If you haven’t drunk the video marketing Kool-Aid yet. Or, perhaps are overwhelmed by the thought of creating and distributing videos, it’s time to consider the advantages of having a video marketing strategy.

There was a time in my career when dealers used to complain about having to take multiple PICTURES of a vehicle. Now, however, most dealers include as many as 40 or more for each vehicle. Why? Because buying a vehicle is an emotional purchase and your online merchandising must transfer information while inspiring emotion. By providing more photos (and a good vehicle description) dealers give shoppers more information and help to facilitate them in becoming emotionally attached to a vehicle.

Once dealers understood that with multiple pictures customers would be more interested and they’d receive more inquiries, that’s all that mattered. And then along came video….

Look, technology is rapidly advancing and consumers are advancing with it. If video marketing didn’t benefit you in the only way that matters -- which is to help you sell more cars -- I’d be the first to tell you not to worry about it. But, the facts are the facts.

An excellent article published on Business2Community shared a wealth of statistics on the benefits of video marketing for businesses in general. While all of them are impressive, here are some highlights from the article that I thought applied specifically to an automobile dealer:

1. Including video in an email leads to a 200-300 percent increase in click-through rate.
2. 90 percent of people say that a video is helpful in the decision making process.
3. Including a video on a landing page increases conversion by 80 percent, while including one on your homepage can increase conversion by 20 percent.
4. Video ads increase purchase intent by 97 percent and brand association by 139 percent.
5. An introductory email that includes a video receives an increase click-through rate of 96 percent.
6. Video increases organic traffic from search engines by 157 percent.

Think about these statistics. The highest converting (as in sold) leads come from your dealership’s website. Why then, would it not be prudent to increase conversions on your home page by 20 percent? Or how about an 80 percent conversion increase on a landing page (like a VDP)? How many leads are you getting per month from your website and inventory? You do the math. These leads are gold waiting to be mined.

And what about your salespeople sending follow up e-mails to customers? Or replying to leads for the first time which get no response at all? Don’t you think that increasing click-through rates by 97 percent by having the customer watch an introductory video tailored specifically for them would increase engagement?

Give your sales staff (or BDC) an edge with video. The stats are there to prove that you’ll interact with more people. Think of it this way. If you had a lot full of customers, but your salespeople weren’t allowed to interact with them until the customer interacted first, you’d probably sell less cars. Of course, you wouldn’t allow that to happen! But that’s what’s happening with all of those people on your virtual lot!

People can be lazy. Most people would rather watch the movie than read the book. Why? Because it’s easier. We enjoy it more. The same applies to your marketing and follow-up efforts.

Want to increase views, conversions and engagement? Send your customers a video. You’ll see how powerful video content is.

And, before I forget, I’d be neglectful if I didn’t answer the question I posed in the title of this blog. According to Forrester Research, one second of video filmed at 30 frames per second (which means that it has 30 pictures per second) is the equivalent of 10,000 words. This means that a 60-second video is worth 1.8 million when it comes to the amount of information that you can deliver with a video, versus static photos. However, you can’t even begin to measure the increased emotional impact that a video will have versus the static photos…and emotion sells.

Want to make an impression on your customer? Seems as if video says – and produces – more than a picture by far. Take advantage of video marketing. The results will speak for themselves.

In my last blog, I shared the five types of video content you must have when beginning your video marketing initiative. To recap, they include: New Model Test Drive, Inventory, Value Proposition, Testimonials and Lead Follow-up.

Hopefully you’ve begun the process of creating this content. Now for the next step!

Effective video marketing requires much more than just content creation. In fact, if used strategically, video can be one of the most effective ways to steal your competitor’s business. However, if no strategy is involved, you will simply be wasting your time.

So, as promised, here are some strategies that can be used to make those videos effective and capture more business.

The keys to transforming your video CONTENT into a video marketing STRATEGY are:

1. Exposure – If nobody ever sees your videos, they’re pretty useless. Consumers look at up to 24 different touch points in their buying journey. You have to ensure that your videos get on the right touch points to be seen by your buyers at the right time in the buying cycle and without them having to work to find it. The problem is that some of those touch points make it difficult for dealers to get videos onto these sites. Video files are extremely large and most touch points don’t want to host the video. In fact, they would prefer (some even require) that your videos are hosted elsewhere and then just hyperlinked or embedded on their site.
   
