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Social Listening with Video

by Tim James

It is a well-known fact that video marketing is the most desired and powerful way to engage customers. There are many ways to use video to engage customers including explainer videos, video walkarounds of vehicles, live interactions, and more. Most of these are either customer-initiated engagements via a submitted form or an inquiry to dealers. A good best practice is to send all leads video introductions. But… what happens if they don’t respond to your video introduction? If you aren’t working with a technology provider that allows you to have real-time alerts when someone views your delivered videos, then you won’t know if or when the consumer opened it, and you won’t know when the best time to follow up with each individual is.

A friend of mine had an interesting experience recently that truly shows the power of video. They had purchased a Buick from a dealer that was one hundred miles away. The salesperson delivered the car to his house, it was after dark when it arrived and the salesperson did a poor job of explaining the features. Six months go by and the weather starts to get colder. The friend decided to tweet that he had just discovered (by accident) that the Buick had a heated steering wheel and he was excited! A local dealership replied to his tweet with a message along the lines of, “Isn’t that cool! Here is a video walkaround explaining all of the features you may not know your Buick has.” Even though he didn’t buy the car from them, eventually it will need to be serviced. Out of all of the competing dealerships that he COULD take his vehicle to for service, which one do you think will be top-of-mind? Now fast forward a few years when it is time to purchase another Buick. Who do you think my friend “likes” and “trusts” more, the Buick dealership 100 miles away, or the local dealership that went out of its way to assist him, even though he didn’t purchase from them?

According to this article, 96 percent of consumers have watched explainer videos with 7 out of 10 stating that the explainer video convinced them to buy that product or service.

How do you think this one dealership, out of the many in the United States, found this local person asking a question (or discovering a new feature in this case) and knew he was someone with whom they should interact? Everyone can access social platforms regardless of geography. All platforms use hashtags (in this case #Buick) to read and listen to conversations about those topics. Some can also filter hashtag conversations geographically. In this specific example, going above and beyond and simply replying to my friend’s posting with a video earned this dealership brownie points, and awareness and started a conversation that can lead to brand loyalty.

Imagine using the same hashtag and discovering a post on social media about a horrible experience a customer had at your competition? You could then respond with a personalized video to them, sympathizing with them about the experience and inviting them to your dealership, informing them that they will not have a repeat of that experience with you – that you will take care of them.

Video introductions result in increased response rates and additional engagement, and you start building a relationship between the salesperson and the customer that a text-only email cannot accomplish.

Being “aggressive” isn’t bad if you do it right – with the intent to “help” and not “sell.” The conversation should start around questions asked and include solutions to their problems. Not “buy from me,” but rather explainer videos that you’ve already made that can then be personalized for that person. Listening, caring, and helping are great. Combine that with video and you’ll hit a grand slam.

Posting videos on social media is a great way to have fun and get attention. But posting videos with a purpose will make you money.

The Right Way to Include CTAs in your Videos

By Tim James

Video marketing has come a long way over the last few years. However, an increasing number of dealerships are creating great video content but then wondering why it isn’t delivering the desired reaction it was created to achieve.

I get a lot of calls asking if I can provide some insight into why this great content sometimes seems to go unnoticed. More often than not, it is because the videos are missing one key fundamental element of marketing: a Call-to-Action (CTA). As with all your other marketing mediums, you can give a consumer information, but without having an effective call to action, it isn’t likely you will get the desired response you are looking for. And as with all your other marketing mediums, your CTA needs to clearly communicate not only HOW to take the action you want them to but also WHY they should. The fundamental rules of marketing do not change or cease to exist, just because you are delivering your message via a video. 

The problem with CTAs is that when they are included, too often the CTA fails to tell the customer exactly what they should do. Or, if it does, it is too late in the video to get the desired result. The oldest rule in marketing (which is still used today) is that a customer needs to hear (or see) that CTA at least three times before they can remember it. Think about the last radio, TV, or online commercial you saw or heard. How many times did the commercial display their website address and phone number while also telling you WHY you should act? If you don’t know off of the top of your head, go and watch or listen to a couple and count.

