You may have heard by now that video email marketing increases engagement and delivers better results than traditional email marketing. If you’re still not sure, here are a few statistics that may pique your interest.
- Using the word ‘video’ in an email subject line boosts the open rates by 19% – Insivia: 27 Video Stats for 2017
- Including the word ‘video’ in email subject lines increases click-through rates by 65% and reduces unsubscribes by 26% – Brainshark
- Including video in a landing page can increase conversion rates by 80% – Eyeview Digital
Knowing these benefits, are you convinced that video email marketing is worth a try? Unfortunately, I know many marketers are still reluctant. The main reasons why dealerships haven’t incorporated video into their email marketing campaigns include:
- They’re not sure how
- They believe that creating videos takes too much time and effort
- They believe that creating videos is too expensive
- They have tried embedding a couple videos into email campaigns, but didn’t get the number of click-throughs or leads they were hoping for
The good news is, creating videos can be affordable and does not require a lot of time or effort. Today’s video marketing platforms automate much of the process, including making sure that your dealership’s videos get seen by the right person at the right time in the buying cycle. This greatly increases CTR’s and other key metrics.
As with traditional email marketing, video email marketing does require strategy; but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are some tips on how dealerships can successfully integrate video into their email marketing.
Set Objectives
As you’re sitting down to plan your video email marketing campaign, set your objectives clearly. In dealerships, video emails can be used for general email marketing campaigns and in the lead follow up process. Each of these purposes will have different goals.
For a general video email campaign your goal may be to raise brand awareness, announce an event, create goodwill, offer coupons or specials, or to generate leads. For the lead follow-up process the goal is almost always to engage the customer, set an appointment and ultimately come in for a test drive.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they start to use video in emails is that they believe they have to create all new content featuring new ideas. But there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
Your dealership already has marketing content with professional messaging in the form of TV and/or radio commercials, email marketing templates, flyers, postcards and website copy. Use this same content and messaging in your videos.
If you are creating video emails for the lead follow up process, use your current templates and messaging as a guide. Create videos that mimic your current lead follow up process. You are delivering the same message but in a more emotionally engaging, compelling format.
Create the Videos
We recommend that every dealership creates the following types of videos to include in their email marketing campaigns:
Inventory Videos: Most video marketing platforms can automatically generate videos from the photos and data in your inventory management software. Many companies also offer stock footage of various makes/models. Inventory videos can range from basic stitched-photo videos to customized walkarounds featuring a live sales presentation from your company spokesperson.
Dealership Value Proposition Videos. Create a series of videos that tell the customer why they should buy from your dealership. Are you family-owned? Create a video sharing your family’s experience and commitment to their employees and community. Do you have certified service technicians? Create a video about that. Are you the low-price leader? Create a video about that. What guarantees do you offer customers? Create a video about those.
Customer Testimonials. ‘They said’ is always more powerful than ‘We said.’ Create half a dozen or so video testimonials from your most loyal customers. If you’re not sure how to get them into your dealership, try hosting a customer appreciation night and have your camera ready.
Staff Profile Videos. People always like to do business with people they know and like. If your staff are willing, create a series of videos introducing and profiling your sales and service staff.
Service ‘How-To’ Videos. Are you marketing your service department or offering a special on a particular service? Include a ‘how to’ video. It doesn’t have to be on the service you’re offering, but even if it is, most consumers don’t really want to do it themselves. But they appreciate your attempt to educate them.
Call to Action
Every successful email marketing campaign has a specific call to action, and video is no different. What action do you want your viewer to take after viewing the video? Whatever it is, be sure to include it in your video. Again, don’t overthink this. The call to action in your video is going to be the same call to action that you’re trying to accomplish with your current messaging.
Most video marketing platforms will allow you to include buttons or lead forms embedded right into the video. Also have the narrator of the video verbalize the call to action in an emotionally appealing way. It’s a lot harder to say ‘no’ to someone’s friendly voice or face than it is to ignore a pop-up form.
Use the Word ‘Video’ in the Subject Line
Let your customers and prospects know there is a video in your email! They’ll be 19% more likely to click on it.
Link Videos to Landing Pages
Another big mistake many dealerships make when they first start video email marketing is to embed their videos within the emails, or have the video link to their YouTube page. When a prospect clicks on your email, the goal is to bring that person to your website; more specifically, to a landing page featuring more videos and key marketing messages. This is how to engage customers and build trust.
If a customer clicks on a service ‘how to’ video, they should then be able to watch your ‘service overview’ video and your ‘service guarantee’ video along with a service customer testimonial and/or service staff profile videos.
If a customer clicks on an inventory video in an email, they should be brought to a landing page that features your dealership value proposition video, a sales customer testimonial video and your sales staff profile videos.
Landing pages that feature videos instantly humanize your dealership. As a marketer, trust is one of the key emotions that you are trying to tap into, and there’s no better way to break down the trust barrier than with powerful, engaging videos.
Videos on landing pages also increase ‘stickiness,’ leading to more time on your website, higher engagement and lead submissions. Your landing page should also include your call to action and a lead form separate than what’s in the video.
Leverage Technology to Get Your Videos Seen
When you choose a video email marketing platform, make sure it has built-in technology to capture and leverage data from your customers and prospects. This includes the ability to capture IP addresses and track movements as your prospects surf the Internet. Then, when that prospect watches your video, you will know which car shopping sites that prospect visited, what types of videos they previously watched, which ads they clicked on and more. The platform automatically serves up the best video to show that person based on their interests and behavior.
This ability to leverage data completely eliminates the guesswork and time involved in deciding what types of video emails to send to which segments of your database.
Additionally, the ability to leverage data in this way delivers a more customized, personal experience to your prospects and customers, which further increases engagement and CTR’s.
Your CRM will report the results of your video email marketing campaigns in the same way as it does your traditional email marketing campaigns. If you’re still a skeptic, try A/B testing the same campaign with and without video to get an idea of just how much better video emails perform!
Video email marketing doesn’t have to be hard. Create videos that bring to life your current marketing messaging and don’t try to reinvent the wheel. Leverage technology and data to make the process quick, painless and effective. Then, sit back and enjoy looking like the video email marketing genius that you are.
