Did you know that the average working professional receives 120 emails every day? No one has time to read that many emails, so do you know what happens to most of your dealership’s emails that get sent out? They get deleted without ever being opened.
Yet, email is undeniably still the most direct and effective channel for reaching your desired audience—if you can get people to open your emails. So, how do you make your email stand out from those other 119 emails?
The answer is video. Many dealers have asked me how to get started with video email, so I put together a few tips.
1) Embrace imperfection. With any new process there will inevitably be errors. Instead of going for perfection, try and do poorly. Because to do something well, you have to do it poorly at first. Start by sending a few experimental video emails to internal or non-existent recipients.
2) Make video part of the process. If video emails are not part of your official follow-up or sales process, your employees won’t do them, at least not on a consistent basis. The number one way to have your video email strategy fail is to not have it included in your standard process.
3) Management buy-in. When leaders believe in video and insist upon using it as an essential tool, the rank and file will quickly fall in line. As with any new tool, management buy-in is critical. One way to encourage the use of video emails is spiffs. Give a fun spiff for the most video emails sent. You can also track sales that are attributed to video emails and give a spiff to the first video-related sale every week.
4) Video email templates. Autoreply emails have their place, but adding video makes them more effective. Have management record a few different standard replies and program these video emails to be sent in place of a written autoreply. Standard video replies can be created for vehicle-specific inventory inquiries, or for service inquiries.
5) Personalize videos. When training your salespeople to record follow-up and sales videos, have them mention the customer’s name and concerns early in the video. This personalized approach is a great way to “hook” a customer’s attention and keep them engaged through the entire video.
6) Include clickbait. Video emails are highly customizable. There can be lead forms, finance links, trade-in tool links, and appointment links on the video email landing page. When recording a video, be sure to state clearly what the call to action is. Examples include: “Click on the link now to find out what your vehicle is worth,” or “Click on the link to learn what your financing options are.”
Another option is to invite recipients for a virtual test drive and include a button that can be pushed to initiate a live-stream video call with a staff member. Always include a fill-in lead form on the video landing page.
7) Differentiation. Why buy from you? Make sure to state your dealership value propositions in every video, so customers feel confident about choosing your store. This is standard procedure for every showroom customer, but you can amplify this message tenfold by sending video emails that differentiate your dealership.
Remember, every journey starts with a single step and creating a video email process is no exception. Embrace the imperfections and keep refining your approach. With persistence and dedication, your dealership can harness the power of video email to drive success and connect with customers like never before.
