Event Documentation For Marketing

Whether your business is event management, your company is staging or participating in an event to promote itself and engage existing and prospective customers, or you are in the sports and entertainment industry where events are an everyday business, documenting your event should be a part of your marketing strategy and can help you accomplish several goals:

1.     Create event longevity

Once you have documented your event (with video, photos, or even a Livestream feed that you recorded) and published it on your website and social media (including YouTube channels), it will live on the internet forever! That allows showing off the work your company has performed and helps past, current, and prospective clients evaluate your products and services for future consideration.

2.     Enhance your credibility

Seeing is believing, and visual content (especially video) engages more people! Showcasing participation and booth space at annual industry events and exhibiting your products/services in the event space, along with seeing the customer interactions will impress beyond any words and enhance your businesses' credibility. If your business is event management, documenting your work is a must to give you credibility and entice prospective clients!

3.     Maximize your content production for marketing

Content marketing is king nowadays, and documenting an event is a perfect opportunity to make more content without thinking hard about what type of content to produce! If you are not familiar with content marketing, Google it! And if you don't know how to approach content creation, here is an article and a PowerPoint deck by Gary Vaynerchuk How To Make 64 Pieces of Content In A Day (with step-by-step instructions).

4.     Increase your marketing reach

If you read Gary Vee's article, you know that posting content on multiple platforms (websites, social media, etc.) makes your marketing reach go further. Every media channel and social platform has its niche, and your business is active only on a few that matter to you. If you document your event with visuals (photos, videos), this will cover your basics for multiple media platforms, and you can add and change the copy as needed for various digital asset creation (photos, short-form, and long-form videos).

5.     Showcase your work

This is self-explanatory: if you stage events, impress prospective clients with the past events you've put on! If you participate in an event (or are even a talent that is hired to entertain), bring your products, services, or event you are participating in into the spotlight!

6.     Promotional content

If your company participates in the event or stages it, chances are you don't do this just once. Documenting your event is a great way to promote your services (especially if you are in the event management industry) or advertise your past and upcoming participation in the relevant industry events, for external (clients, financial markets) and internal (employee) communications!

7.     Publicity tool

And finally, documenting events is great for publicity! Generate publicity using this content with available tools in your marketing mix, or piggyback on the existing publicity of the event to get more media mentions and exposure.

V1DroneMedia is an aerial (drone) services company that delivers full traditional and aerial event documentation and video production, including aerial livestreaming. Our work ranges from covering small business events such as Sunnyside Chevrolet Annual Classic Car Show, Chamber of Commerce Golf Outing, Cleveland Haunt Club Halloween in July, to documentation of college graduations, charity events and sports events, including aerial livestreaming of US Sailing Championship on Lake Erie, and aerial coverage for 2016 Cavaliers Parade for local Cleveland news, among others. Contact us today for a quote!

Drone Use For Real Estate Marketing

Traditional real estate photography can be limited in its ability to capture the information a prospective tenant or buyer needs before leasing or purchasing a property. With the accessibility and increasing affordability of drone technology in the last 5 years, it is easier than ever to showcase almost any property from an aerial view, providing much more information about a property to prospective buyers.

How does aerial video fit into your real estate video marketing strategy?

This marketing tactic is extremely important nowadays, as most prospective buyers browse listings online before requesting to see a property, and the more visual you can make that listing, the higher the odds that you will have more showings. Video reigns in the marketing world now. According to Wyzowl's State of Video Marketing Survey, 66% of consumers in 2020 prefer watching a video to reading about a product, as well as spend more time interacting with the websites/product listings that are showcased with video. And, of course, video is much better shareable content for real estate agent social media pages. You can read more about the importance of video marketing in our blog post Why Video For Your Marketing Content.

Aerial photos and video are not just pretty pictures

We can see more from a bird's eye view, so aerial views provide information that prospective buyers want to have about the location. For residential real estate, seeing property size and back yard layout in one quick shot (lake, pool, outdoor recreation area, privacy) can help inform buyers, appeal to their emotions, and make them visualize themselves there. Here is an example of a real estate aerial video shot by V1DroneMedia of a lakeside residential property – it can be more appreciated from a bird's eye view with that stunning back yard. Of course, higher-end listings use drones more often. Those properties have more to showcase, and high-end homeowners want to hire an agent who will make sure that their property is represented with its maximum potential to attract more demand from buyers.

