Mountain View Chevy

Auto Dealers are having trouble with sales in this economy.  Many dealerships are closing their doors.  But it’s not all doom and gloom.  There are some savvy Internet sales managers taking advantage of the downtime to create Internet Video Marketing campaigns that they hope will pay off big when the economy rebounds.  Early indications show that they are on to something.

One example of an automotive dealer that is excelling with the use of online video is Mtn. View Auto Group in Chattanoga Tennessee.  The Auto Group is currently running video marketing campaigns for both their Ford and Chevrolet stores.  Led by eCommerce Director Don Erwin, Mtn. View has embraced Online Video Marketing and they are dominating the local car market online.

By utilizing as many as 10 different video sharing sites, and embedding their videos on a separate blog, Don is able to make sure that their videos are getting maximum exposure, and targeting their local auto enthusiasts and car buyers through as many channels as possible.   Running a variety of campaigns allows them to provide more content to their viewers, and highlight specific vehicles that need to be moved off the lot.   Don’s team runs separate campaigns to target different vehicle buyers – one campaign spotlights used vehicles, another campaign focuses on trade-ins and yet a third is composed of new vehicle walk-arounds.

By using separate campaigns, they have been able to target specific vehicle niches, and the buyers associated with those markets.  Their videos show up in the search results for keywords related to thatsubject – I.E. someone searches for the term “Chattanooga Corvette” they will find Mtn. View Chevy’s video of a 2009 Corvette Z06 in the top 3 results – which means that the viewer of the video fits their target audience from a needs standpoint, as well as geographically, and in most cases this means that they are in the buying phase and looking for the local dealer.

Not only does this strategy lead to ranking for highly targeted search terms, but it drives more traffic to their website, and takes up more positions in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s).   The benefits of owning more spots in the SERP’s is that you create a larger online presence, you have more control over what is being said about you online, and you are able to push your competition down in the results.

By strategically targeting customers through online video, Mtn. View Auto Group has increased their overall Internet sales, gained a larger share of the online market, and reached more customers than ever before.  As they continue to work with online video, they are honing their processes and improving their effectiveness, and their reach begins to grow as well.  They are gaining valuable knowledge and experience, not to mention maket share, and when video marketing online begins to hit it’s prime, they will be well positioned to dominate, and take their sales to a new level.

While there aren’t a lot of businesses that are embracing online video marketing with the same vigor as Mtn. View Auto, this model can be adapted for almost any business, and now is the time to get in, while errors will be forgiven, there are fewer competitors, and the market is not yet saturated.

Any predictions about the full scope of online video in the future are pure speculation at this point, but the potential implications for business are huge, and when Google purchased YouTube for $1.65 Billion in October of 2006, it was a pretty good indication that the world’s leading search engine has plans to make it big.  Bundle that with the introduction of Universal Search, and it’s easy to see that online video marketing has a bright future.

There is a huge opportunity for those businesses that are early adopters of this increasingly powerful advertising medium.  Starting an Internet Video Marketing campaign now will pay off big dividends down the line.

Get in now or get left behind.