Finding fresh ways to engage your potential customers can prove to be a little bit tricky at a dealership. Beyond catching their attention and bringing them back for service later, how else can you interact with your clients? Customers don’t always want advertisements for new vehicles when they’re perfectly happy with the ones they just got, and they might not be interested in getting a checkup for service for months.
How should you engage your dealership customers?
More and more, customers are turning to the internet to answer questions they have about their vehicles. Whether it’s a quick guide on syncing a phone, or a tutorial on backup camera displays, there are videos all over the internet showing people how they work. This is the perfect opportunity for dealerships to provide that personalized attention for your customers.
Why are instructional videos good for dealerships?
Professional videos provide a visual and audio instruction that drivers can follow with ease at home. Customers don’t want to have to drive all the way back to the dealership to find out how to use their advanced interfaces.
Easy Access Information
Even if you search “how to sync phone to car” on YouTube right now, you’ll get hundreds if not thousands of results. Many of these videos were made by or for dealerships for the ease of customer use. Some dealerships have whole collections of videos for features of different makes and models of vehicles.
Greater Visibility
Depending on the topic of your video, you have the potential to reach a much wider audience than your already existing customers. Some of these videos garner hundreds, even thousands of views, and can boost your dealership’s profile.
Greater SEO Potential
Once you have videos that you can embed in your dealer website, you’re more likely to draw traffic to your site and keep it there. Hosting and embedding videos on your site also makes it more attractive to search engine algorithms, and you’ll rank higher in search results.
William Johnson says that websites should “[m]ake use of such videos to ensure that you are able to grab the attention of your audience in the most effective manner. In turn, it will help to lower the bounce rate, enhancing your SEO value.”
When it comes to outshining other dealerships, increased local SEO is crucial to getting a step above your competition. Think of how many dealerships are in a given area for the same manufacturer. Videos are a great way to set yourself apart for customers and search engines.
What makes a good dealership tutorial video?
When you look at a lot of these videos, and then you set out to make your own, it can be unclear as to what makes a good one. How do you go about making an engaging piece of media that’s useful for your customers and represents your dealership well?
Clear Visibility & Audio
Instructional videos with fuzzy audio and hard to see visuals don’t do anyone much good. In the digital age, it’s easy enough to run a quick sound and video check before you get started. Keeping your video well lit and stable makes the difference between you showing your audience what you’re doing as opposed to telling them about it.
Have another person hold the camera so you can easily demonstrate what needs to be done without bouncing the camera around. Recording the video in landscape mode is also useful so viewers can easily get the full view of what you’re doing.
Keep Your Videos Direct
Nothing is more frustrating on an instructional video than trying to skip to the segment that’s relevant to your needs. Instead of making a video of “50 Fun Features of Your Radio,” break them up into shorter 1-3 minute demos. This makes it easier for users to navigate to the video they need with minimal back and forth. You can still record multiple videos in one sitting, but make sure they’re split up accordingly.
Make Them Accessible
For shorter, step-by-step videos, you want to make sure that you include text-based instructions both in the videos and in the descriptions. This ensures that your audience will be able to follow along in the video even if they cannot hear it.
Brand Your Video
Make it clear that whatever video you offer for your customers is from your dealership. Start the video off with your logo and a staff member introducing themselves—who they are, what they do, and where they work. Putting a face to the voice that will be helping them means a lot to viewers and increases your brand awareness.
While the goal of these videos is for quick instruction and minor fixes that can usually be done at home, you always want to encourage viewers to stop in if they have any questions. This should be added at the end of the video along with a reminder of the name and location of the dealership, as well as any particularly relevant services.
Embrace the Personal Approach
Even if your dealership doesn’t include instructional videos or walkthroughs right now, there’s no reason you can’t start! Customers appreciate when you take the necessary steps to provide information for them, and videos that can answer their questions are a great way to do that. When looking at how you can boost your dealership’s profile and create a better relationship with your customers, don’t forget that a few quick and easy 3-minute videos can make a huge difference.