Tag: marketing for car dealerships

Unlock the Power of Automated Social Media to Drive Sales

Written on May 5, 2023. Posted in Blog.

Marketing Status Quo

Car dealerships, like most businesses today, allocate at least some of their human and financial resources to maintaining a social media presence. And it’s obvious why. The Pew Research Center reports that today 72% of the public uses some type of social media, with YouTube and Facebook being the most-widely used online platforms.

To manage this must-have marketing strategy, your dealership may rely on the services of a social media company to spread the word about your inventory on these popular platforms and others such as Instagram, which Pew found is used by at least 40% of US adults. Maybe you’ve purchased a marketing program that promises to make a certain number of posts per month on your behalf with various add-on options like “boosts” to enhance visibility. This seemed like a good idea at the time; it took the burden of managing your social media presence off your desk and resulted in one less headache. But is it really working?

The trouble with typical social media marketing packages is that they can appear flat, impersonal, and canned. They come from an outside source, may be limited to static photo images, and lack the more authentic, humanizing experience customers are looking to engage with in today’s marketplace. On top of that, they’re expensive and the ROI may be uncertain.

Enter Savvy Video Merchandising

LESA offers a solution that saves time and money and gives dealers the tools to leverage video to capture the low-funnel sales traffic that abounds on social media. Our tools aren’t intended to replace your social media agency altogether. Rather, for a fraction of what you would have to pay an agency, these tools empower you to:

Produce professional-quality video content in-house
Put that content to work on three top social media platforms simultaneously
Create and control a custom, personalized, multi-media presence
Take part in the shift to video merchandising

Video is key at every stage of the marketing funnel, from a customer’s initial Google search to their interactions with your BDC. A 2019 study found that of all the topics on YouTube, vehicle videos was the second most-viewed category, coming in second after video games. And yet, only 1% of the videos on YouTube at the time were about vehicles. This represents an enormous opportunity and illustrates the consumer’s desire for video. If a large portion of the car shopping public is active on social media, and if they’re craving vehicle videos, it just makes sense to get your inventory onto video and put it out there on social media. As fast as you can.

LESA’s Elite and Ultimate video merchandising packages help you get there with our Dealer Video Inventory, Ultra 360 Spin, Feature Videos, and Automated Social Media tools. The inventory walkaround videos you create with the tools in these packages make your dealership website come alive with interactive, engaging content, while also improving your site’s SEO. And with just a few clicks our included Automated Social Media tool lets you post this same video content to the most popular platforms where it can reach that massive audience of active online vehicle shoppers.

With Automated Social Media, your vehicle videos post automatically to Facebook, Instagram, and — best of all – now also to Google My Business. We do this according to the schedule, criteria, and filters you choose using our intuitive dashboard. You can also track your posting history and see how your site views change in response to your posting campaigns.

In no time, you’ll be auto-posting polished videos like the one below on multiple platforms simultaneously with links that take the viewer right to your dealership’s website.

We make it easy and flexible, so you can post what you want, when you want in-house to build your brand, increase purchase interest, and create the emotional connections through social media engagement that will drive your referral business.

Better yet, posting inventory video content you already created in three essential places at once not only gives your campaigns great consistency but also frees up your marketing department to spend time on other tasks.

Change Is ~~Hard~~ Easy

In case you’re still using photos to showcase your inventory, you should know that video continues to gain momentum as a must-have. A 2019 Google/Ipsos study found that 60% of auto shoppers who used online video during the research process reported visiting a dealership or dealer website after watching a video of the vehicle they were considering. That was up from 46% in 2017.

To take advantage of our Automated Social Media tool, simply select our Elite or Ultimate video merchandising packages, and we’ll get you set up. Before you know it, you’ll be making your hottest vehicles accessible to the mind-boggling percentage of adults who are on social media every day.

Our Automated Social Media dashboard is clear and straightforward. For example, you just click on the days of the week and the time of day you want your posts to appear. Toggle buttons let you decide if you want to enable/disable Facebook auto-posting, or whether you want to turn on/off posts to Instagram, remove sold vehicles, or create a 30-second montage video. Drop-down menus let you prioritize posts by price or inventory age.

Don’t Be Left Behind

With most social media platforms moving to video content, dealerships need to adapt or be left behind. Today’s customer wants to see your inventory in all dimensions using multi-media, as if they were at your store in person. To stay competitive, you need to give them as much information as possible, as many ways as possible, so they can have a virtual showroom experience. Think about how much you spend on making your physical showroom a selling point, and then think about the fact that your website and social media platforms get far more customer traffic!

Indeed, industry strategist Cox Automotive reports, “Dealers agree that digital retailing is key to a long-term winning strategy – with 75% of dealers acknowledging that they won’t be able to survive without it.”

The takeaway is this: With LESA’s Automated Social Media tool, offered in our Elite and Ultimate video merchandising packages, you can create more effective social media campaigns in-house for a fraction of the cost of relying solely on an agency, and you can measure your success. You can capitalize on the social media networks you have already invested in constructing by leveraging the indisputable powers of video merchandising and content sharing to drive referral business and build the sort of customer interest every business needs to thrive.

LESA Merchandising Package Add-Ons to Consider

Written on March 29, 2023. Posted in News.

LESA recently announced video merchandising packages to simplify its offerings that drive unique value for car dealerships looking to sell their inventory online. In our last blog, “LESA Video Merchandising Packages For Car Dealerships Simple and Drive Value for Websites,” we discussed the three different packages: Pro, Elite and Ultimate which offer different price points for dealerships based on their budget.

In addition to the three packages offered through LESA, there are also optional add-ons that dealerships can add on to their packages based on their unique needs. We break down the a la carte options below to help dealerships understand the value offered by LESA’s numerous video centric products.

