videos
Cons
- YouTube won’t market your videos for you
- It takes time to create content with YouTube, as you have to shoot, edit and upload videos
- Growth can be slow unless you have a killer video that goes viral
- YouTube will suggest other videos for people to watch after they’ve seen yours, potentially sending them to one of your competitors’ channels
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Facebook has been one of the dominant social media platforms for years and attracts millions of users every day. Because of its popularity, advertising has boomed, and it is now seen as the top choice for most marketers.
Pros
- Facebook has a huge audience and is the largest social media platform
- Facebook’s lookalike audience tool helps you get our videos in front of people who are similar to your existing clients
- Facebook’s retargeting feature makes it easy to promote your videos to people who have already viewed content on your website
- Video ads can be microtargeted to very specific audiences and demographics
Cons
- Unless you pay for Facebook Ads you may find your videos fail to reach many people
- The pay per click (PPC) advertising eco-system tends to favour those with a larger budget
- Attention spans on Facebook can be shorter than on video-only platforms such as YouTube
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LinkedIn is another social media platform but, unlike Facebook, it is aimed at people networking for business purposes. While not as big as Facebook, the nature of its audience makes it a good fit for marketing solutions.
Pros
- LinkedIn is a professional environment and people are more likely to be in “business mode” when they’re using the site
- Because LinkedIn is business focussed, it tends to be a good place to talk about your business without intruding into people’s personal/leisure time
- Finding and making new connections is easier on LinkedIn than on some other platforms, and so you should be able to grow your audience fairly quickly
Cons
- You tend to get a lot of unwanted connection requests on LinkedIn and a lot of people only want to connect so as they can try to sell you something (top tip: don’t be one of those people!)
- Maintaining and keeping track of your connections can be time consuming
- Videos on LinkedIn are less likely to go viral as there are less ways to engage and interact with content
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Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms and is unique in the way it presents information. Over the years video marketing has become increasingly viable on Twitter and most large companies now employ it in their marketing strategy.
Pros
- Twitter has millions of users
- Hashtags allow you to target specific topics and interests
- The ease of retweeting things means that videos can easily go viral on Twitter
Cons
- With so many users, finding the right audience can be difficult
- More work is required to create effective Tweets that “sell” your videos
- The very open nature of Twitter means it is easy for your content to end up in front of a negative audience
How to Create Mortgage Broker Videos for Social Media
Hitting the sweet spot with your marketing videos can be tricky. Knowing what makes a viewer stay the course or give up part way through your video can be the difference between going viral or remaining un-viewed. Here are a few tips to ensure your videos hit the right note.
Make sure your video is the right length for the platform you’re posting it on. While YouTube allows longer videos, the short attention span of your audience means that a shorter length of under five minutes is usually best for marketing. Length is even more important on social media channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn, where successful videos are often under a minute long.
Just like when you’re writing a blog post, make sure that with your videos you’re providing content that’s useful and valuable for your target audience. For example, you could film a short piece to camera where you give your thoughts on the latest news from the property market. Or you could create a series of videos giving tips on how to increase your chances of getting a mortgage.
Another good tactic is to record a previous client giving a testimonial about your service and how you helped them get a mortgage or remortgage. This can be a great way to reassure potential clients and help them come to trust you.
Whatever your video is about, it’s important to have a call to action at the end of it, whether that be pushing the viewer to visit your website or asking them to subscribe to your channel and/or share your video.
Filming Videos for Social Media
When it comes to filming the video, think about what you’re going to use as a backdrop. Make sure you aren’t sitting or standing in front of anything that’s going to be distracting for the viewer. If you don’t have a plain wall or an uncluttered bookcase to use as a backdrop, then consider buying a low-cost professional backdrop to film against instead.
Make sure the location where you’re filming is well lit and that there aren’t lots of shadows. If it’s too dark indoors then consider shooting your video outside – so long as it’s not somewhere too noisy.
Don’t fret about buying lots of fancy camera equipment. Most modern smartphones will do a great job of filming a video for social media.
However, there are two things I would definitely recommend you do invest in. The first is a tripod to keep the phone steady, and the other is an external microphone so as you get decent sound quality.
I use this Rode lapel mic together with an extension cable for making most of my videos, and it gives great results. It connects to my iPhone using the standard lightning to headphone adapter that came with the phone.
Try to avoid reading from anything that you’re holding in your hand or from Post-It notes stuck on the wall. You won’t be able to do this and maintain good eye contact with the camera.
Instead, just talk naturally to the camera and, if you make a mistake just pause for a moment and then carry on. You can edit out the mistake afterwards.
Alternatively, do what I do for a lot of my own videos and use an autocue. The one I recommend is this one which uses your iPad or other tablet as the source of the script and allows you to attach your phone or a DSLR camera to do the actual recording.
Editing Videos for Social Media
Once you’ve finished filming, use a free video editing package such as iMovie on a Mac or HitFilm Express on Windows to cut out any mistakes or unwanted pauses and to add any required titles or graphics to your video.
Make sure you include subtitles/captions on your videos as many people will end up viewing them with the sound off. Facebook and YouTube can add subtitles for you automatically (and with pretty good accuracy) but with LinkedIn you’ll need to provide your own .srt file containing the subtitles.
Instead of spending ages writing your own subtitles, take a look at Rev. They provide a low cost and rapid service where they will transcribe your video and create the subtitles file for you.
Publishing Your Social Media Videos
Publishing videos is easy on all the main social media platforms, but the process varies slightly from one to another.
On YouTube you need to be logged into the site. From there you can access the YouTube Studio to upload your content. Add a description and set whether the video should be public or private (public is the usual choice). Once your video is uploaded to YouTube you can also embed a copy of it in a blog post or on any other page on your website.
On social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook publishing is even simpler, with videos being easily added to standard posts. Remember, though, that if you only have a small following you may need to invest a little bit of money in advertising in order to get your video in front of the right people.
One Final Piece of Advice…
…get started!
Video marketing for mortgage brokers is becoming more and more important and the longer you stay on the side-lines, the further you will fall behind your competitors.
So get filming and get your videos out there.
By using videos as part of your mortgage marketing strategy, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience and you’ll probably find that, once you get used to it, you can record a video in less time than it takes you to write a blog post.
And finally, don’t worry if you don’t achieve perfection with your videos right away! The more of them you create, the better you’ll get each time. You just need to get started. Perfection will come with practice.
