By Mike DeLong, VP of Dealer Services, Covideo
Lights…Camera…Action! There is no doubt that video has become increasingly popular within the auto industry. Dealers across the country are becoming more in tune and embracing video technology to better engage their audience with relevant content ranging from product videos to testimonials to “why buy from us.” Video is what allows us to stand out while delivering our compelling message. Video can provide us higher clickthrough rates, provide increasingly more time on our website visits, all while further influencing our audience.
The natural progression to your video strategy would be to adopt…video email! Our industry has forced us to have to communicate with our customers using email. Yet, there are no plain text words that can be used in an email that could ever replace the passionate voice inflections of that face-to-face interaction. Video email can increase your email open rate, provide a personal touch to those communications while increasing your engagement level from your customer. Using video email can now ensure our message gets delivered while better aligning our communications to that of our customers’ lifestyle today. When executed correctly, video email can provide a significant increase in your overall departmental performance, while showcasing your dealership to be one that can keep up with the fast-pacing world of technology!
Building your Video Email Strategy
Process First: The first element to your success with the implementation of video email starts from within your process. Simply turning on a video email tool and allowing your employees to send out frivolous video emails can be damning and work against you. Without structure, you could easily be chasing your customers’ away and creating more “opt-outs” from future communication and marketing emails. When building your process, it starts with introducing video communications around your existing KPI’s.
These KPI’s could be Internet Lead Response Rate, Appointments Set, Appointment Shows, CSI scores,
Average Hours per RO in CP …whatever they are, they are YOUR KPI’s. When applying personalized video communications within these touchpoints you will soon begin to experience a much higher engagement level with your customer. With the higher engagement comes higher results – measurable results! You now have a measurable ROI to your video email strategy! Now that you have established your core process, you can now begin to use video email expanding outside of those measurable KPI’s.
There are certain touchpoints within the customers’ lifecycle that video email can be very effective: Vehicle Walkarounds, Unsold Follow Up, Sold Follow Up with Service Manager Introduction, Service Reminders, Recall Notices, Declined Repair Follow Up, Happy Birthday, Happy Holidays…and on and on! All of these, when delivered in a personalized video is much more impactful with your customers’ than simply using a plain text email.
Relevancy a Must: Adding video communications to your emails, even when aligned to your KPI’s, does not in itself ensure success. Although the video email will gain a higher click through, it is imperative that we provide relevancy to our video communications. The video email, which replaces the plain text email, must contain the relevant information within our response to our customer’s request. Yes, it is very powerful to send a personalized video email, and as an example, as the first response to an Internet Lead Request. This is considered to be a “best practice” in our internet departments today.
The video email offers a personalized touch, humanizes the experience, establishes we are a real person to assist…and customers love it! However, if the video email script is a simple, “Hi, my name is Mary, and I wanted to send you this video so I can put a face to the name,” although cute, it does not provide the customer with any information to the customer’s request. Use the video to provide that personal touch but…answer their questions, provide them with the relevant information they are looking for! Relevancy is a MUST!
Creating a Sense of Obligation Using Audio Commands: You have the customer engaged and watching your video email. You are providing relevant information that aligns to their question/request. Don’t stop there! What is your end goal? Is it to obtain their phone number to now continue the conversation to better serve them? ASK FOR IT! Are you setting the appointment? ASK FOR IT! Are you reminding them of the CSI Survey they will receive requesting your perfect 10? ASK FOR IT! Using audio commands within your video will more likely make that customer feel obligated to respond to your request. This is the power of video! In that video, they are looking into your eyes. You are now a real person…not just plain text words in an email. It is the human tendency in all of us to which we feel more obligated to respond to a real person. So…just ASK FOR IT!
Process first, relevancy a must, and creating a sense of obligation, is your… BLUEPRINT to creating a successful video email strategy!
Learn more about how to implement a video strategy at your dealership during Mike DeLong’s session on Wednesday, April 10, 2019: 9:00 AM – 9:50 AM, “Best Practices & Strategies for Growing Your Dealership with Video,” at Digital Dealer 26 Conference & Expo.
About the Author
Mike DeLong serves as VP of dealer services with Covideo. Having served in the dealership environment for over 20 years as both a GM and operating partner, Mike has taken his skill set to help dealers succeed with the education and development of their video email strategy. EMAIL: [email protected]
