If you’re not utilizing video as part of your overall marketing strategy – you’re falling behind. It not only adds depth to your marketing, it’s preferred over other types of content according to a HubSpot Research report. It also showed that branded videos are more memorable compared to branded photos or written content. Let me say that again – your customers said they prefer watching videos and it’s more memorable to them than other types of content – you need to be doing video! If you’re not already convinced, here’s 5 more reasons why adding video will help drive cars off the lot.
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Engage the Emotions
We know from years of marketing research that emotion sells. Is it hard to believe that demonstration videos will engage an emotional response better than simply listing the features a car has? When Ford set out to show the new all-electric F-150 they could have just bullet pointed all the technical specs of the truck. Instead, they gathered together traditional F-150 owners and pulled 10 double decker train cars in a video. If you just read that, then clicked on the video, you know the power that video has to engage the emotions versus print. It’s showing versus telling and showing wins every time. Videos are simply more effective at engaging the emotional responses that can generate leads and create sales.
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Differentiation
Car dealerships are facing increased competition, not just from other dealerships either. Consumers have unbelievable access to car values and vehicle reports, giving them more comfort in buying from private sellers and online classified listings. Why should somebody buy from a dealership? No less, your dealership? Introduce them to the team, to the atmosphere, to the service department and the sales staff. People increasingly want authentic messages directed to them. A good example is the “Fall is Here” campaign done by Vortex Optics. They’ve fully embraced the culture and personality that matches their target customer. In one video, a customer service call is forwarded to a rep who’s out in the field hunting, who then transfers the call to another rep sitting on a high mountain knob with her Vortex spotting scope. The video demonstrates a lot of things: the technical expertise of their staff, the friendly and reliable support, and they do it with personality – a personality that their target customer associates and identifies with. Video is an opportunity to put names to faces, to show personalities, and to really connect with your customers.
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Depth of Marketing
Marketing that is repetitive and lacks variety becomes stale and boring. Consumers want entertaining, funny, and informative videos. If your dealership’s social marketing strategy is posting pictures of the most recent buyers standing next to their car… you have some work to do. What if you showed off the new Hellcat instead? Would you rather see a picture of people you don’t know, standing next to a car you may not care about? Or would you rather see a video of why the new Hellcat is so cool? Even if you’re not in the market for a car you might watch a video about a Hellcat. When you create content that people want to consume visibility increases and your dealership will be on the top of consumers’ minds when it comes time for them to actually purchase a vehicle. Test content on small scale to figure out what works, then invest in that content.
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Future Insurance
The future is changing. Digital content is changing. More and more the content we consume is being shifted from computers, to phones, and now to TV’s. Smart TV’s are already streaming online video and as that technology matures it will be critical that your business is ready to capitalize in that space. It won’t be long before geo-targeting smart TV’s will be a thing – can you react and adapt to that change? Creating a video presence now will prepare your business to capitalize on these changes as they evolve.
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The ROI
Video is more expensive than other types of content, especially good video. What can you expect from this increased spending? Consider a few of these stats:
- Social video generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined.
- 64% of consumers purchase after watching branded social videos.
- A business is 53 times more likely to appear on the first page of Google results if it utilizes video on their webpage.
- By 2019 (yes, now), video will account for 85% of all global internet traffic in the US.
If you want your content to be consumed, if you want your dealership ranked higher in searches, and if you want consumers to care about the content you’re creating, then you need to add video to your marketing portfolio.