It goes without saying that forgoing professional real estate photography is a big mistake, as highlighted in this Most Common Selling Mistakes article, but pretty soon forgoing drone photography/videography will become just as big of a mistake for advertising a home, as aerial visuals will become an industry standard, especially for higher-end homes.

According to A Study Of Drones in Real Estate

·  83% of home sellers prefer an agent who uses drones

·  High volume agents use aerials 3.5x more often than low volume agents

·  Large properties and high dollar homes use aerials more often

For commercial real estate, drone visuals can answer numerous questions. Who is the anchor tenant? Is there parking nearby? How accessible is the property to the main roadways? What other valuable infrastructure is nearby to attract prospective employees? Here is a video of a commercial property produced by V1DroneMedia that does just that.

Aerial views provided by drones can showcase many of these insights quickly and help rent or sell commercial property faster. It is even more impactful to promote a property with aerial video when the property is very big and has many buildings/facilities. If the facilities inside are expansive as well, a drone can help showcase that space the same way. Here is an aerial video of an Olympic training facility, Spire Institute, in Geneva, Ohio, combining outside and inside aerial footage highlighting the amenities and size of the indoor and outdoor training facilities, ultimately helping the owners to sell the property to an out of town investor.

Ways to showcase a property virtually, whether through an aerial video or a virtual tour (as close as it comes to seeing the property in person), has become even more important nowadays, when the world is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and prospective clients are unwilling or unable to come tour the properties. We cover this in more detail in our Virtual Tours Explained blog post.

Can real estate agents fly drones to take aerial pictures and video?

Can real estate agents and brokers do it themselves? It is possible, if willing to learn a new skill and invest time and financial resources. And in the case of flying a drone for commercial purposes, one must also get a Remote Pilot Certificate (Part 107) that makes them compliant with FAA regulations. This means studying to pass an initial aeronautical knowledge test at one of the FAA-approved testing facilities and, as of now, taking a recurrent FAA test every two years thereafter.

Besides having the certification, one would need to buy a drone, learn to fly it proficiently, know how to take good pictures or video that showcase property from the best angles and with the best lighting, learn to edit them with various video and photo software applications, and it is highly recommended to also have liability insurance.

If you have decided to outsource this work and hire a drone pilot, you should make sure that they are qualified to perform the work. Here are the top 5 things to consider:

1. Is the pilot licensed?

2. Is the operator insured?

3. Are they knowledgeable about airspace, flight restrictions, and authorizations?

4. What is the pilot's experience level?

5. Do you like their previous work/portfolio?

We cover this subject in more depth in our blog post Hiring a Drone Pilot

How much do real estate aerial photography and video cost?

Drone photography rates can start at a couple hundred dollars for simple aerial photos, with a professionally produced aerial video ranging from $400-$1200 depending on the customer requirements, number of shooting locations, FAA authorizations, and level of post-production editing required. Any type of custom video that goes beyond the features and benefits of the property will most likely cost more.

Sometimes the decision to produce an aerial video comes down to a cost/benefit analysis of whether you can afford this type of marketing to help you sell or rent a property. If it is a higher-end home that has many outdoor features to showcase, of course spending $300-$1200 on a listing that can yield you $15K+ in commission makes sense. According to the Study of Drones in Real Estate, drone usage for marketing increases for listings at $600K and climbs up slowly from there. There are other considerations as well - if your colleagues in the market are using aerial video to convince customers to list properties with them, then you may have to do the same just to stay competitive even with lower-priced properties.

So, are you ready to get some real estate drone photography for your property? If you are in the Northeast Ohio area, contact V1DroneMedia for a quote and check out our Real Estate website page for more information, photos and videos. We offer menu and package pricing and also started offering 360 virtual tours, so the property can be showcased from both the inside and the outside. Start wowing your clients and happy selling!