   That is why the right hosting platform is so important. It will automate a large portion of your exposure and make it very easy to integrate your video content with your Sales & Marketing strategies, getting more of your video content in front of your shoppers, at the most critical decision points, which brings me to my next point.
    
2. Data Capture – The right hosting platform can be one of your biggest assets when it comes to video marketing. By having your videos all hosted together your hosting company can capture your viewer’s data from more touch points and then you can use that data to communicate with a shopper in real-time via the video. This data can also be utilized to generate real-time alerts via your CRM, no matter what video is being watched, and no matter what touch-point the video is being watched on. Which brings us to personalization.
    
3. Personalization - How cool would this scenario be: You send a video email campaign out to your existing CRM database. The data from your existing customers (and all of your abandoned leads) that engage with that email is then captured and matched with your video viewer database from your video host. From then on you receive an alert in your CRM every time someone from your database is back “in market,” because they are watching one of your videos.
   
   Armed with this knowledge, you can then send personalized videos to that specific customer with various messages. Perhaps the customer has been consistently watching videos of Honda Civics in your inventory. Sending a video message informing them of special offers on Civics would certainly be relevant and give you the fast track to selling them a vehicle before they start shopping at your competition.
   
   However, there’s a fine line between personalization and creepy. So make sure that the video doesn’t necessarily inform the customer that you KNOW they’ve been shopping. The video message should be something relevant to the behaviors you have seen them make, without crossing that line.
    
4. Tracking – Because you’re capturing this data and it’s being matched to buyers, you’ll get a notification that your buyer is watching one of your videos, along with which touch point that they are watching it on. Now you know that right at that second Joe Smith is on AutoTrader, Cars.com, or any other touchpoint out there, and what vehicle(s) videos they are viewing. Wouldn’t it seem like a good idea to call them at that point?
    
5. Conquest/Geo-Targeting – This technology allows you to know which site they are viewing your video on and you can also see where (as in physical location) they are watching it. Imagine getting an alert that Joe Smith is watching your video and happens to be on your competitor’s lot at that exact moment. The right hosting company would enable you to know this information, call Joe and in addition queue up a “last chance offer” as a banner ad right there on the video they are watching… all in real-time!

A video marketing strategy isn’t just about the video. It’s a strategy that involves getting MORE of your videos on MORE touch points while capturing MORE data. Then utilizing that data to your advantage to know exactly how and where your customers are watching your videos. Then sending more personalized, relevant and perhaps even deal-saving messages to them in real-time.

There is nothing more powerful than to communicate with your customer exactly at the right time, with the right message, in a way that they know is just for them.

Urbandale, IA--September 12th, 2016--Flick Fusion today introduced FlickWidget, a responsive video display tool that has been proven to increase the number of video views on auto dealers' websites. In a pilot trial conducted with website and digital marketing vendor Dealer E-Process, FlickWidget was installed on the home page of seven dealership websites; including three Toyota stores, a Honda store, a Mainline (Buick, Chevy and GMC) dealer, one Ford and one BMW dealership. Over a period of five months, FlickWidget increased the number of video views on each website by a mean average of 155%.

Dealer E-Process featured one of the dealership's websites in a recent case study. The addition of FlickWidget to a Toyota store's website increased monthly video views from 237 per month to 877 per month, for a 271% increase. Additionally, Dealer E-Process saw similar results with other customers. The Honda dealership saw an increase from 464 video views per month to 1,616 video views per month for a 248% increase.

"We've always known that dynamic video outperforms static pictures of vehicles on a website, but the results of this trial really showcase the power of video as a website conversion tool," said Tim James, COO of Flick Fusion. "Car shoppers prefer watching videos to reading text, and the longer a customer engages with videos the more emotionally invested they become in your dealership's inventory and brand."

