Humans are by their very nature social. We’ve lost a lot of that over the past few years during the pandemic. Zoom and other services became integral to continuing business through remote working and collaboration. Because of that, people have grown accustomed to live video calling for collaboration and communication. Many companies are implementing or have already implemented remote working as an option. These workers are your customers. They may be wearing shorts under their desk while on a live call with co-workers, but they are still spending money… and want to.

Live communication as a preference is not going to change. People want to talk to people… in real-time. Videos on VDPs are a great way to move people down the sales funnel, but live video walkarounds and conversations build rapport and motivate potential buyers to choose your dealership over your competition.

Think about how popular Facetime has become. It began as a novelty and has exploded into normality for many people who use it for almost every call. Using a service that offers the features and capabilities of Facetime, especially if it doesn’t require any downloads on the shopper’s end, is invaluable. Not just for the ease of access and being able to have a video call with anyone, no matter if they are "Apple" or "Android," but because of the data you can get. Those conversations are preserved. Important metrics can be monitored. Interactions can be tracked. And your dealership can follow up with consumers who raised their hands in a relevant manner.

Shopping online is, for the most part, very impersonal. Consumers can research products, read reviews and, perhaps, communicate through emails or social media messages. Buying a car, however, is very different from buying a new toaster. It is the second-largest expense – outside of buying a home – that the average consumer will make in their lives. So, you should not be selling cars online like you would sell a toaster.

Most automotive sales professionals that I know are GREAT at selling in person. They are extremely skilled at reading their customer’s body language and non-verbal cues. Their interpersonal communication skills are incredible, and in-person (face-to-face) sales are where they are at their best and how they prefer to "sell" versus emails, text messages, or phone calls. Interpersonal communication is what builds relationships and transfers information (and emotion) between humans, and it consists of both verbal and non-verbal cues. If you only have pictures and text on a screen, you aren’t going to transfer information, build relationships and inspire emotion as effectively as if you send a video message or share a live video call with someone.

According to an article in Entrepreneur, the live streaming market could expand to over $248 million by 2027. That’s not too far off. Getting a butt in the seat and getting a customer to take emotional ownership of a car is at the core of the basic steps to a sale. Well, it gets much more difficult if that customer is not on your lot. They still want to kick tires, experience that new car smell, and drive it… but you have to get them to that point first. Digital retailing is great and all, but it only takes customers down the buying journey until they are no longer comfortable.

With live video, customers can be put at ease even more so than talking on the phone. They are communicating in a way that is much more familiar to them, where they can see your face and pick up on those verbal and nonverbal cues. On top of that, there is a quicker and more thorough transfer of information: they can see the car, ask questions on the spot live, and get acquainted with the salesperson all at the same time.

For those dealerships who aren't using live video in some way, I can tell you that many others are. Don't lose sales because your dealership can't communicate with customers in the way they have been communicating with EVERYONE else for the past few years (and for who knows how many more to come.)

If you need to sell a car, sell it how you would sell a car. Not how you’d sell a toaster.

Change happens at an ever-escalating pace. Think about how you are currently reading this blog; on your computer or a smartphone that you purchased just a couple of years ago, that is likely already three models outdated. It can be hard to stay on top of these updates and changes and to know when the best time is to catch up.

The same goes for technology and consumer behavior in the auto business. Car shopper behavior has changed in the last decade. When the world of dealer inventory became visible to every person on the planet via online listings, things fundamentally changed. As new “layers” are added, consumers and dealers are naturally attracted to the next shiny object. The things that make life… easier. We’ve moved on from a sales process that was essentially 100% in person at the dealership to a process where the car is delivered to their home. However, when it comes to purchasing a car, most people still prefer to see, touch, and feel a vehicle BEFORE buying it.

Technology is great if used properly, to help (note the word “help”) sell a car. However, ultimately, the customer still needs to develop an emotional connection to your dealership and a certain vehicle. With a zillion Honda Civics for sale, how is YOURS going to make enough of an impression that the potential buyer becomes attached? Add to that the number of dealerships (franchise and independent) and the question becomes ‘how you can make YOURS the one they want to do business with?’ If you can succeed in making both of those connections successfully, you have probably earned yourself at least one sale if not repeat sales, service revenue, referrals, etc.

