If you’re just putting your listing photos on the MLS, You’re doing it wrong
If you are hiring a professional real estate photographer to shoot your listings and only using those images on the MLS, you’re not truly getting your money’s worth. Here at Stylish Detroit, we encourage our clients to get as much benefit as possible from the high quality photography we produce. If you’re in the mindset that these images are just “listing photos”, you’re thinking too small. Instead, consider the professional photography you invest in as assets that flesh out and reinforce your visual brand, working alongside your logo, headshot, and personal branding photos to create credibility and professionalism. These images are not just pretty listing pictures, they represent your portfolio of sales and experience and they should have a shelf life beyond your listing. Each listing shoot is an opportunity to add to the library of content that makes up your brand.
Here’s a few ideas to help you get the most value out of your real estate listing photos.
Idea #1: Spice Up your Website.
City Living Detroit is a great example of a brokerage using listing photos to full advantage on their website.
Why use generic stock photos that look like they were taken somewhere else (because they were) when you have a collection of images from your actual listings? You should be sprinkling your “greatest hits” all over your website. Use them as header or slider images to capture immediate interest. Use them for navigation to direct visitors to different sections of your site. Create a gallery of Sold Homes so clients can get a feel for what kind of work you’ve done in the past and how you market homes.
If you have a blog, you should absolutely be using every new listing photo shoot as an opportunity to create one (or several!) pieces of content. And make sure you pin them on Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog!
We all know a strong testimonial can be really compelling and help establish trust. Supercharge your testimonials section by also including images from your seller’s listings. If you don’t have a testimonials section on your website, start one today!
Idea #2: Get Creative with your Social Media
This one is a no brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people sleep on it, or aren’t strategic about it. If you’re just dumping all your photos into one Facebook or Instagram post and calling it a day, you’re depriving yourself of an opportunity to grow your social media account. We all know we need to be posting content all the time, so rather than just adopting a one-and-done approach, plan to use your listing photos in multiple pieces of content you can spread out over the course of your listing.
This gives you the opportunity to put your brand out there repeatedly in an authentic, sincere manner. A social media content strategy designed around your listing photography could look like this:
The Teaser. Put out feelers to your network by posting limited content before the listing is live. You don’t even necessarily have to have the final images back before doing this. Some BTS video or photos of the photo shoot in progress (be sure to mention or tag the location!) can get the listing on the radar of potential buyers who follow you. Tag @StylishDetroit for extra traction so we can re-post you! You’d be shocked how effective this can be. I have agents flooding my DMs when I post BTS footage of shoots-in-progress, and yes, those kinds of posts have brought our clients offers before.
Call To Action / The Big Reveal. Your next post should tell your audience what to do next - like an invitation to broker open or open house - or the big announcement that the listing is live & it’s time to schedule showings. Use 2-3 photos max! We want to be strategic here and build buzz, you’ll have more opportunities to use the rest of the photos, don’t worry.
Keep the Conversation Going. (This is the part most agents skip, but it can really drive engagement and help you get followers.) As the listing progresses, continue dropping a few photos at a time, coupled with very intentional captions. Include hashtags to draw a larger audience. Maybe the house has a really terrific laundry room or mudroom and you can create a post about what a great feature this is, and what problems it solves for the current owner. You can repeat this strategy several times, focusing on different features of the listing. Maybe one post is about the exquisite custom kitchen that you have several great images of, and another highlights the outdoor living space. You know what kind of people follow you, so gear your content towards things they are interested in. For example, lets say you work with a lot of families with young kids. Maybe one post is just photos of the cute decor in the children’s bedrooms, or about all the organizational features this listing has. Or maybe one post features community shots showing the playground in the neighborhood. Use a drone shot that shows how close the house is to the elementary school. This kind of content helps you connect to your target audience by speaking their language, and gives you a way to keep posting about your listing without being repetitive. Every one of these conversational posts should have your unique spin on it. They key here is to not repeat photos and to put some effort into the captions. The more content you produce, the more chances you have to pick up new followers and get shared.
The Results. It’s time to brag a little, you did all the right stuff. and your listing is under contract and your clients are thrilled. Grab another photo you haven’t featured yet and announce that bad boy has gone pending.