Next, your CTA should be memorable and convince a viewer that doing what the CTA suggests will benefit them. And remember to include it early enough to create action. You can’t just wait until the end of the video to ask a customer to take a certain action. You have to repeat it several times in the video to influence a customer. I’m not talking about interrupting your video message or making it intrusive. Let’s say that you are making a video walkaround of a vehicle for a customer. Many salespeople will only include a CTA at the very end, such as “Call me to make an appointment,” (or whatever). There are many more opportunities in these videos for CTAs. A salesperson has many opportunities to subtly include a CTA: “Mr./Mrs. Customer, this car is very clean. This video doesn’t do it justice but if you saw it in person, you would see for yourself.” Or something such as, “I can give you a virtual test drive. It’s not the same as driving it for yourself, but it will give you an idea of what it would be like.”

Little things like that interspersed into your videos can influence a customer to WANT to come in and see the vehicle in person. They end up KNOWING this is the vehicle for them. Even if it isn’t the exact vehicle that fits their needs, the bottom line is that you create an action and they come into your dealership. Then you have the opportunity to show them other vehicles that may fit their needs or that they like even better. And we all know that it is much easier to sell a vehicle to someone in person.

Start including multiple CTAs in your videos. Not outright sales pitches but ones that may influence a customer, pique their curiosity, and make them want to come to the dealership. Video marketing is a tool that engages a customer. You are too. By combining you and multiple CTAs into your video marketing strategy, you are more likely to get the customer to choose you, your vehicle, and your dealership and convert those customers into more sales.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Video Content

by Tim James

Video is a great way to engage car shoppers and there are many ways your dealership can benefit from using it to make an incredible impact during the buying cycle. Here are some simple best practice tips that work well and can help you get the most out of your video content.

1. Utilize Video Walkarounds on Vehicle Display Pages and Additional Touchpoints

A lot of dealerships shoot great walkaround videos of various inventory and then post only to their Facebook accounts. When you are already putting in the effort to get videos of your inventory, why not utilize those videos to their full extent? Customers are mainly digital-first in the modern market, and there are countless opportunities to display your videos – ones that you are likely already paying for, like your VDPs, SRPs, Autotrader, and Cars.com. With hundreds if not thousands of “in market” shoppers on these other touchpoints that you are already investing in, it makes the most sense to put your awesome merchandise walkarounds there too.

2. Repurpose video walk-around content

One of the most obvious examples is video walkarounds. The method that most BDCs or salespeople use is to make them on the fly. A lead or phone call comes in and the consumer wants more information about the vehicle and more images. The BDC or salesperson then goes onto the lot, finds the vehicle, pulls it out of the line, records a video (hopefully personalized at minimum), and then emails it to the customer. What happens when, 30 minutes later, another customer calls in with the same request? Well, the process starts over.

How much time are those employees taking to do this? My guess would be a few hours a day that they “could” be following up with opportunities. There are services out there that can reduce that time to minutes. Once a walkaround is completed, the car itself does not change but the message to different shoppers will. Rather than shooting a totally new video of the same thing, you can simply record a personalized picture-in-picture, showing your sales person talking about the features of the car that specific lead is the most interested in.   

3. Repurpose evergreen content on your website to attract more eyeballs

Another great way to repurpose content is to take your evergreen video content and reuse it elsewhere to attract more views. Let’s say that you made a video explaining the importance of a transmission flush – something that customers in your service drive don’t think of or understand. Why not take that video and make a written version of it for your website? This provides great content for customers in your area searching for that information and is also great for SEO purposes.

4. Social Media

Video can also be effective for social media purposes. All platforms now embrace video as the best content format. Using short-form videos to engage customers in their Facebook feeds (or other social media platforms) is a great way to spread the word about your store and tell your story. Some simple content ideas that you can put on your social media are: videos that show what makes your dealership unique, customer testimonials, current deals/incentives, new model test drive snippets, etc. Video doesn’t need to be complicated to be impactful on social media, just give your shoppers content you know they will be interested in an authentic way.

5. Blogs/Content Marketing

If you are writing blog content, take that blog and create a video of its message. You’ve already taken the time to do the writing, why not create a dual-use for it.

On the opposite end of that spectrum, you could take those transcribed or repurposed blogs and create an e-book for your customers out of a compilation. Say you made a video explaining the importance of the many service upsells that consumers don’t understand. Then you made blog posts from those videos. Why not create an e-book or PDF/graphic compiling all of these explanations that consumers can reference?

