When Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile he set a whole new mindset for a world of possibilities and now Google has made yet another major announcement that could change the internet world as we know it.
Do you remember dial-up internet & how time consuming it was to sit there waiting for a website to appear on the computer screen or heaven forbid, trying to watch a video?
Well, if you ever had any doubts about the importance that video will play in the world of real estate marketing you may want to sit up and take notice of what Google are about to embark upon.
Amir Kurtovic wrote “Google have announced plans to bring an ultra-high speed fiber network to a few select cities or communities. What is ultra-high speed, exactly? According to Google, it’s about 100 times faster than what most American’s have today. One gigabit per second to be exact.”
“We’ll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people,” says the statement.
As internet speed increases, marketing property over the web is going to become more about providing an engaging experience and real estate agents should start looking at ways that they can market more like the way project marketing companies currently do.
Lots of project marketing companies are using 3d Rendering & Flythrough Animations like those offered by netstarter.com.au to bring a project to life prior to a complex even being built.
And a couple of weeks ago, I noticed Australian real estate marketing & video company imageination announced on Twitter, “We will be rolling out 3D floor plans as part of our service offering to agents in the next few weeks. More to come.”
Going forward, broadband speeds will progressively keep increasing and to make the most out of the web, real estate agents should look at having a video on the home page of their website to engage their website visitors and help build more trust online.
By engaging consumers with market update videos or property videos, 3D floorplans, virtual tours, etc means that more time is spent on a site, which also helps to make a website more sticky and increases the chances of conversion.
Finally, the responsibility for providing a better online experience can’t just be left in the hands of agents & video companies.
I believe that the major portals will need to look at how they can provide a more engaging experience for the end user.
One of the most important changes that the major portals should be addressing is making property videos easier to see, rather than having them sit towards the bottom of the pile on a property listing page.
With Google talking about One gigabit per second download speed, the internet is going to become an even more engaging experience than we could have ever imagined.