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Two Video Apps Helping Car Dealerships Showcase Vehicles and Boost Sales Online. 

Written on . Posted in News.

The last two years have pushed car dealerships to evolve focusing on digital channels and selling cars online. The transformation in the automotive industry came quicker than expected due to the push by COVID-19. As car dealerships continue to adapt and tailor their strategies towards online channels, they should be aware of tools they can use to help sell cars online.

LESA automotive offers two different video apps for car dealerships to help showcase vehicles online and boost sales online. Let’s take a look at the apps and how each one of them can benefit your car dealership. 

Dealer Video Inventory App

The Dealer Video Inventory (DVI) App allows your in-house photographer or professional lot services company to easily record walk around 360 videos of your car dealership inventory. For used cars, the video can showcase the condition of the vehicle  which builds trust, credibility and customer confidence.  Shopping for new cars has become a very personalized experience. Video can help consumers shop and browse custom features. The DVI app can help showcase all the different new makes and models helping consumers shop without having to go to multiple dealerships.

How Does It Work?

Your photographer can easily capture automotive videos, photos, and ultra 360 spins for your dealership’s inventory in minutes. Not only can the app to shoot videos, but they can also take all photos on the app as well, merging both photographs and video into one simple solution.

Step 1: Scan the VIN

Find or add a vehicle instantly. Use the camera to easily scan the VIN. The app will automatically find the vehicle or you can add it to the inventory.

Step 2: Capture video

Record an HD full-motion walk around video and capture photos simultaneously. Add optional voiceover, background music and more after upload.

3. Upload to Website

Upload and syndicate your videos to your dealer website, social media channels and third-party providers within hours from smartphone.

The Benefits of the Dealer Video Inventory App

Recording Videos Has Never Been Easier: Your in house photographer or lot service company can easily record vehicle walk around videos and capture photos in just a few minutes. All you have to do is record the video on your mobile device, and upload and syndicate to your dealership website and third party providers. Additionally, the DVI app will automatically create ultra 360 spin and upload it to your dealership website. The app can easily capture photos, videos and ultra 360 spin in just minutes. 

Videos Help Your Audience Retain Information: Viewers retain 95% of a video’s message as compared to 10% if reading it in text. Emotions play a significant role in retaining information. Video allows the car shopper to be there without being there in person.

Increase Engagement and Time Spent on Website: The more time a viewer spends on a shopping page, the more likely they are to buy. People spend on average 2.6x more time on pages with video than without. Our full-motion walk-around videos have an 80% completion ratio average for a 2-minute video. This shows consumers are engaged and recognize the value that video provides.

It’s Extremely Cost Effective: Video production can be extremely time consuming and expensive. Many car dealerships think that having vehicle walk around videos requires hiring a videographer which can cost thousands of dollars. LESA video inventory vehicles have changed that, making it easier than ever for your in-house photographer to shoot vehicle walk around videos. Not only can your photographer use the app to shoot videos, but they can also take all photos on the app as well, merging both photographs and video and 360 ultra spin into one simple solution. The photos and videos taken from each car are saved in the app and can be easily uploaded to your car dealership website in just two hours.

Interact with Features That Matter Most to Customers: LESA spotlight features allows consumers to view key highlights in the video and interact with features that matter most. Spotlight easily helps car shoppers identify the wheel, headlight, steering wheel, odometer/speedometer, navigation system in the video.

Drive Organic Traffic with Video SEO: Video SEO is an under explored aspect of SEO. Having video on your website allows google to drive traffic to your website.

Dealer Video Suite App 

The Dealer Video Suite (DVS) app is a video toolbox for your sales team and BDC (business development center) team, bringing your dealership closer to your clients than ever before via personalized videos.

Types of Videos on LESA Video Suite

Vehicle Walk Around:

If you are using the DVI app to capture video walk around, you can leverage the library you already have to send personalized vehicle videos. What really makes this app effective is that you can send a video of a car to an incoming lead without the sales person having to leave their desk to shoot the video. However, if the sales team wants to go out and capture and send a vehicle walk around instead of using the library they can do it on the DVS app. The app easily allows you to send a video of the car of interest in addition to custom branding, custom VoiceOver, background music, and more.

The picture in picture features allows sales rep to put a recorded video of themselves on vehicle video, allowing the potential customer to see the car and sales person in one video.