So exactly how do you connect with an anonymous car buyer looking at your website --when you don’t even know exactly who they are? Through video.

Look, it's not rocket science. I would say that we are straying too far away from the "basics" and forgetting why we have “steps to the sale” in the first place. Because they work! While a lot of steps to the sale are now online, the ones that absolutely cannot be replaced are developing a relationship (meet/greet, build rapport, etc.) and getting a customer HOT on a car (showing them a vehicle that fits their needs and wants. Doing a walkaround. Getting their butt in the seat and doing a test drive.) THOSE are the things that some dealers are missing in their online presence. Through video, you can do all of the aforementioned things and still maintain the rest of the steps to the sale by using other digital tools. Utilize video/360s to replicate the ability to view a vehicle parked on your lot. Provide new model test drive videos so shoppers can get that exciting feeling of driving a new car they are interested in. Utilize video email and texting in your lead follow-ups so you get that face-to-face connection when answering their questions. The list goes on and on, but the answer to bridging the gap between online sales and on-the-lot sales is video.

Think of it like this: What if you see a customer on your lot and nobody steps out to help them? Say they browse around, look at some cars then leave? Or you see a customer and go and say “hi,” but never land them on a vehicle or get them to do a test drive? We all know the importance of the “on the lot” sales process. How important it is to “sell the dealership”, “sell yourself”, and then “sell the car”. We all know the emotional attachment that takes place during the test drive. We also all know that consumer buying habits have changed as technology has made it easier for them to shop and experience products via the internet in much the same ways as they previously did in person. The science of emotional attachment didn't change because of technology, it simply moved from requiring "in-person experience" to "online experience". 

The tools are there for you to satisfy the consumer’s quest for information while simultaneously duplicating that emotional connection to the vehicle, salesperson, and your dealership  ---video!!. No matter how many people want to shop online, you will always need to use tools to make those connections and the best, easiest, most affordable way to accomplish that is through video.

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 majority of consumers prefer video content which is why social media and streaming services thrive (and prefer) this form of media.

I remember when it was revolutionary for an inventory syndication company to take still photos and convert them into stitched photos videos

Then we evolved to video walkarounds where an actual video of the vehicle is used (rather than still pictures put together) which increases engagement because the consumer can see the vehicle almost as if they are on the lot  This also enables the dealership to produce their own custom voice-overs whereby a salesperson describes the features and benefits just as they would if they were doing it in real-life.

And then we moved on to taking personalized videos of vehicles for a specific customer, answering their questions then emailing the video to them. Take it up a notch and we are now able to use individual shopper data to change the viewing experience for each individual shopper based on their viewing habits and report each viewing experience back to your CRM in real-time.

Then we graduated to real-time Livestream video to communicate with customers on mobile devices, whether that be for purchasing questions or simply to let the customer guide the salesperson while doing a virtual walkaround (or virtual test-drive) to show them what they want to see. Imagine a salesperson being able to communicate with a customer just as if the salesperson were standing in the room with them!.

Now we get into the Star Trek zone…

The Cirque de Soleil show, Michael Jackson One, in Las Vegas, has an awe-inspiring feature -- Michael Jackson himself appears as a hologram.  And the recent Digital Dealer Conference featured an ENTIRE CONCERT with a hologram of Whitney Houston. Let me tell you, it looks like these departed celebrities are really there. They’re dancing next to real-life dancers and singing their songs. It is certainly very engaging.

The point is that video – as well as technology in general – continues to evolve. The technology to bring people in various locations together so they can engage with each other in meaningful ways will only continue to progress. What is the thread that drives all of this? It’s video. And that is how important it is for engaging others.

What’s the next step? Perhaps we’ll be able to just transport a salesperson and a vehicle into the customer's living room (with their permission, of course.) Now, beam me up, Scotty!

When it comes to marketing, video is the most effective, engaging, and preferred medium by consumers. Every social media platform has preached this for years and statistics support this fact. Streaming video is beginning to outperform cable and consumers increasingly choose video online over all other mediums.

There are ways to supercharge your video content by using the videos you are already making to further benefit your marketing strategy – specifically by adding subtitles to those videos.

