If you're in real estate, you've no doubt been hearing about real estate drone photography. But what kind of ROI does it actually bring in? Read on to learn more.
What is Real Estate Drone Photography?
Drone photography is the art of taking high-quality photos and video using unmanned air vehicles, or as they’re more popularly known, drones.
Drones allow professional real estate photographers and videographers to capture certain angles and views that are otherwise limited by standard cameras.
Photographers can now shoot up to 400 feet above ground level to produce compelling aerial shots of homes, the local landscape, charming downtowns, landmarks, and tracts of lush farmland—just to name a few.
This new medium creates a better sense of location and culture which buyers love. After all, more than 70% of homebuyers watch video tours according to a joint real estate consumer report from Google and the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Consumers Are More Likely To Prefer Drone Photography
In their joint report, Digital House Hunt: Consumer and Market Trends in Real Estate, Google, and the NAR also revealed how much homebuyers rely on visual marketing to make decisions:
- 86% of homebuyers use videos to learn more about the community they’re considering moving to.
- 54% watch real estate videos for general information about a particular home.
- 44% of homebuyers use real estate videos to compare and contrast their choices.
- 38% say they use videos to learn about more specific features of a home.
As consumers grow more informed on their own, they expect more useful, high-quality information and visuals for decision-making. Hence, the growing popularity of drone photography in the real estate industry.
In fact, according to Multiple Listing Service (MIS) statistics reported by Real Estate Magazine, properties with accompanying aerial images are 68% more likely to sell than properties without aerial marketing, another reason why agents are upping their marketing game with real estate drone photography.
The Marketing Benefits of Real Estate Drone Photography
Visual marketing has proved it’s worth, but the following stats reported by Inc. Magazine are also worth noting since drones can boost your conversion rates in these areas, especially in years to come:
- By 2018, a whopping 84% of all marketing communications will be visual-based.
- Almost 80% of all web traffic is expected to be driven purely by video by 2018.
- Consumers are 85% more likely to purchase a product or service if they watch an accompanying video.
- Social media video content is 3-times more likely to be shared.
- Visual social networking giants, Instagram and Pinterest, have grown their user based by 64% and 111% respectively.
This last statistic eludes to the cross-platform marketing power of drone photography, which can have a huge impact on your ROI on drones.
Cross-platform and Integrated Marketing
Real estate drone photography and videos can be quickly shared across the following social media marketing channels without breaking the bank.
But it’s not just your social media strategy that could use some fresh drone photography, you should add your drone footage and photographs to the following content marketing communications as well:
- Real estate agency blog
- Newsletters and other email marketing
- Landing pages
- Digital brochures, flyers, and reports
Take Local TV Spots to The Next Level
Real estate drone photography can help you stand out in your local TV spots with thrilling flyover footage of the culture, agriculture, geographical makeup, and landmarks of your property market. Aerial footage of local celebrations, nightlife, and other events is another way you can use drone photography to generate excitement for your property market on TV as well.
Incorporate Real Estate Drone Photography into Print Marketing Communications
Television isn’t the only traditional marketing strategy you can improve with drone photography. High-quality drone images can maximize your ROI on the following print marketing solutions:
- Direct mail campaigns
- Visitor brochures and flyers
- Local listing flyers
- Local publication advertisements
- Signage and billboard campaigns
What's great about high-quality drone content is that you can use the same content across all your marketing channels, saving you money and time on content production.
Moreover, you can use this boost in cross-platform marketing to produce integrated marketing campaigns that to create a more robust client experience online and in-person.
More Tips for Maximizing Your ROI on Drone Photography
Quality production is key to maximizing your ROI on real estate drone photography. That’s why one of the biggest mistakes you can make in real estate marketing is not hiring adequate professionals to get the job done.
What to Look for in a Professional Real Estate Drone Photographer:
At a minimum, your real estate drone photographer or videographer should have the following skills and experience:
- Operates in accordance with the latest regulations commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
- Has drone insurance that covers liabilities.
- Extensive knowledge of safety procedures and a set safety plan.
- Professional training or extensive on-the-job training with proven results.
- A professional portfolio or demo reel to show.
- Good planning and execution
- Previous experience working with real estate agents and firms.
Track Progress and Results
We also recommend tracking the progress and results of your drone-produced marketing content, as this can help you discover which images and footage are more effective with your target demographic. You can do this through online analytics tools, social media marketing apps, and consumer surveys.
Add Drone Content to Your Agency Website
Last but not least, don’t forget to incorporate your exciting real estate drone photography into your agency’s website design. Visitors only give websites a few seconds to make an impression, and well-produced drone content is more likely to help visitors remember your brand and bookmark your website.
Real estate buyers want to feel a real connection to properties when they view visual content. To get noticed by prospective buyers, start investing in quality real estate drone photography to produce the epic content you need to sell your properties fast.