"With our customers' websites we find that sometimes there is so much information and so many vehicles to choose from that customers can get overwhelmed," said Dave Page, Owner of Dealer E-Process. "FlickWidget draws the focal point on each page to the videos, which are naturally more interactive and give customers specific suggestions, helping them to narrow their choice and bring them down the purchasing funnel."

FlickWidget offers each car shopper a personalized experience based on his or hers individual viewing behavior. When a customer visits a dealership's website, they immediately see an attractive display tool featuring several inventory videos, with suggestions based on that person's browsing behavior. With each returning visit, the customer will see a reminder of the videos they viewed last time along with suggestions for new videos to watch based on their individual interests and viewing history.

FlickWidget is an eye-catching visual tool that can be featured on the homepage of a dealership's website or on other pages, including Vehicle Details Pages (VDPs). FlickWidget can also be used as a banner ad on any website where the dealership advertises, effectively increasing click-through rates.

FlickWidget displays several videos at a time in a series of sliding windows that are completely customizable. The sliders can be any size or dimension, horizontal or vertical, and the dealership can choose which videos to display in the windows; including inventory videos, test-drive videos, customer testimonial videos, service department videos and more.

Flick Widget is fully responsive, making it easy for car shoppers to view videos on their mobile devices. More than 50% of car shoppers use mobile devices to conduct research prior to a purchase, and more than half of auto shoppers watch at least 30 minutes of video during the purchasing process.

For a limited time, dealers can try FlickWidget for absolutely FREE! Any dealership that signs up for FlickWidget can get the first 60 days free with no further obligation required. Dealers can find out who their Flick Fusion reseller is by calling (800) 247-2502.

For more information, visit www.flickfusion.com.

About Flick Fusion

Flick Fusion offers intelligent video marketing solutions to auto dealers, making it easy to create vehicle inventory videos, video emails, dealership branded videos and more. Flick Fusion's innovative SmartFlicks hosting, marketing and distribution platform delivers automated, integrated, rule and behavior-based video content in real-time across multiple channels throughout the entire purchase cycle.

With CRM integration, auto dealers can capture video viewer data from any touchpoint, match that data to customer records in the CRM, and receive real-time alerts when certain viewing parameters are met.

Flick Fusion's mission is to give every consumer a better car shopping experience. Video is proven to capture buyers' attention, build emotional value, increase organic SEO rankings and convert more website visitors into leads. Flick Fusion is the preferred video marketing platform of more than 4,500 brands and partners.

Video content is now the preferred medium for consumers and statistics show that consumer Internet traffic for online video will increase by 80% by the year 2018. That’s not too far away.

And, when both are presented on the same page, consumers would rather watch a video than read text. For that simple reason, video content simply converts better.

There are many types of video content and unless you devote (or outsource) this content, it can be difficult and take some hard work to produce all of the different types of video you need. This can include: Pre-Roll; PPC & Re-Targeting video campaigns; promotional; model comparison; video email campaigns; in-market video display; new model test drive; value proposition; testimonial; inventory lead follow up; delivery; service department; and, finally, life cycle marketing videos. Are you overwhelmed yet?

While all of these are important, I would like to help simplify this for you by focusing on the five types of video content that have the biggest impact on conversions, leads and sales.

Here are the five types of video content you should focus on:

