The Power of Action Versus Perfectionism in Video Marketing

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Marc Cunningham is a property management consultant and he’s also the President of Grace Property Management in Colorado.

He’s joining The Property Management Show today not only because he’s a prominent figure in property management, but also because he’s one of the first property management professionals who embraced video marketing.

Marc is still promoting video marketing, and he believes it’s the most effective way to bring new business into your company.

A Bit of Background: Marc Cunningham

When Marc started his property management career as a child going to the office with his dad, things were incredibly different. It was the 1970s and buying their first copy machine was the most technology they had. The phone with an answering machine was fancy. Ledger cards were used to manually record when rent was collected, and checks were written to owners once a month.

His father recognized that technology was a great tool, and they not only got a computer before anyone else, but they also even hired a programmer out of California to write a custom property management program for them.

In the property management industry, there’s a big scare every couple of years.

The narrative goes, if you don’t do X, you’ll be left behind. Right now, it’s AI. If you’re not using AI, you’ll be left behind.

Marc says this is not always true. Provide good customer service to owners and tenants, and you’ll be okay even without the latest tool. You won’t wake up one day and be left behind.

It’s the shiny thing syndrome. If there’s something that everyone seems to be doing, you feel like you should be doing it, too.

It’s easy to chase the next big thing because everybody is talking about how cool it is.

Marc doesn’t chase the newest thing. Technology is something to leverage in order to improve your property management business.

After graduating from college with a degree in finance and real estate, Marc worked in the industry but not for his father. This helped him when it was time to go to work for his father. He brought a different perspective and a different set of skills to the family business. He always tells people in a family business to send the young people out to work outside of the business for a few years. It generates better ideas and higher level thinking.

Marc arrived at his father’s company with more of a business mindset. His father was very good at property management, and Marc found he was very good at business management.

Pioneering Video and Property Management Marketing

Marc is one of the first property management professionals to begin marketing his company with video. He still believes this is the best marketing tool for property managers.

Here’s how it happened.

He was at a conference, and on the way home from that conference, he began thinking about how much time he spent talking to potential owner clients. They all ask the same questions and he found himself having the same conversation over and over again. Wouldn’t it be great, he thought, if, instead of answering those common questions over and over again, he could put those answers in a video and have it on his website. Then, potential owner clients could watch the video and decide if they wanted to know more. Marc thought that if a video could save him multiple five-minute conversations, it would really add up to getting some serious time back.

He’s action-oriented and he doesn’t over-think.

So, when he got home, he had his then-11-year-old son stand on his desk with an iPhone and take a video of Marc talking about common property management expenses.

It was a three-minute video that included no script, no special lighting, and no microphone. The point was not quality. The point was to get it done.

This has worked better than any other marketing, Marc says, because prospective owner clients will call, and they’ve already seen the videos. That puts them at about a 7 out of 10 in terms of likelihood that they’ll come on board as a client.

Those owners feel like they already know Marc and the company. Marc says he’s not afraid to tell people to use video more because he knows they won’t do it. His competitors don’t.

The reason this works for Marc, he says, is because he’s not a perfectionist.

The Power of Action vs. Perfection

If you believe in the power of action, you’ll get the videos done, and you’ll let the results fall where they may.

Video marketing has been successful by keeping the acquisition costs for each client down. There’s no need to spend a lot on marketing when you have a YouTube channel full of great video content. The video version of Marc is available 24/7, and that means that the real life Marc has time to focus on other parts of his business. One video could be equal to 20 conversations he didn’t have to have in real life. Even if the video results in zero leads, he didn’t have to have all those chats with people who would not hire his company anyway.

The willingness to make videos creates a filter. No property manager is designed to serve every owner. The training Marc does with his property managers internally is called We Don’t Sell. When a lead comes in, he doesn’t want the goal to be closing the lead. The goal is to get to know the prospect and to decide if they’re a good client to do business with. There’s no starting with a sales mentality.

Videos will:

• Attract new potential clients.
• Filter out the clients you may not want to work with anyway.
• Answer common questions.

Video also snowballs for marketing and SEO purposes. The more times those videos get watched; the more Google promotes the videos. When they’re promoted, they’re watched more. And on and on.

Remember that this is a public space. You don’t have to make perfect videos, but you also don’t want to insult anyone. Marc made a video called “Five Things to Never Say to Your Tenant.” He’s not an anti-tenant property manager, but he must have said something in that video to upset someone, because it went viral in tenant groups and he started getting really hateful messages and comments. So, he took that video down.

It’s a fine line to walk. You want to be cautious, but you also want your personality to show through. A video won’t be as effective if it’s scripted. If you want to do some bullet points for yourself before you talk on camera, do it. But don’t read a script or generate something from your computer. Talk the way you’d talk to a client. It can be intimidating, but it’s effective.

It’s effective, but people don’t do it. Most property managers don’t use this effective and untapped marketing tool because they’re too obsessed with making the perfect video and they can’t, or because it’s easier to run ads and pay Google.

