In this decade, by the time a potential buyer walks in the doors of your dealership, he or she has probably searched online for feature information, reviews, and deals. The buyer has compared models and knows what paint options exist for the vehicle he wants. And, most likely, the shopper has visited YouTube more than once to check out the automobiles in the running. Yes, she wants to come in and test drive a model or two and kick the tires, so to speak, but she has a head start.
Per a DMEAutomotive study, the average car purchaser today makes less than two visits to physical dealerships. Before he arrives, the shopper has made numerous digital and mobile visits to check out both you and the cars. And among these virtual experiences, YouTube holds an important key.
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine and third most visited site after Google and Facebook. The channel gets over 30 million visitors per day, which translates to about 1 billion active users per month. That’s a giant chunk of internet users consuming video.
David Mogensen, Google’s Head of YouTube Ads Product Marketing, issued a report in which it was reported that 70% of people who used YouTube as part of their car buying process were influenced by what they watched. Further, views on YouTube of test drives, features, options, and walk-throughs have doubled in the past year; mobile searches from dealership lots increased 46% in the last year.
What this means is this: before buyers grace your showroom, they’re making decisions and forming opinions via online research. And here’s the question: where do you want your buyers to get their information: from your dealership or from someone else’s?
Per Google, car review videos on YouTube were watched for more than 3 million hours in the first 9 months of 2015, of which more than 1.2 million were on mobile, more than twice as many as the previous year. In general, research shows that people generally tend to search for 3 types of car video:
- Test drives
- Comparison videos showing features of different makes and models
- Interior and exterior car walk-throughs
This is a great opportunity for your dealership to use video marketing on YouTube to reach potential buyers. How can you maximize your time and money investment in this channel?
Conduct an online audit.
Pretend you are buying a new car yourself, or hire a consultant to audit your online presence. Are you covering the channels that could be most advantageous to you? Is your brand consistent and professional? Are you using all the right keywords to attract the most hits?
Build your video library:
Remember that customers are impatient and they want concise and informative video content. Respect their time and yours and create video that reflects your personality in a way that will bring customers to your door.
Be responsive:
Modern society is impatient and expects to find answers very quickly. If you aren’t there with the right answer, the moment shoppers are looking, chances are someone else will be.
Dive in! If you’re not already creating content for YouTube and tying that to your other marketing and sales channels, you could be missing a critical outreach opportunity.
