Lesson 4-10
Plumbers Need Marketing Too
LESSON SUMMARY:
In this lesson, you will learn to think through the lens of a local business person. Think about it; global companies like Nike have the financial firepower to hire a well known and well loved brand ambassador to pitch and sell their products. Local businesses have to choose different tactics. You will also learn about using a data driven approach to inform you about supply and demand. A great website to learn about demand is Google Trends. Google Ads and the Census Bureau site are fantastic as well, but the most entry level way for young marketers to research demand is through using Google Trends........That is until AI came out.
In this lesson, you will learn to think through the lens of a local business person. Think about it; global companies like Nike have the financial firepower to hire a well known and well loved brand ambassador to pitch and sell their products. Local businesses have to choose different tactics. You will also learn about using a data driven approach to inform you about supply and demand. A great website to learn about demand is Google Trends. Google Ads and the Census Bureau site are fantastic as well, but the most entry level way for young marketers to research demand is through using Google Trends........That is until AI came out.
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Do Now: How Important Is Data In Marketing?
Plumbers Need Marketing Too: Part 1
The video builds on the idea introduced in Lesson 1 about Nike's powerful marketing machine. It begins by showing how Nike uses inspiring messages—like encouraging a girl from Compton to become the greatest athlete ever—to create emotional impact. The narrator explains that a logo alone is just a graphic. What makes a logo meaningful is the brand behind it. A brand includes everything—both physical and emotional—that represents a business and creates value.
A key point is that the value of a brand comes from the extra amount customers are willing to pay compared to a substitute. If people won’t pay more for your product over a generic alternative, then you don’t really have a brand. Building a strong brand requires marketing, but the narrator emphasizes that there are many types of marketing, and different businesses need different strategies. Nike has mastered product marketing, using global imagery, athletes, and emotional storytelling to elevate their brand.
However, not all businesses operate like Nike. For instance, a local plumber cannot hire celebrities or produce cinematic commercials. Most small businesses start local, and their marketing must be different, not necessarily better. Product marketing’s glamorous visuals don’t translate well to plumbing services. Instead, plumbers use practical tools like branded magnets, Little League team sponsorships, and especially strong online reviews to build trust and get customers.
The video then shifts to a powerful message: small local businesses may feel disadvantaged compared to global companies, but local businesses actually face less competition and have a higher chance of dominating their niche. In today’s world, customers look online for everything—restaurants, dentists, repairs, services—so being visible online is essential.
The narrator outlines major online marketing strategies for local businesses:
- Build Social Proof
Positive online reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp, RateMDs, and other review sites are the modern version of community reputation. When new customers see that others trust a business, they are more likely to choose it. - Local SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Local SEO helps businesses appear when someone searches phrases like “plumber near me” or “best dentist in [city].” It relies heavily on keywords that customers use to look for services. The video stresses that SEO is not just about tags anymore—platforms like YouTube use speech-to-text AI to understand what people say in videos, which also affects how content is discovered online.
The teacher adds that many modern businesses don’t even need to bring customers “through the doors” because some operate entirely online or from home. Regardless, visibility on search platforms and review sites remains essential.
Overall, the video explains that brand value, marketing strategy, and online discoverability apply differently to global companies like Nike and local service businesses like plumbers—but both rely on understanding customers and standing out from the competition. The lesson encourages students to think about how they might use these marketing principles if they ever start their own business.
Plumbers Need Marketing Too: Part 2
The video explains why local business marketing—especially SEO (Search Engine Optimization)—is far easier and more effective than most people realize, mainly because local competition online is surprisingly low. Even though more businesses open every year, the number truly investing in SEO isn’t growing at the same pace. This creates a major opportunity for small, local companies.
The lesson begins with an example from Toronto, Canada’s largest city. Despite Toronto’s massive population, the highly searched keyword “Toronto chiropractor” only has about 320 monthly searches. After ads and directory listings like Yelp, the first organic search results belong to small local clinics. Even more impressive, ranking for one major keyword automatically helps a business rank for related searches such as “chiropractor downtown Toronto” or “Toronto chiropractor clinic.” In total, these related searches bring in over 1,380 monthly searches—potentially generating 41 new leads per month from SEO alone, all without paying for ads.
The teacher explains that backlinks—links from other websites pointing to your site—are a major factor in ranking. The Toronto chiropractor sites rank well even though their backlink profiles are extremely weak, containing only a few low-quality or directory links. This contrasts sharply with highly competitive keywords like “online marketing,” where top-ranking pages have strong backlink networks. Because the competition for local keywords is so low, a business can rank very high with minimal SEO effort.
To improve SEO even more, the video recommends building high-quality backlinks through guest blogging or outreach, especially from websites in the same industry or from other local businesses. Links from websites within the same city or country are particularly powerful.