1. New Model Test-Drive – According to Google, the top three types of video content that auto shoppers are searching for are: test-drives, features & options and vehicle walkthroughs. In fact, the time consumers spend watching these kinds of videos has doubled in the past year. For this reason, if you fail to provide this video content for your customers, I guarantee that they will watch it on someone else’s website! If your competitor has New Model Test-Drive videos and you don’t, they may be getting the shopper into their funnel higher in the buying cycle -- and you may lose them before you even get started!
2. Inventory – Your VDP pages on both your website and 3rd party sites are THE most important advertisements your inventory could have. You spend a lot of money trying to get traffic on those pages. However, it’s becoming harder to differentiate your dealership from VDPs by your competition. Most websites are very similar – especially the VDP pages – and you really don’t have much control of the content you can put on them. So how do you create a more compelling VDP page that sets your vehicle apart from all of the other similar ones? Through video. Yes, perhaps you think it’s difficult to take full motion videos of each of your vehicles. But here’s the thing: video is no longer an option. If you can’t do it, have your lot service do it. If neither of these is an option for you, then use automated services that stitch together the phots into a video format. Why? Because they work. Your time on site will increase by 20% or more, videos will have an average completion rate of upwards of 75%, lead form conversions will increase by 20% and engagement by 200%! Inventory videos have a significant impact and are ridiculously inexpensive to create.
3. Value Proposition – As much as shoppers are looking for a vehicle to fall in love with, they are also looking for a dealership and salesperson they can trust. One of the first things you train a new salesperson to do is to sell the dealership, then themselves and then the car, right? Why would you do it any differently when the “salesperson” that the customer first encounters is your website? Consumers simply want a dealership that they can trust to be fair and honest with them. That’s what this type of video content is designed to achieve.
4. Testimonials – These videos reinforce the trust factor and compliment your value proposition videos with a combination of selling both the dealership and the salesperson. Consumers trust other consumers and video testimonials are a powerful way to show potential customers that previous customers had a great car-buying experience with your dealership and/or salesperson. They also show that it was so good that they were willing to broadcast it publicly via a video testimonial. People communicate through tone and body language – something that text cannot fulfill. Video, on the other hand, can. Prospective customers watching your testimonial videos can identify with, understand and be influenced by that testimonial, just as if the person giving the testimonial was standing in front of them.
5. Lead Follow-up – When consumers submit inquiries via third party sites, oftentimes they are contacted by more than one dealership. Even if they convert on your own website, the chances are great that they are also cross-shopping you with your closest brand competitor. Most e-mails coming from dealership CRMs are templates. Consumers can smell these a mile away. They know these weren’t created specifically for them. If you send these, the consumer isn’t going to be impressed. However, sending a personalized video e-mail, makes an impression. In fact, it makes so great an impression that video e-mails see a 200% higher click-through rate and 80% get more replies. They also have a 70% higher conversion rate and 65% of the consumers watch 100 percent of the video!

Starting your video marketing with a focus on these 5 types of video content should immediately increase VDP views, conversions and, ultimately, sales. Keep in mind, however, that simply creating the videos is only the first piece of the puzzle. You can create all of the video content you want but if you aren’t doing it with a strategy in place, you may find less success.

In my next blog, I’ll show you what a strategy looks like, how to implement it and why choosing WHERE your videos are is extremely important.

CRM integration elevates video content from marketing tool to active and actionable lead generator

Urbandale, IA--August 8th, 2016--Flick Fusion today announced the integration of its SmartFlicks video marketing platform with DealerHostsTM Technology Management Solution (TMS) 5.0, a hybrid lead management and CRM system. The integration enables car shoppers' video viewing data to be captured from auto dealers' websites, third-party listing sites like AutoTrader or Cars.com, and any touch-point that a video is viewed. The data is then transmitted to the DealerHosts CRM in real-time, where it is matched with customer records.

Sales teams are immediately alerted to customer video viewing behavior as it is occurring, giving them unprecedented and actionable insights and the ability to communicate with a shopper while they are still on a website and looking at a vehicle.

"Millions of people watch videos during the car purchasing process, but until now there hasn't been a way for auto dealers to track and leverage that information in real-time back to existing customer data," said Tim James, COO of Flick Fusion. "This integration adds a new level of visibility for DealerHost's customers that doesn't exist in any other automotive CRM."

The integration of video viewing data with a CRM elevates a dealership's video content from a marketing tool to an active and actionable lead generator. Dealership marketers will be able to directly attribute Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and ROI to their video marketing campaigns.

SmartFlicks provides access to the data and analytics behind dealership engagement videos so dealers can see how a shopper interacts with their video content; if they watched them, if they re-watched any product-specific portions, if they watched a few videos in a row, how long they watched and more. These insights can now be stored right in the CRM contact records, presenting the industry with the most comprehensive analytics tool and giving dealers the most complete picture of their customers, new and old, at their fingertips.

Once video viewing data is matched to existing customer records in the DealerHosts CRM, real-time alerts are triggered and sent to the sales team. If there are no previous customer records to match, a new record is created when a shopper contacts the dealership. The dealership can immediately send that lead a video email, capturing their data and matching them against their database.

