Video has become one of the most important mediums for marketers and is quickly becoming the preferred method of media consumption for consumers. Every marketer dreams of the day when they produce a video with content worthy of thousands and possibly millions of viral shares. But let’s dial these dreams back a little and save ourselves the pain of wasting endless hours devising the perfect video scenario to be viewed by the world wide web. Instead let’s focus on how your dealership can utilize video in everyday marketing to engage current customers and keep them coming back to you for future vehicle needs. Today we’ll share six things you need to know about marketing with video.
Get Noticed with Video
It’s no secret that people like to consume their content through video. When looking at major video platforms like YouTube, you quickly understand the impact video has on our society; YouTube reports every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube to generate billions of views and this number each month is up 50% year over year. Video popularity is definitely not dying, but quite the reverse; more people are posting and watching videos daily. Are you leveraging this powerful medium to reach out and connect with your customers?
Power Your Marketing with Video
How do the growing numbers of video consumption affect your marketing strategy? Great question! Similar to how people prefer to consume content, marketers are finding video marketing to be highly effective. In fact, 70% of marketing professionals report video converts better than any other medium and 64% of consumers are more likely to buy a product after watching a video about it. These statistics demonstrate how video makes a brand relatable to consumers; it puts a face or personality to a brand and allows the audience to connect and build trust with the brand. And let’s be honest, everyone prefers to buy from someone they know and trust.
Determine Your Goals with Video
If you decide to venture into video marketing, you’ll need to lay out what your goals are, otherwise you can waste a lot of time and money. Dealerships across the nation are using video in a variety of ways, but just because they are using it doesn’t mean they are seeing any results. Will you use video to put a face to your dealership and build brand awareness? Will you use it to deliver short, sweet, concise messages to your clients for things like service reminders? Will you use video marketing to set your dealership apart from your competition? Only 24% of brands are actually using online video to market to consumers today, which means there’s a huge opportunity to reach out, connect, and be different.
Understand Your Hosting Needs
Once you understand your goals and have chosen your content, it’s time to figure out the logistics of how your videos will reach your customers. You can’t simply create videos and, poof, they appear for your customers. You first have to decide where your videos will live online. There are really two options, free or paid hosting sites. There are pros and cons to both; for example, YouTube is free, but you aren’t able to control the entire user experience, whereas paid hosting sites give you full control of the user experience, but they can also be very costly. This decision is totally up to you and there is no right or wrong answer. It’s really about your specific needs and budget.
Share Videos with Customers
Next, you’ve got to determine how you will share your videos with your ideal audience. There are several ways to do this, but if we’re staying with the idea to create videos for your current customers, then email is the best channel to use. This is mostly because it’s a one-to-one direct marketing channel that links you directly with your customers. Email also provides you access to increased analytics, like impressions of people who saw your content but didn’t view your video. But always remember, the method used for delivery will depend on the content of your video and the audience you are trying to reach.
Benefit from Video in Email
If you decide that email is the best delivery method to reach your ideal audience, then you should know that marketers who are currently using this method are seeing open rates increase by 20% and click-through rates increase by 200% to 300%. Simply put, pairing video with email turbo charges your marketing and creates more interaction with your content. We all know that consumers have overflowing inboxes and it is more important than ever to stand out in the inbox and get your message heard. With these statistics, video is a clear answer.
If you haven’t ventured into video marketing, now may be the time to jump in. Be sure to plan out your marketing to determine the best content and delivery method that supports your goals before you get started. Although that perfect viral video would bring a lot of brand recognition to your dealership, it may not be the best way to return the results you desire.
Source:
"Statistics." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 23 June 2015.
"The Top 15 Video Marketing Statistics for 2015." Adelie Studios. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 June 2015.
Cote, Sabrina. "10 Powerful Video Marketing Statistics (and What They Mean to You)." Brainshark. 11, 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 24 June 2015.