Creating viral videos is awesome; however, the purpose of your video marketing strategy should be to deliver leads, appointments and sales. Is it time to analyze your strategy and ensure that you are including video content in every stage of your sales funnel? Does your strategy start with the end in mind, or are you just creating videos and hoping they are seen?
Video content is just one piece of the video marketing puzzle. To be successful, your video marketing strategy needs to deliver the right videos to the right buyers at the right time. You have probably heard about Google’s Five Auto Shopping Moments that every brand must own:
• Which car is best?
• Is it right for me?
• Can I afford it?
• Where should I buy it?
• Am I getting a deal?
The good news? You are likely already utilizing Google’s “moments.” They are essentially your sales funnel.
High Funnel
Most auto shoppers enter the buying cycle uncommitted to a brand or dealership. They want to know the differences between brand makes and models, what new features are out there and how they’re different from last year’s make and model.
This is where video plays into the beginning of the buying cycle. Using new model test drive and model review videos, you can prevent shoppers from looking anywhere but your website for the vital information they are searching for in this stage. In this discovery phase of the buying cycle, having video allows you to become a trusted resource. I see a lot of dealerships that do not include this type of video content in their strategy, which drives prospects to either: 1) leave your site and go to YouTube to get more information or 2) go to your competitor’s site to continue looking for where and what they should buy.
Mid-Funnel
During the discovery phase, when a consumer watches your high-funnel content, the goal is to keep them on your site and move them further down the buying cycle. This is where having your mid-funnel videos display on the same landing page as your high-funnel videos is most effective.
Once a customer is finished with research about general features of car models and begins to narrow their search, provide them with inventory videos or interactive 360 spins. These can either be live videos or stitched-photo videos — just make sure there are videos! Present your inventory and your dealership in an engaging and emotional way, to build trust with shoppers and encourage them to reach out with an inquiry. Include VIN-specific video content at this micro-moment (Is It Right For Me?) as well as Value Proposition and Testimonial videos (Where Should I Buy It?).
Low Funnel
Once your high- and mid-funnel videos get your shoppers interested in a specific vehicle or vehicles, you can begin to utilize video communication to provide more information, answer questions or present different vehicles better suited to their needs. Video email, video texting and live video chat allow your sales team to continue building upon the trust relationship that you have started.
For consumers, using video in this part of the funnel turns their thoughts from “they are just another salesperson selling me a car” to “they are a trusted resource guiding me through this stressful buying journey.” At this stage, the emotional attachment that videos create will help bring more leads and close more sales.
Our data shows that when this high-to-low funnel strategy is used, the number of return visitors to the website doubles, and the volume of VDP leads, phone calls and appointments increase as much as 22%.
Video is here to stay, and today’s consumers rely heavily on videos to help them with purchase decisions. It is easy and inexpensive to load your dealership’s website with video content that can help car shoppers through the car-buying process, answer their questions and bring them down funnel.