What Makes a Video Educational?

Marc has two distinct categories of video. One is educational and one is an FAQ that outlines how he does things. They’re separate.

Under the educational content umbrella is the content marketing that appeals to both prospective owner clients and current owners. It works to market for new business and retain current business.

Here’s a soft rule he says to remember: When you make a video, decide if you can show it to both audiences – the prospective clients and the current clients. If the answer is ever no, then it’s not providing enough education. When you have this rule in mind, you’ll keep your video from being too sales-focused. You won’t say “call us for a free consultation” because why would say that to current owners? When you can say yes, it applies to both current and prospective clients because you’re talking about tenant screening or maintenance costs, then you know it’s an educational video.

Marc believes content matters. His videos won’t be about how great his company is or how many degrees he has.

Nobody cares.

He maintained one massive email group of all current clients, all previous clients, and all prospective clients. Anyone who has ever provided an email address is in the group. It doesn’t matter if they’re working with a competitor or self-managing or if they’ve been with the company for years. These videos educate everyone.

People want to be educated. They’re not going to call you because of your great technology. They’re going to call you because you posted a video with some information on a new law that matters to them.

Marc doesn’t invest a lot of time in making videos. He began doing two videos a month and he’d record them both at the same time, and they’d end up being seven or eight minutes each.

It’s not a production.

There’s a simple backdrop. There are some good lights. There’s a tripod and a microphone. There’s usually one take. If he stumbles over a word, he reps going. It does not have to be perfect, and that’s why it doesn’t take too long.

Slight imperfections keep the video conversational. If you can pretend you’re recording for a potential client, you’ll have an easy time talking to them.

Now, there’s only one a month that needs to be recorded because quite a library has been created. One hour every month is the time investment that’s required, and the video keeps working as soon as you put it out there. Marc says this is the only true evergreen marketing there is. Blogs and videos go on websites. They get shared on social media.

Videos are converted to blogs, but Marc says the video should come first. When someone reads a blog, they don’t necessary get a sense of who you are. Video shows them. And it doesn’t take much time if you’re not a perfectionist.

Sometimes, people will give up too fast. They’ll hate their hair. They’ll hate their voice. They’ll want to re-record over and over again.

Marc says get over that. You’re not auditioning for Hollywood. You’re trying to attract a new client, and it gets easier the more you do it.

Advice to Property Managers Not Loving the Video Marketing Idea

Marc has some advice for when you’re making your video, and he even has some advice if you’re not feeling like you want to make videos at all.

• Be more energetic in your video than you think you need to be. There’s something about video that sucks the life out of people. You don’t want to be boring. As you’re recording, be a bit more animated than you normally would be. Deliver more energy than you think you need to. It might feel goofy while you’re doing it, but it will come across on video the way you want it to.
• If you’re worried you don’t have time to make videos? That’s not the point. If you want to have more time in your business, you need to do this kind of marketing to get there. Success comes when you follow the steps to success. You can’t wait to be successful before you start showing your stuff.

Marc reminds all of us that he began video marketing with a wall, an iPhone, and an 11-year-old. If you want to save yourself time on marketing, there’s no better way to do it.

As a property management business consultant, Marc stresses the importance of video as a marketing tool, and he has another secret weapon that he’s surprised most companies don’t realize is so important.

That’s having a photo of yourself or your company or your team on your website.

It’s a big fail if you’re not featured on your site. People want to SEE who they’re doing business with. Get your picture on your site and let people know who you are.

The mantra for Marc is to be professional yet friendly. Those are the boundaries. You know where you fall. Maybe you trend more towards professional or more towards friendly. Bring yourself back to balance.

Another piece of advice: With content, whether it’s a blog or a video or a Q&A on your website, make sure you’re answering the questions that your potential clients have. You’re attracting investors and accidental landlords. Answer questions from both types of owners.

The accidental landlords aren’t thinking about themselves as investors. They lived in the house they’re about to rent out. They want to know who will be there and if they’ll take good care of the home. They’ll have questions about screening. Investors will have money questions. They’ll want to know what they’re spending on maintenance and how quickly you’re filling vacancies.

Answer those questions in your content.

Find out what people are asking right now. What conversations are you having with current and prospective owners? What keeps coming up?

Your potential clients are making decisions based on emotions. If you’re not marketing yourself this way, with video, then you’re only competition on price. People don’t choose your company because of your price. They choose your company because they know what you’re doing. You cannot expect them to turn over the keys to their greatest asset without knowing who you are.

Find Marc at PMBuild.com, which is their property management education website. You can also visit RentGrace.com, which is his property management website. Check out his videos and see how it’s done.

Marc’s parting words?

Get it done. Get it out there.

We appreciate Marc Cunningham coming onto the show. If you have any questions about video marketing or if you need help with this part of your business, please contact us at Fourandhalf.