According to an article published in the Forbes business magazine, the first thing you need to consider if you want to boost online sales is this: On average ad viewers now have an attention span of eight seconds, down from 12 seconds back in 2000. The figures were derived from a study conducted by Microsoft, and they should know.
In other words, you’ve got very little time to stop the potential buyer from moving on to other, potentially more interesting stuff. Which is common knowledge among the world’s advertising professionals. 8 seconds, is that even possible?
Sure, in a typical online store you can probably create serious interest in, say, a pair of sneakers or a cool T-shirt in 8 seconds. But what about more complex decisions, for example when the same consumer is browsing the net for a used car?
Attention, Interest, Desire …
Just like the T-shirt, the car may be bought for a combination of rational and emotional reasons. Both comparing functionality, quality and price, and feeding the ever present “want- to-have” monster. And car buying is known to be a truly emotional process. The obvious difference compared to the T-shirt lies in the complexity of these reasons-to-buy and, indeed, in the financial weight of the buying decision.
And, just like the T-shirt, the used car for sale is typically presented with a rather bland picture and one or two lines of text or data, surrounded by similar offers, fiercely competing for Attention, Interest and Desire. To access the more qualified information that nearly every car buyer want, they have to dig deeper. Considering the 8 seconds aspect, it’s a small miracle that they sell any cars at all.
Research confirms that video grabs more attention, and also makes the viewer stay longer with the message. Which is especially important when you aim to present several features and aspects of the car, and thus alternative reasons-to-buy.
… and Action
The length of stay is one way to monitor and measure the buyer’s engagement. It can also be measured in terms of remembering the message, or taking the next step. Phyron’s SaaS solution for mass-customized automated video for all cars in stock even comes with optional trigger points as part the specific car presentation, like the sales rep’s contact details, to nudge the viewer in the right direction.
To be fair, the Forbes article also mentions two disadvantages of video marketing.
1) Traditional video production is costly and time consuming (and therefore ill suited for car retail sales).
And
2) It is so effective that everybody is using it.
As if NOT using the most effective sales tool would make you a winner?