“I hate being on camera.”
It’s something we hear surprisingly often from estate agents when we invite them to contribute to The Move iQ Podcast. And it’s understandable. Most people didn’t go into estate agency because they wanted to become presenters, influencers or content creators.
But there’s the conundrum.
Estate agency is a people business. Your brand might have a great logo, an impressive website, smart offices and strong marketing, but when someone is deciding who to trust with the sale of their home, they’re ultimately choosing people.
And increasingly, they’re meeting those people online before they ever meet them in person.
Your personal brand matters more than you might think
Think about how consumers research businesses today.
Before making contact, they may visit your website, look at your social media, search for you on Google, watch a property tour or find one of your videos on YouTube.
By the time they pick up the phone, they could already have formed an impression of your agency – and the people within it.
That’s why personal brand has become such an important part of estate agency marketing.
But personal brand doesn’t necessarily mean turning yourself into an influencer.
It means allowing potential customers to see your knowledge, personality, experience and approach. Video happens to be one of the most powerful ways of doing that.
So why do so many agents avoid the camera?
For many people, appearing on camera feels unnatural.
They worry about forgetting what they want to say. They become overly conscious of how they look or sound. They don’t know what to do with their hands. They worry about what others might think.
And then there’s the dreaded red recording light.
Someone who can confidently talk to a homeowner for 45 minutes about their property can suddenly struggle to deliver two sentences when a camera is pointed at them.
None of that means they can’t be good on video.
One of the biggest misconceptions about video is that you need to be a natural presenter.
You don’t.
You need to be credible, useful and recognisably yourself.
Good preparation, the right format, sensible scripting, direction and professional editing can take care of a lot of the rest.
Sometimes the answer really is to face the fear and do it anyway.
Because the more frequently you do it, the less intimidating it tends to become.
But should you actually be the face of the brand?
This is the question we think more estate agency businesses should be asking.
There can be an assumption that the owner, managing director or most senior person should automatically front the company’s content.
But why?
Your best on-camera personality could be a branch manager. It could be your valuer, a new homes specialist or one of your negotiators.
You might have somebody within the business who is brilliant at explaining complicated subjects simply, someone who naturally makes people feel comfortable or someone whose enthusiasm for property comes across instantly.
Those are valuable brand assets.
Instead of simply asking, “How do we get our MD on camera?”, perhaps the better question is:
“Who are the people within our business that customers should get to know?”
One company can have more than one personal brand
A strong business doesn’t necessarily need a single face.
Move iQ itself is a good example of this.
Phil Spencer is our founder and undoubtedly our most recognisable personality. But Move iQ isn’t dependent upon one person appearing in every piece of content.
We work with different presenters, contributors and experts depending on the subject, audience and format.
The important part is that those personalities sit comfortably within the wider Move iQ brand.
Estate agencies can take a similar approach.
Your lettings expert might become known for rental content. Your valuer might provide local market commentary. Your branch manager could talk about the community. Someone else might be brilliant at property tours.
Over time, you’re not simply creating content.
You’re building recognisable expertise around your business.
That can be far more powerful than trying to make one person responsible for everything.
Could avoiding video actually damage your brand?
Not appearing on camera isn’t going to suddenly destroy a successful estate agency.
But persistent invisibility can create a different problem.
If another agent in your market is regularly appearing in useful, well-produced content, answering the questions sellers are asking and demonstrating their knowledge of the local property market, audiences gradually become familiar with them.
And familiarity matters.
When that homeowner eventually decides to sell, who’s the agent they already feels as though they know?
Being visible isn’t about becoming internet famous.
It’s about being present before somebody needs you.
If your competitors are consistently demonstrating their expertise and your agency is largely invisible, you’re potentially allowing somebody else to build that relationship first.
Sometimes you shouldn’t be the presenter
There’s another side to this.
Forcing someone onto camera isn’t always the answer.
Perhaps nobody within the business is comfortable presenting. Perhaps you want a more polished format. Or perhaps an established presenter or recognised property personality would bring additional authority to a particular campaign.
That’s okay too.
Using an external presenter, ambassador or trusted personality doesn’t make the content less authentic if the partnership makes sense.
In some circumstances, it can actually strengthen the message.
The strategic decision isn’t “How do we get everyone on camera?”
It’s: “Who is the right person to communicate this message to this audience?”
Sometimes that person is you.
Sometimes it’s someone else within your business.
And sometimes it isn’t someone within your business at all.
Personal brand needs a strategy
This is where video marketing becomes more complicated than simply buying a camera or asking someone in the office to start filming.
You need to consider who you want to elevate, what subjects they should own, what formats suit them, how frequently they should appear and how their personal profile connects back to the agency.
Most importantly, you need consistency.
A handful of videos followed by six months of silence rarely builds much recognition.
Audiences become familiar with people because they see and hear from them repeatedly.
That’s when content begins to become a genuine brand asset.
Find your face – or faces
At Move iQ, we don’t believe every estate agent needs to become a presenter.
We do believe property businesses need to think carefully about who their audience is seeing, hearing and learning from.
Sometimes that means helping the right person find the confidence to step in front of a camera.
Sometimes it means identifying and developing several personalities within a business.
And sometimes it means recognising that an experienced presenter or established property personality can tell your story more effectively.
The camera is simply the tool.
The real opportunity is deciding who you want your customers to know and trust before they ever need an estate agent.
That’s where a personal brand becomes much more than a social media profile.
It becomes part of the value of the business.
Want to develop the people and personalities behind your agency brand? Talk to us about creating a video and content strategy that puts the right people in front of the right audience.