Photo Capture in DVI

Today’s mobile phones have excellent photo and video taking capabilities. The cameras are so good that you can shoot high resolution videos and photos from your smartphone that look professional. LESA’s DVI (Dealer Video Inventory) App allows you to not only capture videos, but also photos. Being able to take photos and videos with the same app provides the following benefits:

Don’t have to carry multiple devices. You can use the same app for both on the same device.
The app has the dealerships inventory loaded on it, so you can simply scan the VIN if the vehicle and it will find the car in the inventory list and allow you take photos against it. These photos are then associated with the correct stock number everywhere the car goes, whether it goes to the website or any third-party sites. As a result, the big benefit is that you get photos up on your website much quicker than compared to using a traditional camera. With a traditional camera, you have to take a chip and put it into a computer, then go to an online dashboard and find the car.
The app even allows you to take photos while recording a walk around video. As a result, you get both a video and a full set of photos of the car in one task. This can help save time when having to shoot multiple vehicles.

The bottom line is photo capture in DVI will help get photos to your website quickly and easily. Once you upload the photos to the app, LESA will syndicate the photos within 2 hours onto third-party websites.

Window Stickers

New cars come with window stickers. Used cars typically have to print new window stickers with important information since the original was removed. LESA DVI app allows you to print window stickers from the app which offers dealerships a huge benefit of easy printing.

Once the dealership is setup on the LESA dashboard, you can put together a window sticker template of what information you want to print and the layout. The LESA template tool allows you to easily drop and drag information that goes into the window sticker which can be printed directly through the app through Wi-Fi printing. Additionally, the app allows for different templates to be created for different vehicles, for example you can create a different window sticker for used vehicles and certifies used vehicles. LESA’s DVI app has the capability of printing QR codes on the window sticks that will take consumers directly to the VDP, helping them learn more about that car

LESA’s app also has capabilities to print a buyer’s guide. For more information, please contact a member of the LESA team.

Photo & Video Cloning

Photo and video cloning is beneficial for dealerships to create a multimedia experience for new vehicles in two different ways:

Inventory shortages: Many dealerships across the nation have experienced inventory shortages, which can take away from showcasing new cars on your dealership website. Dealerships often have cars in transit that they want to show on their website, but haven’t received the vehicle to take walk around videos and photos. Photo and video cloning allows you to use photo and videos from vehicles that has the same trim, exterior and interior color and options. from your vehicle inventory and duplicate the content to ensure it’s showing as another option on your website. When you create a duplicate video, LESA ensures to use different custom VoiceOver scripts and background music to make sure that even if the video is of the same car, they are unique and different videos. This benefits car dealerships as they can have a multimedia experience for cars in transit compared to just a stock photo.
Multiple of the same cars: As the chip shortage continues to slow down, many car dealerships are no longer facing inventory shortages and have plenty of cars on their lot. Photo and video cloning can be beneficial when dealerships have multiple of the same cars that they don’t want to have to shoot multiple videos. Once you have shot a video and photo for a particular make, model and color, the incoming vehicles will be cloned if there’s a match. Let’s say your dealership has 30 identical new cars, you only have to shoot one video and can put different custom VoiceOver script and background music to make the video unique but save you ample time when it comes to having to record walk around videos.

Photo Background Enhancements

Not all car dealerships have the perfect staging area to shoot inventory photos and videos. Especially dealerships in the city environment aren’t able to take professional photos of their inventory to showcase online. In fact, numerous dealerships pay tens of thousands of dollars for a proper staging area or a photo booth. Custom backgrounds are a much more economical alternative to having a professional background.

Custom backgrounds can help your website have a professional feel, which can also help build trust with potential car shoppers. Custom backgrounds can improve the car shopping experience on your website in numerous ways:

Shorten Time to Market: Don’t worry about exact vehicle placement when shooting your photos. Shoot as-is and leave the background to us.
Increase Uniformity: Bring consistency to your site for a clean, professional look. This is especially helpful to have consistency across your search results page.
Increase Brand Recognition: Make a lasting brand impression with every photo with an added logo.
Shift Focus: Take attention away from surrounding elements and let the viewer focus on what matters: your inventory
Maintain authenticity and stand out: So many car dealerships use images that look alike. Your dealership has the chance to stand out by creating custom backgrounds.

Seller’s Comments on VDP’s

LESA’s has the ability to autogenerate the sellers’ comments on the vehicle details page based on our professionally written custom VoiceOver scripts. Some dealerships have to hire someone to write the sellers comments, which can be costly and cause delays waiting for someone to write comments for each vehicle. LESA’s scripts are so well written from the vehicle walk around videos, that we can have the description done professionally and quickly while saving the dealership time and money.

Real Offer

As the car shortage continues, dealerships are looking to obtain additional used cars as the production on new vehicles continues to be a problem. Adding Real Offer to your website easily allows consumers to upload and submit vehicle videos to receive offers. Utilizing video technology helps provides more accurate appraisal estimates which attract consumers to trade-in their vehicle with your dealership. Real Offer is easy to use and has other benefits for car dealerships:

Real-Offer button: it works really fast and is simply a link that can be embedded on your website, Facebook ad campaign, and Google Ad words campaign. The more places you are able to embed the link, the more opportunities for consumers to submit offers.

Web-based app: Real Offer works without the need of downloading an app from the app store. It’s web-based capabilities still allow the consumer to capture photos and videos and send to the dealer.

Pair with Other Tools: Real offer works great with Kelley Blue Book instant cash offer tool. Kelley Blue Book is able to provide a basic range of value for the car, and then the car dealership is able to provide an even more accurate offer with the submitted photos and videos.

Photo Slide Insertion

Photo slide insertion allows dealerships to create unique campaigns on the vehicle details page within the photo gallery. Dealerships have the ability to insert a slide within the photo gallery for a particular model and set an end date to the campaign where the slide will automatically be removed after the promotion is over. For example, your dealership can insert a slide such as “$299 lease special, 0% APR financing” on all Honda Accords through Memorial Day weekend, and the promotion will automatically be removed after the expiration date. This saves dealerships time and eliminates the need to hire team members to manage the promotions on the website.

