Car sales today look a lot different than they did even just ten years ago.
From a word-of-mouth, in-person-oriented industry, auto dealerships across the world have shifted car-buying into a fully digital, 21st-century experience.
As with most industry transformations, it’s the buyers who are pushing for change. A new generation of tech-savvy car owners are looking beyond their local dealerships to find the perfect ride – from anywhere in the state or country.
Test drives are giving way to extensive self-documentation. You can find reviews and digital drives of almost any make and model on the market.
Auto dealerships and their salespeople see this change occurring, and have begun to pivot their marketing approach accordingly. Car dealership websites now feature a media-rich user experience, with images and video helping customers make the best purchase decision they can.
This can strain the car dealership that hasn’t dedicated time and resources to its media implementation strategy. A fragmented, ad-hoc approach to image and video hosting inevitably leads to production bottlenecks and a frustrating sales experience.
Digital asset management (DAM) technology provides an elegant solution for media-rich auto dealership websites. Scalable media infrastructure is key to growth in today’s digital sales environment.
Don’t hire developers to build image sliders and video galleries
Today’s car dealership websites have to offer users access to dynamic image and video content. Anyone looking to buy a new car wants to see the whole product – inside and out – before they commit tens of thousands of dollars to it.
Until recently, most dealership website owners resolved this problem by hiring professional web developers to create image sliders and video galleries. This provides the functionality that consumers demand, but at high cost. The average JavaScript developer makes more than $100,000 per year.
The outsourced approach also comes with its own set of limitations. Custom-built sliders are not dynamic. The process of uploading new content to each one is often too complicated for non-technical salespeople to do on their own. As a result, you end up funneling every new listing to your web developer, increasing the cost of customer acquisition across the board.
These complications become even greater for used car dealerships. Each listing needs to communicate a unique set of details to the customer. Communicating these to a developer every time you want to create a new post is inefficient and time consuming. It would be much easier to write all those details once, when you upload the media.
The case for on-demand media management for car dealerships
Feature-rich digital asset management solutions allow auto dealerships to communicate a broad range of fine detail to consumers without requiring a web developer to carry out the process. A user-friendly DAM solution for auto dealerships gives media control back to your salespeople.
Dealership reps who go out snooping for cars are essentially field marketers. When they find relevant cars, they need to be able to upload images and videos and share them with interested consumers on the spot. Every second you spend waiting for a web developer to complete the task is a second your lead spends looking at competing offers.
At the same time, your dealership is almost certainly already using images and video. Why use two separate hosting solutions when you can combine all of your media files into a single, organized location?
3 Benefits of using a DAM solution for car dealership websites
Gaining control over the way your media is presented to customers can change the way your prospects interact with your dealership on a fundamental level. Using multiple free image and video hosting services is a simple way to quickly achieve basic functionality, but purpose-built DAM solutions for auto dealership media offer better long-term results.
Here are some of the ways you can use this technology to qualify leads, boost sales, and improve profits:
1. You can create a closed, secure media environment
If you are hosting car sales content on YouTube, you are losing customers to its wide-open video platform. YouTube’s algorithms are making content suggestions, showing ads, and distracting your customers – all for the sake of dragging them off your website and onto theirs.
A marketing-oriented video hosting solution will let you control the way your website presents media to its visitors. You will enjoy absolute control over what images and videos they see, what ads they are served, and what opportunities (if any) they are given to bounce off your website.
2. You can start gathering user engagement data
Free image and video hosting solutions do not typically allow users to glean viewer insights. Instead, they gather that data and use it to boost their own bottom line. Auto dealerships that want to optimize their video content strategy need to gather their own user data and use it to inform their media decisions.
There are dozens of ways you can use behavioral engagement data to boost your sales and marketing efforts. Imagine being able to see which kinds of cars users view videos of the most? You may be able to capitalize on that particular make and model in your marketing campaigns – even if it isn’t necessarily your best-selling model.
This tactic is already well-established in the motorcycle industry. Many Harley Davidson buyers will spend hours looking at the most expensive models before settling on the one that’s actually in their price range.
3. You can leverage exclusive manufacturer deals better
If your auto dealership has an exclusive agreement with a particular manufacturer, you want to be sure your video gallery isn’t showing competitor products to your customers. This is not something you can achieve using a free video hosting solution like YouTube.
You need a purpose-built digital asset management solution that gives you control over the media your website visitors interact with. This way, people who watch a video showing your manufacturer’s latest announcement aren’t served with a competitor comparison immediately after. Instead, you choose what content they see.
Implement an analytics-ready DAM solution for your car dealership
Cincopa is a video hosting service provider that allows car dealerships to gain control over the media they offer website visitors. You can create a closed media environment that offers Netflix-like functionality directly through your browser. You can control what content your customers consume and analyze the data they generate when interacting with that content.
