Bring Your Brand to Life with Video Marketing

October 4, 2021

Visual content is a dynamic way to draw people in, create a meaningful connection and promote your brand. A combination of visual content and the human voice bears that which the written word or visual content alone cannot, an element of emotion that attracts interest and entices potential guests to dwell longer and engage with your brand.

In our recent article, The Value of Visuals we learned that “The human brain processes images and visuals 60,000 times faster than text and 90% of the information processed by our brains is visual. We remember 80% of what we see, 20% of what we read, and a mere 10% of what we hear”.

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words” but there are simply some things that a still image cannot convey. Research shows that replacing a still image with a video has the potential to increase conversion by nearly 13%.

Visual marketing statistics confirm that video content is an effective tool to promote your homes and your brand with organic, attention-grabbing content that informs, educates, and entertains your target audience and entices a new one. Let’s explore the unique ways property managers can use visuals and video content in their marketing strategies and the benefits to boost their business and bottom line!

Virtual Tour Technology

Supporting your property listings with virtual tour technology makes it easy to showcase your homes inside and out, highlight your unique selling points and amenities, and give your potential guests a true feel of the space to imagine their vacation with a deeper perspective. Take it a step further, stage the home and personalize a tour of the home with added video content, use aerial or drone footage to highlight the neighborhood and outdoor amenities, and advertise your homes using the full potential of video marketing.

Neighborhood Tour

Don’t only show off your properties! Show your guests that you’re an authority not only in finding the perfect home for their vacation but in the destination they’ve chosen too. Combine your local area guide and blog with fun video content about the area, tips and recommendations from your team, top attractions, local activity providers, and the highlights of staying in your destination. Think like a traveler and promote your destination with fun, engaging content.

About Us

Are you sharing your story with your potential guests, connecting, and leaving a lasting impression? The “About Us” page of your website presents the perfect opportunity for you to personalize your brand, no matter the size of your company. Include authentic and personal video content on this page, a personal introduction to your brand, what makes your company and rentals unique, your core values, and how you’ll make a difference in their vacation experience.

Rave Reviews

We all know the power of a positive review! Recent studies show that 91% of users rely on online reviews and 83% of TripAdvisor users found their accommodation through a previous guest review. A guest review can be the deciding factor in booking a vacation with your brand and a fun, friendly video including rave visual reviews from previous guests is all the social proof you need. A positive word, authentic feedback, and genuine opinions (not fake reviews) boosts credibility, trust in your brand and brings more bookings. You can make this a fun marketing project offering guests an incentive for a quick video clip review vs. a written review.

FAQ

The more information you offer potential guests on your website, the more seamless the guest experience. There are plenty of ways to address frequently asked questions and if you can keep on top of this, it saves lots of questions later. Property managers are inundated with the same questions, over and over again, sometimes by the same guests! This is an important time to remember we retain 80% of what we see and 20% of what we read, so why not incorporate visual content into your FAQ section and an in-house voice concierge for during the stay to eliminate the phone calls, emails, texts and emergency calls that arise when guests don’t have the answers to their questions.

Blog Page

All of the above can be used on individual landing pages and as posts on your blog page, which is a highly effective platform to upload engaging written and video content, and an awesome marketing tool for past and future guests. Blogs are a vital part of any vacation rental marketing strategy with over half of consumers making a purchase with a brand after reading a blog post.

Social Media

There are currently 3.96 billion people actively using social media, expected to reach 4.41 billion in 2025. Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube and 95 billion photos and videos are shared on Instagram every single day! Research shows that 58% of consumers visit social media before a website and 60% of consumers found a brand on social media before making a purchase. If you’re not on social media, ask yourself why!

Share your content across all platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest) to reach all audiences and promote all the organic content that you have created above. Use hashtags to attract new guests, run competitions to encourage social shares from your guests and followers, go live to show off your destination and introduce guests to new homes, and ensure you are taking full advantage of the free, interactive marketing opportunity on social media to build a following and get free exposure.

The Benefits of Video Marketing

Affordable: Video marketing is an affordable way to invest in the success of your homes and brand. Either way, video content has a high return on investment and is a quick, easy and affordable way to engage with your guests and grow your database.

Guest Engagement: Since the onset of the pandemic and sudden switch to contactless stays, most of our guest engagement happens online. Video content allows a guest to put a face to the experience, meet your team in a fun and engaging way, create familiarity and a human connection and gain peace of mind that their vacation days and dollars are safe with you.

Adds Credibility: A professional website with quality video content is an effective way to get your message across in a real and authentic manner, sharing guest reviews and testimonials, showing authority and social proof that adds credibility to your brand. Deliver on your promises and don’t oversell!

Boosts your Online Presence: Video content brings your brand to life, drives more traffic to your listings, boosts your online presence and search rankings, increases click-through rates, dwell time, and conversion rates, and keeps your brand at the forefront of the guests’ minds giving you the competitive advantage.

We’ll leave you with this …

“One minute of online video equates to 1.8 million written words”

Dr. James McQuivey, Forrester Research