"The integration with Flick Fusion's platform provides our dealership customers with a level of actionable intelligence they can use in their lead follow-and marketing processes, greatly increasing the number of lead responses and appointments," said Tony Ray Munson, CEO of DealerHosts.

The integration of video viewing data with a CRM is also a great tool for reviving cold leads. In a typical CRM there may be thousands of leads nobody has contacted in two to ten years. With SmartFlick's advanced behavioral tracking capabilities, the DealerHosts CRM is able to notify its sales team that a cold lead is watching a Flick Fusion vehicle inventory video. The salesperson will instantly know that person is back in the market, what type of vehicles they're interested in, and will be able to contact them with offers designed for their needs.

Based upon the data captured, dealerships can create targeted, behavior-based marketing campaigns. The SmartFlicks advanced video marketing platform allows dealers to create dynamic video banner-ad campaigns that offer specific messages to car shoppers based on their video viewing behavior in real time.

Behavior-based marketing technology uses web analytics, cookies, browsing histories and IP addresses to create user profiles of individual consumers. When matched to customer profiles in a CRM, dealers are able to generate relevant and targeted messages that appeal to individual buyer interests, and to send real-time alerts to the sales team throughout the entire buying cycle.

To see a demo of Flick Fusion's inventory videos and the SmartFlicks video marketing platform, visit Booth #243 at the Digital Dealer Convention and Expo in Las Vegas, NV.

For more information, visit www.flickfusion.com

About DealerHosts

DealerHosts is a complete digital marketing and communication solution designed to simplify the many touchpoints a dealership has to manage with the ever-growing technology required to manage your customers.

We provide custom websites with many industry firsts and a flexible mobile platform that allows customization and ease of use.

Our CRM, or as we like to call it our TMS (Technology Management Solution), is a true mobile designed platform, allowing you to always be connected no matter where you are or what device you are using.

Our marketing packages make your data come to life with vibrant graphics, videos and images that will wow your customers.

Our (We Do It For You) packages are really a turnkey solution and our company attitude from every angle is to provide you with the tools, both software and services, allowing dealers to do what they want to do: sell and service more customers while we do the heavy lifting in the background.

Our goal is to give your customers what they deserve; great communication and an easy way to do business with you. Happy Customers are lifelong customers!

About Flick Fusion

Flick Fusion offers intelligent video marketing solutions to auto dealers, making it easy to create vehicle inventory videos, video emails, dealership branded videos and more. Flick Fusion's innovative SmartFlicks hosting, marketing and distribution platform delivers automated, integrated, rule and behavior-based video content in real-time across multiple channels throughout the entire purchase cycle.

With CRM integration, auto dealers can capture video viewer data from any touchpoint, match that data to customer records in the CRM, and receive real-time alerts when certain viewing parameters are met.

Flick Fusion's mission is to give every consumer a better car shopping experience. Video is proven to capture buyers' attention, build emotional value, increase organic SEO rankings and convert more website visitors into leads. Flick Fusion is the preferred video marketing platform of more than 4,500 dealership brands and partners.

Urbandale, IA--August 1st, 2016--Flick Fusion today introduced 360VR, a groundbreaking product that allows auto dealers to create and showcase virtual reality (VR) customer engagement videos on their websites, in email marketing, on social media, in mobile ads and on third-party auto shopping sites. Flick Fusion is first-to-market with a product designed exclusively for auto dealers that will revolutionize the way auto shoppers experience walk-around inventory videos.

"Virtual reality images are three-dimensional with a sense of depth that gives viewers a feeling of complete immersiveness," said Tim James, COO of Flick Fusion. "Auto shoppers feel like they're actually sitting in a vehicle, giving them a realistic experience and helping to set expectations for that vehicle."

To create a 360VR inventory video, dealerships or their inventory photo and video vendors will need to use a 360-degree camera, which are available to consumers and small businesses in a price range of $200 to $1,000.

