Video has become an increasingly integral part of the automotive sales process in recent years, especially if videos are personalised. Our research has found that 43% of car buyers are more likely to buy a vehicle if they’ve received a personalised video in response to their first enquiry.

With more retailers than even using video to improve customer engagement and increase revenue, how can you make your videos stand out from the crowd? Our Academy team are learning and development experts – and as video is now ingrained within the automotive customer experience, they’ve been exploring what exactly makes a video a great one.

The fundamentals of a successful sales video

The most important metric to the success of a video is customer engagement. In this case, that means whether or not your customer is watching the video all the way to the end, and then following up on the suggested call to action, whether that be getting in touch, leaving feedback and/or giving a star rating.

The average engagement for a video is between one and two minutes, demonstrating that a longer video isn’t necessarily a better one. The most important thing is capturing the things that are most important to each individual customer, which increases both your chances of engagement and the best possible sales outcome.

These ten tips can help you achieve this:

• Be prepared: plan ahead and ensure your audio and visual arrangements are sorted before you start recording. In particular, consider the position of sunlight; use Clarity to reduce background noise and optimise audio levels; and use a tripod to stabilise the camera
• Get to know your audience: if a customer mentioned particular features they’re interested in when enquiring, prioritise these as early in the video as you can 
• Make a good first impression: you’ve got 20 seconds at the most to grab the viewer’s attention. An exciting, personalised introduction maximises your chances of keeping them engaged
• Show your face: getting yourself on camera, especially at the start and the end of the video, helps build a human rapport between you and the customer
• Reflect your personality: connected to the previous point, the emotion and enthusiasm of both yourself and the brand should shine throughout
• Avoid feature dumping: try not to blind people with facts, stats and spec information – tell a compelling story and keep videos short, memorable and relatable
• Make it ‘FAB’: adding two or three ‘FAB’ statements – features, attribute and benefits – tells the viewer why a particular feature can be so beneficial to them
• Edit to perfection: use Multipart to develop seamless, high quality videos that are full of interesting content, and achieve the optimal length (around two minutes)
• Follow up: make the most of the notify feature which alerts you once the video has been watched, enabling a well-timed follow up
• Evaluate and improve: take any post-video ratings and comments on board so that you can learn how to make your videos even better in the future

In summary

It’s clear that videos are more popular than ever with retailers and customers alike, and their position at the core of successful customer journeys will only increase in importance in the months and years ahead. The tips above give you the best possible chance of improving your video skills in CitNOW Sales, maximising customer engagements, and ultimately turning as many leads as possible into deals and revenue.

To drive consistent improvement in your showroom, download our scoring sheet to help review and improve video output. And if one of your team has created a standout video, for sales or aftersales, why not submit them for our 2023 Digital Spotlight Awards!