According to an article on Marketing Week, adding subtitles to your videos produces multiple benefits. Similar to I-frame content or widgets added to your website, Google cannot always “read” video content when crawling your website, and so it has no benefit to search results. But Google (and other search engines) can read videos that have subtitles included. Why? Because by including the text, it transitions your unreadable video into a readable one. This adds incredible value to your video content from an SEO stance.

Have you ever scrolled through a social media platform, seen a video without the sound on, and kept scrolling? By adding subtitles to your video, consumers can not only watch the video but also see what you’re saying. The Marketing Week article shares statistics from Verizon stating that a full 50% of consumers watch video content with the sound off. This percentage increases to 69% when consumers watch a video in public. Subtitles allow those consumers to watch your video content and get the words, thus increasing the percentage of people who see and continue to engage with your video content by simply allowing them to absorb the content and keep engagement on their terms.

Google (and others) penalize websites that aren’t compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Many OEMs and website providers are also requiring ADA compliant videos and more are soon to follow. Plenty of car shoppers are hearing impaired and, while a video is great, if a potential car buyer can’t hear your video, it’s useless to them. By adding subtitles, those consumers will be more attracted to your dealership in the same way that having a salesperson that knows sign language, speaks Spanish, Korean or any other language makes those customers feel more at ease. Consumers feel more comfortable when dealerships (or any business) communicate with them on their terms.

While all of your videos should be ADA compliant, there are some videos that would benefit the most if they can be watched in any setting. Customer testimonials, value proposition, finance & service, FAQs, and other "Why Buy" videos all benefit by having great subtitles. If your shoppers are in a situation where they need to watch your videos without sound, these informative and emotion-inducing videos must have subtitles so they can still make an impact no matter the setting.

Competition between dealerships for consumers is hyper-competitive from acquisition to retention to brand loyalty. Anything you can add to your arsenal gives you an advantage over your rivals. Making your videos ADA compliant and available to watch in any setting gives you an edge over dealerships whose videos can’t evoke emotion or transfer information when customers have to watch silently.

Consider adding subtitles to your dealership’s video experience so your videos stand out and shout even when they’re silent.

Video has taken over as the preferred form of content for consumers. According to an infographic on The Drum, in 2017 only 63% of businesses used videos in their marketing. Fast forward to 2021 and that statistic has exploded to 86%. In addition, 85% of consumers stated that they would like to see even more video content from businesses. But forget about these statistics for a moment and just think about yourself and your habits. Would you prefer to read a bunch of words about a product you are researching, or watch an informative video on it?

In my past blogs I have shared various ways you can use video to engage your customers -- but here is another idea:

Most dealerships hold new car-owner clinics designed to welcome shoppers who just purchased a new car to the dealership's family, introduce them to service, and answer any questions they may have after owning their vehicle. These clinics handle a variety of things from how to set the seat memory function, to how to pair their iPhone with the vehicle’s entertainment system. The clinics are designed to invest the customer in your dealership while encouraging them to continue to do business with you as well as refer their friends and family.

If run well, the clinics show the customer that you care and that they are important to your dealership. This sort of service builds tremendous trust with your dealership's new customers. The problem is, especially now with Covid, many new car owners don’t show up. Whether that’s because of a scheduling issue, or a feeling that it is not important, varies from customer to customer. What if you could offer a similar experience to your customers through video? It’s quite simple!

Think of an interactive video similar to a choose-your-own adventure-type experience. Do you remember those books? You read a page and then, at the end of the page, decide what you want to do next. How about creating a similar experience for your customers, but with video? As vehicles become increasingly more sophisticated and technology-infused, these questions will become more frequent, and your customers will go online to find the answers to their questions rather than come to you. Why don’t YOU become their go-to resource?

Start with what you want them to see and learn, along with the people you want them to meet, and make videos of those things. Typically, at these events, salespeople answer the customer’s vehicle-specific questions such as how the memory seats work, or how rain-sending wipers are set up.

Then, you need to put these videos where your customers will see them. The best way to get these videos seen is to use video email/text to follow up with your new customers. First, create a video introducing how your process works. Put this video on a landing page that includes videos covering the car-specific topics that you think the customer should see, whether it is features of their vehicle's infotainment system or unique settings on their seat adjustments. This allows customers to guide themselves through your educational process at their own pace, using the power of video to retain more information and come back to watch whenever they need to.