Spanish Voiceover

Spanish is continuing to grow in popularity across the United States, and car dealerships that may have a target audience that include Spanish speaking customers can include Spanish VoiceOver. The Spanish button will be located next to the English video button to give your potential customers the option of which language to listen to when watching the walkaround video.

The Bottom Line:

LESA merchandising packages and add-on options can help engage online car shopper and sell your inventory online. The packages are simple to choose from and help accommodate dealerships with different budgets and goals. To learn more, please contact a LESA representative.

LESA Video Merchandising Packages For Car Dealerships Simple and Drive Value for Website

Written on March 20, 2023. Posted in News.

LESA has some great news! We have simplified our offerings into three packages which are simplifying the process for car dealerships when it comes to picking the best products to impact your website.

Due to customer demand, dealerships can now easily pick from one of the three packages that provide them with digital merchandising options depending on their goals and budget. Each offering is designed to give the maximum impact when it comes to adding value to your virtual showroom, and offer the best bang for your buck on the market.

Let’s take a look at the three offerings LESA is offering, and the a la carte add-ons available to dealerships that want to customize their packages further.

THE PACKAGES

LESA offers three unique packages at different price points to help dealerships digitally transform. The packages are designed to add value to your website while staying affordable. We break down each of the packages and the benefits below.

Pro: The Pro package includes two essential digital merchandising features, Dealer Video Inventory and Ultra 360 Spin. This is a great starting point for dealerships that want to compliment their existing photos, but are in need of some digital transformation to keep up with the ever-changing automotive industry. Photos aren’t enough to sell cars online in 2023 and adding ultra spin and vehicle walk around videos will help showcase your inventory in interactive and engaging way. Multimedia has proven to be extremely effective when it comes to selling online, and the Pro package is a great way to easily integrate multimedia with little maintenance.

Elite: The elite package takes it one step further by adding Feature Videos and Automated Social media in addition to what is included in the Pro package. This option is great for dealerships looking to increase purchase interest and brand awareness. Feature videos are very educational and make your website a hub for conducting all essential research on specific vehicles. Additionally, all your website content can be leveraged on social media by setting up automated social media posts increasing your reach and brand awareness with your target audience.

Ultimate: Your dealership can take it one step further with the the Ultimate package, which includes all the offerings from the Pro and Elite packages plus an extra tool to help your sales team and the opportunity to increase your visibility though a third party automotive shopping portal. Dealer Video Suite (DVS) allows your sales team to create personalized picture in picture vehicle messages for walk-around, thank you, testimonials, promo and reconditioning videos. In an era where online car shopping is starting to surpass in-person dealership videos, it’s important for your sales team to still have a friendly and personalized approach to turn car shoppers into car buyers.

In addition to DVS, dealerships have the opportunity to put their vehicle walk around videos on Imagine Autos, a new and innovative video-centric car shopping portal which can increase dealerships reach.

LESA Multimedia Merchandising Solution Packages

Pro Package

The pro package is the entry level package for car dealerships, and includes the following.

Dealer Video Inventory (DVI)- 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.

The Benefits: Having vehicle videos on your website can help your audience retain information, increase engagement and time spend on website, it’s extremely cost effective and can help drive organic traffic with video SEO.

Ultra 360 Spin- Ultra 360 spin uses video technology to provide seamless and smooth visibility into the condition of the vehicle on the outside and the inside of the car. Ultra 360 spin technology scrubs video footage back and forth giving the car shopper the ability to view numerous angels of the vehicle with the swipe of a finger or click of a mouse.

The Benefits: The AI spotlight technology allows shoppers to easily zoom on important car details such as cup holders, buttons, tires, steering wheel, navigation and more. Ultra 360 spin technology offers a completely different and more transparent view of the vehicle making it easier than ever to successfully shop for a car from the comfort of your home, without missing any important details.

The Bottom Line: The Pro Package will equip your website with the tools it needs to transform to a multimedia experience. Car dealerships that provide a multimedia experience to online shoppers have seen increased engagement and time spent on website, which ultimately leads to qualified leads interested in your inventory.

Elite Package

The Elite package not only will provide your website with the multimedia experience that the pro package has, but it will also provide educational video content that dives deeper into the specific feature of the car. Plus, your dealerships can increase brand awareness by leveraging all the video content to social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Google My Business. This can save significant time and resources for dealerships as they no longer have to hire a marketing professional.

OEM Created Vehicle Feature Videos – Dealerships can easily add model specific feature videos to the LESA multimedia gallery on your website. Automotive manufactures provide featured videos to help shoppers understand the car in more detail. Although walk around videos can help give car shoppers great insight into the desired vehicle, featured videos provide in depth details about numerous elements of the car without having to search the Internet. The number of feature videos available varies by make and model. There are numerous video types including:

How-to videos
Vehicle feature highlight
Vehicle overview

• The Benefits: Now your shoppers can find all the vehicle info they need in one place, making you the automotive authority and increasing the likelihood of an in-person visit and sale. By the time they go to test drive the car, they know all the details it has to offer from the feature videos.

Automated Social Media -The new tool has the ability to automatically post walk around video content that is on your website to the social platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Google My Business. Car dealerships have the ability to create custom filters, such as new cars, old cars, etc which help them choose which vehicle video content will be sent to social media. For example, if you only want to post new 2022 Honda Accords at 9am every day, the tool has the capability to do that. LESA tools even have a video montage feature, which allows you to shorten the video to 30 second highlights making perfect content for social media.

The Benefits: It’s a no brainer that car dealerships should create a presence on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Simply having a presence on social media can increase traffic to your website, build trust, and improve brand awareness. Social media can be especially useful when trying to target a local audience.

The Bottom Line: The Elite package takes the digital transformation process a few steps further by providing even more engaging video content and tools to leverage all your social media content across social media. Not only can your website provide an comprehensive multimedia experience to it’s users, but it can also serve as an educational center to help car shoppers make informed purchase decisions.

