YouTube is not just for watching cat videos. According to this article from Google, “90% of people say they discover new brands or products on YouTube, and over 40% of global shoppers say they’ve purchased products they found on YouTube.”

Google turned to YouTube creators to gain insight into ways to appeal to shoppers during the every part of the purchase journey. They boiled it down into 3 tips to help brands turn interested parties into owners.

Showcase Your Product in a Unique Way

YouTube is notorious for having a plethora of content. Making your content stand out is no easy task. If you can keep viewers engaged then you are more likely to gain an audience. Being fun and creative are some easy ways to engage your audience. Don’t over stress your video being perfect so long as it is personable.

Show Viewers How to Use Your Product

After consumers have discovered a brand more than half of them will use YouTube to learn more before they buy it. It is much easier to showcase a product, especially one as intricate as a vehicle, through video. A virtual test drive allows the consumer to try before they buy.  In addition, answering popular service questions or simple tutorials can build value and transparency into your process.

Make it Easy for People to Buy

After you have captured their attention, and shown them how it works, now it is time to ask for the sale. Use the description of a video to add a landing page or a phone number to call. A splash screen with a call to action and ending your videos with a 3-5 second marketing clip that has contact information will go a long way to create a modern buying experience for your customers.

This represents a unique opportunity for dealerships to leverage their subject matter experts by providing unique content. 

How is your store leveraging YouTube, the second largest search engine, in your marketing efforts?

The DrivingSales Executive Summit is nearly two months out. To get you ready for the conference, we're giving you a taste of the presentations each week leading up to the event. This week we are introducing you to breakout speakers in our Human Capital category.

First up is Katie Wagner, the Director of Business Development at the Johnson Motors & Ford Group.

Katie Wagner started her Automotive Career as a part-time receptionist as a way to pay for college. Ten years later she has grown into Director of Business Development at a successful automotive group in the Midwest.

With a focus on big data and marketing, Katie oversees the Centralized BDC that she built from the ground up. Working to help her team be the best in the industry, Katie takes pride in her team’s ability to create an experience that makes it worthwhile for customers to travel 2-3 hours (one-way) to do business at her stores.

After attending this session, you will:

• Have real-world suggestions on how to hire, recruit and train BDC Agents.
• Know how to reward performance and creativity.
• Gain insights on building a tailored career map for employees.

With my 10 years experience in the automotive industry I know what it takes to develop train and maintain a successful business development center.

Attend my session and learn how to really develop the business development representatives within your department.

The strategies I will give you, can be taken back to your dealership the next day and you will see immediate results.

So bring a pen and paper and get ready to have some fun!

Wagner will be speaking on Day 3 of the #DSES; October 23, at 9:50 A.M.