Vehicle walk-around videos are filmed just like regular videos, with either a live or post-recorded audio voiceover highlighting features and benefits of the vehicle's interior and exterior. When the videotaping is complete, users can upload the video to Flick Fusion's SmartFlicks advanced video marketing platform, where additional informational and emotional content can be added automatically.

SmartFlicks will then distribute the completed VR inventory videos to the dealership's Vehicle Details Pages (VDPs), as well as to social sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook, and to third-party auto shopping sites that utilize the Flick Fusion 360VR player. The completed VR videos will be hosted on the video marketing platform so dealers can easily insert them into mobile marketing email campaigns or on mobile ad landing pages.

Flick Fusion's video marketing platform is able to capture viewer data on 360VR videos in the same way it does on its regular videos. Viewing behavior can be tracked across multiple touchpoints, and real-time marketing and re-marketing messages can be delivered to the viewer based upon their viewing habits. Additionally, viewer identity may be matched with an account profile in the dealership's CRM and real-time alerts delivered to the sales team.

Auto manufacturers such as BMW, Volvo and Infiniti have experimented with virtual reality test drive video campaigns, and Cadillac is planning to use VR to create virtual dealerships. These OEM-produced immersive test drives are created with high-end VR camera equipment and CGI editing, but are too cost-prohibitive for auto dealers to emulate.

However, Flick Fusion's 360VR offers an affordable VR production alternative for single and multi-store auto dealers, so they too may benefit from the increased engagement and excitement surrounding the growing virtual reality phenomenon.

Global search interest for virtual reality videos grew by nearly four times on Google in the last year. Results from a Google ad study that was performed with Columbia Sportswear revealed that a VR video ad resulted in a 46% higher view count, as well as higher click-through rates, interaction rates, shares and subscribes. In all, Columbia's VR ad drove 41% more earned actions than their standard video ad.

"Dealerships that are first to offer virtual reality inventory videos will be marketing trail blazers," said James. "VR videos offer an incredibly high level of engagement and are especially appealing to Millennials, who are the fastest-growing consumer segment in the U.S. and who purchased more than 4 million vehicles last year."

Flick Fusion will be offering demos of its 360VR product and virtual reality inventory videos at Booth #243 at the Digital Dealer Convention and Expo in Las Vegas, NV.

Every booth visitor who sees the 360VR demo is entered into Flick Fusion's 360VR giveaway promotion. One winner will be chosen to receive a Ricoh Theta S 360-degree spherical digital camera and a HooToo 3D VR Headset.

For more information, visit www.flickfusion.com.

About Flick Fusion

Flick Fusion offers intelligent video marketing solutions to auto dealers, making it easy to create vehicle inventory videos, video emails, dealership branded videos and more. Flick Fusion's innovative SmartFlicks hosting, marketing and distribution platform delivers automated, integrated, rule and behavior-based video content in real-time across multiple channels throughout the entire purchase cycle.

With CRM integration, auto dealers can capture video viewer data from any touchpoint, match that data to customer records in the CRM, and receive real-time alerts when certain viewing parameters are met.

Flick Fusion's mission is to give every consumer a better car shopping experience. Video is proven to capture buyers' attention, build emotional value, increase organic SEO rankings and convert more website visitors into leads. Flick Fusion is the preferred video marketing platform of more than 4,500 brands and partners.

Urbandale, IA--July 20th, 2016--Flick Fusion announced today that it has been selected by What's Next Media, a leading video content provider for auto dealerships, as their preferred Video Marketing Provider. What's Next Media will leverage Flick Fusion's Smart Flicks marketing platform to host and distribute its customers' videos, providing auto dealers with dynamic videos that offer targeted messaging, as well as automated syndication for increased visibility.

“Andrew and the team at What’s Next Media provide a service that is critical to a dealership’s video marketing success," said Tim James, COO of Flick Fusion. "Their creation of high quality and engaging video content directly impacts the most important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) a dealership has. We are excited to host their video content."

"As a video content provider, one of our biggest challenges is getting our video content in front of the right shoppers at the right time of the buying cycle," said Andrew Myers, President of What's Next Media. "Integrating our video content into Flick Fusion’s platform makes it extremely easy for us to get our videos where they need to be. This makes a dealer's video marketing strategy extremely relevant and actionable, changing the paradigm from 'I hope they watch this video,' to 'Based on past behavior, I know they'll want to watch this video.'"