Keep in mind that you want your dealership to be the go-to resource for all things related to your brand and services. If you don’t provide that information, they will simply find it someplace else. And that might be from a competitor.

In the end, video content can be repurposed in several ways to help your dealership communicate with customers and improve engagement. It can also provide powerful SEO for your website and build your site into a place consumers visit before the competition for sales and service-related information. You become thought leaders for your brand which can then lead to an increase in sales and a higher percentage of service recommendation acceptance.

When it comes to video marketing it pays to take a look at the larger picture to see how you can utilize video for all of your content – and make life easier.

How Do You Sell a Vehicle without Knowing Which Features are Most Important to the Customer? Video!

by Tim James

Part of the vehicle sales process is to learn the customer’s needs and wants. You probably encounter a large number of consumers who don’t know exactly what they want (or need). In fact, it isn’t unusual for an online lead to provide no additional information other than the vehicle they are interested in. Reaching the consumer to learn more about them and their wants/needs can also be difficult. They might respond to you simply asking for a price, and that could be the only information you have when trying to move forward with the sale and relationship-building process. This conundrum makes it more difficult than ever to sell cars, but luckily video is the solution to this issue.

Recently, a dealer asked a question in a Facebook group that was amazingly simple: “What’s the most important thing for you in a car?” As you can imagine, the answers were all over the place. One of the funniest I saw was “an engine,” but many people answered with more interesting responses. The reason they were interesting is that, as a salesperson, you don’t know what a customer wants unless they tell you… and many times they won’t. So how do you sell a car to a customer if you don’t know their needs and wants, and they won’t tell you?

Video walkarounds and video communication. That’s how.

Video Communication:

While a growing number of dealerships utilize video in their lead follow up process, many dealerships still respond to inquiries with a simple “give me a call” or “we’ll be in touch soon,” without answering any questions or trying to connect with the consumer on a personal level at all. This approach simply isn’t enough to make your dealership stand out against the lot on the other side of town. Shoppers look for transparency and someone they can trust when going through the big commitment of buying a new car – and you need to show that your sales team and dealership are trustworthy. Dealerships that utilize video communication in their lead follow-up process not only stand out, but they build those valuable trust relationships that keep shoppers coming back and sharing their experience with anyone they know that may need a car. In other words, you go from just another dealership to a trusted source for your shoppers — simply by getting face-to-face with them over a video call and answering any questions they may have.

Video Walkarounds:

But… without a great video experience, one that includes video walkarounds, some dealerships might not get much of a response from their shoppers at all regarding their inventory.

By using video to display your inventory, you’re able to make an emotional impact on every shopper and get across all the vital information your shoppers care about the most. When you have a video for every car in your inventory, you get the benefit of humanizing your inventory and your dealership, while giving the customer anything they might want to know in the fastest way possible.

Although photos and vehicle descriptions are extremely important merchandising tools, emotion is what sells. There is no better way to transfer the information the consumer is looking for, while inspiring the emotions that will get the consumer attached to a vehicle, than a good video of the vehicle. With this method, you have a much better chance of selling the vehicle or getting a response from the customer about what works or doesn’t work regarding a specific vehicle. Because of your virtual showroom, once a customer is interested, you know what their needs are and can begin building a closer relationship with them via video communication. Win-win!

Video walkarounds and video communication enable you to better engage the customer, build rapport by selling the vehicle, yourself, and the dealership, and become more of a consultant to them than a salesperson. Don’t simply throw photos of your inventory on your site. Instead, combine video inventory and video communication in your strategy to stand out from the rest.

Think of your presentation like your virtual car lot. Take the customer on a tour of the vehicle via a video walkaround, or personalized video that includes all the selling points you would present if they were there in person – Safety, Comfort, Fuel Economy, Performance, etc.

An equally important note is to, no matter the form of video, use it to also sell yourself and the dealership at the same time you are selling the car. The most important sell is “you.” Introduce yourself and your dealership and let the consumer know that you are trying to learn more about their wants/needs and that YOU will work hard for them and provide them with THE best experience — so no need to shop anywhere else.

Utilizing video in this way, having a video strategy for every stage of the buying cycle, allows you to find out what your shoppers want while establishing yourself as a trusted resource.

