Content Is King - Residential Systems

At our last all hands meeting, our marketing guru, Graham Copeland, addressed our team and gave them some easy tips and tricks to shoot video on each and every job.

Person taking a cellphone video on a a job site — PixelsEffect/Getty Images

I followed Graham’s pitch and went further, describing our CI business, Livewire, as a flowing river where attaching RMR, customer reviews, and short videos with as many of our projects as possible is a force multiplier. Let’s say your business is doing three jobs per day, five days a week, 50-ish work weeks a year. That’s 750 opportunities to capture all those elements. Right now, most CI businesses are attaching to less than 10%. Imagine moving that needle to 20, 30, or even 50%?

I challenged our team to get started right away and told them not to be discouraged because their first videos will be awful. Tomorrow they’ll be a little less awful and the day after that a little less awful than the day before. One day they’re going to wake up and have accidentally become badass videographers.

Filming what we do shows a viewpoint that experts describe as the “beginner’s mind.” What we find mundane and ordinary is the exact opposite to an outsider. They find our routines exciting, especially inside an industry like ours where time-lapse video of installations from TVs to virtual skylights are visual catnip. I emphasized that these videos shouldn’t be overly complicated. They should be shot and deployed quickly. We can get in our own way sometimes, letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

Keep in mind you’re not overtly selling anything; you’re giving prospects a window into what it’s like to be one of us with a backstage pass. The prospect will decide whether or not they want to engage with you further, and that’s where other types of marketing including email, website and customer reviews come into play. Catching somebody mid-scroll should be the goal.

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We started a contest where we’re raffling off a Milwaukee PACKOUT backpack at our holiday party this year. Each video earns a raffle ticket, with unlimited chances to win. Making it fun for employees as opposed to telling them they “have to” can help avoid triggering reactance. Here are Graham’s 10 tips and tricks to help you get started:

Quick Setup Time-Lapse — Use your phone to film a time-lapse of a TV mounting or lighting setup. It’s fast, and viewers love seeing the entire process in seconds.
Installer’s Tool Kit — Film a short story showing off the tools of the trade. Point out a couple of your most-used tools and explain why they’re essential.
Daily Checklist — Record a quick story going over your checklist before starting a job (e.g., “TV mounted? Cables hidden? Lights connected?”).
Before-and-After Snapshots — Shoot a quick before-and-after of a room before installing home theater equipment, home automation, or new lighting. Easy with just two pictures or short clips.
First-Person POV — Hold the phone at chest level and show what you’re working on (e.g., attaching wires, installing security cameras, or controlling lighting apps).
Installer Tip of the Day — Share a quick tip, like “how to hide wires” or “best place to install security cameras.” Film a 10-second video while on-site.
Press and Play — Film yourself pressing a button to demonstrate automated systems in action; turning on lights, lowering blinds, or activating a home theater.
Show the Final Result — Just a quick pan of the finished job: mounted TV, dimmable lighting, or newly installed home security. Let the results speak for themselves.
Remote Control Magic — Film a short clip of yourself controlling lighting or a home theater with a remote or phone app, showing the ease of automation.
“What’s in the Van?” Tour — Give a short, fun tour of your work van or truck, showing the gear and equipment you bring to every job. It’s a casual way to engage with followers.