Hosting videos on Flick Fusion's Smart Flicks platform automates the distribution of videos, increases the visibility of video content across the internet, provides advanced reporting for all videos from one location, applies a layer of emotional intelligence through the capture and utilization of the viewer data, and increases dealerships' search engine optimization (SEO) rankings, versus hosting videos on YouTube or similar video sharing websites.

Smart Flicks is the industry's most advanced video marketing platform, automating virtually every aspect of video marketing. Smart Flicks makes it easy and affordable for dealerships to engage with their customers with the right video content at the right time of the buying cycle.

"Being able to capture and leverage the video viewer's data is critical if you want to reach today's tech-savvy car shoppers," said James. "Consumers are bombarded with hundreds of marketing messages every day, so it really takes an emotionally engaging video with relevant, targeted messaging to cut through the clutter and get noticed."

What's Next Media produces a variety of high-quality video content for hundreds of dealers, including walk-arounds, branded model reviews, custom dealership videos, "Why Buy" videos and custom Service/Fixed Ops videos. For more information, visit http://www.whatsnext.pro

Live demos of dealership videos hosted on Flick Fusion's Smart Flicks platform will be available for viewing at Booth #243 at the 21st Digital Dealer Convention & Expo, August 8-10 in Las Vegas, NV. Learn more at www.flickfusion.com.

About What's Next Media

What’s Next Media makes message-based video programs exclusively for the auto industry, focusing on the combined effect of many shorter messages about dealerships. This unique combination of brand statements, department statements, testimonials, product presentations and more has proven to be an extremely powerful way for auto dealerships to engage customers!

About Flick Fusion

Flick Fusion 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.

Flick Fusion 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 Flick Fusion system builds emotional value and customer loyalty for more than 3,500 dealerships and preferred partners.

Is your dealership creating videos just to have lots of videos? Every video should have a purpose. Tim James explains why it's important to start with the end in mind.

The chances are pretty good that any email lead YOU receive is also sent to competing dealerships. That means the car shopper will get emails and phone calls from other salespeople looking to sell that customer a car. Unless the lead is on a unique used vehicle, your competitors have the same new vehicles in their inventory.

Therefore, reaching that customer quickly and effectively, while at the same time standing out from your competition, is vital in winning that customer’s business. The easiest way to do that is to build a personal relationship quickly – something every successful salesperson learns. While that may be easy in person, it becomes more of a challenge when the customer’s email inbox is barraged by auto-responders and other generic emails.

So, how do you stand out?

Well, personal video email responses are a very effective way to separate yourself and transform your email from just plain old text into a more dynamic, eye-catching and personal introduction.

Something you did on your VDP got their attention, whether that was on your website or a third-party listing site (hint: If you have video included in your listings, you’ll attract more customers). If that customer were in front of you and inquired about a vehicle, you would proceed to sell the dealership, then sell yourself, and then sell the vehicle. You would work to build a trusting relationship with the customer from the beginning. But, how do you sell your vehicle to a customer that’s not present?

The same, exact way!

The great thing about selling cars today is all of the technology that is now available to assist salespeople in facilitating a better online buying experience for the customer. Because of the Internet, customers are visiting less dealerships than ever – it’s now down to just about one dealership visited before the customer purchases, because now the customer can browse inventory in their pajamas at home.

Today, when you receive an Internet lead, video enables you to literally walk the customer around the vehicle explaining its features and benefits in a personalized way .This video can then be delivered to the customer on a landing page that contains your Value Proposition (Why Buy); and testimonial videos to sell the dealership; as well as your own introduction video to simultaneously sell yourself – all while you are selling the vehicle -- just as if they were on your lot.

Dealerships that do take the time to shoot personalized walkaround videos for Internet leads see a 20-40% increase in re-engagement, lead to appointment and lead to show rates. Car shoppers love them. They show a customer, whom you have not yet met in person, that you care about earning their business and will make the effort to get them the information they requested over and above the standard “when can you come in” message that exists in most first responses.  Combining personalized walkaround videos with the value proposition, testimonial, and your personal introduction video, will then multiply the emotional impact of your communication and significantly enhance the “trust relationship” that you so greatly covet. 

