What Can We Learn from House Shopping?
Buying a home is usually the largest purchase a family will make. Search and digital ecosystem has played a key role in disrupting the home-buying journey.
When buying the most expensive item, home shoppers find photos and videos the most important feature of websites. When asked what is the most useful feature of a website, “photos” was listed as the top area (87 percent). The National Association of Realtors found that photos were the No. 1 area for all demographics.
In another study by Google, home shoppers also visited YouTube, brokerage websites and Google to see videos of homes. The video usage purpose for home shoppers included:
- Finding out more about the community 86%
- Tour the inside of homes 70%
- Obtain general information 54%
- Watch customer testimonials 30%
This research is all specific to buying a home, yet if this is a format for the information people need for the largest purchase they will ever make, it provides deep insight into what is most useful on any sales website–and this is simply photos and video. More photos. More video. More understanding and sales.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.