HQ Photography Drives VDP Views Via Social Media
Transcript
Kelly : Now you did mention Instagram in the article. So let’s go there first, it’s a key platform for your expertise. Why is that? And if you could expand your answer to imagery on the other social media platforms, that’d be cool.n
nPeter : Yeah, I think, you know, Instagram, being Instagram, what it has become nowadays after, you know, Facebook bought it, and you have all the influencers, and that’s the major platform for them, and, and so forth. And Instagram has its pros and cons, right? There’s a lot of, you know, kind of fake pictures on there, and so forth. But generally speaking, Instagram has been a huge success and great in giving someone a voice, not only because you’re able to write those little excerpts and so forth. But also just to express yourself, or express a product in some way, you know, out there in social media, in many other ways, the way that Facebook just didn’t, and so forth. n
n nAnd Facebook, of course, I leave that to family and friends, if, if I’m honest, I don’t follow a lot of family and friends on Instagram, I follow a lot of my own interests there. But Instagram has shown us visually that photos and pictures and things like that matter. And I certainly don’t want to focus too much on Instagram, but that’s kind of like my general opinion of it. I’m on it, I use it, it’s, you know, it’s a great platform.n
n nBut in terms of photos and selling cars, it’s just like, let’s just look at the facts. And these aren’t, you know, things that I have, you know, discovered or anything, they’re just out there, Cox Automotive and so forth and made plenty of, you know, studies and things like that, pertaining to this. But zero photos on any car, any VDP generally equates to very little or zero clicks, very, very simple. Just something as simple as five to six photos. And these don’t have to be flattering photos, we’re not talking about social influencer photos, here, we’re talking snapshots increased by 60%, the amount of VDPs, you would get from just five, six photos, just simple stuff. n
n nBut when you expand that to 30, 33 25 to 33 pics, is really the industry standard. For any pre-owned vehicle. At this point, you really begin to increase those VDPs to a point where now you’re gaining traffic every day on those cars, right. But what is the main point, though, is that you get snapshots, and then you have carefully calculated pictures that describe the car in a flattering way to give the customer an experience, right, that’s the main thing we’re going for. n
n nAnd you’ll see it everywhere, right? Dealers are putting in studios, they’re taking more calculated, you know, methods and things like that. And that’s, of course, what we do here at dealer pro every day. The next part of that though, including video and 360, and all those things, and I will say it here and you can quote me as saying this, photos, bring the car to market, right because we know zero photos, zero clicks, good photos, lots of clicks, right? Just that the jury’s out, that’s been done for a long time now, video, is, I mean,how many Sundays Have you lost on YouTube for a couple of hours looking at whatever you’re trying to do, right. So putting a video up there, that’s a minute, minute and a half on the VDP accompanying a set of videos, wonderful. n
n nThe photos, take the car and market video is going to keep them on the page a little longer. And then the new thing that’s going on, not so new, it’s been going on for four or five years, the gimmick of 360 and being able to move around the car, and so forth. These are all wonderful things, wonderful items, to engage customers and keep them on the VDP. Keeping them on the VDP is one thing, engaging them and giving them an experience is better. And I would argue that a great set of photos that’s informative for the price mileage and everything that this person would be shopping for, as opposed to inundating them with bad content. So I’ve seen terrible 360s, I’ve seen terrible videos, I’ve seen moving picture videos with robotic voices and so forth. The main point here that I’m trying to make is that the effort you put into the content on your VDPs is going to improve your customer experience.nn
nPeter : Yeah, I think, you know, Instagram, being Instagram, what it has become nowadays after, you know, Facebook bought it, and you have all the influencers, and that’s the major platform for them, and, and so forth. And Instagram has its pros and cons, right? There’s a lot of, you know, kind of fake pictures on there, and so forth. But generally speaking, Instagram has been a huge success and great in giving someone a voice, not only because you’re able to write those little excerpts and so forth. But also just to express yourself, or express a product in some way, you know, out there in social media, in many other ways, the way that Facebook just didn’t, and so forth. n
n nAnd Facebook, of course, I leave that to family and friends, if, if I’m honest, I don’t follow a lot of family and friends on Instagram, I follow a lot of my own interests there. But Instagram has shown us visually that photos and pictures and things like that matter. And I certainly don’t want to focus too much on Instagram, but that’s kind of like my general opinion of it. I’m on it, I use it, it’s, you know, it’s a great platform.n
n nBut in terms of photos and selling cars, it’s just like, let’s just look at the facts. And these aren’t, you know, things that I have, you know, discovered or anything, they’re just out there, Cox Automotive and so forth and made plenty of, you know, studies and things like that, pertaining to this. But zero photos on any car, any VDP generally equates to very little or zero clicks, very, very simple. Just something as simple as five to six photos. And these don’t have to be flattering photos, we’re not talking about social influencer photos, here, we’re talking snapshots increased by 60%, the amount of VDPs, you would get from just five, six photos, just simple stuff. n
n nBut when you expand that to 30, 33 25 to 33 pics, is really the industry standard. For any pre-owned vehicle. At this point, you really begin to increase those VDPs to a point where now you’re gaining traffic every day on those cars, right. But what is the main point, though, is that you get snapshots, and then you have carefully calculated pictures that describe the car in a flattering way to give the customer an experience, right, that’s the main thing we’re going for. n
n nAnd you’ll see it everywhere, right? Dealers are putting in studios, they’re taking more calculated, you know, methods and things like that. And that’s, of course, what we do here at dealer pro every day. The next part of that though, including video and 360, and all those things, and I will say it here and you can quote me as saying this, photos, bring the car to market, right because we know zero photos, zero clicks, good photos, lots of clicks, right? Just that the jury’s out, that’s been done for a long time now, video, is, I mean,how many Sundays Have you lost on YouTube for a couple of hours looking at whatever you’re trying to do, right. So putting a video up there, that’s a minute, minute and a half on the VDP accompanying a set of videos, wonderful. n
n nThe photos, take the car and market video is going to keep them on the page a little longer. And then the new thing that’s going on, not so new, it’s been going on for four or five years, the gimmick of 360 and being able to move around the car, and so forth. These are all wonderful things, wonderful items, to engage customers and keep them on the VDP. Keeping them on the VDP is one thing, engaging them and giving them an experience is better. And I would argue that a great set of photos that’s informative for the price mileage and everything that this person would be shopping for, as opposed to inundating them with bad content. So I’ve seen terrible 360s, I’ve seen terrible videos, I’ve seen moving picture videos with robotic voices and so forth. The main point here that I’m trying to make is that the effort you put into the content on your VDPs is going to improve your customer experience.nn