Ultimate Package

In addition to what is included in the Pro and Elite packages, the Ultimate package is all encompassing when it comes to totally transformation your car dealership to a multimedia experience. Here’s what it includes:

Dealer Video Suite- 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. Create personalized picture in picture vehicle messages for walk-around, thank you, testimonials, promo, and reconditioning videos.

The Benefits: DVS Provide your sales reps with unlimited marketing possibilities that can differentiate your car dealership from local competition.

Imagine Autos– The Ultimate package offers syndication to ImagineAutos.com with featured video vehicle listings. Imagine Autos is the premier video centric portal for the car buying experience featuring interactive spotlights and walkaround video with custom VoiceOver. The third party shopping website is similar to AutoTrader and Car.com but offers an elevated car shopping experience focused on video. Imagine Autos multimedia experience is growing in popularity with higher engagement rates compared to competition who only offer traditional methods with photo and spin. Imagine Autos leverages video SEO so your dealership listings can be easily found on Google searches giving your dealership greater visibility to help sell your inventory online.

The Benefits: Imagine Autos is the only video centric car shopping portal giving your car dealership a competitive edge and increased reach and visibility.

The Bottom Line: Not only is customer engagement on your website and social a priority with the ultimate package, but it allows you to leverage the content to create personalized videos for your customers and expand your reach online. As online car shopping continues to soar, it’s important for car dealerships to find ways to reach their audience and connect with their potential customers in a customized way. Imagine Autos and DVS offer car dealerships a unique competitive advantage over competition.

A La Carte Add-Ons

In addition to the packages LESA offers, dealerships can also choose from a list of add-ons that compliment the packages.

Photo Capture in DVI – Capture photos in LESA DVI app. Includes syndication if needed.
Window Stickers – Print window stickers and buyers guides for used vehicles.
Photo & Video Cloning- Clone vehicle videos and photos to increase photo and video coverage.
Photo Background Enhancements- Automated background replacement of the vehicles exterior photos for used vehicles only.
Sellers Comments on VDP’s- Automatically generated vehicle descriptions from our detailed voiceover scripts.
Real Offer – The most accurate cash offer and trade-in tool. Pairs excellently with KBB Instant Cash Offer Tool.
Photo Slide Insertion- Automated photo slide insertion into your vehicle photo sets for special events, promotions, sales, and finance specials etc…
Spanish Voiceover- Include a Spanish video button with real Spanish voiceover on your website next to your English video buttons.
Imagine Autos- Syndication to ImagineAutos.com with featured video vehicle listings

The Bottom Line:

Multimedia really works. In a competitive environment such as the automotive industry, your dealership can’t afford to fall behind on important digital trends that are transforming the car shopping process. The transparency that video provides in the online car shopping experience is invaluable to consumers as it helps educate and influence purchasing decisions. Video mixed with other multimedia elements such as photos, audio and 360 spin is helping car dealerships convert shoppers into buyers.

Achieve 3X Higher Click-through-Rate with LESA Dynamic Facebook Video Ads

Written on January 11, 2023. Posted in News.

Supply is starting to rise and demand is falling in the automotive environment. Here’s why:

As interest rates continue to rise, used cars are starting to pile up on dealership lots
As the semiconductor shortage eases, new vehicle inventory is finally increasing and car dealerships are having a harder time selling due to inflation and high interest rates.

Although car dealerships have had a difficult keeping inventory due to high demand the last few years, the environment is shifting and demand is falling due to high inflation and high interest rates, which doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Dealerships are now going to have to find ways to advertise their inventory, and Facebook Ads is a great tool that is proven to have results.

Facebooks Ads Have a Large Audience

More than 6 million companies are currently advertising on Facebook, with 67% of marketers claiming it to be their most important social channel. On average, roughly 75% of US adults spend at least 50 minutes per day on Facebook – it’s certainly one platform that you cannot afford to overlook. Facebook is a great opportunity to get your car dealership in front of the eyes of millions of car shoppers.

Videos are an Important Tool for Facebook Advertising

According to Wyzowl statistics, 63% of businesses have started using video content marketing. Out of those 82% of businesses feel video marketing is an important part of their strategy. Video is progressing rapidly and will reach new heights sooner than we think. This trend is fueled by 83% of businesses believing that video marketing gives them a good ROI.

LESA Offers Video Solutions for Facebook Ads

Technology in the automotive industry has rapidly advanced, and now LESA offers solutions for car dealerships to easily create video Facebook ads to increase their ROI and sell their inventory online. By shooting walk around vehicle videos, your dealership has the ability to supercharge your Facebook ads and send interested consumers to a multimedia driven vehicles details page.

Why LESA Facebook Ads are Different?

A lot of dealerships are already doing some form of Facebook catalog ads with photos of vehicles, which involves showcasing 10-15 photos on a carousel of cars they are trying to sell. LESA has a better solution to increasing the ROI on Facebook ads by adding a play button to the video ads and sending them to a dedicated vehicle details page with interactive multimedia. Let’s take a look at the major reasons why patterning with LESA can help your Facebook ads effectiveness.

Increase Your Click Through Rate (CTR). Based on numerous studies LESA has conducted with dealerships using their technology, adding a play button increases the likelihood a consumer will click on the ad. In fact, LESA dealerships with video Facebook Ads have seen 3x higher CTR than industry standards, which is 0.8%.

Decrease Your Cost Per Click (CPC): As your click through rate increases, dealerships will notice that their cost per click goes down, making Facebook Ads a more affordable avenue to getting traffic to your website and selling vehicles. The average CPC in the industry is $2, and based on customers using LESA dynamic Facebook video ad technology, dealerships have seen $0.50- $1.00 average CPC.

Increase Time Spent on your Dealership Website: With walk around vehicles for your inventory, LESA technology creates vehicle details pages with a multimedia creating a better user experience. LESA has numerous studies proving how effective multimedia is in increasing time spent on your dealership website. In fact, based on a study we conducted with 100 dealership those that engaged with a multimedia player stayed on the website 40% longer.