Being forthcoming, providing information and doing so in a personalized way with the use of video, allows you to “sell” the vehicle, build rapport and make the customer feel more at ease and amenable to coming into the dealership.

The customer will still want to inspect, touch, feel and drive the car and they can only do that in person at your dealership. Video, however, can whet their appetite and grab their interest and attention in ways that pictures can’t.

It may sound like a lot of work. Perhaps you are thinking you don’t have the right equipment. But hold on a minute – the fact is that you can use your existing inventory videos and personalize the audio -- all from the comforts of your office and without even having to walk out to the vehicle each time you need to shoot a personalized walkaround. You’ll quickly find out that the few minutes it takes you to personalize the audio of your existing video will pay dividends in increased sales and bigger paychecks.

You don’t have to be content with closing rates on Internet leads hovering in the 8-10 percent range. Maximize each and every opportunity you receive, blow your customers away with your responses, and put your competition out of the race by sending Internet leads personalized emails that use the power of video to sell your dealership, sell yourself, and truly sell the vehicle– then sit back and sell cars.

Urbandale, IA--July 5th, 2016--Flick Fusion today announced that its COO Tim James and Director of Marketing Gina Reuscher were both selected to speak at the 21st Digital Dealer Convention and Expo to be held August 8-10, 2016 at the MGM Grand Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. Both speaker presentations will focus on the growing importance of video marketing and how dealerships can incorporate this powerful medium into their marketing strategies.

"Digital Dealer is the premier event for automotive marketers and in recent years there has been a marked increase in interest for video marketing information," said Tim James, COO of Flick Fusion. "It's important for dealership marketers to realize that just because you can shoot and post videos, does not mean that you have an effective video marketing strategy."

In his session Five Videos That are Critical to Your Video Marketing Strategy, James will discuss what a true video marketing strategy is and how dealerships can maximize the informational and emotional value of their videos across all digital touch-points. Scheduled for Monday, August 8th at 9:00 a.m., attendees will learn:

• How to use videos to get more leads from your website and all digital touchpoints.
• How to get more of your leads to “re-engage” after the initial contact and setting an appointment
• How to get more customers to show up for their appointments with a higher percentage of those customers purchasing a vehicle.

Flick Fusion's Director of Marketing Gina Reuscher was also selected to speak at Digital Dealer 21. In her session titled Video Marketing #LikeAGirl, Reuscher will explain how both logic and emotion influence a car buyer's decision-making process, and how video is the #1 medium of choice of both brands and consumers for tapping into purchase-driving emotions. Reuscher's session is scheduled for Tuesday, August 9th at 9:30 a.m.

"The hashtag #LikeAGirl was created to empower girls and change the connotation of the phrase from negative to positive," said Reuscher. "My session is designed to empower both men and women to understand and tap into powerful motivators that make video the leading choice for digital advertising campaigns that drive more sales."

In today’s world, consumers listen with their eyes and think with their emotions. Session attendees will learn:

• The proven data behind why consumers' buying decisions are influenced much more by emotion than by logic
• How to create emotionally appealing videos
• How to use both technology and your own intuition to win the sale

Gina Reuscher is Director of Marketing at Flick Fusion where she oversees branding and marketing initiatives, and manages partner training and communications. Reuscher has over 20 years experience in digital and affiliate marketing, sales, product development, analytics and performance management.

Tim James is a dynamic sales and marketing strategist with more than 20 years of achievement and demonstrated success in driving multi-million dollar revenue growth, while providing visionary leadership. Tim has been a regular speaker at the Digital Dealer conferences and continues to receive rave reviews of his highly educational sessions.

For more information, visit booth #243 at the 21st Digital Dealer Convention or visit www.flickfusion.com.

About Flick Fusion

Flick Fusion 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.

Flick Fusion 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 Flick Fusion system builds emotional value and customer loyalty for more than 3,500 brands and preferred partners.