Finally, offer each consumer the opportunity to Live Stream with you on the fly. I know that we all have become familiar with many live streaming services like ZOOM or Facetime. The problem is that not all live streaming services work on all devices (Apple, Android, Desktop, Mobile, etc.) and scheduling set times to live stream often leads to consumers ditching because something came up at that time. Utilize the new "one-click" live streaming technology that places a "Video Call" button on your landing pages (or any designated page) that the consumer can engage anytime at their convenience. This button will call into your dealership's system and ring any designated team member who is online at that time. When the call is answered by a dealership employee, the consumer and employee are instantly placed in a live streaming call, and it all happens at the consumer’s convenience. Now your employee can walk through the various features with the consumer, just as if they were at a live event. 

Interactive, personalized video engages your customers. It also makes you their go-to resource, helps the customer gain more familiarity with your dealership and staff, and starts the process of building brand loyalty which, hopefully, culminates with a brand advocate. And there is no better, or more profitable, customer than that!

In a past blog, I talked about how dealers can capitalize upon customer moments in their video marketing strategies. This is an excellent tool for utilizing sales and service customers to acquire new ones without spending hundreds of dollars. A recent article I read by MarTech suggests taking this “Moment Marketing” strategy to the next level. Mainly, utilizing current topics and trends to create marketing that consumers care about on a larger scale, going beyond just the dealership’s internal assets.

I am sure you have seen some examples. Do you remember when the power went out during the 2013 Super Bowl? All sorts of companies capitalized on that including Walgreens, Oreo, Tide, and even Audi taking a shot at Mercedes… and they all went viral.

I realize that your dealership probably does not have the resources to accomplish that level of marketing. However, you may be surprised to learn that many of you are probably already doing it on some level. Think about how most dealerships’ marketing changed during the pandemic to showing how hygienic, clean, and safe their dealerships (that could be open) were. Or how they instituted pickup and delivery services for both service and sales during the pandemic.

Currently, the auto industry is experiencing turmoil in vehicle acquisition and pricing, with some consumers paying MSRP for used vehicles. These acquisition pricing challenges at auction have shifted the marketing focus towards enticing consumers to trade in or sell their cars to the dealer. In addition, dealers are aggressively targeting the end of lease customer 12-18 months before their lease end date rather than the 3-month norm. There are also many consumer-oriented sites advising customers that now is the time to get rid of that vehicle because they can get an extremely attractive trade-in value.

To take a larger view of Moment Marketing, and to produce the most ROI from this marketing, it helps to additionally be aware of what’s going on in your communities, PMA, and the world. Besides using video to focus on how great your dealership is through customer testimonials; consider utilizing video to show how your dealership understands and cares about the exact things your customers do. It's not a hard concept because every dealer, dealership employee, or even your vendor partners care about a lot of the same things that are going on. Whether that’s unusual or funny things that happened (like the lights going out at the Super Bowl through social media posts); or more emotional things such as the Budweiser Clydesdales kneeling to remember September 11 ten years after the fact, these are things that endear people to your brand by touching their hearts and creating an emotional connection.

There is no way for me to know what's going on that is important to your local community. Every dealership is going to have its own "moments." I can tell you, however, that the majority of us know what’s going on in the United States. By being sensitive, identifying what matters to YOU and your customers, and using that information to create sensitive, emotional, funny creative video (depending on the situation, of course,) your videos can transcend the normal “buy a car” type videos.

Create videos that connect your dealership with consumers, build brand awareness and advocate and increase engagement with your content. This will endear your customers and potential customers to you and, when they’re ready, they will choose you over your competition.

Video marketing has been a growing focus in nearly every industry for over a decade. But during the past year-and-a-half, due to a majority of business moving to virtual, video use at dealerships has exploded. While covid-related restrictions have started to ease in recent months, video has taken root and continued to be an essential tool to help sell more cars. This is because not all consumers are ready to venture out, or they recognize the convenience of an online car buying experience.

At the same time, the used car market is exploding, forcing dealers to increase prices on their lots, with few new vehicles to sell because of chip and parts shortages.

As Carvana and other disrupters are making a play to capture even more market share by running anti-dealership campaigns while willing to lose money buying vehicles high and selling them low, consumers are gravitating towards them.

