Car companies and big name dealerships dominate TV commercials, web page advertisements, social media and even the radio stations. It may seem like an impossible feat for a new car dealership to break into a market that is controlled by established names with big marketing and advertising budgets. However, for the newcomers to the market, there are plenty of opportunities to make a claim and be heard (literally and figuratively) by the customers. Here are five important marketing tips for car dealerships.
Websites and SEO/SEM
Ease of navigation and speed that your website operates should be the two biggest concerns right behind the content that is available to your potential customers. Car shoppers that visit your site are looking for cars, plain and simple. So give them what they want in a straightforward manner. Provide vehicle models, features, prices and anything else so they do not have to jump through hoops or wait long for your site to load. Also, another important aspect of a quality website that facilitates consumer engagement is providing means of contact. Conducting a comprehensive SEO strategy will help you achieve higher search engine results, more traffic to your website and higher quality traffic as well. Search engine marketing can be very effective but will cost you money. Utilizing Google Adwords can guarantee your position in the search results and you will be able to track and measure all sorts of data to figure out just how profitable your strategy is and whether you should modify it. The feedback and instant results are very appealing of a SEM strategy. However, it will cost money, unlike an SEO strategy that takes a little longer to see results from.
Video Marketing
Featuring new cars on your lot with videos can have a much bigger impact than just pictures. Integrating videos to your website will increase your marketing potential when pairing them with special offers, sales or events. Short but comprehensive videos can be a huge asset for potential customers that visit your website looking to make a decision on where to shop. Pictures are great for showing your entire inventory but use videos to promote special offers or new cars.
Mobile Friendly Websites
Consumers want information and answers as soon as they think of the questions they want to ask. Living in a digital and mobile dominated economy, it is imperative to have a very user and mobile friendly website. When potential car buyers are out looking for new cars, they do not have their computers with them but instead the smartphones. Spend the extra time and money to make sure that your mobile site is adapted to showcase exactly what your customers are looking for. If they feel that they are wasting time trying to navigate a website that was not built to be mobile-friendly, you have already lost their business. Speed and time are everything to the consumer, so it is in your best interest to invest and make sure that your website caters to both the desktop as well as mobile users.
Platform Specific Offers
Being a newer car dealership, you may not have a large budget for marketing and advertising, so finding out the most effective platforms to use for what you are trying to promote is key. Tracking sales that have been driven from specific platforms is very difficult to do. So before you invest money into advertising and marketing on platforms that may not be as profitable, try promoting offers that are special to each type of platform. Whether its modified offer terms or different tracking codes on coupons, taking the time to measure your marketing efforts can be a huge tool to use when deciding where to spend the money on future campaigns.
Social Media
Facebook can be a tremendous asset when it comes to marketing avenues for car dealerships. It provides very specialized advertising opportunities that are customizable for targeting audiences. Being able to get your name in front of the best possible audience of potential customers is extremely valuable, but will cost you money just like a Google Adwords campaign. Creating relevant posts and sharing content related to cars, maintenance or just content to generate a following should be used to broaden your reach. Also, Facebook is the perfect platform to post pictures and videos of vehicles being promoted.
Whatever the size of your budget may be for marketing and advertising, there are always aspects that you can improve on to increase your presence, generate leads and increase sales. EM360 can put together a customized car dealership marketing plan to help you reach the results you desire. Request a proposal and sign up to our blog for more great tips on marketing and advertising.
