Studeo was one of this column’s earliest reviews.
Almost fives years later, the online presentation tool is as equally creative, technologically better and still worth a place in your marketing budget.
Studeo makes listing presentations, homes for sale, agents, teams, brokerages — or whatever you want to market about your business — not just standout from the crowd, but also rise well above it.
The company’s primary product is called a “storybook,” an an online brochure, for lack of a better description.
Each page turn reveals another chapter, able to host video, high-resolution images, cinemagraphs, text and other forms of visual information you need to tell your tale.
Studeo
Despite my high praise for its visuals, the product’s intent isn’t merely to make houses look better or your brand appear more professional, it’s to drape an engaging narrative around real estate agents and their offerings.
The Studeo team wants to make every listing a story by tapping into the peripherals of life that make up a person’s reason for buying. After all, buying a home is a pretty emotional experience. And lest we forget, story telling is at the heart of advertising.
The newest edition of Studeo comes with a fully automated account level that can produce storybooks for every listing in your office. Totally hands-off.
This can be a powerful marketing advantage for brokerages looking to empower their agents with technology that requires little interaction once up and running.
Images and descriptions are pulled in from MLS accounts, and the company’s algorithm knows to appropriately connect supporting imagery.
Warning: MLS descriptions are not scrubbed when imported to a storybook, meaning the flagrant violations of ALL CAPS, typos and incorrectly capitalized words that are still tolerated by the industry will make it into the end-product.
Studeo’s technology will insert an image of a child playing with a dog next to a picture labeled “spacious backyard” or a short video of steam twisting away from a latte will accompany a picture of the “sunny breakfast nook.” You get the idea.
Users can also provide their own visual assets, such as video snippets, stock photos, headshots, maps or aerial footage.
Studeo can turn short videos into cinemagraphs or looped, continuous video, for a slick bit of engaging content to help drive home that page’s theme.
Colors are all customizable and storybooks can be set up to communicate corporate branding themes.
Studeo
Another highlight is Studeo’s ability to host in-page Matterport tours. Scroll from dollhouse view to the kitchen pantry from within any section of a storybook page.
A set of templates, ranging from “luxury” to “recruitment,” and familiar drag-and-drop interface make it easy to assemble and publish a storybook, which can be shared and embedded anywhere your content needs to be.
Storybooks can be printed, too.
The software leverages a technology called “generative adversarial neural networks” to make poorly captured images look like a professional product. It’s a complex, machine-learning technology that in vague summary works similarly to HDR images, where it blends multiple versions of related subjects..
Beyond your newest listing, consider storybooks as way to showcase your team’s success, attract new agents, what’s happening in an up-and-coming neighborhood, or even as an educational tool by using videos and descriptions on the closing process, first-time buying or investing in apartment properties.
Studeo
It shouldn’t surprise you to know that agents need as many reasons as possible to go above and beyond to land their value proposition in today’s market. Storybooks — and other fresh approaches to marketing — can help.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe
