When reflecting on the digital landscape, it is staggering how much it’s changed in the last ten, or even five, years. What was once a desktop and laptop majority for internet searches and content engagement has given way to increasingly popular mobile and tablet devices. The boundaries for how people consume and interact with digital content have all but fallen away. Digital content is generally inexpensive, easy to produce and more convenient to get to consumers than ever before.

Because of those shifts, digital marketing has had to change right along with it. Content today, no matter the format, only wins if it resonates with the consumer. There’s far too much content available to stand out unless it delivers what consumers want, when and how they want it. 

Of all of the content out there, video checks off all of the boxes for consumers – it can deliver valuable content in an engaging way whenever and wherever people want it. And it is continuing to grow at an extremely fast pace. By 2019, internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic and the average online consumer already spends 88% more time on a website with video. Viewers also retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text.

So when it comes to checking the boxes for digital marketing, video certainly checks the boxes! With those types of statistics, it’s no wonder that multifamily professionals have found video to be one of the most powerful conversion tools for both garnering interest online with marketing efforts and actually converting inbound leads into signed leases.

Let’s take a look at how well video performs specifically on the conversion front and how it can be just the thing to get a lease signed – even sight unseen.

Video Means Conversion

When it comes to today’s marketers, regardless of industry, video is the clear darling. 99% of those marketers who already do use video, say they’ll continue to do so going forward. That 1% who aren’t? Well…maybe they are just uncomfortable with success? Who knows.

But there is no doubt about WHY video is winning. It works! It attracts, it urges action, and it converts. Here are just a few recent statistics:

For multifamily professionals and leasing agents, those conversion numbers mentioned above can be game changing. While providing videos in various formats helps bring prospective residents in the door, so to speak, it can also mean getting leases signed even if the resident never actually sets foot on the property. While video content is engaging, no matter the industry, for multifamily the capabilities and value go so beyond simply garnering interest online. Pre-recorded video tours allow prospective residents to see and experience a community, available units, the surrounding area, and even “meet” staff and team members all from whatever device they’re on and whenever they desire to watch them. Video can also go live and give multifamily professionals the ability to truly so prospective residents the real deal in a transparent way while giving them a chance to ask questions and see what is really important to them.

The transparency that video provides and trust that it instills in the process is what gets these prospective residents to become residents, even completely sight unseen. Video allows you to get people bought in on a space and show them what they want to see, and, ultimately, get them to convert.

But don’t just take our word for it. The leasing team at The Sinclair in Chicago is living, breathing proof that video converts.

Bozzuto tasked with pre-leasing The Sinclair, a 390 unit multifamily community, and was to do so without a single onsite tour and from an offsite leasing office. What did they do? They turned to video. They used video to market to their audience. They used video to do property tours and provide construction updates. They used live video to walk people through the building and start dreaming about living in the space as it was being built out. They used video in every way possible. 

The result? Pre-leasing 25% of their units without a single in-person tour. That’s right. They pre-leased nearly 100 units 100% sight-unseen. And they did it by using Realync’s video leasing technology. Bozzuto was able to streamline the pre-leasing process and showcase their building in a real, transparent way that made prospective residents comfortable enough to make The Sinclair their next home before ever stepping foot in it. You can read all about how they made it happen here.

Bozzuto Case Study_Pei Pei Quote

Good video content can pave the way for multifamily professionals and leasing teams at any property to close deals and get leases signed regardless of the boundary or situation. Video works. Are you making it work for you? 

Until next time…keep it real!