The lesson then shifts to Facebook advertising, described as one of the most powerful paid marketing tools available. Facebook allows businesses to target people based on demographics, interests, and even very specific locations such as ZIP codes. The teacher stresses that many people misuse Facebook ads by selling too aggressively. Users don’t log into Facebook to buy things—they come to be entertained, informed, or social. Therefore, ads should match that intent. For example, a real estate agent might offer a free downloadable report on “undervalued neighborhoods” instead of directly advertising houses. After people opt in, the business can nurture those leads through email. One major warning: never send Facebook traffic to a generic home page, because it wastes money and often leads to poor results.
Next, the video discusses local networking, a traditional but highly effective strategy. Gary Vaynerchuk calls this step “biz dev.” The idea is simple: walk into local businesses, introduce yourself, and exchange promotional materials. Non-competing businesses can cross-promote each other—for example, a florist might partner with a chiropractor, wedding venue, or funeral home. These relationships expand visibility and help build a supportive local business community.
The teacher then transitions to Google Analytics and Google Trends, tools he uses to gauge demand for video topics. “Demand” refers to how much people want or search for something. A video tends to go viral when there’s high search interest and low existing supply of content. Although this is becoming harder on YouTube, the same principle applies to local businesses: focus on offering something people are searching for.
The teacher demonstrates Google Trends, showing how it compares search interest across terms like “Taylor Swift” and “Kim Kardashian,” or brands like Toyota, Tesla, Lexus, and Ford. While it doesn’t provide exact search numbers, it reveals relative popularity and search patterns over time. He explains how Trends can be used to compare products, industries, or topics, and even filtered by location such as New York State or New York City.
The final assignment challenges students to pick five related words and use Google Trends to analyze their popularity over the last year. Instead of simply listing the words, students must describe how the data changes—when one term becomes more popular, when trends shift, and how the lines on the graph behave.
The lesson begins with an example from Toronto, Canada’s largest city. Despite Toronto’s massive population, the highly searched keyword “Toronto chiropractor” only has about 320 monthly searches. After ads and directory listings like Yelp, the first organic search results belong to small local clinics. Even more impressive, ranking for one major keyword automatically helps a business rank for related searches such as “chiropractor downtown Toronto” or “Toronto chiropractor clinic.” In total, these related searches bring in over 1,380 monthly searches—potentially generating 41 new leads per month from SEO alone, all without paying for ads.
The teacher explains that backlinks—links from other websites pointing to your site—are a major factor in ranking. The Toronto chiropractor sites rank well even though their backlink profiles are extremely weak, containing only a few low-quality or directory links. This contrasts sharply with highly competitive keywords like “online marketing,” where top-ranking pages have strong backlink networks. Because the competition for local keywords is so low, a business can rank very high with minimal SEO effort.
To improve SEO even more, the video recommends building high-quality backlinks through guest blogging or outreach, especially from websites in the same industry or from other local businesses. Links from websites within the same city or country are particularly powerful.
The lesson then shifts to Facebook advertising, described as one of the most powerful paid marketing tools available. Facebook allows businesses to target people based on demographics, interests, and even very specific locations such as ZIP codes. The teacher stresses that many people misuse Facebook ads by selling too aggressively. Users don’t log into Facebook to buy things—they come to be entertained, informed, or social. Therefore, ads should match that intent. For example, a real estate agent might offer a free downloadable report on “undervalued neighborhoods” instead of directly advertising houses. After people opt in, the business can nurture those leads through email. One major warning: never send Facebook traffic to a generic home page, because it wastes money and often leads to poor results.
Next, the video discusses local networking, a traditional but highly effective strategy. Gary Vaynerchuk calls this step “biz dev.” The idea is simple: walk into local businesses, introduce yourself, and exchange promotional materials. Non-competing businesses can cross-promote each other—for example, a florist might partner with a chiropractor, wedding venue, or funeral home. These relationships expand visibility and help build a supportive local business community.
The teacher then transitions to Google Analytics and Google Trends, tools he uses to gauge demand for video topics. “Demand” refers to how much people want or search for something. A video tends to go viral when there’s high search interest and low existing supply of content. Although this is becoming harder on YouTube, the same principle applies to local businesses: focus on offering something people are searching for.
The teacher demonstrates Google Trends, showing how it compares search interest across terms like “Taylor Swift” and “Kim Kardashian,” or brands like Toyota, Tesla, Lexus, and Ford. While it doesn’t provide exact search numbers, it reveals relative popularity and search patterns over time. He explains how Trends can be used to compare products, industries, or topics, and even filtered by location such as New York State or New York City.
The final assignment challenges students to pick five related words and use Google Trends to analyze their popularity over the last year. Instead of simply listing the words, students must describe how the data changes—when one term becomes more popular, when trends shift, and how the lines on the graph behave.
Note: You will need to use Google Trends for the HLQ.
Part 4: Higher Level Question
Directions: Be sure to watch the end of Plumbers Need Marketing Too: Part 2. You are going to be doing some market research and you will need to attach the market research to schoology. The video below will show you how to do that.
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