Let’s face it, most consumers hate the sales tactics used by car salesman and feeling pressured into buying a car when they are at the dealership The picture in picture helps establish trust increasing the likelihood of the consumer visiting the dealership and the eventual purchase of a car. Additionally, the sales team can upload the video to a dealership branded landing page which can then be emailed or texted to the recipient. 

Picture in picture feature allows the sales team to easily send vehicles to incoming leads

Vehicle Testimonial

The Vehicle Testimonial feature allows you to capture positive customer reviews during the delivery of the vehicle and before they drive off the lot.  The DVS App allows sales reps to shoot positive customer review videos and share them on your dealership’s social media channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

In a competitive environment, reviews are very important. Numerous consumers search for dealership reviews before committing to purchasing a vehicle, to ensure other consumers had a positive experience. LESA video suite uses proprietary SEO video techniques once the testimonial video is uploaded to your car dealership website to ensure your reviews are being found on Google. If a potential customer searches “your dealership name” and “reviews”, the testimonial videos will come up at the top of the first page of Google. 

Promo Videos

Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. The promo videos in the DVS App allows you to easily create promo videos with our app and instantly publish to your dealer website without involving the website provider. 

For example, if your car dealership is running a Fourth of July special you can create a custom promo video and tailor it to any make or model applicable to show up after the vehicle video on the car dealership website. The app even allows you to select an end date, so the promo video will automatically disappear off your website without having to go in and manually remove. The promo videos are so easy to upload, it removes the need to involve a website provider which can cost extra time and money. Additionally, you don’t have to hire a professional videographer, the promo video can be shot entirely from a cell phone.

Thank You Videos

Every brand interaction leaves an impression. As a car dealership, you want to end the deal on a warm, fuzzy note to create customers for life. Thank you videos allow you to increase referrals and repeat business by adding a personal touch. It’s a simple and smart solution to increase your dealership revenue.

Thank you videos also allow the car dealership to introduce the services department to their new customer. That way, if their vehicle needs any repairs they know who to call.

The Bottom Line: It’s Time to Elevate Your Online Strategy

LESA is the largest provider of online video solutions for car dealerships with thousands of dealerships using their tools. LESA has the data that proves the success video can provide for car dealerships. Check out the study they conducted to learn more. 

LESA’s Photo Library Capabilities Helping Car Dealership During the Chip Shortage

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The chip shortage has had a tremendous effect on the automotive industry. Although the auto industry only represents about 5% of the chip industry,  the shortage cost the global auto industry about $210 billion in lost revenue in 2021, according to Alix Partners. There are steps that car dealerships can take to help sell new vehicles while in transit, thanks to LESA’s photo library capabilities. Let’s take a look into the chip shortage and how car dealerships can respond. 

How Did the Chip Shortage Happen?

The crisis started back in March 2020 when the world was forced to shut down as COVID-19 was spreading rapidly. This forced automakers to shut down plants and temporarily halt orders from suppliers. While the shut down was taking place, this resulted in increased demand for cell phones, televisions, computers, games and home appliances as millions around the world were forced to stay at home. Chipmakers rerouted their supply to the industries that needed it most, like the electronics industry, as consumers were eagerly willing to pay more for the devices. 

The automotive industry came back sooner than expected with the help of online shopping in the summer of 2020, resulting in chip suppliers being unable to provide products to the automotive industry. 

What Does This Mean for Car Dealerships?

The chip shortage has created a few notable problems for car dealerships 

  1. Manufacturing delays: manufacturing delays is increasing the transit time of new vehicles. Many car dealerships don’t physically have access to the vehicles but have the ability to start selling them due to the heightened demand for cars. How can a car dealership sell cars without physically having it? With the help of photos and videos online.
  2. Increasing Popularity of Custom orders: Numerous consumers are willing to place custom orders due to the inventory shortage. Car dealerships need to be able to show customers the options since they don’t physically have sample cars to show. There are typically hundreds of makes and models, so it can be difficult to showcase options without inventory. 
  3. No Inventory: The chip shortage is causing major inventory delays. No one wants to shop at an empty car dealership, so car dealerships need to equip their website with options for consumers whether they are custom orders or cars in transit. Having photos can help ensure your website visitors don’t view an empty website. 

LESA’s photo library technology is helping bridge the gap between the problems car dealerships experience due to the chip shortage.

A Solution for Car Dealerships During the Chip Shortage in 2022

The chip shortage is causing numerous problems for car dealerships and equipping themselves with LESA’s photo library with thousands of sample photos of hundreds of makes and models can be an easy way to help their car shoppers feel like they still have options while shopping. 