There is a way, however, to overcome the marketing tactics that these online retailers are pushing so heavily: live video calling. The ability to follow up with your leads with a live video call humanizes your dealership. It gives a face and personality to your sales staff that builds the valuable trust relationship that these companies are trying so hard to break.

While vehicle description pages exist, there is no emotion for a consumer to connect with when they look at text on a screen. Your shoppers will almost assuredly seek more information, while also trying to decide if your dealership is a place that they want to do business with. Through live video calling, your salespeople can connect with their customers, show them the vehicle live and answer any of their questions in real-time.

It does not matter if the live video call is one-sided (where the consumer sees you, but you can’t see them) or two-sided (like a Facebook Live video call). You can build rapport with a customer through a live call, show them the vehicle they expressed interest in and reassure them that YOUR DEALERSHIP will be there for them for whatever they need during the car buying cycle.

As the market continues to lean more and more to the digital side, both dealerships and these industry disruptors will continue getting online leads. The good news is your dealership can still have an advantage over these online companies. Through live video calling, you can prove that you are a business that can still be trusted… much more than any multi-story “car vending machine” can.

Customizable platform provides dealers with complete video solutions for marketing and merchandising vehicles, communicating with customers

Urbandale, IA—August 2, 2021—FlickFusion, the industry's leading video marketing provider, today announced a rebranding of its market-leading video marketing platform for auto dealers, and is introducing Nucleus. Nucleus provides dealers with a core solution upon which they can build a customized and integrated video marketing strategy with a variety of add-on products. Nucleus makes it easy for dealers to use videos to market and merchandise their inventory, as well as to communicate with customers.

“It’s becoming evident to dealers that they’ve got to start doing more with video, but many don’t have a strategy in place behind their video production,” said Tim James, COO of FlickFusion. “Nucleus is the only video marketing platform in the industry that automates much of the strategy of video marketing, including production, distribution and the collection and utilization of data from video viewers.”

Nucleus is a customizable and scalable platform suitable for all dealers regardless of their video marketing experience. Nucleus allows dealers to start small and scale up, or start with a robust video marketing strategy that will immediately boost website traffic, lead conversion rates, as well as search engine optimization (SEO) results.

Dealers can choose from a variety of add-on video products to help them meeting their marketing, merchandising or customer communications goals.

The use of video in marketing campaigns has been proven to increase response rates and ROI. Videos such as New Model Test Drives, Testimonial Reviews and Dynamic Marketing Videos make it easy to include videos in campaigns across every marketing channel.

Dealers spend money to merchandise vehicles in their showrooms, but often do little to merchandise their vehicles online, where most car shoppers do the majority of their research and selection process. FlickFusion’s Inventory Videos and 360-Spin videos provide customers with an immersive shopping experience and the videos can be distributed across all inventory touchpoints. Additionally, merchandising videos displayed along with other videos on a landing page help to bring potential buyers down funnel.

To increase lead response rates and customer engagement, many dealers are turning to video communications. FlickFusion’s Video Texting and Email product, and its Live Video Chat application, help to humanize dealership employees and overcome negative stereotypes. They also deliver the “wow” factor to prospects who receive personalized video texts and emails from salespeople.

The name Nucleus is a re-branding of FlickFusion’s award-winning SmartFlicks video marketing platform. The platform was designed for simplicity, ease of use and has been proven to deliver results, including increased website traffic, leads, lead conversions, appointments and sales.

For more information visit https://flickfusion.com

About FlickFusion

FlickFusion offers a full-solution video hosting, marketing and distribution platform to automotive and other inventory-based industries. The platform delivers automated, integrated and rule/behavior-based, including geo-targeted, video content in real-time, across multiple touchpoints and throughout the entire purchase cycle.

FlickFusion makes it easy for dealers to create desktop and mobile-friendly vehicle inventory videos, video email and customer engagement videos such as testimonials, service department overviews and more. Videos are proven to capture more buyers' attention, advance organic SEO rankings, generate leads and increase conversion rates. The FlickFusion system builds emotional value and customer loyalty for more than 3,500 brands and preferred partners.

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. 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.

1. 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.  

1. 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.

1. 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.

1. 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.