Build Your F&I Revenue Through Video

Dealers are increasingly adopting video in order to engage customers and win sales. Well, how about adopting this strategy in the F&I department as well?

As front-end margins decrease, many dealerships are placing more emphasis on F&I to make revenue. With digital retailing on the rise and customers shopping from home rather than in the showroom, how does a finance department sell F&I products in the absence of the dealer?

Going under the assumption that home delivery means that the entire deal has already been done as the paperwork must be printed in advance, dealerships are probably finding it difficult to present finance products in the most convincing way.

And that is where video comes in.

Most companies that offer various F&I products have product videos available for your use. The first step to increasing your F&I profit is to package these videos along with your dealership’s value proposition (Why Buy) videos, testimonial videos, and other finance FAQ videos on your website where they are easy for the consumer to find. Consumers know these “upsell” product offers are coming. Provide them with the opportunity to educate themselves on the various products higher in the buying cycle. 

The next step is to strategically re-introduce these videos to the consumer as they continue through the buying cycle. After you have used “video messages” when following up with inquiries (leads) and setting appointments, include these F&I videos in the “video experience” that you send to your leads to confirm appointments.

This provides the shopper with another opportunity to view the various F&I videos, and, with the right software, you can enjoy real-time reporting on the exact video content they view. When your shopper shows up for their appointment, you have insight into all the F&I videos they have watched (or haven’t watched). You know if they watched videos about purchasing with bad credit, lease vs. purchase, the impact of a divorce or bankruptcy, and all the extended warranty and other F&I product videos that you offer. Armed with this information, your team can provide a significantly better experience for each consumer, while helping them with any questions they may be afraid to ask. Both your profits and CSI Scores go up. 

For the best results, I would suggest having the finance manager make multiple videos of products on an individual basis. This personalization will increase the informational and emotional value of your videos and reward you with an even larger success ratio.

For example, your finance manager could create a video explaining why paint & fabric protection is a worthwhile investment for the consumer. Then another video explaining wheel and tire protection. Then continue to create short videos “selling” products as if the customer is sitting right in front of them. In addition, you could also create a short video with the finance manager summarizing all of the finance products.

Regardless of if you use stock product videos, or your own personalized videos, be certain to include some testimonial videos for each product.  Consumers constantly hear how they don’t need the various “upsell” products. Let them hear a few success stories from other consumers who found the product valuable. 

As the finance manager is the correct person to explain and adjust payments based on product and accessory choices, it is important for them to have that engagement and to have these product videos handy should the customer prefer to do everything online. The finance manager can then engage the customer with video via email or even live over a “one-click” video call, whatever the customer’s communication preference may be, while the vehicle paperwork is being created and sent to the customer.

Video can be used in every department to increase brand loyalty, vehicle sales, F&I product sales and service revenue. It is a highly effective tool that should be added to your marketing toolbox. However, to truly maximize the benefit of your videos, utilize your video content across multiple touchpoints as an end-to-end video marketing strategy that combines video content with video data. Then you will realize the true value of video.

How Do Consumers Use Video In the Buying Process?

By Tim James

Dealerships sell more than just vehicles. They also sell accessories, parts, and swag. Consumers may not be interested in these other items at the time of purchase (or may not have been presented with any of these options). However, once they get home, or at some point decide they want to get their windows tinted, a bed liner for their truck, or need to upgrade a part on their vehicle — Now what? Well, that is where providing an amazing video experience comes in!

An article on MultiBriefs.com shares that there are three key stages where video is extraordinarily powerful in the buying process — no matter what a consumer wants to buy.

The three stages are Awareness, Consideration, and Decision, and they work as follows:

  1. Awareness: When a consumer decides they want to purchase any product, most go online and research it. This is when a video experience shines. Whether it be describing the benefits of this year’s newest model, or an educational video on the best bed-liners for their new truck, followed by testimonial videos to back up the claims, video will get the most information to a consumer in the most emotional way possible. By utilizing video high in the buying cycle, dealerships can present themselves as a guide for their customers, building trust and showing a shopper they are a resource to help throughout the car purchasing process.

