How to Use Your Dealership’s Videos Across All Marketing Channels
So your dealership is producing video content? Great!
After all, people like using video to research products and, according to HubSpot, nine out of ten people report wanting to see more videos from brands. That makes video an excellent opportunity for lead generation, brand awareness and building trust.
So, whether you have a professional team creating commercials or you’ve got an enthusiastic salesperson creating videos on their iPhone, are you leveraging your video assets to their full potential?
Use the “Whole Buffalo”
Here in South Dakota, we often refer to the phrase use the whole buffalo — a nod to the Indigenous people of the Plains who didn’t let a single bit of a bison go to waste.
It’s a perfect analogy for digital content creation.
Whatever your dealership’s video production looks like, you’re off to a great start by simply having one. Don’t let that time, effort, and money go to waste by not using your videos on as many digital channels as possible.
We’ll discuss the ways you could use your dealership’s videos — both free and paid.
1. The Free Ways to Use Your Videos
First things first — utilize your video everywhere you can that’s free!
Not only will your content reach your organic audience this way, but videos can account for 81% of your organic search traffic.
Video helps businesses both boost traffic and increase sales and return on investment (ROI). In fact, according to recent video marketing surveys, 93% of marketers say video converts better than other marketing formats.
Improve Your Keyword Rankings with Blog Posts
Say you’ve created videos demonstrating “how to connect Apple CarPlay in your new vehicle” or “how to remove the top from your Jeep Wrangler.” Don’t forget to publish a blog post on your website with this video.
But, don’t simply embed the video and smash that “publish” button. By supplementing the video with written content, you can improve your keyword rankings for that topic. While video is great, Google can’t always tell what’s in that video, so having written content along with the video is great for both Google’s bots and accessibility.
Here’s a fantastic example from one of our marketing partners.
Increase Conversion on Landing Pages
Did you know that including a video on a landing page can boost your conversion rate by up to 34%?
So, if you have a landing page with a form to “schedule a service appointment,” that’s a smart place to include a video talking about your current service specials or highlighting the amenities in your service department lounge.
Create Shareable Snippets on Social Media
Of course, you can (and should) be sharing your dealership’s videos on social media. After all, 84% of people said they visited a website after watching a video ad about the brand’s products or services.
But, don’t stop there. You can break up the content to create images or infographics using snippets of information from the video.
Here’s an example I created from a 9 Clouds partner testimonial video in about two minutes using Canva:
2. The Services You’re (Probably) Already Using
Once you utilize your videos in as many free places as you can, the next step is to incorporate them into the paid services that are already part of your dealership’s digital strategy, such as Facebook and Google ads or email marketing.
Here are some ideas.
Facebook Advertising
The ad format we see the most engagement on is collection ads on Facebook. With these full-screen, mobile-only experiences, we’re able to showcase a dealer’s available inventory using our Cumulus technology alongside an image or video:
Facebook also offers campaign objectives for video-views, so there are several ways to utilize videos in your campaigns.
However, don’t forget to keep the sales funnel in mind. For example, if you’re advertising a branding message to a top-of-funnel audience, a more general “Why Buy Here” video will be more appropriate than an F-150 walk-around video geared toward in-market truck shoppers.
Google and YouTube
Want to take your Google advertising game up a notch? Supplement your Search ads with a Display campaign.
While a Display campaign can’t use videos per se, you can use GIFs as the ad format. Depending on your video content, this could be an attractive way to reach qualified vehicle shoppers on Google’s network.
The big opportunity to use video on Google is with YouTube PreRoll. If you have video content and you’re not using it for PreRoll, start now.
YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world (behind Google, which owns YouTube):
- YouTube sees more than 3 billion searches per month.
- 37% of all mobile internet traffic belongs to YouTube.
- 83% of consumers worldwide prefer YouTube to watch video content.
Learn more about the benefit of YouTube PreRoll ads in our blog post.
Email Marketing
If you’re already sending emails from your dealership to your CRM contacts, don’t forget to include your video content here, as applicable.
You can’t actually put a video in an email, but you can create a GIF of a very short video, or post a screenshot of the video with the “play button” over it, prompting recipients to click through to watch the content.
Adding videos to your emails can increase your click-through rate (CTR) by 65%. That’s definitely worth a try!
3. Amazon Ads: A New Opportunity for Your Video Content
If you’re really ready to take your dealership’s video content to a new level, it’s time to consider video ads on Amazon’s over-the-top (OTT) and online video ads services.
With 2 billion visitors a month on average, Amazon allows you to target a huge percentage of car shoppers using their channels. They’ll show your video ads on their website, partner sites like CBS and TBS, and their OTT services (on the Fire homepage and IMDb streaming channel).
Alongside your current digital strategy, Amazon video ads is a new and effective option to sharing your video content and reaching the right customers with your message.
Put Your Dealership’s Videos to Work
Listen, creating videos can take a lot of work (and sometimes money.) Use them in as many places as you possibly can!
If you need help executing these strategies — or, if you’re ready to advertise on Amazon — we can help. Best of all, we don’t charge commission on your ad spend.
Learn more about how 9 Clouds can help your dealership!
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