The video app every estate agent needs to know about

At Hortons, we’re always looking to share ways to stand out from the competition and enhance our client experience with our team of self-employed agents.

Since 2019, we’ve been using Loom - a tool that’s helped us achieve both of these goals.

Loom is simple, but powerful. It allows you to record your screen while also showing your webcam, and it hosts the video, providing a shareable URL. The platform also includes a range of AI features and editing options, all within the same system.

With Loom, it’s incredibly easy to create personalized videos and deliver them in a highly professional way.

Here are three ways to use this tool to enhance your prospecting and improve your client experience:

Client Updates

Chris Goodwin, one of our Partners at Hortons, was one of the first agents on our team to embrace Loom for client updates. He would pull up analytics from portals, advertising metrics, and client feedback, walking clients through each element and outlining plans for the upcoming weeks.

Each Loom recording takes some planning and preparation, but it allows for an exceptionally thorough update - and it’s well worth the extra effort. Not only is it rare for competitors to go to such lengths, but it’s also what most clients appreciate. Selling a home is often one of the most significant events in a client’s life. It can also feel vulnerable, with their home displayed to the world.

Having an agent who goes to great lengths like this to show the importance of their sale can be a huge reassurance.

Instead of sending lengthy emails, Loom offers more detailed, engaging, and highly personable updates that clients can view at their convenience. The only real alternative that provides the same degree of personal touch is a video/phone call, or a meeting. However, the great thing about Loom is that it’s non-invasive and, as a result, makes you easier to work with.

The videos can even be split into sections with timestamps, letting viewers skip to relevant parts.

Chris has seen a range of positive outcomes from this approach. Not only does it build meaningful client relationships that show your commitment to their sale, but these relationships also increase the likelihood of referrals.

It’s also highly efficient. Chris batched his updates, setting aside blocks of time to record multiple updates at once.

Direct Mail

The most common problem with direct mail is that it’s generic and  uninspiring. 

I’ve always found that the most effective methods require the most effort. 

A generic flyer takes little effort and yields minimal returns.  Handwritten, stamped envelopes often outperform printed and franked letters.

There’s a level of subconscious appreciation from prospects when they see the effort made to contact them personally, with your efforts then carrying more weight and therefore are more likely to convert a prospect. 

Using Loom links in direct mail, hand-delivered to prospects, has proven highly effective and the level of personalisation plays on this subconscious appreciation of the level of effort that has gone into it.  

Here are two tips to maximize engagement:

1. Content of the Video: Get creative. For instance, you could produce a video that reviews the current agent’s marketing strategy. Highlight what the agent is doing well and subtly point out what might be missing, like a video tour, drone shots, or a lack of social media coverage. Done tactfully, this can showcase your expertise without disparaging competitors.

2. The Letter: We found it beneficial to use a QR code linked to the video in the letter and include a screenshot from the video showing your face in the corner, with their property visible in the background. This visual cue immediately intrigues prospects and invites them to click through.

Nurturing Buyers

Another way to utilise Loom is to build relationships with buyers, especially those who may also have a property to sell.

Instead of sending standard property matches, consider recording a Loom update highlighting aspects of a listing that align with a buyer’s requirements. Essentially, it becomes a virtual viewing where you pause on photos or the video tour to discuss each room’s features.

Doing this for buyers who need to sell their own property shows that you’re invested in their search and that you care about helping them find the right fit. Over time, you may even build a stronger relationship with the buyer than their current agent has - the potential sellers will notice which agent seems to care the most about their move. 

Sharing these videos with sellers of the properties is another excellent way to show the lengths you’re going to for maximum exposure and to sell their property, which, of course, is the ultimate goal.

There are endless ways to utilise Loom, but I hope these examples inspire you to be creative in your service delivery and help you stand out in what we all know is a crowded marketplace.