This week on the How To Sell More Cars podcast digital marketing consultant Adam Thrasher and I sit down to talk about the importance of video in your marketing efforts from getting found in the search engines to adding a human element to your story by actually telling a story, your story, your product's story, your business' story, and perhaps most importantly of all, your customer's story.

There are thousands of videos going up on Facebook every day with salespeople talking about themselves, but here's the dirty little secret of personal branding for automotive salespeople and self-promotion in general:

IT AIN'T ABOUT YOU!

The more you can take the emphasis off of yourself and put it on your customers, the more relevant, engaging, and shareable your content will be.

Adam recommends getting video testimonials by turning the cameras on them and asking a couple of open-ended questions.

• So, how do you like the car?
• How was your experience today?
• What would you like to tell everyone about shopping with me?

Cars are becoming more technologically sophisticated every year so video walkarounds and how to videos are a great way to help solve your customer's problem and also show up well in searches because everyone has problems that they turn to Google to solve.

• Hey Google, how do I pair my phone on my new Altima?
• Siri, how do I cancel the automatic engine shut off function on my new Mercedes?

Adam's a big believer in video messaging to communicate with your customers and fresh leads to help you stand out, get noticed, and sell more cars. He mentions a couple of apps to help you get video messages in front of your customers and prospects.

Not everyone is completely comfortable with the idea of becoming a video star. To those people, Adam offers these completely non-comforting words of wisdom.

"If you're shy, just get over it. Your first video is going to suck anyway, but it's like riding a bike; The more you do it the better you'll get."

Another bit of counterintuitive advice is the fact that your audio quality is more important than your video quality so if you're going to invest in any equipment start with a good microphone. But if not, just use your headphone mic.

And finally, we talk about the age old question... Should you shoot video in portrait or landscape mode? Adam comes down firmly in the vertical/portrait mode especially for shorter videos and videos that are going on Facebook or Instagram.

But the most important thing is to just get outside, turn on the phone and start shooting.

Lights. Camera. Action.

Oh yeah, and take off the sunglasses!

Contact Adam Thrasher