Numerous car dealership websites will place a simple stock photo to account for cars in transit and custom orders on their website, but is this really helping shoppers browse their options? Or does it look like your car dealership has an empty website? LESA is able to provide a library of photos with neutral backgrounds so car shoppers can shop for vehicles while cars are in transit or when looking for custom order options.

Below are some of the sample pictures that LESA can provide for each make and model. Compared to the typical stock photo that car dealerships are currently using, the photo library gives much more detail and visibility into the car features by allowing car shoppers to browse through 20-30 car photos while the car is still in transit. Car dealerships can increase the likelihood of a shopper calling about a car with the detailed photo library.  

Get In Touch with a LESA Representative Today!

Speak with a LESA representative today sales@lesautomotive.com

Scanning the VIN Makes LESA Video Toolbox Easiest Tool on the Market

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Consumers are reluctant to go to the dealership now with the capabilities of shopping for a car online. They expect to see and experience a vehicle online through the use of video to limit their trips to the dealership. This is why LES Automotive has numerous video centric products to help car dealerships easily record and publish walk around videos to their car dealership websites. The dealer video inventory app (DVI) is versatile and allows you to very easily take photos and record high quality videos of the car to help educate car shoppers on important vehicle details. 

A new feature, scanning the VIN to find the vehicle, including the VIN on the windshield, is making LESA technology the simplest and easiest tool to use on the market. Let’s take a look at how this new feature is simplifying the process for car dealerships. 

What Is the Dealer Video Inventory App?

DVI allows car dealerships to easily capture automotive photos and walk around videos for your website in just minutes. They will be available on the dealerships website and syndicated on third party websites as well, such as Autotrader, KBB, and Cars.com. The speed to market of the DVI app is unbeatable, as it allows you to have a walk around video of a car within two hours of it being uploaded. In addition once uploaded, the video will have background music and VoiceOver explaining details of the car.

How Does The New VIN Feature Work?

When you get started with LESA Dealer Video Inventory App, one of the first steps that LESA will do is to fetch your inventory from your inventory management system into the app. Once complete, when your photographer or lot tech opens the app, they will see an “inventory feed” of all the vehicles at the car dealership. 

Many car dealerships may have hundreds of cars, which may seem inconvenient when looking  for a specific vehicle. However, LESA’s new feature, scanning the VIN, easily allows your photographer or lot tech to find the vehicle in just seconds to allow them to capture photos and videos of the car quickly.

Here Are The Ways To Find A Car…

Option #1: At the top of the vehicle list, there is a search bar that allows you to easily search for the stock number.

Option #2: You can take advantage of the VIN on the windshield or barcode on the drivers side door. About 90% of vehicles will have the barcode on the drivers side door.

  • Once the VIN has been scanned, the DVI will bring you to the vehicle details page, containing important details specific to that vehicle, such as the year, make, and model.
  • If the car does not exist in your inventory, there is an option to add the new vehicle to your inventory list to allow you to then shoot photos and video of the newly added vehicle. 

How Does The VIN Feature Benefit Car Dealerships?

This allows your photographer to lot tech to easily record vehicles without spending too much time searching for a car in your inventory list. If your photographer has hundreds of videos they need to shoot on the lot, they need to be as efficient as possible. This will allow your photographer to spend no more than 5 minutes per car to capture video.

Once the videos are uploaded, they will be available on the car dealership website within two hours with custom VoiceOver. DVI is helping car dealerships get their videos up quickly so they can sell the car within hours of it arriving on the lot.

Videos directly benefits car shoppers as video has been proven to have instrumental impact on car shopping online. In fact, users that interacted with video compared to not had a 4x increase in conversions based on dozens of car dealerships we analyzed. 

LESA is the Only Company with This Innovative Technology

We are the only automotive video company that has this Windshield VIN scanning feature. LESA is constantly looking to improve products and being on the forefront of having the best and simplest product on the market.

If your car dealership is looking for an efficient tool to quickly get your vehicles online, increase website traffic, and boost sales, using LESA’s DVI could be a great place to start.

Get Started with LESA Today

Speak with a LESA representative today sales@lesautomotive.com

How Multimedia is Helping Car Dealerships Sell Vehicles

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What Is The LESA Multimedia Player?

LESA multimedia player takes on a custom and innovative approach to having multimedia on a car dealership website. The LESA player allows the dealership to have numerous different features for each vehicle, with little effort. The simple tool can help empower consumers to make purchasing decisions without numerous trips to the dealership. 

