Video Platforms to Reach your Dealership’s Online Audience
You’ve heard and read for some time now that your dealership’s audience craves video. Perhaps you’re still not quite convinced, or you think video is too hard, or too expensive. The truth is, video is not only a must-have tool to implement your dealership’s marketing strategy, it is a can-have. Production needn’t be elaborate to engage your audience – if you choose the right video platforms.
What can video do for you?
The products your dealership sells are practically the poster children for this medium – everything about them says “movement.” While heavy equipment and big rig trucks are certainly photogenic, in the showroom and on location, it’s what they do that makes your customers buy. Videos give you “show and tell” opportunities that plain text, and even text with photos, cannot achieve.
Why use a picture that’s supposedly worth 1,000 words when you can use video, which is considered to be worth 1,800,000 words? It is so much more eye-catching and engaging because it offers a multi-sensory experience that makes it easy for viewers to put themselves in the picture. In fact, one research firm says a presentation that combines audio and video is 58% more memorable. You can tell a more complete story about your products, services, and your dealership.
Like your blog, videos are convenient as well as informative. Your dealership’s online audience can find and view them any time, even when you aren’t present to answer their questions or show them something.
Choosing the right video platforms
Some types of videos are very effective when embedded directly into your website – short pieces that introduce your key staff, offer quick how-to tips, or showcase the latest piece of equipment. But posting videos to your YouTube account puts them in front of the entire world, where your customers and prospects can find and view them via search. Using YouTube also makes it easy to regularly link to certain videos from your blog, email marketing, Facebook and other social media posts, etc.
But you can do more with video platforms
You can advertise directly to your dealership’s audience, rather than waiting for them to find you via search. That ups the odds in terms of marketing success, but of course it costs some money. Should you do it?
YouTube
It’s nice to know that YouTube is the world’s second-most-visited website, right behind its parent company, Google. But your dealership’s online audience is not spread out around the world, so who cares? You do – or you could — because you can target YouTube advertising toward prospects who do matter for you. You can narrow your audience according to their location but also their interests, age, and so on.
And you can reach them in two ways – while they’re searching YouTube, or while they’re already watching another video. You’ll probably recognize these options from your own online experience:
- TrueView in-Stream ads appear ahead of the video you have clicked on to watch. These ads have a “click to skip” feature for viewers.
- Bumper ads are just 6 seconds long, excellent for presenting a single, easy-to-grasp message. You’d be surprised how much you can say and show in 6 seconds. TV stations and networks use bumper ads all the time.
- TrueView Discovery ads can appear on YouTube’s home page or next to related videos as well as in YouTube search results.
Facebook and its little sister Instagram also offer video advertising opportunities. Again, these potential video platforms boast billions of users, but you can drill down to reach your dealership’s online audience instead of the entire universe.
What many business marketers don’t know is that updates related to your Facebook business page are seen by less than a half-percent of people who might actually be interested in your content. That’s thanks to Facebook’s restructuring of what they show in the News Feed, and they made that change to motivate you to purchase advertising. Pretty frustrating, and you may decide not to take up that challenge.
Before you make that decision, though, you should at least understand what’s available, because good targeting can definitely direct your Facebook video ads to your desired audience. You can target according to demographic details, Facebook user behavior, interests, even specific email addresses or phone numbers. Yep, that’s direct-to-individual targeting that puts your video ad on their News Feed.
Should you use video platforms to pay to advertise your dealership? Only you and your marketing team can answer that question. But video is a must, if you hope to reach and engage your dealership’s online audience.
