Embrace the Digital Age with Video Marketing

Video traffic accounts for 80% of all consumer internet traffic, making video marketing the #1 way internet users are consuming content on the web. Video viewers retain 95% of the video message compared to only 10% of those who read content. Video marketing is the most effective way to market your products and services on the internet. If video marketing is not at the forefront of your marketing strategy, it should be.

Video Marketing Strategy – The First Steps

The automotive industry is generally, sadly behind when it comes to video marketing. Embracing fresh and revolutionary marketing strategies will be what separates successful digital marketers from the not-so-successful in the near future.

Don’t be intimidated. Video marketing can be affordable and doable, without a full-time, highly-trained staff member creating and managing the content.

Firstly, decide what sort of video content you’d like to publish to your audience. From education to advertising, video content can have a wide range of messaging. It’s up to you to decide what message you’d like to send to your audience. Make sure you understand the interests of your audience and stay on brand when creating your video marketing strategy.

Setting a Budget

If you don’t have the financial means or the time available to produce your own video content, it can be easily purchased for your use at affordable prices. FixedOPS Marketing focuses client video marketing on service and parts specials, specifically. These videos are created specifically to educate consumers about the importance of getting their vehicles serviced. By educating consumers on the benefits of premium services, it helps fixedops departments increase their lines per RO by selling more than just loss leading services. In this case, the videos being created are meant to assist fixed ops departments in upselling their service clientele and fill service bays. 

If you choose to produce your own video content, there are a number of things to consider. Do you want videos that feature a voiceover or are you more interested in the written word? The answer to this question will depend on your budget, as well as where you believe you’ll market your videos. For instance, if you are creating videos to use in your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, you should know that many videos on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter begin to autoplay without sound. It’s up to the user to turn the sound on, which is unlikely. Therefore, voiceover may be unwise in this form of distribution. Whereas, if you’re creating an ad which will be featured in a variety of places and hosted on YouTube, you may want to consider using a voiceover as well as written copy within the video.

Do you want to use stock video footage or create animation? Again, this greatly depends on your budget. Animators are highly expensive and often unnecessary. Videos using stock footage are faster to turn around and are much more cost effective. Stock footage can start roughly at $500 per video, whereas animators can easily charge that much an hour. Frequently, with the right videographer, the message and tone can be conveyed just the same as with animation.

Full stock videos can easily be purchased on the internet for very affordable prices. These videos are already templated to fit the size and length requirements of the most common marketing channels, like Facebook and LinkedIn. The downside of purchasing pre-made videos is that the content may not perfectly suit your messaging. However, stock video usually looks professional and work well for video marketing on a condensed budget.

There are companies available that offer video footage that is applicable to the automotive industry at affordable prices, starting at $399. If you choose to hire a videographer, prepare to pay top dollar – or at least a salaried wage – for quality production.

Distributing your Videos

Once you’ve decided how to source your videos, you must learn how to market them and make full use out of the content. There are several ways to market and remarket your videos. The best way to begin marketing your videos is through a digital marketing campaign.

A digital marketing campaign refers to the funnel in which you market your video. To begin a simple digital marketing campaign, it’s common to place your video on your blog or website (on a landing page) with some light copy (written content discussing the video and its message for SEO and informational purposes).

Then, using the URL (or link) where your video is located – on your landing page or blog, you then share that video and/or link on your social media pages, in your email marketing campaigns, and in any mobile marketing or pay-per-click advertising you are also using. Once your video has passed through each marketing channel after its original placement on your website, you’ve completed your first digital marketing campaign. Keep track of the number of views your videos receive and which marketing channels are the most impactful.

You can create several digital marketing campaigns with the same video by slightly changing the written content describing your video. One video can be used in many different ways, stretching your marketing efforts and financial investment.

Remarketing

Once you have a good idea as to what videos perform best and what messaging your audience responds to the most highly, you can begin to tune your content. By slightly modifying your existing videos and content, you can remarket that content again and again to your audience, maximizing your budget and efforts.

A Note About YouTube

It’s not uncommon for companies to host their videos on YouTube and then use the YouTube video sharing link to post those videos on their social media pages and email marketing campaigns. YouTube is simply a video hosting source. Most videos are first placed on YouTube (or Vimeo or similar video hosting service) and then shared on websites and other marketing channels. The goal of video marketing is to get viewers to not only watch your video but to also visit your website, so when at all possible, after hosting your video on YouTube, also place the video on your website so you can send traffic directly to your dealership website.

Need More Help?

Do you have more questions on how to produce or market your videos? Contact FixedOPS Marketing – a company that offers embedded video marketing for your service pages – and we’ll help you with ideas on how to market videos effectively and what videos might work for you.