Using YouTube to Reach the Construction Industry

Hopefully, you understand that the good old days of Mad Men style advertising and marketing are long gone. If you didn’t then let’s clear it up. You don’t have to sit around at a bunch of drafting boards creating advertisements. No more relying solely on print advertisements to connect with your customer base.
Welcome to the information age, the age of the internet and online advertising!
Now that we cleared that up, there are a lot of different ways to use the internet to market. These include web banners and ads, blogs, mobile apps, webinars, podcasts, digital publications, and newsletters, just to name a few. You might even use a few of these at your company, and if you are then you are ahead of the game.

But let’s look at YouTube, a social media site you probably aren’t utilizing to reach the construction industry but should be.

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“What is YouTube?”

YouTube is a social media site. Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but hear me out. When you think of social media you think of social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, and you’re right. Those are the sites most people think of when they think about social networking.  Just because they are different doesn’t mean they are mutually exclusive.
YouTube is still directly related to those sites. It may look and interface differently, but it is still within the scope of social networking sites. It allows you to share content, follow other user’s channels, and respond directly to other user’s comments on your videos.

Once you think about it in terms of sharing content and interacting with other users it sounds more like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Makes a bit more sense now, huh?
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“Why should I use YouTube?”

You should be using YouTube because it is a great way to connect with your audience, and yes your audience is watching YouTube. Contractors, especially young contractors, are using the internet and social media. Don’t be afraid to update your marketing efforts. Internet usage, especially the use of social media sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are increasing in every demographic.
[box]According to the Equipment World 2014 Connectivity Study, 83.1% of contractors are using the internet and use it to look up equipment/truck/tool information. Of internet users, 82.2% said they used Google as their main search engine and 41.8% said they used some type of social media. Since YouTube content is easily shared through social media and shows up in Google search results, your audience is in prime position to see your content.[/box]
As younger generations enter the professional world your audience is changing how they consume media. They don’t sit around only reading magazines to learn about new products. They go to the internet, they reach out to you to find out what skid steer, backhoe, or crawler dozer is the best. They can easily find all the spec sheets they need without having to call or communicate with you at all.

You won’t keep your audience’s attention if your content isn’t interesting and entertaining.

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“How do I use YouTube?”

So first of all, you need to put out relevant content. We have all seen the cute cat and the painful extreme sports videos and those are fine for personal time. But you need to be releasing content that your audience needs to see. They don’t need to see a videos unrelated to your products; it provides no value for your customers. Your audience needs to understand your brand and how it will make their lives better. Apple doesn’t sell products because they make commercials saying their cool, their products are popular and cool because they show them being useful in their customer’s daily lives.
Our job as marketers is to make the audience the hero. Customer value can be established in a number of ways. Make a video showing how easy it is to attach your attachment to equipment. Shoot a video that shows how simple your equipment is to operate. Work with your technicians to create instructional videos on how to service equipment. This provides value for your audience.

When you provide value to your audience you are giving them reasons to engage you and increasing the potential for leads.

With trends in internet and social media usage on the rise, you have to be aware of all opportunities to market to your audience. YouTube is not a fad, and it isn’t slowing down. If you haven’t already, you need to be learning to leverage video as a marketing tool. By learning it now you are investing in your present and future. You are well on your way to mastering your content toolbox.
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