Does Video Attract More Shoppers?

[JessicaRuth]

Could the lack of video communication and education be one of the last big website blunders the auto automotive industry has yet to correct?

Have you ever noticed that many of the sites you visit throughout the day are full of videos - either reporting the news or showing you how to do something? We can see it either with ourselves, our kids or neighbors - video content is being consumed more and more each day. Somehow automotive websites don't have as much video as the rest of the industries we bump into every day, as Brian Pasch explains in his latest article.

Did you know that 49% of consumers who view a video will visit a dealership?

Talking about video here is nothing new. In fact, it's quite a passion of ours. We've been sharing videos here for a while.

Questions:

What are you doing with video at the dealership? Using it for walkarounds? For Service promotion? For getting to know the staff? What other creative ways?

 

[benstewart]

I'm a dedicated Internet manager, which basically means I run the website, email marketing, web vendors, analytics, video, etc so on and so forth without having direct customer interaction.

I make walkaround videos for many of our nice preowned vehicles and have recently started to make some bargain lot videos.

In my opinion, the video walkarounds work. I would say to exercise caution in a couple area where you might want to measure.
First, the number of views doesn't matter a whole lot to me. The length of view is more important. Just last month, I had a few mentions of videos by our used car buyers and while these videos didn't get a lot of hits, we had a warm body in our dealership wanting to buy.

Second, I keep the videos reasonably short - under a minute and a half. This gives me time to introduce the dealership, explain some vehicle history, highlight a handful of key features and have a call to action - and little else.

My videos aren't edited a whole lot either. They are actually often a minute and a half of simply showing the customer the exact vehicle they want to see.

I also do a personalized video for every email lead I can get my hands on and introduce the customer to any discounts we have, the salesperson and ask them to come in for a test drive. We had the highest GM 3rd Party closing ratio in the country this March.

I typed this quickly before an appointment so forgive the disorganized thought patterns. We are a Chevy/Buick and used dealership in Minnesota.

All of this being said, I would love to share thoughts about videos.

 

[joe.pistell]

2 thumbs up Ben !!

 

[benstewart]

Thanks Joe.

I'm not from an automotive background. Instead, I've sold technology for years and basically ran a pawn shop. Earned degrees in History, Journalism (emphasis on photo) and Marketing.

While I have walkaround video and personalized videos going, I do feel the need to work on dealership videos that communicate our brand. I have seen many on Dealer Refresh and they are well done. While I like doing walkaround videos, we have lots of competition in Minneapolis and there's a very good chance the dealership next door has the exact same car. So... why should you buy from us?

 

[joe.pistell]

Thanks Joe.

I'm not from an automotive background. Instead, I've sold technology for years and basically ran a pawn shop. Earned degrees in History, Journalism (emphasis on photo) and Marketing.

While I have walkaround video and personalized videos going, I do feel the need to work on dealership videos that communicate our brand. I have seen many on Dealer Refresh and they are well done. While I like doing walkaround videos, we have lots of competition in Minneapolis and there's a very good chance the dealership next door has the exact same car. So... why should you buy from us?

Stillwater's lucky to have you Ben. If you have some videos, post them here.

 

[JessicaRuth]

I would LOVE to see your videos. You're right to focus on the Consumer Experience when you're in a competitive area and have the same vehicles. Why would they buy from you?

 

[sgeneralgrievous]

Wow Ben! I looked at all of your stuff. Great Ideas! You guys really have it together at Stillwater.

 

[sgeneralgrievous]

We really should be doing more with video. We have stock commercials and such. We did do one walk around for a Toyota contest for the New Toyota Highlander. You can watch it here. We had a blast making it. Some day I want to do it for all the new models. Where else do people do video besides used cars and intros?

 

[benstewart]

First, thanks for the kind words.

I'll post something fresh, probably tomorrow. Don't have my camera today and it's really gray out.

Any salesperson *can* do video, it's just a matter of taking a little time to do it right.

I also use an email client that hosts the videos directly and creates a landing page for them as well.

We used to more actively create informational videos for our service drive and body shop. I haven't done a whole lot of them recently because my primarily focus is on our cars.

My motivation for all of this? I honestly don't know exactly how other stores pay structure works, but I am paid by a multiple of the number of email sales that close times a level for volume for the store. Then add service and body shop when they hit their goals.

Respond fast. Respond well.

 

[Manny Luna]

Super job Ben and Josh keep up the good work!

Video can help tremendously when optimized at it's full potential. Here's a little information that can help members learn how powerful video can be.

The expanding role internet plays in marketing has made online marketers to evolve useful strategies for marketing their products and services online. Contents play vital roles in creating information about any product or services for internet users. Video marketing helps create powerful contents about any product and it is shown to different categories of people all over the world.

Contents are presented on the web in different ways. These include the conceptual method, which is the written content, the aural method, which is the musical contents and the visual, or the image method, which includes video productions. Improvement on the internet has enhanced the streaming of high definition videos about anything to the web.

Video marketing has more benefits for the online marketer. It is a very powerful search engine optimization technique. It creates brand awareness, and it is more users engaging than other methods. The effects of these are easily felt through the huge traffics it generates. Apart from generating enough traffic, videos attract inbound link for the marketer. Videos are widely distributed across the web.

To benefit from video marketing, you must learn how to do videos. You should learn how to micro format it with creative titles, rich keywords, and high quality contents. If this were backed with rich articles, it would increase visibility of your website and convert online surfers. You must format the video in a way it could be paired with your high quality articles. This is the best SEO strategy you can implement today.

However, before your video content could stand out from the rest, much work is required from you. Your corporate story must be different from those of your competitors. Your testimonial videos should highlight all the benefits your prospects will make. You could develop a unique storyline and create fictional characters while outlining the benefits your products would offer to your potential customers. Web presenter videos should present something and fascinating. Source: VL Digital Marketing

I've seen dealers in some markets have great results in 45 days with a good video marketing strategy.

Great post!

I wish everybody great success.

Manny Luna