Photos and videos are the best friends of text messaging for Real Estate. And the best thing is that you don’t need to hire a professional photographer or videographer to take stunning photos that will delight your potential buyers. In this article, we will share with you some pro tips you can implement right away on your listings, and use in your marketing text messages.
Taking the Right Photos for Text Messaging For Real Estate
Make Sure You Take Steady Images
You don’t need a professional camera to take good photos for your listings. Any smartphone nowadays comes with a powerful camera that can take pro-level shots. However, many people don’t give their phones the right support to take sharp, steady images. Another common mistake is using the phone’s zoom. Digital zooms actually crop the photo to make it look bigger at the cost of making it grainy and pixelated.
You can solve this by doing the following:
- If you’re holding the phone with your hands, bring your elbows inward and plant them in your chest. You can also kneel down and rest your elbows on your knees.That way you can have a more stable stance, which helps your smartphone camera not to shake.
- Use your phone’s volume button to trigger the shutter instead of the screen-based button. Doing that helps you hold the phone with both hands, focus better, and take better shots.
- Instead of zooming, just move closer to the object you want to photograph.
- Invest in a tripod or a smartphone adapter for a tripod. This is a solution not only to get steady takes in general but also to get taller takes or reach out to places that are difficult to shoot by hand.
Use Horizontal Shoots
Because of the way smartphones are shaped, we naturally tend to hold them and take photos upright. However, it is highly recommended that you use a landscape-oriented view instead of using portrait (vertical). This applies to most of your real estate photos, both exteriors and interiors, because with horizontal shots you can show as much room and detail as possible.
Vertical photos are recommended only for specific shots in which you want to highlight certain details. For example, you can use it to show the detail of a staircase.
Use Natural Light As Much As Possible
When shooting indoors, make sure you get as much natural light as possible. Naturally bright photos give the idea of how warm, comfortable the property you’re showing is. Make sure all the areas get the same level of lighting (or as close as possible) so you can get a consistency in all the areas you shoot.
You can get the best natural light right after sunrise and before sunset. If you still have to take the photos in low light moments or in a bad weather day don’t worry, you can still take good photos! Just make sure your smartphone has a good night mode or use your phone’s light adjustment options.
How to Use Videos for Real Estate Text Messaging
First of all, take into consideration that the same tips we shared for real estate photos apply to your videos too. Taking video shots of each room in the property or shooting a whole video tour are good options for your listings. However, those videos might be a little too much to share on text messaging.
You might send those videos via text using a link shortener tool to attach the listing’s URL in your message. Another option is to use 1 to 1 video text.
Videos in Texts
These are simple videos that are meant to be sent through text message mostly as a follow up or reminder. You can shoot a one-time video to be used to send to many users. But if time permits, we recommend shooting personalized videos for each potential buyer (especially those who are really worth it in dollars).
In video texts, you shoot yourself encouraging your lead to continue talking about the property you already showed to them. So it’s important to shoot a short, simple video in which you talk to them directly. You can send that short video through a text message by using MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service).
MMS: Your Best Ally in Text Messaging for Real Estate
Taking good photos and videos for your listing is half of the job. The other half is, of course, to make that content available to those interested in your listings. Text messaging is a powerful tool because it has a higher open rate than any other media. MMS allows you to attach photos or videos to your text messages.
Trumpia’s MMS Messaging Software allows you to do that and much more. Our texting software comes with multiple capabilities like automation, two-way MMS (meaning your potential buyers can text you back with photos and videos, too!), smart targeting, and so much more. With Trumpia, you can go from very simple tasks to complex, comprehensive campaigns that result in more revenue and palpable business growth.
If you’re interested in incorporating text messaging for Real Estate, check out our text message software pricing plans or call or text 1-888-707-3030 to chat with one of our experts.
