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Tag: walkaround vehicle video

Unlock the Power of Automated Social Media to Drive Sales

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

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.

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. 

Having A Great Website Includes Multimedia.

Car shopping habits have changed significantly as shoppers are spending less time at the dealership and more time online. In fact, the average car shopper visits just 1.2 dealerships before making a purchasing decision. What does this mean for car dealerships? They need a strong online presence with multimedia features to help sell their cars.

Along with enjoying increased engagement and shares that multimedia provides, there is one powerful reason for including multimedia on your website- it is helping dealerships sell cars. Multimedia increases the time spent on your website which is aiding consumers in purchasing decisions and leading to the purchase of cars.

As online car shopping continues to soar, car dealerships need to be aware of the important benefits multimedia provides. LESA is helping car dealerships integrate multimedia options onto their car dealership website very easily with their LESA multimedia player.

What Does Multimedia mean to LESA?

Photos have been popular one the internet since the 1990s. In 2022, it is time for car dealerships to elevate and innovate with multimedia. Multimedia combines text, graphics, audio, 360 spin and video that let the user navigate, interact, create, and communicate.

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. The bottom line: LESA’s multimedia player is helping car dealerships sell cars.

Why Does Your Car Dealership Need Multimedia?

1) Multimedia increases time spent on website: Studies conducted by LESA have shown that having a multimedia player on their website can increase time spent on website by 50%. Increasing time spent on website is directly correlated to increased conversions. Your dealership will increase its ability to sell vehicles online with a multimedia player.

2) Multimedia can boost SEO: Search engines notice multimedia content more than anything else since it has greater impact on overall content. This is why it is important to add alt text to all elements you upload. Additionally,  it is important to ensure  your video is being streamed from a content video network so the video can stream without hesitation and quickly boosting your SEO.

3) Multimedia is better for branding: Since people these days have become tremendously visual; video is one of the most popular multimedia types you can see everywhere. Without these channels like audio, video and supporting images it is difficult to build brand recognition. Make it simple: online brand building requires utilizing every multimedia asset available these days.

Using LESA to Integrate Multimedia Features On Your Car Dealership Website

Over the past few years Americans have shifted from content readers to content viewers.

LESA is partnering with car dealerships around the United States to integrate multimedia content during the car shopping experience. The LESA multimedia player allows car dealerships to display photos, video, 360 spin, and featured videos to help educate and give transparency into the vehicle they are shopping for. 

Not only is online video consumption at an all time high, but video content is also proven to influence purchase decisions of consumers. The pandemic has accelerated this process as shoppers want to research, shop and buy cars online rather than going down to the dealership.

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. 

What Does LESA Multimedia Player Include?

Vehicle Video

Car dealerships can easily record and upload a video to their website.  The app allows you do easily add VoiceOver listing options specific to that vehicle, background music and more to enhance the videos to increase user engagement. 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.

Photos & 360 Spin

Although consumers prefer video, sometimes they want to browse through photos or 360 spin. These features along with video can help aid consumers in the car shopping experience. 

Spotlight Feature

The vehicle videos have spotlight features so shoppers can easily view the features of the vehicles that matter most. Easily view the headlights, steering wheel, tires, navigation and more.

Featured Videos

Featured videos help aid consumers in the purchasing decisions necessary to online shop such as gaining a deeper look into the interior design, all-wheel drive, safety and driver assist technologies, and numerous other vehicle features. 

CARFAX Integration

LESA’s multimedia player integrates with Carfax for those that have a Carfax subscription so shoppers can easily browse vehicle history reports to gain a better understanding of the car. 

Contact Form & Chat Function

One of the main benefits of a multimedia player is getting online shoppers engaged. LESA’s multimedia player allows car shoppers to submit contact forms on vehicles they are interested in and even chat with the team at the car dealership in just minutes online. 

The Bottom Line: Multimedia is Powerful

Engaging users via the power of multimedia allows site owners to interact with their visitors more. Car dealerships should consider adding a multimedia player to their car dealership website as photos may prove to be insufficient in 2022 and beyond. 

In our next blog, we will discuss how video content increases engagement and time spent on website with samples from some LESA customers.