ClickZ has posted a great article about how web video marketing can help businesses online to solve ‘brand nightmares’ which I think applies quite comfortably to real estate sellers in this day and age. Even though the original post is aimed towards solving customer communication issues and working to overcome bad press, the reasons they highlight for using video on the web are quite fitting and apply directly to those of you looking to market yourself out of relative obscurity and into the spotlight in this day and age:

Video content drives news. Journalists and news outlets continue to cover and incorporate popular viral videos into their broadcasts. If marketers post a video in response to a crisis or release a brand-flattering video, they can potentially generate news online that could translate into primetime broadcast coverage.

Search engines can pick up the video. If there’s video content posted on the aggregators about your brand, it will be included in search results. Marketers have a better chance of reaching target audiences if they can get their video messages included in search results as it will be evermore important for advertisers to diversify their marketing efforts to attract user’s attentions.

It’s what people are watching. When it comes down to it, people watch videos online. A December 2007 study by Burst Media found that 76 percent of men and 67 percent of women watch online videos. By spreading pertinent brand messages through online video, marketers have a chance of benefitting from the content being syndicated on other formats. If a marketer can get a message out through video, there’s potential it will be distributed on iPods, homepages, mobile devices, and social networking sites. That’s good coverage. Video posted on a brand’s Web sites will arguably garner more attention than text.

Video goes viral. Every marketer wants their message to be what people are talking about, and utilizing video is a great way to reach this goal. Video is easily dispersed amongst peers and can be accessed and posted on a plethora of platforms. Online video also makes a nice side dish to any news story or blog posting. So if someone is commenting on your event (good or bad), it’s easy to include your video along with that commentary. The idea here is to make it easy for others to get pass along your message for you.

I also particularly love this quote from the article, and think it speaks volumes for the use of video in the real estate industry:

Out of all the tactics available to online marketers, video is the best avenue to reach consumers, especially when the information needs to get out quickly.

I couldn’t agree more. Do your listings need to reach customers quickly and effectively? I suspect that the answer to that question is a solid and unquestionable ‘yes’. If so, you should be using video. It’s really that simple.

Technorati: real estate, video tours, real estate video, virtual tours, video marketing, realtor marketing, online video