‘How-To’ create content for Customers

Any good Brand person is also an online and social statistics geek. I’m no different, and I’ve been reading some genuinely eye-catching stuff recently.

Recently, I saw a stat in Brandwatch that said six out of ten people now prefer online video platforms to live TV. Another said that more video is uploaded to YouTube in one month than all the three major US TV networks have created in 60 years. 

That’s an immense amount of content.

When you consider YouTube has more than 1.9 billion logged in monthly users and more than a billion hours of video are viewed by people on the platform every day – more than Facebook and Netflix combined – then you can see how media consumption is changing and challenging former norms. 

Through the power of online channels, media is fragmenting at a rate of knots, and being heard in all that noise is difficult. But, if you commit to creating content that has the power to resonate with the audiences you are trying to reach, it is also laced with opportunity…as we’re finding. 

Video and content, prevention and cure

YouTube is now the world’s second largest search engine, after Google, and its popularity only seems to be going in one direction. 

That’s why at HomeServe we’re coming up with ways to capture share of voice on video platforms and defining new ways to connect with our Customers and prospects. 

We’re conscious that, through our home assistance policies, we’re there to keep our Customers’ lives moving when things go wrong. We’re curing problems daily. It’s what we do. And we do it bloody well. 

But, as a business, we’re also keen to give people the tools to self-fix simple jobs in the home – to prevent problems before they occur – and I’ll give you some context about why that’s important. 

During late 2017 and early 2018 we received almost a million calls from Customers. It was a period when Britain braced itself against the “Beast from the East” and “Storm Emma” and freezing temperatures meant hundreds of thousands of extra calls from homeowners with blocked or frozen outdoor water pipes. 

Our call centre team were genuinely stretched and, at one stage, our CEO Greg Reed and many of the back-office teams were called on to staff the phones too. 

But, if you know about condensate pipes, you know the preventative solution is incredibly simple. 

So, we made a ‘How-To’ video about it, with our own Engineers showing an easy fix on how to thaw a condensate pipe. In fact, we made a few videos about the range of common winter problems we were being called about regularly which can be avoided, and we published them on our new lifestyle website called “Living”. You can see them all here. With a potential cold snap around the corner, you might find them useful!

Using insight to guide content

In order to create these How-To videos and to ensure we were adding value, we looked through the eyes of our Customer and prospect Customers. We used call centre trends – which made it crystal clear which videos we should prioritise. 

We researched consumers to better understand their needs and this research informed us about people’s move to online videos and tutorials as a way to help them self-fix. 

We discovered that two in three (67 per cent) are now turning to video-based how-to guides to resolve common issues in and around the home. 

The insight also told us that people are generally comfortable about giving DIY and simple household jobs a go themselves. However, when we pressed them about essential winter repairs in particular, we saw that confidence varied hugely between generations.

Less than half felt confident bleeding a radiator, with only 30 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds prepared to take it on themselves, compared to 73 per cent of people aged 65 or more.

Less than a third of people were confident tackling a blocked drain. And only 13 per cent admitted they would be happy to defrost their outdoor condensate pipe.

Eighty per cent of millennials said the Internet is their new best friend when it comes to tackling repairs and they will turn to self-help videos online to help them, with 74 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds, 66 per cent of 35 to 44-year-olds and 53 per cent of 65-year-olds and over doing the same. 

For a business that helps Customers of all ages, the need was obvious. So, we did something about it.

How-To help our Customers

We know that our How-To videos traditionally perform well. Our own data tells us they are hugely popular with our own Customers and also those people who don’t have a policy with us right now but trust our guidance. Over the years, they are consistently our best performing content. And now we’re aiming for these new videos to follow suit. 

Our job as brand and marketing people is to create content that provides value, resonates and leaves a lasting impact, which is why we do what we do. 

And, if and when homeowners are hit by another wave of bad weather this year, then we want them to know we’ve got their backs…and we’ll do all we can to keep their lives moving.