Top 5 Ways to Use Video to Sell & Service More

The “Gangnam Style” music video, Saturday Night Live’s “Lazy Sunday” skit and the Fleetwood Mac “Dreams” skateboard video have all reached viral status for a variety of reasons. Everyone responds more emotionally to videos and loves to share memorable videos with their friends and family.

This should be kept in mind when selling and servicing online. Using video is a great way to increase customer engagement. Users consume over 1 billion hours of video a day on YouTube and video has a 70% higher open rate than email or text. Placing a video on your company’s landing page will increase conversions by more than 80%, said Erica Sietsma, Digital Air Strike’s chief operating officer.

“Video stats have been growing and then exploded in 2020 with the pandemic,” Sietsma said in a recent webinar with the National Automobile Dealers Association. “Video drives action. It’s a beautiful double-edged sword with digital because you can actually tell what happens. With traditional consumption your stats are never certain.”

The cold weather and social distancing will only continue the uptrend of researching with video and increasing video watch times. Automotive watch time on YouTube has stayed elevated since dealership restrictions began in Q2. Watch time went up 31% in Q1, 33% in Q2 and 42% in Q3, according to YouTube data. YouTube is the №1 destination for auto purchasers to experience vehicles with video, Sietsma said.

Businesses can include links to videos through Facebook Messenger and texts to drive engagement and to better answer customer questions. Consumers, especially the rise in first-time car buyers, are moving down that sales funnel faster after viewing online video content. Ninety-five percent who watched an online video completed at least one follow-up action, according to Google.

Here are five ways businesses can easily incorporate video to sell and service more:

1. You down with OTT? You should be! OTT, or Over-the-Top video advertising, is video content delivered over an internet connection with a streaming device. The video appears at the beginning, during or at the end of the show, and is not skippable. Unlike traditional cable and satellite, OTT provides specific audience and geographic targeting. “With Amazon’s OTT ads, you’re reaching unique and relevant audiences,” Sietsma said. “Unique measurement tools can increase the efficiency of ad budgets. With the power of pixel retargeting, it’s even more timely and relevant.” Learn more about Digital Air Strike’s partnership with Amazon, OTT ads and how dealers can benefit in this recent Forbes article. Digital Air Strike also offers dynamic inventory streaming ads. Learn more about OTT advertising and what DAS offers.
2. Promote specials and announcements on your Google My Business listing with video and motion tiles. When you think of an initial internet search, most people tend to think of Google. Optimizing this free listing, especially with video, catches consumers’ eyes and captures more customers. Get the most out of organic SEO by adding video and motion titles to a business’ GMB optimization strategy. “Your GMB page drives people to your company,” Sietsma said. “Google is really becoming the connector. Video is what you call a thumb stopper. Using video is huge.”
3. Put video on social. Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok are all about short-form video stories. Companies can beat the filter and engage consumers more with videos. Since the stories feature is new on Facebook and Instagram, this feature doesn’t have an algorithm yet so followers will always see the story posts. “You want to take advantage of this and make sure the messaging is the right form,” Sietsma said. “Is it interactive? Is it a quick, tight, engaging message?” YouTube is not only the second largest search engine, it’s also the second most popular social site. Learn more on how Digital Air Strike creates social content and videos for businesses.
4. Use video to easily communicate with sales and service customers. Video creation doesn’t need to be difficult, find a solution that makes it easy to capture and use content. Bring your dealership or store to the customer through video, film vehicle walkarounds or product videos and shoot safety videos showing what your dealership is doing to keep customers and employees safe during the pandemic. Drive more conversion with customizable landing pages, like Digital Air Strike’s Video Logix, an easy-to-use technology that records, sends and tracks videos. Capture customer videos with video replies. Be in the know with alerts and measurement. “Video engagement has got to be easy,” Sietsma said. “We use video a ton with our business clients. DAS is the only vendor in the industry that will do it all for you.”
5. Use VIN-specific 360-degree interactive video. Interactive 360-degree videos of vehicles and products allow customers to get a walkaround and up-close look. Dealerships can highlight features with clickable zoom-in photos and videos. “This allows the consumer to put themselves in the car,” she said. “In two years, I don’t think we’ll be doing video walkarounds, we’ll use one completely immersive 360-degree experience. The power of this technology is it is so easy to use.” High-quality images can be captured in minutes using just a mobile phone.

Struggling with finding ways to get your team to use more video in their daily selling and servicing? Incentivize your employees with money/gift cards to get them on board to do videos to show them it works. Find your rock star employee who is skilled at video to mentor and help others. Those rock stars are always the top salespeople as well, Sietsma said.

“When it comes to engaging your customers, you’ve got to up the experience,” she said. “We really like to think of ourselves as the holistic partner. We’re always here to help.”