What’s in this article:

• Home Depot has discovered that adapting its in-person workshops to a virtual audience is a good way to differentiate itself
• Using the live streams, found on The Home Depot website, the company went from hosting around five in-store workshops per month to approximately 40 live-streaming shows every month

Home Depot and Lowe’s are the Coke and Pepsi of the DIY store, each brand trying to somehow differentiate itself and appeal to customer loyalty.

But is there a significant difference between Home Depot and Lowe’s? Not really, according to The Spruce’s analysis. The slightly better numbers for Yelp reviews showing up for Home Depot were not all that telling, and the article concludes that the biggest difference in customer experience really comes from individual store managers and staff.

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But when you set out to market your brand, you don’t admit that what you offer is no different from your competition. You need to come up with an inducement to make your business the customer’s choice.

Home Depot has discovered that adapting its in-person workshops to a virtual audience is a good way to differentiate itself. Why The Home Depot quietly brought live streaming to its consumers by Digiday noted that:

Using the live streams, found on The Home Depot website, the company went from hosting around five in-store workshops per month to approximately 40 live-streaming shows every month. The live-stream shows (DIY and Homeowner 101) each average “hundreds of participants” and have a capped attendance, said Marshall Weiss, director of brand development and marketing at The Home Depot. 

While these are not shoppable videos, they contribute to marketing efforts by driving engagement and email contacts. Those who watched the Homeowner series are given the offer of getting 15% off a purchase after confirming their email address.

How many customers redeem those coupons, Home Depot declined to say. Even if it’s a small number, though, it still gives the brand insight into the journey from view to subscription to purchase.

Lisa DeStefano, VP of brand strategy at The Home Depot told Digiday that the company had been planning to go this route before COVID-19 struck but then accelerated it to be able to reach out to customers who were stuck at home: “We stood it up quickly because we didn’t want to leave our customers without our knowledge, especially when they were doing more projects than ever.”

The live streams are not given the credit for increasing sales, as just about all things home had strong gains in 2020. Home Depot did post an impressive revenue gain of 25.1%  for the final quarter of last year. However, Lowe’s posted an even more impressive 28.1% gain over the last quarter of 2019.

In general, though, engaging branding strategies don’t translate into obvious short-term gains. Home Depot’s content marketing strategy would rather cement brand loyalty over the long term.

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