Since 92% of consumers research online before they purchase a vehicle, you need to make sure your dealership is meeting the needs of these customers.
Approximately 8 billion video views are generated on Facebook each day. People watch videos on YouTube and social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
Video marketing should be done with care since today’s tech-savvy consumer is inundated with online videos daily — and they know the difference between professional and homemade videos.
Videos Humanize Your Dealership
One of the main benefits of creating videos for promotion is that they humanize your dealership.
Throughout the marketing funnel, leads move from awareness, interest, consideration, and action.
They may become aware of your dealership by viewing paid search ads, social media posts, blog posts, or visits to your website through an online search.
Throughout all those digital touchpoints — before they visit your showroom for in-person contact — you can use videos to humanize your dealership.
Through video content, consumers can get to know your sales team and service department and learn more about the features of the vehicles you have in stock.
Why Quality Videos Matter to Consumers
Consumers don’t want to waste time watching videos that don’t add any value to their lives. So, make quality videos that add value to their lifestyle and consumer needs.
When they search online to find information about vehicles before purchasing, they want valuable information that will help them during the decision-making process.
They don’t want to watch a video solely giving them a sales pitch about why they should purchase from your dealership. Getting too salesy with your video content can be a turn off to customers.
If you want them to go from a lead who views your video content to a customer who walks through your showroom doors, take the time to make engaging and educational videos.
Examples of Video Content You Can Create
Starting to create great video content for your dealership can be intimidating. Don’t let that stop you from getting creative and taking that first step.
Consumers share videos 1,200% more times than posts that only feature text and links combined. It’s time to get started today promoting your dealership through video marketing.
You may want to consider creating the following types of videos:
- Testimonials – Customers can share testimonials about their experiences with your dealership and the reasons why they love the vehicle they purchased.
- How-to – Have your service team share how-to videos about service tips like fuel economy and how to drive in inclement weather.
- 360 Views – Showcase new vehicles with a 360-degree view so customers can view both the interior and exterior of the vehicle before actually seeing it.
- Virtual – Allow customers to take a virtual test drive of vehicles and virtually tour the dealership showroom and lot so they get comfortable before visiting.
- Questions – Ask customers to participate in a Q&A session with your sales or service team to discuss common questions other customers may find helpful.
- Interviews – Have one of your managers interview various sales and service team members to share why they enjoy working at the dealership.
- Community – Take videos of special community events or special anniversary sales events for the dealership to share with people online.
Top Five Tips for Improving Video Quality
Consider implementing the following top five tips to improve the quality of your video content to better market your dealership.
1. Have an Action Plan in Place Before Filming
To create a high-quality video for your dealership, you need to have an action plan in place before filming. You don’t want to go into this without having any idea what to talk about.
That would waste your time and be counter-intuitive to your plans for boosting sales.
Consider adding the following items to your action plan checklist:
- No Long Speeches – Don’t be longwinded. Giving a long speech will not hold people’s attention. You want them to watch from beginning to end.
- No Script Needed – Reading from a script could make your content look robotic. However, you need a plan and don’t want to wander when speaking.
- Memorization – You don’t need to stress out about memorizing lines. Yet, it is important to know your stuff so when you speak it comes from the heart.
- Powerful Ending – Of course, the entire video should be dynamic. Just remember to reflect your brand throughout and have a powerful ending.
2. Keep the Video Content Short and Focused
With the Internet, mobile devices, social media, and 24/7 news cycle, today’s consumer doesn’t have a long attention span.
People used to be able to watch long home family videos, read books, and read newspapers. Now, we get impatient with previews at the movie theater or if a website doesn’t load fast enough.
A study by Nielsen Norman Group showed that people usually stay on a website for an average of 10-20 seconds. You’ll have about 10 seconds to catch the attention of viewers before they get bored and skip to the next video or just stop watching.
Try to keep your videos less than two minutes long. However, your video length may differ depending on where you post it or whether or not you will be sharing it online.
3. Remember to Humanize the Video Content
In this current technological age, much of our contact with other people is through email, text, chatbots, and on social media pages. However, you can add a personalized touch to your video content by humanizing it.
Remember the following techniques when creating your videos:
- Introductions – When filming a team member explaining a topic or showcasing a vehicle, have them introduce themselves in the beginning.
- Team Members – Try to feature different members of your sales and service teams in various videos to personalize your dealership with the customers.
- Narrative – Find ways to make the video more relatable by creating a narrative that showcases how the vehicle could fit a customer’s lifestyle.
- Connection – Make sure to cultivate a connection with customers by bringing an emotional storyline to the video like someone buying their first car.
- Genuine – Be genuine. People can see through disingenuous behavior. You want customers to choose your dealership for more than your vehicles.
- Enthusiasm – Make sure the content and spokesperson for each video shares excitement for your dealership and vehicles. This can excite customers.
- Dealership – Give customers a behind-the-scenes look at the dealership so they can see the building, lot, and meet the sales, service, and team members.
4. Clearly Define Your Call to Action
Don’t leave your viewers without clear direction about what you want them to do. The call to action (CTA) must be clearly defined.
Find the right balance between providing relevant information to customers and giving them a CTA that is hard to refuse.
Be so convincing that they’ll want to take action.
Remember, regardless of the type of video you’re creating, the ultimate objective is to have the viewer move further down the marketing funnel from an interested lead to a customer.
Consider the following tips when creating your CTAs:
- Different – Don’t use the same call to action for each video. Change it up and make the CTA interesting and improve the chances of converting more leads.
- Beginning – Since many people won’t watch until the end, consider adding a CTA in the beginning of the content for some of your videos.
- Library – Suggest viewers watch one of your other videos on your YouTube channel. This can keep them watching longer and improve channel ranking.
- Subscribe – Ask viewers to subscribe to your YouTube channel so they can get notified when new videos are uploaded and increase the likelihood of viewing more of your videos. If you don’t have a channel yet, start one.
- Website – Ask viewers to visit your website, landing page, or blog to complete a lead form or subscribe to your email newsletter or blog posts.
- Social Media – Encourage viewers to follow you on your various social media accounts or share this video online on their social media accounts.
- Comments – Ask viewers to comment or like your videos when watching them on YouTube so this can improve your online ranking on this platform.
5. Maintain Your Dealership Brand Image
Even though you want each video to be different with varying topics, guests, and vehicles featured — you always want to maintain the brand image of your dealership.
Use these tips to cultivate your brand image in all video content:
- Consistency – Use the same messaging that you utilize in your omnichannel approach throughout your digital marketing strategy, so consumers start to recognize your content as soon as they begin watching the video.
- Update Regularly – If you want to build a brand image, you need to create videos on a regular basis. Just make sure to focus on quality not quantity.
- Consumer Value – Show the consumer that they can subscribe to your YouTube page or wherever you post videos online and know they are getting invaluable information that can help them in their car buying experiences.
- Distinctive Ending – End each video with your unique brand calling card. Include your dealership name, logo, and website. Leave the viewers with a great lasting impression of your brand and why they can trust it.
Start Improving the Quality of Your Video Content Marketing Today
Meet the needs of today’s tech-savvy consumer who wants to view videos online. Create high-quality video content that humanizes your dealership and effectively promotes your vehicles and special offers.
If you want to take your video creation to a new level in 2020, consider working with the professional J&L Marketing team. They can assist your dealership in implementing these video creation tips.
