Picture just for a moment, if you can, you’re searching online for a new or pre owned vehicle. You type in a description of what you’re looking for into the search engine and within seconds your first page results are shown to you. While you wait for the results you begin to dread having to sift through dozens of pages to find what you’re looking for, BUT WAIT! Low and behold, at the top of the page is a VIDEO. It catches your eye immediately and no sooner do you click on it. Within seconds you’re watching a video all about the vehicle you are interested in.
This video is EXACTLY what you were looking for; it’s a virtual walk-around of the vehicle with voiceover describing some of the vehicles best features. In the top corner is the name of the dealership who is selling the vehicle and at the bottom is the address, a phone number and a website address. So, what’s your next move?
You can be certain that anyone who just went through the experience mentioned above is either picking up the phone or heading over to your website to learn more. And if you read the previous article, then you know how to get them back to your website after they leave. In other words, today, the power is in the customer’s hands and they are willing to shop around. When every other dealer out there is competing for the same customer’s business it is imperative that your dealership stands out above the rest. And one of the easiest ways to do so is by investing in video marketing.
While strategizing and implementing a winning video marketing campaign (beyond posting your past TV commercials) can be easy to do for any semi-tech-savvy person, it’s never a bad idea to hire a video marketing specialist. You’ll want to hire a company that has a fantastic grasp on creativity, and can bring outside the box thinking to the table. Hence, not all digital marketing providers who offer video marketing are the same.
So let’s say you’re feeling a bit ambitious, or you have a tech savvy employee that is willing to take on building a solid video marketing campaign for the dealership. Where do you start?? Simple, YouTube; It’s the #2 search engine in the world. Every minute roughly 48 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. If you don’t already have a YouTube channel set up then that is step number one.
Getting your YouTube channel set up and looking good is the first order of business. Once you are set up, it’s now time to strategize. The more varied your video content the better! You’ll need some type of device for recording live video. There are several great handheld video cameras you can investigate that can be purchased at your local electronics store, but in a pinch, and iPhone works like a charm. If lighting is going to be an issue (and in some cases it will be), check out this amazing article on building a video light rig for under $100. It is highly recommended that you either hire a video editor ($$$) or purchase a simple video-editing piece of software such as Camtasia (for a PC) or Screenflow (for a Mac). These programs can be easily learned in a day and have a plethora of great features to really make your videos pop.
The first type of video you will want to focus on is inventory videos. Once you have a good understanding of your video editing software, you can churn these inventory videos out in well under an hour each. You’ll want these inventory videos to be between 30 – 45 seconds. It is imperative that you have a text on top or on bottom throughout the length of the video with:
1) The dealer name (should be at the top of the video)
2) Address
3) Website
4) Phone number
If you can’t fit all of the info in the frame without obstructing the video, leave out the address. NOW, when you’re uploading the video to YouTube make sure the title of the video is relevant, and make sure the description has the name of the dealership, address, phone number and website url. In fact, if you have several competing dealerships close by, it can be beneficial to create several videos for the model and name each video differently. This way, when Google sees the name of the video with a different name it will rank the video accordingly.
For instance: a Subaru dealer has 2 other competing dealers close by, they can make a video to be seen by people that are near their competition by putting the name of city/ town that the competing dealer is located in. You will also want to put the different cities and towns you are targeting under the “tags” section as you upload video to YouTube.
Example: Subaru of Smithtown is trying to outsell Subaru of Smithville and Subaru of Smithfield. They make 3 different videos for Outbacks that they have in stock. The titles of the three could be “Subaru Outback Smithtown” Subaru Outback near Smithville” and “Subaru Outback near Smithfield”
If a potential client was searching Google for the term “Subaru Outback Smithville” Google will in some cases ignore the “near” and just use the three main keywords. Now, let’s say the search brings up 9 websites and a video. If the video shows up within the top four spots, you can be almost guaranteed that a potential customer will click to watch the video first, before clicking over to any of the websites. Once they watch your video, BAM, you’ve got them!
Inventory videos are a fantastic way to get your dealership to show up in the search engines for terms that you might not have ranked for to begin with, PLUS Google LOVES video, and what’s even better, is that with the right plan, you can get those videos ranking in no time. While inventory videos are great, you still will want to focus on varied video content. Another type of video your dealership should be producing is “live dealership videos.”
Live dealership videos can be fun to shoot and share, plus they give your dealership a personality and allow people to see what goes on inside. This type of video can have nearly endless possibilities. For example, interview the used car manager; in this interview, you want to make it more about what a consumer should be looking for when purchasing a used or certified pre owned vehicle. You want to make this video all about being helpful and not about the dealership itself. See if any of the technicians are working on something interesting that you could shoot for several minutes. Having a tech do a live oil change is another great example. These types of video are perfect to share via social media. Just make sure you switch it up when sharing. Share one on one platform and another video on a different social media platform.
Finally, this last strategy can kill two birds with one stone. This last strategy calls for interviewing customers taking delivery on their new vehicle. So, not only are you getting great content that you can share via social media, BUT, you are also running a video based reputation marketing campaign at the same time. All you need to do is simply ask the customer about their experience with the dealership. Coming up with a few key questions is a great idea. This will not only allow customers to give you great feedback, but you can also put several of them together (using your video editing software) to create longer videos. Just make sure each person signs a release form!
Stay tuned for the next installment.