Yes you've heard it correctly, video marketing! My Local Electrician magazine recently had the pleasure of interviewing James Dewane, owner of Kent Electrics about a project he is working on that is set to become the biggest hit so far in on line social media marketing.
James has decided to start using video to promote his services and market his promotions, he says it seemed a natural progression from other types of media he uses.
His latest video involves James using animated video marketing, to promote a product that has until recently been limited to a small number of his existing clients, the video is used to enhance his company profile whilst promoting the new addition to his business known as the ICEE Plan. He is one of the first electricians we know of in the UK to use a professionally produced video in this way.
We caught up with James to ask him what made him consider using video as a marketing tool and how he makes it work for his business.
Welcome James. Firstly please tell us what is the ICEE plan?
ICEE stands for 'In Case of Electrical Emergency' Pronounced 'Ice' it is a Maintenance and Repair Package currently being offered to a select number of home-owners and landlords who are clients of Kent Electrics
Why Video Marketing?
Basically for me it’s experimental (all my marketing is experimental) The ICEE Plan is a great opportunity to give video marketing a try. It seemed like an obvious thing to do as I had started work on some DIY and handy tips Videos for my main site. The ICEE Plan video has been designed by a graphics professional Jason from http://www.accappellacreative.co.uk/ who is currently working on the ICEE Plan branding.. I can't wait to see the finished product and see the video brought to life ….I definitely see video marketing as the way to go.
What other forms of on line marketing do you use currently?
Twitter – I tweet quite a lot – I always try to get in at least 3 business related tweets a day. I've been on twitter since 2010 and can attribute £6000 worth of work directly to Twitter (Twitter is free marketing.) I also have a Facebook page which I'm still defining how to use. At the moment it contains images of Bad electrical work we come across, to show people the dangers lurking in their homes.
I am also working at building my SEO, and I have a presence on sites like My Local Electrician and Rated People.
Where next for on line marketing – what does the future hold?
I see Marketing for the industry, particularly the domestic market heading further on line in the next few years – there are now more people using mobile apps to book things on line. People no longer use paper based directories. I believe that for the future more websites need to become mobile friendly, I will certainly be doing some work in this area.
How are you promoting your ICEE plan video?
I plan to drive people from my own website http://www.electricianinchatham.co.uk/ Twitter and Facebook. I recently did a local radio campaign which was a learning curve for me. It's something that I will defiantly look at again in the near future. Marketing is always an experiment "Do something in a small way until you find what works and then do more of it". The Key thing is to ensure that once we open the ICEE Plan to the public that they know what it is and how to get involved.
One thing I have decided upon is that I won't be fusing Kent Electrics and the ICEE plan together. The plan is to keep ICEE Plan as a separate company and to Market it and its services separately from the Kent Electrics core business.
In a few words James, why do your clients need the ICEE Plan?
It's better than any other product of its type out there – guaranteed!
It is essentially a low cost insurance plan against electrical faults or accidents in the home, if a circuit becomes faulty we fix it, if you accidentally damage an outlet (socket, switch, etc) we replace it. We inspect your home’s electrics regularly to ensure it is safe and complies with regulations. You also get a discount off any installation work you may want done. The plan ensures that your home is safe and when and if something goes wrong we will attend to it immediately and all for less than 30p a day.
There are similar products out there provided by the bigger companies, but having looked at the all carefully I can categorically say that the ICEE Plan offers far better value for money.
Finally James, What's the future for ICEE Plan?
Ultimately I'm hoping to grow it to eventually make the Plan franchisable. But before that there is lots of marketing to be done both on line and off line. I'm currently using a number of off line marketing strategies, involving direct mail, and delivering Safety Talks (email me if you want more info on this) and some final tweaks to the new ICEE Plan video particularly in relation to some change that were introduced to the regulations since producing the first video, I also need to adjust the colours to better resemble the branding of Kent Electrics.
Watch this Space!
For a quick insight into the ICEE Plan, check out James' video on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&client=mv-google&feature=mh…