    But a curated video experience does so much more than just give the shopper the most information about inventory possible; it also gives the dealership the most information about a shopper possible. When a dealership gets a notification that a returning customer is looking at accessories, they know it is probably for a new vehicle and can target them with value proposition videos.

    A customer is looking at parts and repairs? Target them with specials, lease offers, and new model test drive videos that show why the consumer needs to ditch their worn-out vehicle and get into something safer, more reliable. Providing this experience puts the dealership a cut above the competition.

  2. Consideration: Now that a consumer has decided they need or want one or more of these things (including parts), they then start looking where to buy them. My advice is to be that resource by providing explainer videos about the benefits of buying those items and getting them installed at your dealership. Many consumers find other retailers online or, even worse, a competing dealership where they purchase and have these items installed.

    Use your explainer videos to clearly illustrate to customers the benefits of conducting the transaction at your dealership. This could include facts such as your dealership will know exactly what the consumer needs based on the make and model of the vehicle, and that installation at the dealership is done by factory-trained technicians rather than the independent down the street.

  3. Decision – The consumer has now moved down the funnel and is ready to purchase. In this stage, videos such as customer testimonials, FAQs, and personalized video communication can convince a customer to choose your dealership rather than the competition. Customer testimonial videos are powerful. Most dealerships focus on testimonials in sales but having them in parts, accessories and service can be just as powerful when it comes to gaining trust and establishing rapport.

    FAQ videos can be used to answer common questions about products, such as “How long will it take to get the bed liner?” “How long will it take to install?” “Will I be out of my vehicle for a day or two?” — You get the point. By providing this information upfront via video, you end up with an educated customer and no longer need to explain these things to the customer. The easy way to figure out which questions to focus on when making these videos is to simply ask your service or parts department about the most common questions they get from customers. Then make videos answering those questions.

    Finally, personalized video emails and texts help establish your sales team and dealership as a trusted source. People buy from people they like, and whether they are purchasing a new car or a new set of tires, video communication is the best possible way to get consumers to trust you and buy into the fact that your dealership is the best place they can go for anything they might need regarding a vehicle.

Dealerships can sell more than just cars, and they can sell everything in a more impactful way by giving their shoppers a high-quality video experience. Consider taking your video marketing strategy to the next level with your entire inventory, from cars to bike racks and repairs, by providing the best online shopping experience to your shoppers.

8 Quick & Easy Video Email Marketing Best Practices to Boost your Results

by Tim James, COO

Most consumers have a built-in fear of communicating with automotive sales professionals.  Many of the “new age” automotive retailers are trying to play on this fear by running negative ads that make automotive dealerships (and sales professionals) look like high-pressure evil people.

When a consumer does finally reach out to your dealership, using video content in your initial communications can be your opportunity to show them that they will have a GREAT experience working with you and your dealership. People buy from people they like, and video is the best way to show your potential customers why they should like you. It can be one of the most effective ways to humanize your dealership and establish trust with shoppers. 

Here are some quick tips for making the most of your video email campaigns that will increase your click-through and response rates.

1. Include the Word “Video” in the Subject Line & Avoid SPAM “Trigger Words.”

The simple act of adding “video” to an email subject line can increase open rates by 7% and can improve your click-through rate by 96%. Put it in brackets [VIDEO] at the end or beginning of your subject line to make it clear to your audience. People are more curious to see what is inside your email when it includes video and perceive the information displayed in the video to be more valuable.

In addition, the word “video” can help you avoid SPAM filters, which can be triggered for a variety of reasons, causing your email to skip recipients’ inboxes and land straight in their SPAM box. By avoiding trigger words in your email subject lines, you can dramatically increase your chances of getting beyond SPAM filters.

2. Link to the Video (or video landing page)

Unfortunately, some email providers have not started using the latest technology and this can play a significant role when you select a provider. As several email clients cannot play embedded videos, it can be better to provide a link to your video or landing page, rather than embedding it in your email.

3. Place Video Below the Email Message

Adding videos into your email will boost open rates but don’t let the video distract from your main message. An engaged audience will drop what they’re doing to watch a new video, so be sure to add it at the end of the email. By so doing, consumers will read your brief message before watching the video. Keep the text message above the video brief, as the main focus of the email should be the video.

4 Do not Send an Image Only Email

Do not send an image only email, and do not say too much in your email either. Video emails that keep it short and to the point with a word count of 50 words or less receive up to a 52% higher response rate than the same video sent with a long wordy message. 

