Best Practices and Tips

How To Shoot Walk-Around Videos That Convert For Your Dealership

How To Use Walk-Around Videos To Improve Sales

Are you familiar with the concept of a dealership walk-around video? Despite its name, you don’t actually have to walk around the entire dealership to physically create one. The walk-around video covers the inventory available on the dealership lot, and you only need a few minutes to film a video that educates and engages your current and potential customers. Tools like Video for Sales (formerly Snapcell) allow sales teams to produce personalized video messages and walkthroughs of a dealership’s inventory, effectively bringing back face-to-face interactions before a buyer even sets foot in the parking lot.

car lineup at dealership

What are Walk-Around Videos

In today’s market, vehicle walkaround videos are essential for auto, RV, and boat dealers. With buyers doing most of their research online, these videos provide a personal touch to comprehensive virtual inspections that showcase the vehicle’s features and encourage potential buyers to visit the dealership in person. Prioritizing walkaround videos is essential for standing out from the competition and attracting more buyers.

When creating a vehicle walkaround video, a knowledgeable sales representative effectively showcases the vehicle by emphasizing its key features. This includes highlighting the exterior design and pointing out the body style, color, wheels, and any notable features. The interior is also showcased by demonstrating seating arrangements, dashboard features, infotainment systems, and other relevant details. Additionally, the video may include demonstrations of specific features or options available in the vehicle, such as the operation of the sunroof, explaining how the entertainment system works, or highlighting safety features that are often sought-after in cars.

How To Create Walk-Around Videos

Creating a compelling walk-around video requires attention to detail. Consider these five tips when producing marketing videos for your auto dealership.

1. Getting Sound and Light Right

You don’t need to be a professional videographer to get the basics of sound and lighting right for your videos. Consider shooting a short test video to ensure the sound and lighting meet your standards. For indoors, make sure there’s not a lot of background noise and the overall lighting in the showroom is bright enough to show off your face and the car. If you’re filming outdoors, be mindful of how elements like wind and sunlight can impact your video quality. Don’t film with the sun behind directly behind you! Consider investing in a lav mic to enhance sound quality when shooting with your smartphone. There are many affordable options available on Amazon. It’s okay to shoot in either landscape or portrait mode. Choose the format that makes the most sense for where you will publish the video, such as TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube.

2. Feature Real People

To enhance the personal touch in your car-buying experience, consider featuring real people in your dealership videos instead of using a voiceover. For instance, if you’re recording a walk-through video of a new vehicle in your inventory, show a real person explaining the most prominent features of the model and how to use them. This approach helps your audience connect a face with a name, instantly making the video more engaging and trustworthy.

3. Make it Easy to Follow Along

When creating a how-to video, it’s important to consider the viewer’s experience. Many viewers will want time to further explore the vehicle you’re displaying, so remember to pause for about five seconds before moving on to another section of the car. To enhance your video further, consider adding text overlays to bring attention to specific features of the vehicle. This extra visual aid can make your video even more valuable for your audience.

4. Shorter is Better

Capture your audience’s attention with successful dealership walk-around videos. Keep it short, sweet, and simple. Our attention spans are decreasing, so make your videos concise (three to four minutes) while still getting your main points across. If you have a lot of information to share, consider making a series of videos instead of one long video.

  

5. Make Video a Part of Your Intake Process

By requiring a walk-around video for every new car you bring onto the lot, you’re entire team will now have access to these videos, and can easily include them in sales outreach going forward. Many video tools for dealerships allow your sales team to easily stitch these pre-recorded videos into their own personal videos.

Benefits of Walk-Around Videos

Walk-around videos have several benefits, including speeding up your sales process and making it more personal for your customers.

  • Making Videos is Easy – Technology has come a long way in recent years, so recording videos has never been easier. You can easily record a walk-around video on your phone and upload it onto your dealership site or social media platforms.   If you plan to share these videos with customers, definitely use a video platform so that you’re staying in TCPA compliance.
  • Visual Cues are Better Than Text – Studies show that videos can help your target audience retain more information, so you can draw your audience’s attention more effectively using emotions and reactions.
  • More Videos, More Engagement – When you incorporate videos onto your pages and your sales outreach, shoppers spend more time on your site and typically watch 50% of the videos sent to them, making them more likely to purchase a vehicle.
  • Affordable – Dealerships don’t need a professional videographer to make compelling videos. The TradePending video tool simplifies the process of creating, organizing, and monitoring custom videos for your clients.

Take Your Sales Process to the Next Level

Imagine the impact of instantly grabbing your customers’ attention with a personalized video in every interaction. This not only exceeds their expectations but also strengthens the bond between you and your customers. Video adds a human touch to the online car buying process and significantly boosts engagement rates. With Video for Sales, you can effortlessly incorporate videos into your sales cycle, from expressing gratitude to providing a walk-around of the car. This powerful tool requires no consumer app download and is the most reliable video marketing solution for dealerships today.