This week, with intensity, I organized having an aerial and interior video made for the sale of our house. As someone who has voiced many-a-real-estate-listing and is a small business owner myself, I went into the task with some high expectations for hiring the right company.

From doing my research online and engaging with half a dozen video production companies, here’s what I learned about service and marketing:

• When responding to a new customer, watch grammar, typos, punctuation. Messy correspondence leaves a bad impression. Use full sentences. No need to be formal, but being too casual also leaves a bad impression.
• If I’m advertising that I provide a certain service, make sure I have examples to back it up. My site, or any other site that mentions me, needs to be up-to-date, clean, and clear. Can I truly provide customers what they’re asking for? Okay, verify it…
• Don’t expect people to fill out a contact form. Display contact info where someone can reach me directly and immediately.
• Know where I need to be! Does video play a role in my offerings? BE ON YOUTUBE! (Or Vimeo) Audio? SoundCloud or equivalent. Have I audited my own sites on those pages? Do they need updating? Do they even make sense?
• Respond to an inquiry within two hours. I know that if I get back to someone quickly, they’ll know I’m on top of my game. If it takes 24 hours or more, I’m not appearing interested in a new customer.
• BONUS: Price plays only a small part of why someone might hire me.

I know I found the right company to shoot my video by their online presence and professional decorum. I look forward to sharing the production process and I anticipate having a great piece of video to use for the sale of my house (!) and to use as an example of my real estate voice-over work… Stay tuned!