The Bottom Line:

As demand continues to fall, dealerships are going to have to get creative on how they can sell inventory from their lot. LESA has unique technology that can help dealerships improve their ad effectiveness, increase time spent on website and ultimately sell cars. Your dealership needs to start with capturing walk around videos for your inventory to start. Reach out to a LESA representative to get started today!

Part II: Enhance Your Virtual Showroom with Multimedia and Measure it’s Effectiveness with LESA Stats Reports

Written on January 3, 2023. Posted in Uncategorized.

In Part I, we discussed the importance of having a great virtual showroom as online car shopping continues to soar in popularity. Static photos won’t be enough to engage online car shoppers, and a multimedia website experience continues to be dynamic and beneficial for car dealerships.

LESA’s overall stats portal helps offers a comprehensive view to how your vehicle videos are performing on your website. Part II of the LESA stats report has numerous other statistics that continue to prove the effectiveness of multimedia and give dealerships insight into viewer behavior.

Let’s take a look at the type of insights your dealership can get with our custom report. Below is a stats report from one LESA dealership, but we see similar patterns across our thousands of dealership analytics.

Part II : Multimedia Results in Higher Website Engagement

By Viewer

Completion Chart: How much of the video watched was completed before moving on to the next video or leaving the website. 0-24%, 25-49%, 50-74%, and 75+ %.

If a customer watched 75% of a vehicle video, one count would be added to the 75-100% column. Across our data from thousands of LESA dealerships, the completion chart is typically U-shaped with 0-24% being high, and 75%+ being high.

Viewer Makeup Chart: This chart represents the number of times a video was watched per unique viewer. If a unique viewer watched 4 videos they would be counted as a four-time viewer.

What does this mean? Very few people watch half the video. People either quickly determine they are not interested in the car, or they will watch the entire video. In this dealership, we see that slightly more than 20% of people watched 6 or more videos. This is very common across the board from the data we have analyzed from all of LESA dealerships. Videos are very engaging and can help consumers stay focused on your website

By Time Period

View Engagements by days of the week: The total number of Video View Engagements that occurred on each Monday – Sunday for that month of reporting. This may help car dealership understand which days they have the most engagement each week, prompting them to post new content on these days.

View Engagements by days of the month: The total number of Video View Engagements that occurred on each day of the month. If you see a spike, it could be due to a holiday such as July 4^th. Usually, there is a spike on the weekends when people have time to shop for cars. This is common and can help you tailor promotions around peak days and hours.

What Does This Mean? Spikes can happen due to holidays or weekends which helps car dealerships determine which days they should publish content and promotions.

Video Engagement By Vehicle Characteristics

Top 6 Vehicle Years: The top 6 Vehicle Years measured by view engagements. This should continue to trend upward over time as video continues to gain popularity. Our data continues to show that new vehicle videos are very popular! The data trending over time as shown that new vehicle videos are actually some of the most popular.

Top 6 Makes Viewed: The top 6 vehicle makes measured by views engagements. This can help car dealerships determine which cars are the most popular on their website.

Top 6 Models Viewed: The top 6 Models, and all other models shown as ‘Other’, measured as percentages on a pie chart. The totals are from by view engagements for that Model. This can help car dealerships determine which models are the most popular on their car dealership website.

What Does This Mean? It allows the dealership to do direct measurement of vehicles. For example, if the dealership has any doubt that showcasing new cars is necessary, the data will show you that new models are the most viewed (see below) and shooting new car videos is necessary. It can also help show which models were most viewed helping dealerships properly merchandise and stock cars that people want.

Stats example - viewers by vehicle characteristics

Top 6 Vehicles: The top 6 Year/Make/Model measured in view engagements. Also included is the ‘other’ category which includes the number of engagements for the rest of the year/make/ models outside of the top 6. This can help car dealerships gauge which vehicles were the most viewed and popular on their website which could signal which cars are in highest demand.

Top 6 Stock Numbers: The top 6 Stock Numbers measured in view engagements. Also included is the ‘other’ category which includes the number of engagements for the rest of the models outside of the top 6.

What Does This Mean?. Dealerships can clearly see if having vehicle videos helped certain cars sell faster compared to those, they did not feature video for (based on hundreds of reports from LESA dealerships- the answer is yes! It does help.)

By Interactivity

Spotlight Activity: Tracks the total number of times each spotlight category was hit. This can be helpful to car dealerships in understanding which features of the vehicle are most important to the car shoppers.

Ultra Spin

Ultra- Spin 360 Engagements- # of swipes tracked when a user is spinning through Ultra- Spin.

Time on Ultra-Spin 360- The total time users spent interacting with Ultra-Spin in the LESA video player on the dealership’s website(s), Cars.com, and anywhere else our LESA video player is interacted with, for that dealer.

What Does This Mean? Based on the data from a dealership below, there were over 10 hours of Ultra Spin views on their website. Not only are consumers engaging on video, but they are also spending a lot of time engaging with Ultra Spin. This highlights that multimedia is an important element of any successful website. It means that your dealership needs a multimedia experience with videos, photos and ultra-spin. They want to learn as much about the car in a multimedia experience.

The Bottom Line:

LESA stats report helps you track engagements and user behavior and measure which vehicles have more views, which models shoppers are more interested in, and which days/hours vehicles are more likely to sell. Stats help dealerships understand which vehicles the consumers are more drawn towards leading to more effective merchandising.

Most importantly, LESA stats portal shows that a multimedia experience is what helps engage consumers, which results in increased time on your dealership website. Video, photos, and ultra-spin are all important elements in helping consumers get a full sense of the vehicle they want to buy. The stats from LESA’s reports and across thousands of dealerships prove that multimedia is what gives your digital showroom a competitive advantage to selling vehicles online.

Get Started With Video Today

In the competitive automotive industry, your car dealership is falling behind if you don’t integrate multimedia throughout your website. Connect with a representative today to get started.

Enhance Your Virtual Showroom with Multimedia and Measure it’s Effectiveness with LESA Stats Reports

Written on December 9, 2022. Posted in News.

