Recently I had the honor of speaking at Digital Dealer 18 in Tampa, Florida to a packed room of Dealers, and OEM Leaders, who were looking for the best ways to maximize their mobile footprint with car buyers. Most of them expected me to talk about things like the Apple Watch, iBeacon, Geo-targeted marketing and the like but we didn’t talk about any of that. Instead we talked about how to instantly make more money at the dealership by using the only device that people no longer consider a….device.
DID YOU KNOW THAT 72% OF PEOPLE SURVEYED SAY THEY WON’T USE THEIR PHONE TO SHOP FOR THEIR NEXT CAR?
Considering mobile is arguably one of the hottest industry topics, this number came as a huge surprise to everyone in the room. It was a big surprise to us as well. But then we did a little more digging. What we learned is that people no longer think of their phone as a ‘mobile device’. They don’t think of it as an ‘alarm clock’ or a ‘phone’ or an ‘internet browser’ or a ‘phablet’.
Do you sleep near your phone? Is your phone with you all the time? Do you use it to go online? Do you use it to take notes, wake you up in the morning, to shop? The answer for most people is YES to most of those questions.
AND THAT IS WHY YOUR MOBILE MARKETING DOESN’T MATTER
Doesn’t matter? Hold on cowboys and cowgirls, let me wrangle this in a little bit and bring some direction to this rodeo. In the rest of this article I’ll give you a clear path for increasing your connection with buyers in a way that won’t require you to go spend an arm and a leg with some marketing company, so let’s get it started.
8 SECONDS OF FUN
A few months ago I began personally thanking every Twitter follower I get by video. I have a few thousand followers on Twitter and @konigco is my handle; if you’d like to see a live example of what I do just follow me. Since I began doing personalized thank you videos, I’ve had more and more new followers and more people retweeting my posts, including ones promoting my business. In one case, I thanked a DJ and my eight second video was so meaningful to him that he took me to Coachella music festival. For an entire day, Keith shot videos backstage, at private parties, in an Uber with his pals, and even in front stage with thousands of screaming fans.
72% of people say they won’t use their phone to shop for their next car.
What does this mean for you? Well, on Twitter you can do an advanced search for terms like ‘car shopping’ or ‘looking at cars’ or ‘car buying’ within a 25-30 mile radius of your dealership. What if you took eight seconds to send a personalized video to someone who posts “car shopping sucks” and you say something like: “Hey, you’re right, car shopping sucks EVERYWHERE ELSE! Come see me or call me for an experience that DOESN’T SUCK!”
That will take you about 15 seconds total. I’d bet you will be the first, and ONLY dealership in your area that ever took the time to reach out to someone that way.
IT DOESN’T STOP WITH TWITTER
In your hand is a full-featured camcorder. What if someone called your dealership and you said, “To save you some time I’ll shoot a quick video walking around the vehicle and send you a text message with a link to the video so you can check it out before driving in to see us.” Your first instinct may be to say “Mat I don’t want to deter them from coming in…” but I’m here to tell you, that simple sentence will get you MORE appointments than ever before! PLUS, if you do it right, you can gain some search visibility too. Here’s how:
Shoot a quick video, 60-90 seconds in length. If you’re an iPhone user there is a $5 app called iMovie that lets you stop and start recording and add text overlays so you can include your phone number on the screen. Walk around the car, talk about it’s features, show any blemishes and DO NOT mention the customer’s name. Say things like “here is the 2014 Honda Accord. I’m going to show you a few features that make this such a great car.” You can also say things like… “Another thing you may like about the Accord is…”
Once you are done recording the video, upload it to YouTube, publicly, and give it the title like Used 2014 Honda Accord Review in Kalamazoo, MI. In the description, tell them a few highlights like: In this video I show the XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX that people love on our Used 2014 Honda Accord. Be sure to put your dealership name, phone number, address, and put your name and direct contact information too! Now press upload and let the video go to YouTube! It’ll take a few minutes to complete and when it’s done you can click ‘share’ and text it to the customer.
Now you have a great reason to call the customer back! When you call you can say, “…this is Mat at the dealership and I wanted to make sure you got the video link I texted to you…” BAM! Here is a great chance to ask – “when would you like to come and drive it?”
You can use video for sharing info like this but it doesn’t end with selling. Use mobile video in almost the exact same way for follow up. The only difference; upload the video as unlisted on YouTube. Now you can shoot a video for your 30, 60 or 90 day follow up saying: “Hey this is Mat, it’s been 3 months since you got your Accord and I wanted to drop a quick note to see if you need me to set up your first oil change, please call or text me if you’d like me to set it up for you.”
These seem like small things but a little video goes a long way at showing people that you actually care. Marketing in the traditional sense is not customer friendly. We are in sales and we all try to skip commercials so why would our buyers be any different. If you’re going to invest time and/or money in videos, make sure it’s the type of video that a customer will actually want to watch.
Ask yourself this, would you rather see another commercial with a car driving down the road showing a price bubble popping up, or a friendly face offering to help serve your needs? No matter how many times I’ve asked the question I still haven’t had anyone say they prefer a commercial.
