On the lot and in the showroom, sales professionals are trained to “sell the dealership, sell yourself, then sell the car.” Considering the large number of commercials being aired by online retailers that attempt to convince consumers that they will have a terrible experience if they shop at a dealership, these steps have never been more important than they are now.

However, when it comes to online marketing, most dealerships focus only on selling the car, forgetting that building trust with car shoppers is just as important in the online marketplace. “Selling the dealership” starts with breaking down barriers to inspire trust between the customer and your sales staff throughout the buying process.

Most consumers want to learn more about your dealership and sales professionals before making initial contact. In fact, Google tells us that “Where should I buy it?” is one of the most important micro-moments in the online buying cycle. So, how can you ensure that you are still selling your dealership when engaging with a customer online early enough in the buying cycle for it to have the largest impact?

The key is to implement an online video marketing strategy that duplicates your physical strategy and ensures you are getting the right video content in front of the right shoppers at the right time in the buying cycle. This can be accomplished by adding a landing page to your website that provides a complete video experience, containing all of the “why buy” videos that your shoppers seek throughout the entire buying cycle.

Display all of your “why buy” videos in the same place on your landing page via itemized menu tabs, and make that landing page accessible from every dropdown on your site’s main navigation. This allows you to seamlessly guide shoppers down the buying cycle.

Here are some examples of videos that can be displayed on every menu item on the landing page:

• New Inventory Dropdown: Provide a link in your “new inventory” dropdown that directs shoppers to new model review videos on your landing page while simultaneously introducing them to your value proposition and testimonial videos.

• Pre-Owned Inventory Dropdown: Provide a link in your “used inventory” dropdown that takes shoppers to the pre-owned inventory standards section of your video experience while also exposing your value proposition and testimonial videos.

• Finance Department Dropdown: Answer all of your customers’ frequently asked finance questions by linking them to the finance FAQ videos in your video experience from your “finance department” dropdown. Additionally, having your finance FAQ on this landing page exposes your customers to all of your other videos.

• Service Department Dropdown: To continue efforts on getting buyers to come back for servicing their vehicles, you should also feature a service FAQ tab in your video experience landing page. These videos should answer the most common questions asked when it comes to your dealership’s service department while simultaneously introducing them to your value proposition and testimonial videos.

• About Us Dropdown: On the “about us” portion of your site’s main navigation, link to dealership-specific videos on your video experience landing page. These videos should be “why buy” videos and will expose car shoppers to all of the other videos in your video experience.

The most important place to have your value proposition and testimonial videos is next to your VIN-specific videos on your suggested retail price and vehicle detail page, so you are selling your dealership at the same time you are selling your vehicles … just like on your lot.

The fact is, shoppers still need to be sold on your dealership, and your online strategy should be similar to your in-store strategy. Creating a content-rich video experience landing page that is accessible from your website’s dropdown menus is the key to making this happen.