Historically, dealerships have spent top dollar to ensure they have great show rooms to showcase cars. As the car shopping environment continues to transform digitally, dealerships should now put a greater emphasis on ensuring they have a great virtual showroom. Many car dealerships neglect the digital show room by showing static photos, but a multimedia experience is necessary to appeal to the new generation of online shoppers. Your website is one of your greatest assets in 2022 and its essential to continually enhance and monitor performance

LESA online video statistics portal is helping car dealerships review their vehicle video website data to make better vehicle merchandising decisions and optimize their website. Additionally, LESA has thousands of dealerships with multimedia data which helps us analyze important consumer behavior and trends across the nation, helping give your dealership a competitive edge.

Let’s take a look at what the video statistics portal can offer your car dealership better understanding on how to help consumers that prefer visiting a digital showroom. Part I of this article will cover the overall video statics report, and Part II will break down specific details into what consumers are interested in and a deeper analysis of consumer behavior. Your dealership will benefit from understanding the impact multimedia has on your website.

Part I: Overall Video Statistics Report

The overall vehicle video statistics report offers a comprehensive view into how your vehicle videos are performing on your website. Let’s take a look at the dashboard and break down each part.

Total Video View Engagements: The total number of video view engagements from the dealerships walk around video traffic. This includes engagements from the dealerships website(s), AutoTrader, KBB, Cars.com, and others. For example, other engagements can come from the dealerships Facebook video inventory gallery, and views from a shared link of a full motion video.

Unique Video Viewers: The total number of unique video viewer IP addresses that accounted for watching at least one video. If more than one person from a single router IP address watch video, then only one unique viewer is counted for that routers IP address. For example, If two people from the same household watch videos of vehicles, they are treated as one unique video viewer for that routers IP address.

Total time on LESA Player: The total time spent on the LESA multimedia player on the dealerships website, including videos, photos, feature videos and 360 spin. This number gives a great representation of the impact multimedia has on your dealership website. This number is very important to monitor as the more time spent on your website, the more likely it is that people are interested in your vehicles. Dealerships can also compare this stat to similar metrics in Google Analytics prior to implementing multimedia to see the difference in engagement.

AutoTrader Engagements: The total number of view engagements from AutoTrader. This total is included in Total Video View Engagements.

cars.com Engagements: The total number of view engagements from Cars.com. This total is included in Total Video View Engagements.

KBB Engagements: The total number of view engagements from KBB. This total is included in Total Video View Engagements.

Vehicles with Video: The total number of both active and any sold vehicles shot with video within the specified month of reporting.

Total Vehicles Moved: The total number of vehicles in inventory that left the dealership.

For example, when a vehicle is sold it is counted as a vehicle moved.

Vehicles with Video Moved: The total number of vehicles in inventory that had video taken before they left the dealership.

Leads Received: The total number of how many times a customer filled out the “more information” form attached to the video. It’s important to keep in mind that leads from your website can come through many different ways, so the leads captured on the multimedia player are just a bonus to the numerous leads that come with having a video-centric website.

By Trends

Trends- Unique Video Viewers in last 12 months: A line graph displaying Unique Viewers that can span over the last 12 months. This helps a car dealership gauge how many new views the vehicle videos are bringing to the website.

Trends- Vehicles Moved in last 12 months: A line graph displaying the number of vehicles moved over a span of 12 months.

LESA has analyzed hundreds of dealership data, and has found there is a direct positive correlation between the video viewers and vehicles sold. The more viewers of videos results in an increase in vehicles moved.

By Technology

Engagement by Platform: The total View Engagements measured in a pie chart by Platform.

Mobile Phone, Desktop/Laptop, Tablet, are the platforms tracked. Any view engagements not traceable to a platform are listed as Other. This can help car dealerships understand the percentage of engagements that come from mobile devices. Websites may need to be specifically tailored to attract mobile users.

Websites may need to be specifically tailored to attract mobile users. Five years ago, traffic consisted from half desktop and half mobile. We have seen through analytics that mobile consists of 80%+ of visits. We highly recommend car dealerships to have a mobile friendly approach. Our LESA multimedia player is very mobile optimized and can easily accommodate for visitors shopping for cars on their phones.

Example of stats on how videos are viewed

How Is The Overall Overview Report Helpful?

This section allows you to see the impact that multimedia is having across your website and the dealer’s third-party car portal websites. You can gauge how many views, engagements and leads are being created from your LESA multimedia player. Additionally, you can keep track how many cars for sale currently have video, and how many cars with videos are selling.

We recommend that dealerships compare data from months prior to implementing multimedia via their Google Analytics Channel to see the power of multimedia. Based on the data LESA has seen from hundereds of dealerships, it will prove the effectiveness and power of creating an engaging and excellent digital showroom.

To be Continued

In Part II, we will break down the second part of the statitics report which will break down specific details into what consumers are interested in and a deeper analysis of consumer behavior.

Increase Your Reach on Social Media by Leveraging Video Content with Automation Tools

Written on October 5, 2022. Posted in News.

Car dealerships can utilize their website content to add various types of content to their social media pages. Having dynamic video content on social media is an excellent way to attract car shoppers. Especially for Instagram, video content has recently soared in popularity.

LESA has created new automation technology that easily allows car dealerships to post their video inventory to Facebook and Instagram. The tool allows you to schedule posts for any time which will automatically post to Facebook and Instagram. This can help save your car dealership time while reaching a larger audience and sharing your inventory with more people.

How to Leverage Your Website Content for Social Media

Not only can your dealership have video content on your website, but you can also leverage that content and use it for social media. Many car dealerships are hesitant to get involved with social media posting as it seems confusing and time consuming. However, LESA’s Facebook automation tool can allow you to easily populate content from your website across both Facebook and Instagram.

Although dealerships still utilize tools like 360 spin, 360 spin is not shareable content to social media. LESA walk around videos are the perfect content for both your car dealership website, and for your social media. If you don’t have video on your website and are utilizing photos or 360 spin, we recommend starting with LESA walk around videos.

