If you’re considering using YouTube to market yourself or your dealership, this video will help guide you through the process.

6 billion hours.

That’s the total amount of time people spend watching videos on YouTube every month. Add in the fact that YouTube is the #2 search engine on the planet, and you’ve got a great opportunity to reach in-market buyers.  

Before viewing YouTube as a silver bullet, you must understand that you have to provide help and advice to be successful on YouTube. 

Your goal should be to help viewers (a/k/a your potential customers) by offering them advice. Hard sales tactics almost never work on YouTube.  Handing out generous portions of advice and entertainment does.

Ready to get started?  Here’s the 3 main steps to get you going:

⮊  Step 1: Grab your camera & Create your videos

⮊  Step 2: Market your videos

⮊  Step 3: Get traffic to your site

Simple, right?  Not so fast.  

There’s gonna be a little more to it.

Back to step 1 – creating your videos:  

The type of videos you create for your dealership can vary between product overviews & demonstrations; explaining the buying process;  credit / finance issues.  Remember, you want to provide advice, not make a sales pitch.  YouTube is built on people asking “how do I  (fill in the blank)…”?

Answer the questions that your customers typically ask.  Make a list of these questions and answer them with a video.   By planning ahead & answering the questions that your customers are asking, you’ll be steps ahead of your competition.

To help make sure people actually watch your videos, here are a few more things to consider..

1): Make sure your videos are based on keywords.  Just like your PPC ads that are triggered by keywords, videos are populated by the search terms users ask about.  Make sure those terms are in your video.

2): Incorporate these keywords in your video title. Remember, people on YouTube are asking questions.  Title your video in a way that answers that question.  For example, if your video is on getting the best financing, you could title your video “How to get the best financing for a new or used car”.

3): Don’t forget the descriptions.  This is where a lot of dealers fall down.  The description section for your video has a big impact on SEO. YouTube uses these descriptions to understand what your video is all about. Make sure to add keyword-rich content describing the video.

Finally (and what I think is the best part), getting traffic to your website.   

YouTube offers multiple ways to let users interact with your video content. Here are the most popular.

Video annotations  –  

Video annotations are the bread and butter of YouTube marketing. Use these tools  to place CTA’s at different intervals throughout your video. 

Consider putting an annotation at the beginning, middle and end of the video, linking it to your website. 

Custom Thumbnails.  This is more of a preference but as an ad guy, I always feel you’ll get a greater response with customization

The thumbnail is what will show up in the search results before your video plays.  YouTube will either pull a screen shot from your video or you can add one.     

Sponsored content campaigns.    Just like  PPC ads, you can target your videos to certain audiences and jump-start your  campaign.  In-stream, discovery ads & even non-skippable bumper ads are all available allowing you to reach your audience.

And what’s really exciting is the cost  –  you can target your videos and only pay when someone actually watches your content.  Usually for a few pennies per view.

Remember, YouTube is a place for entertainment and how-to advice.  Get creative, show your human side of the dealership and have fun.