• Stop being a LURKER - join our dealer community and get involved. Sign up and start a conversation.

YouTube and it's benefits

jmcreavy

3rd Base Coach
Jun 15, 2014
41
8
First Name
Jared
So I've always thought based on research that I have done, that doing walk-around videos and intro videos and personalized videos to customers and having them visible on your YouTube channel would be beneficial.

Am I wrong in this? I know YouTube / Google changes how things show up in search, but to me the more content we have the better off we are regardless.

I have ideas for quirky and funny videos to send to customers to get their attention and get some engagement but am getting shot down by my Digital Marketing Rep for adding these videos to our store's YouTube channel.

Thoughts? Suggestions?
 
There are a few things I would personally recommend:

1. If things are a bit too quirky or fun and maybe don't align with the greater store vision, make them private videos. Send the URL to the customer in question, but don't make them public for everyone else.

2. Videos can be beneficial. Google doesn't quite connect your YouTube videos to your website automatically though - if you build up a database of videos, post them on your website and use a video sitemap to index them properly. It's not all that beneficial in my tests, but it may help them index better in general.

3. Walkaround videos can have value. I ran some tests across various stores (not any I was working with) and noticed that almost every walkaround had extremely low view numbers. Vehicles that I know had been online for over 60 days had less than 30 video views.

It really does depend though. If you want to give it a shot, I recommend you start making walkarounds (fun or serious) for those really interesting vehicles on your lot - maybe it's a modified vehicle, a special year of a vehicle, etc. See if there's any traction on that. Otherwise, pull your inventory view numbers and see which vehicles have the most views and attach walkarounds to them to see if anyone will watch them.
 
So I've always thought based on research that I have done, that doing walk-around videos and intro videos and personalized videos to customers and having them visible on your YouTube channel would be beneficial.

Am I wrong in this? I know YouTube / Google changes how things show up in search, but to me the more content we have the better off we are regardless.

I have ideas for quirky and funny videos to send to customers to get their attention and get some engagement but am getting shot down by my Digital Marketing Rep for adding these videos to our store's YouTube channel.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I wouldn't publically post a video that you send to a customer. Some people probably won't want their names and the fact that they're shopping for a vehicle published for all to see.

My advice would be to look up Elise Kephart and try some video email responses. These will be unlisted and specific to one customer.

As far as public videos, upload a video of a walkaround and see how it goes. I wouldn't get too silly too quickly, but that's just me. It may carry more weight with the people upstairs if you publish some videos with some substance.
 
Almost anything can be positively used in the automotive sales industry with:

"A little bit of talent, and a lot of effort."

To contrary belief, the first one is actually easier to find than the second one.

I hold this to heart when it comes to a new effort:

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.
Abraham Lincoln"
 
I appreciate your replies! I've already chatted with Elise Kephart at Sunset Honda a few times and she has all her videos public for all to see.

I agree that specific videos to a specific customer need to be private and not listed for all to stumble upon, but the walk-around videos I would want to be public for all to see.

As for the views, it's been in my experience that low views has been because of poor title / tags and poor Social Media Presence to get it the traction it needs.

Thank you all for the input! I just want to do whatever I can to help the team I work with get more people in the door and be more engaging! :)
 
I think most customers would really appreciate an off the wall video that grabs their attention. However, if the Digital Marketing Rep says it's not a good idea, then maybe the store's YouTube channel isn't the best outlet. Perhaps there's another place to post the videos to that would be appropriate- possibly a personal or store blog or a different social media account.
 
I know that a lot of people here go to the seminars but some are in that status "should I go, should I not".

For youtube I encourage you to go to seminars like James Ziegler Internet Battle Plan and watch Elise Edame (Kepart) or to Jeff's own show (he lists the schedule sometimes in the forum) as they usually have experts on YT like Matt Koenig.