Why Should Your Car Dealership Use Social Media?

It’s a no brainer that car dealerships should create a presence on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Simply having a presence on social media can increase traffic to your website, build trust, and improve brand awareness. Social media can be especially useful when trying to target a local audience.

In fact, research has shown that social media influences 71% of consumer buying decisions, which is another major reasons that car dealerships can’t miss out on the big opportunities Facebook and Instagram hold.

LESA Facebook Automation Software

LESA social media automation tool is helping car dealership leverage their vehicle video content and automatically post to Facebook and Instagram. The new tool has the ability to automatically post walk around video content that is on your website to the social platforms. Car dealerships have the ability to create custom filters, such as new cars, old cars, etc which help them choose which vehicle video content will be sent to social media. For example, if you only want to post new 2022 Honda Accords at 9am every day, the tool has the capability to do that.

Our Tool Is FREE For LESA Customers

Without having an automation tool like LESA’s, your car dealership would have to hire someone to help manage your social media pages, such as a marketing employee or relying on an ad agency. Our tool is currently FREE to car dealerships that utilize any of our LESA packages.

What Are the Benefits of Facebook Automation for Car Dealerships?

There are many benefits of using Facebook automation software for car dealerships. Especially dealerships that are

It can help you save time by automating repetitive tasks.
It can help you reach a larger audience by sharing your content with more people.
It can help you manage your Facebook page more effectively by saving time and allowing your team to comments and posts quickly.
It can increase your following as you leverage more dynamic and engaging content on your social media pages

Get Started With Social Media Automation

The team at LESA is ready to implement social media automation and share your website content today! Get started by contacting sales@lesautomotive.com

Keep Car Shoppers Engaged and On Your Website Longer with Research Pages

Written on September 14, 2022. Posted in News.

It’s essential your car dealership website is doing everything it can to provide car shoppers a better and more efficient ways to shop for cars online. Online car shopping has soared in 2022 and it is expected to slow down anytime soon. How can your car dealership website stand out from other local competition? Research pages are a new LESA feature that can help educate potential car buyers and keep them engaged and on your website longer. Let’s take a look at what research pages provide, the benefits and how to implement.

What are Research Pages?

Research pages are designed to educate car shoppers on important vehicle information for new cars. Car shoppers can find the vehicles they are interested in browsing with the help of search filters including make, model, year and trim. What makes LESA research pages unique? LESA is the first to implement research pages that are not just textual, but include video component helping car shoppers learn about the car and make purchase decisions.

Once you have entered information into the filters, the page will populate numerous feature videos. Automotive manufactures provide featured videos to help shoppers understand the car in more detail. Although walk around videos can help give car shoppers great insight into the desired vehicle, featured videos provide in depth details about numerous elements of the car without having to search the Internet. The number of feature videos available varies by make and model. There are numerous video types including:

How-to videos
Vehicle feature highlight
Vehicle overview

The Benefits of Research Pages

As online car shopping continues to grow, providing information to consumers is key to them visiting and purchasing from your car dealership. LESA is helping dealerships by giving them the ability to add video based research pages onto your website. There are numerous benefits to implementing research pages.

#1. Consumers can learn about vehicle features in one place

There’s ample information on the internet about cars. Car dealerships should make it easy for car shoppers to find information all in one place to eliminate the need to search the web to answer all their questions. Research pages accomplish this, by having all the feature information in one place.

A research page not only benefits car shoppers, but also benefits consumers that purchased vehicles that want to learn more about the new features. With increasing technology, its hard to learn about everything the car offers, but a research page eliminates the need to pull out a car manual and learn about features of your car.

#2. Keep Car Shoppers on Your Website Longer

By equipping consumers with the information they need all in one place, you will find that shoppers are visiting your website more frequently and staying in your website longer. This directly increases the likelihood that they will either contact or visit your dealership in person.

#3. Research Pages are Unique and Can Set Your Dealership Apart

It’s not always easy to make your car dealership website stand out from your competition. LESA research pages are a new feature that not many dealerships have taken advantage of. This can give your dealership a unique edge.

#4. It’s Easy to Implement

LESA research pages are easy to implement. In fact, the LESA team can get it set up and running on your website without having to involve website designers which can be costly.

#5. Videos are Professional and Compelling

The videos on the research pages are professionally done and visually compelling. You don’t have to hire someone to spend hours producing a quality video, and can have access to our library for numerous makes and models. When it comes to online car shopping, reading text isn’t enough to get someone to take action and buy the car. They need as much detail as possible to initiate interest in purchasing.

LESA Can Help Your Car Dealership Implement Research Pages

LESA’s technology can help your car dealership quickly implement video centric research pages to help your car dealership stand out from competition. Videos are highly educational and are helping convert car shoppers into car buyers as online car shopping continues to soar. Get started today! Contact Us

Attract Local Car Shoppers with LESA Google Business Profile Auto-Post Tool

Written on August 23, 2022. Posted in News.

One of the biggest opportunities in 2022 for local search visibility in automotive retail is through the expanded use of Google Business Profile, formally known as Google My Business (GMB). Google Business Profile could draw a tremendous amount of local traffic from consumers looking to find reviews, get directions and hours of operations from local car dealerships. LESA tools have the ability to automatically add your newest inventory to the Google Business Profile post carousel so you don’t have to manage it.

Let’s take a look at how LESA’s Google Business Profile Auto-Posts can benefit your business.

Is Google Business Profile Really Necessary for Car Dealerships?

Google Business Profile listing gives you another free way to show up for local searches related to your dealershipand it can often show up at a critical time, like when car buyers are trying to find nearby dealerships, look at dealership reviews, and compare dealerships they’ve already identified. It is not uncommon for dealers to see local impressions on Google Business Profile increase 10,000-50,000x a month when Google Business Profile is fully merchandised and maintained. If setup and used properly, Google Business Profile can attract high quality leads for no cost.

