Auto dealerships have a wide range of skills under one roof, from customer service, product knowledge, negotiation abilities and more, but they’re rarely ALSO data experts or marketing pros. While auto manufacturers as a parent company spend some serious dough on marketing each year, we see less promos in our own community from our local dealerships. There is a tremendous opportunity for locally-owned car dealerships to gain traction in their city with a bit of strategic marketing.
Here are a few key points to keep in mind when developing an automotive marketing plan:
Identify selling opportunities around your dealership
Understand what services you offer your community above all others and use that data to your advantage. Being able to identify how to meet your consumers’ needs before they have even started the car-buying process can give you an upper hand and outshine your competitor, bringing more traffic to your dealership.
Understand how to reach your audience
Marketing offers a number of different avenues to reach your client base – email, print, direct mail, digital ads, OTT, sponsorships, etc. What method of communication is producing the most results from your audience? Capturing and analyzing such data allows you to optimize your marketing strategy and budget in areas that give you the best ROI.
Target your audiences
Many car dealerships turn to mass marketing to showcase all types of car models to as many people as possible. Instead, customize your marketing strategy to resonate with potential customers by showing them your products that they want or need most. For example, sharing a family-friendly SUV with added safety features to a young family, or a smaller, racier vehicle to a group like empty nesters will yield more results than sharing one new vehicle to all audiences. Tailoring your audiences has more conversion success than generic mass marketing and is more likely to cut through the clutter, keeping your dealership top-of-mind throughout the customer journey.
Remarketing
Remarketing through Google Ads and on social media platforms is a key tool in auto marketing. Car shopping often has a consumer comparing apples to oranges in the market. It is important not to lose leads, so remarketing ads to potential customers is a great way to stay top-of-mind and increase visitation to your dealership.
Adjust your campaign budgets based on car-buying trends
Does your dealership have unofficial “car-buying holidays?” Is Black Friday your biggest sales day year over year? Do you sell more cars on certain days of the week and times of the year? Figure out when your busy times are and adjust your advertising strategy and budget accordingly to ensure your consumers are coming to you on these big days!
Measure your results
Today, marketers are able to review metrics like sales attribution and analytics to understand their marketing success. This step helps both the marketers and the sales associates show continuous improvement, and to adjust, edit or increase the plans for the following quarter or year.
Morgan & Co. has worked with car dealerships for more than two decade. Contact us today if you’re in need for a custom marketing strategy that will grow your business with real ROI.
