FordDirect Debuts New Online Video Services For Dealers At NADA
FordDirect Friday announced the launch of DealerConnection Premier Advanced Inventory Service, which provides Ford and Lincoln dealers with new digital marketing tools such as customized video for an enhanced online consumer experience.
DCPAIS is available to the 3,500 Ford and Lincoln dealers on their Ford Motor Co. DealerConnection Web sites.
Dealer-branded videos are created for new and used vehicles for visitors to view on enrolled Ford or Lincoln dealers' DealerConnection Web sites. Consumers are presented with the vehicle highlights in a voice-over featuring a real human voice that includes customized dealer comments about the vehicle and while they see an up-close visual tour of the vehicle as if they were in the showroom.
DCPAIS also creates a YouTube channel for the dealership and automatically posts their new and used videos. The videos and YouTube channel will link back to the dealership's DealerConnection Web site to drive additional leads and sales. Videos can be dealer-branded with a dealership logo, custom background and a dealership commercial at the end.
"With more consumers starting their shopping experience online, dealers need to treat their Web presence as an extension of the showroom," said Valerie Fuller, FordDirect executive vice president of operations. "Consumers expect video when shopping for a vehicle and DCPAIS provides Ford and Lincoln dealers a rich online experience that will generate more qualified leads."
J.D. Power & Associates reports that 77 percent of today's new car buyers and 67 percent of used car buyers go online during the vehicle shopping process. And the FordDirect video pilot showed that online car shoppers are looking for video. During the pilot, inventory listings with video generated 10 percent more leads than listings without video.
To help drive more customer leads to dealers, DCPAIS videos are tagged with keywords that support search engine optimization to help drive even more Web site traffic for dealers. The vehicle video presentations and syndication is powered by Sister Technologies of Dallas, Texas.
In addition to customizable online videos, DCPAIS provides Ford and Lincoln dealers with listing enhancements such as the ability to fully customize pricing including automatically display incentives and AXZ pricing.
DealerConnection Web sites average more than 2.5 million monthly unique visitors and drive more than 55,000 monthly leads for Ford and Lincoln Mercury Dealers. For more information, visit www.forddirect.com/dealercenter.