Story Time. After closing, do a final wrap-up post where you tell the story of how you listed/sold the house, maybe include a BTS photo of your clients at the closing table or holding your “sold” sign rider along with a few more professional shots. This is a great time to go over worries or concerns your clients had, challenges faced, what unique solutions you came up with, and how you successfully navigated another transaction.
All these posts, as a whole, should work together to tell a story of how the home was listed and sold, and each should feature unique photos, and share unique information. Luckily, when you hire us to photograph your listings, you’ll receive plenty of photos, so you shouldn’t have any trouble coming up with unique images for each post. If you’re doing these posts on Instagram, consider using “Guides” to showcase all the info about one particular listing. It can be a great promo tool while the listing is live, and can serve as a case study once it’s sold.
BONUS STRATEGY: Now you have several ways to use those listing photos during the listing, but you can also keep making them work for you long after the home has sold. Consider creating your own personal real estate stock library. Do some brainstorming, create some folders, and sort your favorite images into categories so you can easily reference them later. This is an especially great strategy if you struggle to come up with content during slower times of the year. You could create folders for things like: waterfront views, kitchen organization, curb appeal ideas, beautiful primary suites, images by season, and so on. Focus on topics specific to your niche. Then you can create content around that. We’ve all seen those “do you prefer this or that?” type posts on Instagram or Facebook, but that’s just one idea. You could do a post on fabulous kitchens, or fire pit ideas, or explain architectural styles or design trends. How about a round up on stylish powder rooms? Or cute Halloween porchscaping ideas? Being able to use images from homes you actually sold allows you to speak very specifically about what you are posting and solidify in your network’s mind that you are an expert. The more information you can provide in a post, the better. A post about curb appeal or decor could mention where the seller bought some of the featured items, you could then tag a local business and hopefully get them to share your post to their audience. Always be thinking about how you can use your social media to make connections!
TIP: You’ll always get full-resolution files when you hire us to shoot your listing. These files are so big and detailed that you can easily crop them and still have a good enough quality image to use on the web. So be creative when it’s time to use those images! The other bonus to cropping images is that they often become a lot more generic and usable in multiple ways. Not sure what I mean? Here’s an example:
It makes sense when actively marketing this home to include this uncropped image of this den/sunroom. But after the listing is over, you could crop this image to create a detail shot which lends itself to any number of captions. Here’s just a few caption ideas this photo could work well for.
Discussing your favorite “cozy place” to read a book.
Morning routines.
Reminding people about Daylight Savings Time.
Discussing the value of new windows or radiant heat flooring.
The role natural light plays in home design.
How adding a few plants can liven up a space, or suggestions on easy-to-care-for plants.
All of a sudden a simple image of a chair next to a sunny window can give you a reason to post and engage with your audience. And you can do this with multiple images from one listing, which means lots of opportunities to post new content and grow your audience.
Don’t just use your listing photos to sell that particular listing, use them to promote your brand and bring you new business.
You are not limited to photo posts either. You can take a collection of still photos and turn them into a video reel. Some of the most popular reels on Instagram right now are simple slideshows set to the beat of the music. And did you know you can convert your story highlights into reels with the click of a button now?
Idea #3 - Enhance your Email Campaigns
You’ll appreciate the time you (or your assistant) took organizing your favorite images by subject when it’s time to design your email campaigns. Everyone that’s ever designed an email campaign knows it can be a drag. Sometimes you have an important message you want to get out QUICKLY, but it’s easy to get bogged down by the design and trying to find the right images to use. When you have a collection of great listing photography to choose from, you can focus on writing great content because you won't have to spend as much time hunting down the right stock image. Keep that beautiful exterior with the tulips popping handy in your “Spring” folder, or re-use the community shots from a previous listing to discuss neighborhood news.
If you can use images of places that your clients recognize as local, they will be more likely to continue reading your email.
The tip of the iceberg…
I hope some of these ideas got your creative juices flowing. We haven’t even gotten into all the ways you could use images for print marketing/advertising, but hopefully some of these ideas inspire you. As real estate media creatives, we are always thinking about fresh ways to promote our clients and their listings. If you’re struggling or have questions, feel free to reach out and we can set up a consultation to do some brainstorming on how our services can help you promote your business.
And if this post has you excited about all the ways you can use your listing photography, it might be time to give us a try. Click here to jump over to our booking section.