Should You Outsource Your Dealership Videos?

Improve customer experience, increase sales, fatten the bottom line and boost your value when your team knows how to shoot their own videos.

“I’m too old-school to learn how to use video to sell vehicles!” ~ common self-defeating objection

These days, just about everyone and their grandma are comfortable using a smartphone. We all know how to send pictures and videos, (or how to find someone to teach us). So why do some dealers still shy away from making their own videos for customers?

There are several benefits of outsourcing your videos. These include:

You “get in the game” of video marketing without expertise
Your staff doesn’t need to ever change their habits
The work is done for you
The video looks professional
Customers get something a little different

The disadvantages of outsourcing your video-making have to do mostly with costs:

Out-of-pocket expense
Videos are not usually personalized
Cost of lost sales due to low turnaround time (potentially days or weeks)
Cost of lost opportunity to develop new skills

In dollars and cents, outsourcing your video-making will run you between $200 and $800 per month, according to Automotive News. But the slow turn-around-time is much costlier. When a lead comes in, you want to be able to respond right away. If you have to wait hours or days for the video so you can respond, the opportunity will be long gone. Keep in mind, freelance videographers typically have more flexibility than video production companies, and many can work with you to provide fast turnaround times.

Outsourcing means you give up freedom and control. And you give up the chance for you and your team to improve your game, to learn to get better at what you do, and make more sales. That’s a steep price to pay.

If actually shooting the video is all that’s stopping you from adopting a video marketing strategy, by all means, hire a third party. Do whatever you can to the act on the data and take advantage of the opportunity for your dealership.

But if you want to get the most out of the opportunity to use videos to increase vehicle sales, the best option is to learn to do it yourself.

The benefits when your team knows how to shoot and send their own videos include:

Improve customer experience
Staff takes pride in creating good content
Increase sales
Fatten the bottom line
Boost your value to the organization
Have fun!

You know, it’s a mystery. We’ve got a lot of smart problem-solvers in our industry. A lot of do-it-yourself types who know how to figure things out by using Google and YouTube. And yet I still hear people say, “I’m too old-school for video.”

Where’s the disconnect? Why can’t we align our problem-solving teams with this simple strategy of using an app to make videos and use them to increase vehicle sales?

One thing you might try is asking your team to picture your customer, at work, at home, anywhere. Their phone vibrates, and they check the incoming message. Imagine it’s from you. It’s a short video clip you sent them, about the exact vehicle they are interested in?

Well, that would be cool. They’d probably think you’re someone they want to work with. You just went from total stranger to helpful expert in seconds.

Customers are impressed by experiences like this. And the beauty is, you can work the magic, over and over, every day, by learning a simple tool that lets you record and send dealership videos to customers by email or text, within minutes.

So yes, you should outsource your videos, temporarily, if absolutely necessary. A far better strategy is to invest in yourself and your team, so that you can create and send engaging videos that amaze the customer, time and time again.

If you choose to invest in yourself and your team, you’ll be part of a trend. According to AutoTrader’s HomeNet, a growing number of dealership are shooting their own videos.

Here’s how to get started: