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Energize VDPs with Video

Published by Prasanthi Pittala on

The primary purpose of a dealership website is to show off inventory so car shoppers get emotionally attached to a vehicle and call the dealership. 

Dealerships also spend quite a bit of money to drive traffic to the website and Vehicle Detail Pages (VDPs). But do your VDPs stand out from your competition's VDPs? Seeing as all this money is spent to market inventory and drive traffic to it in order to do the only thing that matters – sell a car – then it makes sense to ensure the greatest return on your investment by having the very best advertisement for your vehicle on that vehicle detail page. 

When a car buyer visits your dealership’s website, they are asking two questions: (1) Do I like this car? And perhaps more importantly, (2) Do I want to buy from this dealership? A static VDP with photos and listed features may help to answer the first question, but it does nothing to address the second question. 

This is why you invest the time and/or money into your current digital marketing strategy. If you are investing a lot of time and money into your efforts, you know how important VDP pages are. You are working hard to ensure the "best" presentation of your vehicles on the VDPs. While having high quality photos of the vehicles on VDPs makes the pages look beautiful, videos have the power to change a car-shopper's mindset.

Let's consider some statistics -

  • People retain 20% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, and an amazing 70% of what they see & hear combined. This means that a shopper is at least 40% more likely to form an emotional attachment and remember "your" inventory if they are able to watch videos of the vehicles on your VDPs.
  • More than 85% of today’s consumers say that they prefer product video over photos and a text based product description. Shoppers are significantly more likely to spend a greater amount of time on your VDPs — and more likely to return to YOUR website at a future time — if they know that they can receive their content in the form in which they desire to receive it.
  • Live Inventory Videos average 600% more engagement than stitched photo videos. This means that having a stitched photo video is better than not having a video at all; however, you will receive a significant boost in engagement if you are utilizing live inventory videos. This IS the best presentation of your vehicles (merchandising) possible for your VDPs.

Most consumers visit your website hoping that your dealership has the vehicle they want. A dynamic inventory video can change that paradigm to making the consumer want and take mental ownership of the vehicle that you have. The biggest hurdle for most of the dealers is adapting to the video technology. Most dealers think shooting a video takes too much time. But in reality, shooting an inventory video only takes 2 to 5 minutes per vehicle. Most inventory videos can be shot on a phone. With the right platform, the features listed on the VDP will be turned into a professional and engaging voice over. It may take a few attempts to find a style of video that works for your dealership. But as you get comfortable and shoot a few, you should be able to get everything under control. The actual process of shooting a live video is hardly an overwhelming investment of time, especially when considering the engagement and conversion benefits.

At VehiclesTEST, we can help you figure out what video technology is best for your store. For more information on using video at your dealership, please reach out to Doug Thompson at VehiclesTEST.com (954-629-2242), or set up a demo with him.