3 On Your Side: Boosting Ad Interest With Videos
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - How can you sell your car, your home, your piano or almost anything faster? There's a free marketing tool people are using to boost interest in their online sales ads; here's how you can make it work for you, too.
From cars, to homes, to lawn mowers and even musical instruments, people are letting videos help sell their stuff for them online. Buyers no longer have to look at only a picture and wonder, does that thing run? Is that off key? Or, what does the interior look like?
Nathan Turner just uploaded a video on YouTube and linked it to his ad to help sell his 2006 Jaguar. He says, "The first time I ran the ad without the video, I didn't really get the response I was expecting."
But once he added the video, inquiries about his Jag revved up. According to Turner, "I got a lot more people calling about it, emailing. It brought a lot more traffic to the ad."
Industry experts say the number of video links appearing in sales ads is growing. A recent YouTube search revealed "for sale" videos for about 600 lawn mowers, 1300 musical instruments, 19,000 cars and 31,000 homes.
So how do you make a video that sells? Keep it simple, walk around what you're trying to sell and be sure to narrate it. Philip Reed with Edmunds Automotive says, "You feel like you've already met the buyer, you hear the narration, you may feel comfortable with the person."
Other tips? Keep the video under a minute, shoot in an attractive location and don't mention price in the video, since that could change. Also, don't be a comedian.
Watch the video...
"Stick to the facts because that's why people are there," Reed says.
Turner is hoping his video will soon help make him big bucks. He says, "It just creates the excitement, as if they're looking at it in person."
One issue to be aware of is something called "geo-tagging." That's when a location is electronically embedded into a video. You may not want everyone to know where your item is located, so to turn off the geo-tagging feature on your camera or phone, consult the instruction manual.
Reported by Jim Donovan, CBS3
