For better or worse the moving image has emerged triumphant when it comes to storytelling, news and marketing. Give people a choice between reading the news and having it read by a talking head and they’ll take the talking head 9 times out of 10. Give them a choice between reading a book that might take them weeks or watching the 2 hour movie based on that book and they’re heading to the multiplex every time. By the same token if you have a construction company to promote you’re going to attract more attention with a promotional video than you will with a print ad.

The Importance of Video to Your Construction Marketing Efforts

Construction companies and companies that rent construction equipment are typically run by savvy business types who have their ear to the ground, which explains why they’ve been quick to adopt the promotional video as a primary marketing tool. In fact, nearly 40% of the nation’s small to medium-sized construction and construction-related companies now regularly create promotional videos and post them to YouTube and other social media giants. They’re not doing this because they’re prone to following the winds of fashion, they’re doing it because it produces results.

And exactly what are those results?

• Lower marketing costs and enhanced ROI
• Greater brand awareness
• Improved search rankings
• Enhanced visitor experience
• Reduced bounce rates
• Higher conversion rates
• Trust building
• and of course increased revenue

Want to Know More?

Great. Because now we’re going to discuss how you can leverage the different types of construction video content and the various delivery platforms to reap some of those benefits for your landscaping, heavy equipment rentals or construction company.

Video Killed the Radio Star

It also killed the newspaper and magazine star and it’s accounting for a larger and larger portion of all Internet traffic. In fact, the tech giant Cisco predicts that by 2020 (only 2 ½ years away) video will account for 79% of all Internet traffic. That’s up from 63% in 2015. The trend then is clear: marketing with video is not just for pop stars anymore. In fact, marketing video today falls into 3 basic categories with several types within each category. Here they are:

“Raising Awareness” Videos – These videos are all about introducing yourself, building trust and establishing expertise. There are several different kinds of raising awareness videos including.

• The Brand Film – This is who we are. This is where we come from. This is what we do. This is what we believe.
• The “How to” Video – This is where you explain in a clear, concise manner how to do a certain thing related to your business (“How to tell if your gutters need replacing” etc).
• The Educational Video – People love to understand how something is done. Your educational construction video provides value to the viewers and establishes your generous nature.
• The Behind the Scenes Video – Take the customer into the construction trailer. Introduce them to the project manager. Take them on a tour of the site explaining what’s being done where and why. A great way to show you have your act together.

“Now That we Know Each Other” Videos – Now that you’ve introduced yourself and established ground level trust it’s time to move to the next level of marketing video.

• Product Videos – If your product is landscaping take viewers on a tour of recent projects. If your business is heavy equipment rentals introduce your best seller, best value and favourites.
• Video Email – While video has conquered much of the Net it’s still relatively new to email. That said, video emails have the element of surprise and the added benefit of producing more views and shares, which raises brand visibility.
• Our Human Side Videos – You’ve told prospective customers who you are and what you believe, now introduce them to some of the craftsmen and women who make your company tick.
• Testimonial Videos – Video testimonials by satisfied customers reinforce the positive image you established with your Raising Awareness Videos.

“Sealing the Deal” Videos – You’ve established trust and given prospective customers a look behind the curtain. You’ve introduced them to new and popular products, shown them your human side and let your existing customers talk about the high quality of your construction or landscaping work. Now it’s time to make sure your new leads choose you when the time comes.

• Video FAQs – It’s decision time for your leads but they have a few more questions about your company. Create an FAQ video that addresses as many questions as you can think of.
• Demonstration Videos – Post product or construction video on your YouTube channel and Facebook page that demonstrates how you get your incredible results.
• Thank You Videos – You’ve had a great response to one of your “How to” videos. Now post a thank you video with shout outs to some of the people who commented on the earlier video.

Don’t Forget!

• Your videos should be part of a larger content strategy and serve a specific purpose.
• Nothing in your videos should undermine or contradict your brand message. If your specialty is building custom homes don’t wander off message in your videos.
• A single video on your heavy equipment rentals can be posted to YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook and the link shared across an array of social media sites.

Goals and Metrics

Rome wasn’t built in a day and it sure wasn’t built without a plan. In order to transform your marketing videos into high powered engines of growth, you’re going to need an action plan that leaves nothing to chance. Here’s how to do it.

• Devise a clear goal for your videos – Your videos all need to be pointing in the same direction and to do that you have to determine ahead of time what you want to accomplish with them.
• Determine your target demographic – If you’re a residential landscaping company or you sell and lease heavy construction equipment it should be pretty easy.
• Make every video count – Each video should reinforce the brand in a general sense while highlighting a specific aspect of the company.
• Assign responsibility – Whether you’re producing your video content in-house or farming it out, someone at the company has to be the point man or woman.
• Decide where your videos will be hosted – It’s ideal if people are visiting your website to see your videos but all of your videos should be on YouTube as well. Why? Because every month 8 out of 10 people age 18-49 visit YouTube. That’s why.
• Determine performance metrics – The fact that videos are viewed in a player means that gleaning information regarding who is watching what and for how long is relatively simple. This will help point out weaknesses in your video marketing content strategy, as well as tell you what’s working.

More about Video Metrics

The following are some key metrics you’ll want to use to determine if your video content for construction marketing is producing the desired results.

• View Count – View count is a simple but important metric that is your best way to measure how many people your video is reaching.
• Engagement – Engagement may be even more important than view count because it will give you an idea of what people thought of your video. Engagement is the percentage of the video the viewer watched. If they watched to the end then they liked what they saw. If they bailed after 20 seconds that’s a clear indication something is amiss. Increase engagement by keeping your videos short, professional looking and to the point.
• Play Rate – Play rate is the percentage of visitors to a page who played the video. If the play rate is low you should rethink how the video is presented, the thumbnail you’re using, as well as whether to relocate the video to another place on the page or another page altogether. This metric has to do with videos hosted on your website not YouTube videos.
• Social – You’ll use the ‘social’ metric to keep tabs on how often your video is being shared and how it’s being discussed on social media.
• Comments – Comments can be a magnet for basement dwelling trolls but they can also be a valuable way to measure the level of community that’s coalescing around your work. One of the main reasons to create video content is to get people talking. So if they’re talking to each other about how amazing your work is in the comment section that’s good.
• Positive blow-back – If a month after posting a video on why a home addition may be a better choice than buying a larger house you start receiving a lot of calls asking about home additions it’s fair to infer that your video has had its intended effect.

Any content strategy today that doesn’t include a video component is living in the past. We hope you find this information useful when it comes to using video content for your construction marketing efforts.