We talk more in depth about the player in our previous blog post, “Having a Great Website Includes Multimedia.”

How Will the Multimedia Player Help Sell Cars?

LESA analyzed Google Analytics data from car dealerships to evaluate the effectiveness of the multimedia player to really discover if it was helping car dealerships sell cars. The quick answer is YES, video is absolutely helping car dealerships sell their inventory. There are four ways that video and multimedia is improving the effectiveness of your website: 

  • Increasing session duration
  • Increasing pages/session
  • Increasing events/session
  • Increasing conversions 

Let’s take a deeper look as to how and why video is helping car dealerships sell vehicles. 

Increase Session Duration

We compared a user’s time spent on website when interacting with a multimedia player vs. not interacting with it. The results are astounding. A user that interacted with multimedia spent 3x the amount of time than a user that did not interact with video, increasing session duration by 300%. 

In our sample data of a car dealership we analyzed, the average session duration for a user that interacted with multimedia was 10:35 compared to only 3:02 for users that did not interact with multimedia. We saw similar numbers across a dozen other dealerships.

Why does the multimedia player increase the time spent on the website so drastically? Multimedia provides an engaging and educational experience for car shoppers. It gives them the transparency and the information they need to successfully shop for a car online. 

A good session duration across industry standard ranges anywhere from 2-3 minutes. As you may already know, there are a mountain of evidence that proves the more time a consumer spends on a website the more likely they’re likely to convert to a buyer.  

Increase Pages/ Session Duration

LESA also compared data of the average pages per session of a user that interacted with multimedia compared to a user that did not interact with video and found that video increased the number of pages viewed by 170% compared to no video. What does this mean? The dealership we observed showed that users that interacted with multimedia viewed almost 8 pages (7.92) compared to only 3.13 pages before leaving the website. This could be a huge difference for your dealership, meaning a user could potentially view 8 cars instead of 3 before leaving. 

Why does the multimedia player increase pages/session? The information that video presents to car shoppers keeps them engaged and confident that they are truly getting a great preview of the car. It heightens their curiosity and results in them viewing more makes and models the dealership has to offer.

Increase Events/Session 

An event is considered any activity that a user takes on your page. This could include button clicks, video plays, form submissions, looking at the description section of the vehicles, viewing the window sticker, scrolling down the page, and more. 

The multimedia player also had a substantial impact on increasing events/session compared to a user experience without interacting with video. In our analysis, we found that users that interacted with video saw a 150% increase in events taken on the webpage compared to users that did not interact with video. The average number of events per session in the dealership observed was 30 compared to 12. This 2.5X increase could help your car dealership convert shoppers into buyers.

Why do videos increase events? Videos interactive and educational nature help keep users engaged on your website, resulting in a user wanting to see and explore more of the website. Empowering users to take action on your website is the goal, and videos can help users take meaningful options resulting in converting car shoppers into car buyers.

Increase Goal Conversion Rate

Finally, and most importantly, video is proven to increase goal conversion rate. Many dealerships have already set up goal conversions in Google Analytics. Goal conversions could include submitting a check availability form, engaging in chat, clicking on the phone number to call, and more. In order to track how many consumers are converting. We are looking at the same consumers who interacted with the multimedia player if they also converted through the goal conversion tracking. This  allowed us to see there was a 400% increase conversion compared to consumers that did not interact with the multimedia player in the dealership we observed. The numbers were similar across over a dozen dealerships that were analyzed. 

An industry standard conversion rate is between 2-4%, however,  certain car dealerships using the LESA multimedia player with video on average are seeing a 14% conversion rate. This means that car shoppers really are turning into car buyers, and contacting car dealerships to take action. 

Take Action: Improve Your Website So Car Shoppers Become Car Buyers

LESA encourages each car dealership to review their Google Analytics and compare the session duration, pages per session, events per session, and goal conversion rates to the rates with the multimedia player analytics we shared above. Multimedia can without a doubt improve your website, and convert car shoppers into car buyers.

The Bottom Line: 

Using Google Analytics LESA proved that video is truly making an impact! Having a multimedia player such as the LESA multimedia can really help your car dealerships sell cars. It’s an easy and affordable way to convert car shoppers into car buyers. 

LES Automotive Multimedia: How Do I Get started?

Reach out to a representative today at https://www.lesautomotive.com/contact/

We’ll help you setup a custom report in Google Analytics that you can use to compare your key GA analytics before and after adding video to your site.