Not so long ago, in a galaxy NOT so far, far away, smartphones became so popular that websites were being viewed as many times on a mobile device – if not more times – than desktop sites.
As customers used the “pinch & zoom” technique on their phones in an attempt to properly read website content, smart businesses realized they had to make a shift in the way they presented themselves online, by way of mobile optimized websites.
Stay with me, I promise it’s about Video, I’m painting a picture for you.
Soon, Google started prioritizing the mobile sites and “Google Shaming” the non-properly-mobilized sites with a badge that deterred people from viewing them.
Customers – who felt annoyed with pinching and zooming – got real hip to this pretty quickly, so when they came across a non-optimized website from a google search, they would immediately click the “back” browser button and go to the next site on the list in search of one that was easier to view and read.
This meant if your site wasn’t optimized for smartphones, ie: mobile friendly, you weren’t getting looked at as often and thus, you were losing potential customers.
A new day is dawning – and a new shift has taken place. This time, it’s video – and over the next few years it will quite literally take over the majority of the internet.
And it’s already begun.
As you’ve probably noticed, the human attention span is getting shorter and shorter. ( kudos to you if you are still reading this) People are reading less and less and would much rather watch a quick video about something than actually reading about it.
Everyone wants to see videos. Videos for fun, do it yourself videos, videos about products they are considering for a purchase and even videos about a business they are thinking of visiting. One study from Google showed that six out of 10 people would even rather watch online videos than television itself. Good thing we aren’t in the TV business, right?
Implementing video into your business, marketing strategy, websites and social media channels better engages your customers & increases conversion rates.
Check out the statistics below and you will see why video is a MUST.
• 84% of people said that they were convinced to purchase a product after watching a video
• 92% of users watching video on mobile will share it with others.
• 59% of executives say they would rather watch a video than read text.
• 81% of businesses already use video as a marketing tool — up from 63% over the last year.
• By next year video ad spending will increase from $1.97 billion to $5.71 billion.
• Because of how popular video has gotten, YouTube is the second most popular website after Google.
• Facebook has over 8 billion video views per day.
• Video in email creates a 200%-300% increase in click-through rates. You read that right.
If you’ve already gotten distracted while reading this or have already almost abandoned this article, that proves my point even further, because you’ve only been reading for around two minutes at this point.
If the above stats don’t make you want to produce videos like right now, read on.
Viewers retain 95% of video messages and only 10% when reading it. This is because video engages more of our senses like sound, music and visuals. Mobile video consumption rises by 100% every year and in a couple of short years nearly 82% of all consumer internet traffic will be online videos. You may need to read that again:
82% of internet traffic will be video. The gears should be really turning in your head about now.
Already, nearly three out of four customers say they would rather learn about a product or service by way of video.
People are looking for products and services and want to be entertained while doing it. They are looking to video for it – and not just any video – GREAT video. Ultimately, your customers spend a large chunk of time watching video on the internet, so they EXPECT to see it on your website and in your marketing and quite frankly, are disappointed when there isn’t any.
Short entertaining videos are your best bet because they get swallowed up by your audience like candy. Short is the key word here because the average number of viewers remaining by the end of the video is usually around 46%, but if the video is 90 seconds or less you see that number increase to 59%. In other words, roughly 60% of people will stop watching by two minutes, so as I said, keep it short and sweet.
Also, if you can make it funny, crazy or extreme, all the better, since many customers report that they would rather see a more entertaining “viral style” video. They say sex sells, so think of funny as the new sexy.
A few video ideas for your dealership could be:
• Quick intro videos for each of your service advisors or techs.
• Videos that showcase specialty products or services.
• Customer testimonials. (its easier than you think)
• Videos that highlight what’s different or unique about your dealership. Things like service drive amenities or special things you offer customers while waiting like snacks, coffee, wifi, loaner vehicles, courtesy rides or a full cafe, put-put, childrens play area or even a movie theatre.
• Videos that match your monthly sales offer, rebates, special financing or a special sale you have going.
• Videos that show what a customer can expect when visiting you.
Quality matters.
With billions of videos being watched daily, most people can be very discerning of good quality versus bad.
Lighting, sound and the right cameras & angles are paramount. Any disparity between them will be fully noticed – and your whole business may be judged by it. After all, would you hire a barber that had a dirty shop? Or an ad agent that came in disheveled or unkempt? Even though those things have little to do with the services they offer, many people will judge EVERYTHING you do based on those things.
Resolution is key. At Mail Ninjas, we ensure that the quality is crisp, sharp, clear and even the video spots we create for social media can also be saved in broadcast quality for television, if a client so desired.
Speaking of high-quality video, many of our clients have already gotten aerial drone footage of their dealership lot, which is a great idea. It is totally worth the small price to have it done because the eye-catching footage looks incredible and can be used over and over again on a multitude of different projects.
As I mentioned earlier, the human attention span is shrinking by the second. Two to three minutes ( and three is pushing it) is about the max that most people will give to a video on the fly, unless they were purposely researching something specific. Those longer videos should be reserved for actual product demonstrations or an intro to your business. For social media, 30-45 seconds is perfect to get your monthly message or current offer out.
Keep in mind, the average time to catch a customer’s attention is 2.7 seconds!
2.7 seconds before they skip over you and move on to the next video. Remember that number when you run video ads on Facebook or YouTube, you KNOW people have their finger hovering over the “skip ad” button, so you have to get your main point out quickly to capture their attention and keep them watching.
Do you remember that car racing arcade game from the 80’s called Pole Position? Whenever you made it to a checkpoint, you got another thirty seconds or so added to your gameplay. When you saw those glorious checkered flags waving, you knew you had more time.
Think of your video ads like Pole Position. Capturing attention quickly and then making a power or benefit statement every so often, will keep them watching.
74% of marketers who aren’t currently marketing with video, say they expect to start in 2019, because of this giant shift to video. There has never been a more dire need to stand out of above all the noise and the way to do that is with quality videos for your business and in your marketing.
One reason that a business may have not yet made the leap into making and launching videos, is price. I know some dealerships that used to pay thousands upon thousands for short video segments, especially if the crew travels to you with all their equipment. Want them to include some talent because you are camera shy? The price can keep going up and up.
The good news is, along with the massive video takeover currently happening, there has been an explosion of affordable technology & products that with a little time, energy and a few bucks, can have you doing great and professional-looking videos right there in your dealership.
Don’t know how? No worries, there are even videos online to show you how to make videos!
Don’t want to mess with it? You can hire a company like us to do what we do best, so you can stay focused on what you do best.
Want to do it yourself? Connect with us and we can steer you in the right direction to the most effective and easy to use products right there at the dealership.
At Mail Ninjas, we strive to be ahead of the curve and have been adding video links to our direct marketing campaigns for years. Because of the high demand – and because we love doing it – we now even offer video spots as a stand alone service for dealerships and business all over the country.
We even make great 30-45 second spots without even stepping foot on your property, and most of them are done for less than the cost of a set of new tires. You can find examples of the videos we produce on our Video Marketing page, or our YouTube Channel.
Bottom line, if you aren’t getting on the video train, you may get run over because there is no doubt this is happening. Happy filming.
Connect today and our Video Ninjas will put together the video spots for you.