5. Include a Call to Action

All forms of digital marketing should invite the audience to do something specific, especially when it comes to an unsolicited email or text. Make sure your videos in your emails offer value for the customer and include that critical CTA. The whole point of any message sent to a consumer is to lead them on the path that you want them to follow. Make sure the CTA is easy to understand and clearly directs them. Then ensure you take them where you promised.

6. Be Professional.

Include some basic best practices when taking your video. Have good lighting and a clean and pleasant space to stage your video. It is best to turn your phone to the side and capture the video in landscape mode. And be friendly and enthusiastic in the video (Smile).

7. Have a Variety of Video Content On Your Landing Page.

Now that the consumer has engaged with your email to watch your video message, this is the perfect opportunity for you to provide them with easy access to additional video content that really shows them that “YOU are the good guys,” and they can trust you. Rather than making the consumer search for “where should I buy it” content later in the buying cycle, present it to them now. Move the consumer along in YOUR buying cycle by including Value Proposition, Testimonial, a Personal Introduction, additional Inventory, Promotional, and New Model Test Drive videos on the same landing page as your initial video message. Let the shopper know that they can LIKE and TRUST both you and your dealership before they’ve even decided which vehicle they want to purchase.

8. Leverage The Shopper’s Data

A large number of consumers can disappear after your initial contact with them. How many times have you wondered what happened to that person that you just spoke to (who isn’t calling you back or answering your emails now)? Using a hosting company for your videos that offers detailed insights and data can make it easier to track your video success rates while allowing you to track the actions consumers take. Also, using the right video host can allow you to receive real-time notifications when your other video content (such as your inventory videos) are viewed by these same consumers. This gives you greater insight into which of your leads are still in the market and actively shopping on your website (or the popular marketplaces like AutoTrader, Cars.com, etc.), and provides you with a notification the second that they click to watch your inventory videos on these touch-points, allowing you to follow up with them at the most relevant time.

Video in email is no longer some gimmick. Consumers consistently state that video is their preference. Video has fast become a key factor in running more effective email campaigns. Adding video will breathe new life into your email marketing and is an engaging way to bring compelling content to shoppers, resulting in more appointments for your BDC and sales teams, more up-sell of recommended services for your service department, and higher CSI Scores across your entire store.

Who You Gonna Video Call?

By Tim James

According to Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom, the “working-from-home” economy is likely to exist far beyond the pandemic. Employers are enjoying decreased expense in office space and increased employee productivity, while employees have more freedom with the luxury of no longer having to commute. A whopping 42 percent of U.S. employees are now working from home.

How are they able to do that? Via Video, of course.

Statistics increasingly show video as the preferred choice for consumers when it comes to media due to its viability and multiple benefits across all platforms and channels. And, during the pandemic, video has become the most used method of communication on all fronts.

Almost every company outside of essential workers is utilizing video services to efficiently continue their operations and stay in business. Video conference calls have become the norm, rather than the exception and video conferences or person-to-person video calls have exploded out of necessity.

According to Forbes, this digital pivot may become permanent – in all walks of life. Many students are having to do in-home learning and the only way some employees can continue professional development is via video. Trade shows and conferences are opting to hold virtual events First, because it is safer during a pandemic, second because it is much less expensive than in-person events, and third because viewers can choose to watch an event live, or later at a more convenient time.

Video is not going away and is certainly not losing any ground. Its popularity has exploded faster than was expected! When this pandemic eventually goes away, consumers and businesses alike will be fundamentally transformed.

As a marketing and sales tool, video will allow your team to inspire more emotion from a consumer than a text, email, or chat could ever get close to accomplishing. Think about this — when are your sales associates at their best? When they are face-to-face with a consumer, of course. An effective video marketing strategy embraces that understanding and puts your sales associates face-to-face with the consumer, even when the consumer is still at home.

Your dealership would be wise to have a video-first marketing strategy to place you in a position of dominance over your competition who may only use video as a stopgap out of necessity.

Be sure to embrace video now more than ever to take advantage of this extreme acceleration in video adoption by consumers. This will put your dealership ahead of the game and build a sound foundation from which your dealership will benefit for decades to come.