Implementing Walk-around Videos

[Sunny]

We used to make walk-around videos for our online leads, but it didn’t seem to affect our appointment to lead ratio on a noticeable level, so we eliminated this step in order to focus on other areas of our internet process. Recently the idea came back up in our managers meeting, and I was tasked with overseeing the reintegration of our walk-around videos.

I’m trying to come up with the best way to do this, so I have a few questions for anyone who has had success with implementing walk-around videos in their internet process.

Should I have the salespeople make the videos themselves? While I prefer doing it this way, I feel that with our current sales staff, we’re going to have a lot of videos not being made unless I decide to add babysitting to my job description.

Should I dedicate one person from the BDC to making the videos? I don’t like the idea of putting a BDC rep in front of the camera, since they typically don’t ever meet the customer in person, but at the same time I think this would be the best way to ensure that videos are being made and sent out in a timely manner.

Should every single online inquiry be responded to with a walk-around video? I’ve read some best practice articles that suggest doing this, while others have suggested sending out a video only after a customer has responded. Each of our stores average 500-700 online leads a month. Approximately half of those leads are actual customers who are in the market. It just doesn't seem practical to me to send out a video for every single lead, but apparently it's worked for other dealerships.

What has worked best for you?

Thank you for reading. I look forward to any feedback/advice I get on this.

 

[Chris Leslie]

Video certainly has some power behind it. I chose to move our stores in a bit of a different direction than most. Mainly because what I wanted to increase was open rates of emails. Because we do the videos on a lead by lead basis. I am able to track watch time and all that inside of the youtube analytics.

Since we are doing so many videos my goal was to eliminate possible roadblocks. Head off any sort of customer bias that might present itself and remind everyone to keep the focus on the car. Not the voice, person, script etc. Frankly because the web is viscous and I dont need to add any fuel to that fire.

We use youtube capture because it records directly into youtube and there is no other uploading to a host or anything.

Here is our process:

1. Each store has a dedicated ios device
2. Each device has youtube capture installed and linked to the appropriate youtube channel
3. each morning a BDC rep or porter will take a list of the previous days leads and find the appropriate cars
4. person will record a less than 60 sec walk around the car
5. Add the Year, make, model and stock and hit upload


Video Rules:
1. No talking or Recording Yourself (People are mean online and will ruin someone with an accent or hair they dont like)
2. Walk slow but not to slow
3. make sure the car radio is off (weve gotten take down notices because of songs playing in the backround)



Some people think i'm crazy because I like to think that our customers already know alot about the car. So I dont want to insult their intelligence by having a talking head video trying to go over all the stuff they already know. Thats the quickest way to lose someone. We keep things focussed on the important thing and thats the vehicle. Our videos are to show our customers that yes the car is here and you can see it right here.

Our channels have over 500 videos each and massive watch times. OUr email open rates have gone through the roof with this simple addition of media to the mix.

Here's a couple channels:

https://www.youtube.com/user/chevylasvegas/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/hendersonchevyLV/videos

 

[Sunny]

@Chris Leslie, I love this process! One of my biggest concerns was time, and you gave me the perfect solution for this with YouTube Capture. I also appreciate the tips on video rules. I think one of the things we did wrong before was talk too much, which took away from the vehicle and focused more on the sales pitch.

I didn't even know you could track watch time with YouTube Analytics. Good to know! I will have to look into that.

Are you integrating the video directly into your email, or do they have to click on a link to reach it?

Thank you for the feedback!

 

[joe.pistell]

... I am able to track watch time and all that inside of the youtube analytics.

Since we are doing so many videos my goal was to eliminate possible roadblocks. Head off any sort of customer bias that might present itself and remind everyone to keep the focus on the car. Not the voice, person, script etc.
Here's a couple channels:

https://www.youtube.com/user/chevylasvegas/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/hendersonchevyLV/videos

AWESOME post Chris!

The open rates are awesome, but is it delivering value to the viewers? Engagement stats will give insights. What percentage are watching 100%? How many watch the video 2x? 3x? etc.

With those stats, I'd love to see a test of the "silent walk around video" vs a "human-voice narrative video". I appreciate that adding a human voice makes it very very difficult to reproduce and you're adding a 'talent variable' to the work.

Thnx for your post!!
Joe

 

[Chris Leslie]

Thanks guys I really appreciate the kind words and feedback..

and great questions.

@Sunny - Youtube's analytics are pretty awesome. They show a massive amount of data. Also, you can do things in the video manager area like changing or appending text and links to the video descriptions. So basically, I can go in once a week and bulk change all of the video descriptions so they have proper links back to the sites and stuff.

To answer your questions. We use Dealersocket as our CRM and have built a template for people to use that allows them to click on the "add video" button from within the dashboard. Here is what it looks like.

So when the customer gets the email and clicks view video on the bottom right there. They are taken to a different not youtube page that looks like this. If you want to see the page too you can click this link.. . https://goo.gl/4BZEBO

Its nice having a stand alone page that isn't sending them directly back to youtube to watch the video. It's a page built for them more or less.


@JoePistell - I am still pretty amazed at the average view rate we have for these. It's about 30 seconds sec with the average % viewed about 73%. Here are some shots from the analytics tab. I went back further too to include more time but it didnt change the numbers.

I just went and looked at the whole year to get some more context too. Since I am more focused on watch time then views. I really like these numbers.

 

[joe.pistell]

Great follow up Chris, I'll dig into this!

Also, from my seat, I'd break leads into 2 buckets, VDPs and Non-VDPs.

Non-VDP leads like Trade-in, Finance, Car Finder, etc can have a single video that can be reused over and over. In my past, we created a "thank you message with why-buy from us" message. The videos with the highest engagement came from an authority from the store manager or owner (beating out the young and pretty paid spokesperson .

If you're tasked with creating the story, here's some good content info HTH http://unbounce.com/landing-pages/unique-value-proposition-fix-it-on-your-landing-page/


For VDP leads, I'd look into lead sources ranked by closing rate (e.g. Get ePrice, Ck Availability, price change watch, request home delivery, general questions, etc...), then think how the video would complement the lead (from the car shopper's POV). I'd focus on one lead source, create a narrative outline, then watch the engagement stats to optimize the outline. I'd also look for 'video talent' that shoppers like.

HTH
Joe

 

[Chris Leslie]

I really like the idea of breaking out VDP and non VDP as well as the story telling aspect of the various CTA's/Sources. I think that could be a lot of fun and really interesting to our customers.

Vegas is full of "Video Talent" =)

 

[joe.pistell]

...Vegas is full of "Video Talent" =)

My $0.02 regarding content & video talent.

Why Buy Message is best delivered by an authority inside the org. Dealer Principal, GM or GSM. The shopper connects the why-buy promise to the authority who stands behind it.

Video VDP talent is often found from players who are soft-sell product specialists. Carnival barking from pushy sales reps is exactly what you want to avoid (you already know this

VDP content thoughts.
Internet car shoppers are making 2 big decisions. #1 = What Car. #2 = What Store.

Shoppers don't care about the "What store" until they get interested in a car. The VDP video as a gateway to intro your store. Watch your engagement stats. If the shopper's not engaged, they'll not watch your why-buy message. ALSO, shoppers are very time limited. The internet is a tool they use to find a store that'll give them a 'productive visit'. This means, they'll like to know that you have a deep selection (colors and trim) so they can buy what's best for them.

Content building blocks include:

1. VDP tour (talk about hot options on the unit)
2. Similar units ("come visit us, you have a deep selection of colors, options and packages")
3. Why Buy From Us (you can append the video with the managers why buy message)