In the world of Content Marketing, there are few brands that do it as well as Home Depot.
Home Depot uses YouTube to create videos that talk about topics that would be of interest to their customers. For the most part, these are “how-to” videos like the one below.
While these may seem trivial at first, publishing videos like these have several benefits…
1. Be Helpful. Many of the customers shopping at Home Depot’s stores are likely the “do-it-yourself” type (if for no other reason than to save money). Home Depot shows these customers exactly how to do what they are trying to do.
2. Product Placement. The videos let people know that the product is available at the store. If Home Depot has a video out describing how to install storm doors, one would assume that they sell storm doors at the store.
3. SEO Benefits. YouTube is owned by Google. So it only makes sense that YouTube videos rank very high in Google’s search results. Search for “How to install storm doors” and Home Depot’s video comes up first. And after you are done researching the storm doors, and inevitably running across the Home Depot video, you know where to go buy them.
4. Build Authority. Authority is built when you can show a potential customer that you are extremely knowledgeable. This may be in a field that they are not knowledgeable, but are interested in. Or it may be something they are already knowledgeable in, but don’t have the time to do themselves. That is precisely what Home Depot’s videos do. They show the customer that they know what they are talking about.
5. Branding. The Home Depot videos are a perfect example of building a brand. The videos don’t feature someone in a suit from the corporate office talking about installing doors. That would create quite a disconnect. The videos feature Home Depot store employees (or an actors posing as such), in the well-known orange apron, solving your problems.
6. Brand Loyalty. All of the above combine into the perfect mixture of brand loyalty. Someone who has discovered these videos may go back to Home Depot’s YouTube channel next time they need help. It establishes a relationship with the customer where they look at Home Depot as not only a store, but also a knowledge base.
7. Personality. While Home Depot is not doing this, videos allow a business to create a persona or personality for your company. The Home Depot videos feature different individuals. An alternative to this would be to feature one person as the “spokesperson” for your brand.
An example of a persona would be someone like “Flo” for Progressive insurance…or the Geico Gecko.
Do it Yourself…
OK, so you may not have millions to spend on your marketing like Home Depot does. And you may not be able to afford a video production team that make your videos look like short PBS specials. That’s OK…
While better production is…better, you can manage without a professional film crew. As long as you provide value and display knowledge and expertise, you don’t need to be a professional move maker.
Here is a couple of ways to obtain the benefits listed above…
1. Answer Questions. You can use video to answer burning customer questions. Gini Dietrich offers up a “Facebook Question of the Week” series in which she answers customer questions posed to her on Facebook.
This helps cement her as an authority, as well as promotes interaction on Facebook.
Plus it is a more personal response than just responding in a Facebook message or typing up an answer.
Pure genius.
2. Record Yourself On the Job. In the above video, Home Depot clearly stages a door installation in order to create a video. But you don’t need to go this far or do anything out of the ordinary. You can just film yourself on the job.
If you own an auto repair shop, for example, you can film your team changing brakes. Narrate it as you film, or go back and edit it. A series of similar videos can get you all of the benefits names above.
Your Two Cents
Does you company use video marketing?
If not, do you think you can benefit from it?
Do you think that Home Depot should consider a “spokesperson” for their videos?
Or does featuring different “employees” see more authentic?
Thanks Eugene for posting this article. It makes a great case for video production. Another good reason for using video is that people absorb information in different ways. Blogs are great for people who absorb information through reading just as video is great for people who absorb things by seeing.
I have mixed feelings about the spokesperson vs. using various employees approach. It depends on the business goals. If you want to cement a specific image of a brand, use a spokesperson. But if diversity and the conveyence of the image of we are everyday people helping you to achieve your goals, then I think the employee approach works best.
I was considering adding more video content onto my site. It takes time to edit but I didn’t realize that it was a marketing tool. To me it was just an educational tool, but I do see why it can work to my advantage. The more videos I make where I’m teaching the more authority I have on a subject.
Awesome Post!
Thanks Elmer. I think education and marketing are really blending into one more and more. Education IS marketing.
The thing is you don’t even need professionally edited videos for them to be useful. You just need good content. Honestly, I haven’t done as much with video as I know I should. I’ll try to get myself to do it more in the near future.