These days, promoting your home service business takes a lot more than yellow page ads, direct mail post cards and a nice truck wrap. Your most successful competitors are probably including online videos in their marketing strategy to get their name out to customers. Why aren’t you?

You might think that making videos would be too much of a hassle. You might also wonder if the return on the time invested would even be worth it. In the first case, you’d be wrong. In the second case, it most definitely would.

Let’s talk about the bottom line. Some studies show that using a video on a landing page increases conversion rates by 80 percent. The use of videos can boost revenues 49 percent faster for companies who use them compared to those that don’t.

If that’s the case; if you’re not using videos to promote your company, you’re losing out.

Videos can set you apart

Why use videos to promote your company? The sad truth: You’re not the only home service business in your market, and you compete with the rest of them for many potential customers who have probably never heard of you. One service van looks pretty much like any other service van to the average homeowner.

So, setting yourself apart from competitors involves giving potential customers a face to associate with your brand. Videos give you the opportunity to become a real person to the public instead of an anonymous service technician. Videos are also perfect tools for strengthening your social media presence on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Customers want to know who you are. Through videos, you can establish an authentic, authoritative voice in the marketplace. More importantly, you can gain the trust of potential clients by showing them who you are.

It doesn’t have to be complicated

Making videos doesn’t have to require a bunch of expensive equipment or take a lot of effort to produce. Making one can be as simple as grabbing your cell phone and having someone film you talk for 30 seconds. Maybe you show the homeowner how to identify potential problems with their water heater and explain what they should know before calling a licensed professional.

Customer testimonials are a great way to promote your business, too. A cellphone video of a customer bragging about the service they received can go a long way toward establishing your reputation as the company to call in an emergency.

Examples of good video content

The quality of video content matters; filming a sales pitch won’t start your phone ringing. You’ll need to make videos that your potential customers actually want to watch.

For some examples of how you can use videos to promote your home service business, I would recommend looking at 128 Plumbing, Heating, Cooling, & Electric in Wakefield, Massachusetts. This company regularly posts videos to YouTube and Facebook in order to reach out to potential customers.

We find a wide range of topics:

• An example of an oil to gas conversion.

• A profile of the company.

• A goodbye and thank you to a beloved employee.

• Promoting charitable giving.

• Showcasing an electronic thermostat.

• Talking about hot water radiator systems.

Another tip: Don’t be boring. There is no good reason to be afraid of having a little fun. Be serious when the situation calls for it, but, in most cases, a little humor and personality can help keep viewers engaged.

Recruiting

I know it’s hard to find qualified and trustworthy home service technicians in today’s labor market. I know how much you’re struggling to recruit. Videos can give potential applicants a window into the culture of your company. You can show why your business is the best bet in town for techs or customer service professionals looking for solid opportunities and a good place to work.

Using videos for SEO

As with all other web content, a video is useless if viewers can’t find it. To ensure the visibility of your content to the most people, videos should use the best practices for search engine optimization (SEO):

• Keywords are vital. It pays to analyze your business in order to identify the best keywords to attract your target audience. By incorporating these keywords into video content, it will make it more visible to search engines.

• Don’t neglect the metadata. It’s not visible to the viewer, but it provides more details about the video to search engines to make it easier to find.

• Treat a video title like the headline of a news story. It should be concise and informative.

• The description needs to provide all the necessary details and incorporate useful keywords for your business in order to improve the search engine ranking of the content.

• Don’t use a generic file name for the video. Some search engines will use the file name as the title of the video. Make sure it’s informative.

•  Pay attention to the video’s thumbnail. If it (or you) looks goofy, viewers might get the wrong impression of your company and not even bother to click on the video.

• Include a call-to-action in the video or the description in order to push traffic to your business website.

Where to post videos

Now that you’ve made a video, where do you post it? This is where a little research pays off. Just uploading a video to your website isn’t sufficient. You have to go where the eyes are. These days, it’s on social media, but it’s no longer as simple as just relying on YouTube.

The habits of internet users are changing, according to Mary Meeker’s 2017 Internet Trends Report. YouTube’s dominance as the go-to platform for video viewing is declining. Its share of mobile traffic has fallen to 20 percent from 30 percent, while Facebook’s increased to 14 percent from 7 percent over a 4-year period.

Exciting developments in video

Cellphones provide a quick and easy gateway into using video to promote your home service business on a regular basis. Although videos don’t have to be complicated, there are exciting opportunities in new technologies that can create whole new possibilities for your business through 360-degree videos and photos.

Facebook and other social media platforms now provide 360-degree photos and video options that can put viewers in the middle of the action. Imagine recording a video from the perspective of your technician, pointing the common problems that your business can address for homeowners. It may sound magical, but 360-degree imaging technology is a tool that is readily available to your business with a little research and investment.

Professional guidance

Still unsure about using videos? It doesn’t have to be overwhelming or scary. You can partner with a professional PR and marketing agency specializing in the home service industry to help plan and promote videos. A PR partner can also incorporate videos into a broader content strategy to raise awareness of your business and keep the phone ringing.