Many are wondering how the online worlds and the offline work together to create a compelling marketing campaign. I came across a great example of a real estate broker using both video and offline campaigns to send potential new agents to their website.
The first step, is to simply record a video. (See below for a screenshot of the website.) While the production quality is a little basic (and I would have hired a web designer to do a refresh of the website), the idea is great – record a compelling, personal video message to new prospective recruits. You could even use a webcam or a inexpensive digital camera that has a video mode. Then upload to a major video sharing site like Youtube or Vimeo. Youtube will then give you code that you can cut and paste into your blog or company site to display it.
Second, get a short, easy to remember URL. It could be “www.joinmycompany.com” if it’s a separate recruiting website, or you can direct the URL to a specific page within your current website. The point is, when you have a “friendly URL” such as the one above, you can reference it within your offline marketing (print, direct mail, flyers, etc.). A side note: using a different domain name than your company URL may hurt your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts, so use a “domain.com/campaign” format instead.
By using these two tactics, you will be doing two very important things: 1) You will be able to reach “offline prospects” with the direct mail piece, as you can market to your audience using national consumer lists or by using a special demographic list from a mailing list provider. Note that I’m talking about direct mail, as purchased email lists are not effective, and not recommended. 2) Once you drive traffic to your “friendly URL”, and people click to view the video, your ranking on sites like YouTube will go up, and you’ll get more traffic to your website by people who visit Youtube, and similar sites. If you’re curious about the webpage shown above, just do a Youtube search for “real estate careers sacramento”. This should clue you in to another important aspect of online video use: Tags!
2 Comments
Looks like a great idea… we are doing some similar video and web work for a real estate agent.
People who get their leads offline through word of mouth tend not to see the value of doing this kind of thing. I think it does a huge amount to help convert those word of mouth visitors into actual leads… even if you hear about a real estate agent from a friend you are pretty likely to check them out online. A quick person video will help a lot to get them to contact you!
Thanks for the great post.
Nice piece of writing Luis.
The use of videos to supplement both online and offline advertising efforts is one of the hottest trends today. Online Video gives the ability to easily and clearly express the features and benefits of a particular product or service to a substantially larger group than simple word of mouth. Using Online Video to activate word of mouth marketing efforts is even better, given the ease with which most videos can be shared through video hosting sites, as well as email. Clients and Prospects are most likely to share those videos that they find valuable or informative with their friends, family and business associates. Besides doing your own videos, consider using your current customers to create videos for them to share – everyone likes to be on camera! Best of Luck.