How To Draw an Audience on Google Business Profile

Once you’ve claimed your business through Google Business Profile, it’s time to optimize your content and keep it up-to-date so you get the most out of your business listing. Here’s how to draw an audience though Google Business Profile

Setup Your Information

It might seem basic, but it’s incredibly important to make sure that your essential information, like your dealership name, address, phone number, website URL, departments, and service options are correct on your listing.

2. Keep Your Listing Consistent

62% of consumers reported using Google Business Profile to find a local business’s phone number or address, so it’s incredibly important that your dealership’s information is correct — or you could be missing out. Consistency is an important Google ranking factor. It wants to ensure its showing the most accurate and up-to-date information in searches, since it doesn’t verify every piece of information across the internet. Make sure the information on your website is listed the exact same on your Google Business Profile page.

3. Add Photos and Videos of Your Car Dealership with LESA Auto-post

When customers have more access to your business information and updates, they can make better decisions as they browse. This allows you to:

Directly communicate with your local customers.
Improve your customer experience with timely information.
Promote your sales, specials, events, news, and offers.
Engage with your customers through videos and photos.

LESA’s auto-post tool allows your dealership to create a virtual storefront for local online shoppers through the “what’s new” section of updates on Google Business Profile. The tool will ensure that 15-20 vehicles are always maintained within your Google Business Profile carousel. Once a vehicle sells, another post fitting your set criteria will replace it automatically. You can decide what vehicles to showcase whether it’s new, used, both conditions or certified vehicles or specific models

LESA’s auto-post tool will post under the What’s New section provides general information about your business. Other update sections include COVID-19, offers and events which dealerships can use to enhance their profile.

Typically, dealerships need to hire an internal team member or outside marketing help to maintain updates on their Google Business Profile. With the help of LESA’s auto post tool, it eliminates the need for extra help as the process is standardized and maintained.

Auto-Post Will Direct Car Shoppers to your Dealership Website

A preview of a dealer’s inventory is displayed under the “Updates” section of their Google Business Profile listing. Shoppers can scroll through a limited number of posts before clicking “Learn more” or “View all” to see more listings.

The recently added inventory is displayed in a vertical list, with added info about the vehicle
and a learn more/dealer listing button leading directly to that vehicle’s VDP.

Customers land directly on the VDP of the vehicle they are interested in. They can then watch a LESA full-motion video and take the next step in their shopping journey.

Take Your Google Business Profile Seriously, Get Started with LESA Today

Take advantage of this great new feature that lets you promote your vehicles for free in a very visible area. LESA’s auto-post capabilities can help your dealership maintain your online presence with little maintenance. Get started with a LESA driven Google Business Profile listing today.

Featured Videos Help Online Car Shoppers Make Purchase Decisions

Written on August 10, 2022. Posted in News.

Online car shopping continues to grow rapidly in acceptance. Millennials are fueling a major part of the online sales growth. Many car dealerships have pivoted in creating websites that aid online car shoppers with information, at-home test drives and digital paperwork. In fact, a survey conducted by Progressive showed that 78% of buyers were highly satisfied with buying a car online, while only 58% of in-person shoppers registered the same pleasure.

Most dealerships understand the importance of showcasing photos and videos of their inventory on their website, but there are extra steps dealerships can take to stand out and educate their consumers as much as possible. Featured videos have numerous benefits to online car shoppers, increase time and engagement spent on website, and are easy to implement on your car dealership website.

What are Featured Videos?

Automotive manufactures provide featured videos to help shoppers understand the car in more detail. Although walk around videos can help give car shoppers great insight into the desired vehicle, featured videos provide in depth details about numerous elements of the car without having to search the Internet. The number of feature videos available varies by make and model. There are numerous video types including:

How-to videos
Vehicle feature highlight
Vehicle overview

LESA has partnered with numerous manufacturers to provide feature videos, including:

Volvo
Volkswagen
Toyota
Subaru
Nissan
Mitsubishi
Mercedes-Benz
Mazda
Land Rover
Jaguar
Hyundai
Honda
GMC
Ford
Chrysler
Dodge
BMW
Audi
Acura
Chevrolet
Infiniti

What are the Benefits of Adding Featured Videos to Your Dealership Website?

Car shoppers rely on video to make informed purchasing decisions, but it’s not just walk-around videos they’re searching for. Our convenient feature videos combine OEM vehicle videos with your walk-around videos in the same player.

Now your shoppers can find all the vehicle info they need in one place, making you the automotive authority and increasing the likelihood of an in-person visit and sale. Video views are tracked so you can customize your follow-up based on what videos your customers are interested in. Other benefits include:

Decrease bounce rate: when you have all the videos your customers need to inform their choices, there is less reason for them to leave your site to find the info elsewhere.

Increase Time on Site: Studies prove that the more time a shopper spends on a site, the more likely they are to buy from it. LESA feature videos help you provide shoppers with the useful, relevant video content they need to stay put on your site.

Plug and Play: Your feature videos can be installed immediately after you order it. It’s simple, effective and ready to go when you are.

Available Right Away: It’s not easy to shoot a walk around video of the vehicle right away, so until your team has a chance to upload, we can add featured videos so car shoppers have something to look at.

It’s Easy to Implement: Adding featured video to your search results page and vehicles details page is extremely easy to implement with the help of LESA team, and requires no maintenance.

Examples of Featured Videos

The Bottom Line:

Most car dealerships have evolved and showcase photos and videos of their inventory on their car dealership website. Studies continue to prove that people enjoy shopping for cars online and the numbers are expected to grow. Your dealership needs to provide as much information as possible to help car shoppers make online purchasing decisions. Featured videos are a great way to make your car dealership stand out, and increase time spent on your website.

Get Started with Featured Videos on Your Car Dealership Website Today!

LESA featured video library includes numerous makes and models across multiple manufactures. Videos are easy to implement and involve no complicated maintenance from the car dealership. Let’s get started today!