(Part 2) Why you should use YouTube for your fixed ops marketing campaigns

As we barrel towards 2021, it’s a good time to look at new ways to educate and help your customer because next year will require different marketing plans. It’s also a time to consider new ways of doing things because the past ways may not be effective. Using YouTube to show customers more content about your services will lead to more utilization and profits for your department.

In our last installment on Why You Should Use YouTube for Your Fixed Ops Marketing Campaigns, we discussed why YouTube is valuable to your Fixed Ops marketing and discussed possible content. Today we’ll look at whether production values matter, and to what level they should be, how much equipment might cost, and the importance of title descriptions and tags.  

Research

It would be easy to start writing or filming content, but you’ll end up with content that doesn’t work. Or at least, content that doesn’t work for your audience. And the only thing worse than not having customers is having customers who don’t buy because you’re not what they expected. You need first to figure out who loves you.

You’re probably aware of the customer base of your inbound marketing. Hopefully, you know your target market’s general age group, income range, and family size. These are the people or personas whom you should be targeting in your vlogs and videos on YouTube. Without knowing your target and understanding their needs, what they do for a living, what they’re interested in, and their interactions with your dealership, you’ll spend time and money for little effort. So, it starts with knowing who you’re talking to.  

After you have that information, lay it out in a goal system of your choice. An excellent goal-setting system to start with is the SMART system: 

• Specific – What are you going to do? How will it be done? Who’s going to do it? 
• Measurable – How will you know if it’s successful? 
• Achievable – The goal has to be reasonable. 

• Relevant – It needs to fit your dealership’s purpose and personality. 
• Time-Based – A time when you can determine if it’s successful. 

For instance, a goal could be posting one video per week on YouTube between Feb 1, 2021, through Apr 30, 2021, which will show an organic SEO increase of 6% after 3 months and a 3% increase in dealership leads. From there, you can figure out your SMART actions.

One note about SEO. Any substantial SEO percentage increases will lag behind actions by 3 to 6 months. Manage your expectations for immediate or monthly increases. Organic growth happens slowly. 

Production Value

As much as new camera equipment purchasing may bring joy to everyone, it’s often not needed. With costs into the thousands, starting in a financial hole isn’t going to help justify expenses. If you have the equipment and have been working on YouTube, then you’re down the road. But, in most cases, an iPhone Xs or above will provide the initial quality you need for YouTube and social media. Don’t get sucked into the equipment purchase black hole. Production value isn’t as important as you may think. 

Since you or another person may be doing the work, you don’t have the luxury of a film crew and editing studio. The last thing you want to do is set up a roadblock for yourself, so make everything reasonable and achievable. An iPhone with iMovie, Adobe Premiere, or any other top-rated video editing app you’ll find on the Apple App Store will help you along. 

As a reminder, don’t get caught up in a Hollywood style production perfection. The most important things you can do are: know your market, know what they like, make content that will make them share and buy. If you don’t have the ability or desire to produce content yourself, there are many freelancers on Upwork, local creative services agencies, or local students who would be happy to help.  

Title, Description & Tags

Title descriptions are very similar to writing meta tags. Consider what the person might be searching for based on your research and keep it 70 characters or below. Here is a good character counting tool if you want accuracy. For your description, Google suggests limiting it to 1000 characters. 

Of course, not just any words will work, so use your keyword or words in a natural yet creative way. Since people are searching for those words and phrases, you’ll need to incorporate them where possible.

Tags are including words and phrases in your video description. These tags help YouTube grasp what your content is about. More information regarding tags can be accessed here. 

Time to Get Started

In the end, by thoughtfully putting together YouTube content, you’ll begin to build awareness and drive leads. The best part of providing content has to do with the education and value you provide to the customer. And by presenting that transparent and educational content with an effective call-to-action, you’ll be on the road to more service leads. Following the ideas above will help you use YouTube to boost your marketing plans effectively.

Did you enjoy this article from Steve Mitchell? Read other articles from him here.