As is true in nearly every industry and market, online shopping is rapidly making brick-and-mortar stores irrelevant.
Even car dealerships are feeling the demand to market their vehicles on the web.
But effective car dealer marketing is about more than just posting a few pics and specs.
If you’re ready to take your auto dealer marketing strategies to the next level, keep reading for 5 essential tips.
1. Choose a Starting Point
Creating an effective car marketing plan for a dealership isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. That’s because no two dealerships are exactly alike, especially when it comes to their current social media presence.
Figuring out where your dealership is on the social media ladder and what your true goals are is a must if you want your other marketing tactics to be successful.
For instance, if your dealership is brand new or new to social media, you won’t have many followers yet. Advertising your latest cars won’t do any good if no one sees your posts.
In that case, attracting new followers and building a brand should be the most important elements of your car dealership advertising plan.
If you already have a following, then your goals could include growing your following, getting followers to your website, or selling more vehicles through social media marketing.
2. Look Ahead
Knowing where you need to start isn’t the only planning you need to do.
Creating a calendar and a future plan for when you’ll start different marketing tactics will help you keep your forward motion rolling.
You calendar doesn’t necessarily need to include the actual content you plan to post. Instead, use it to plan out monthly themes, holidays you know you want to post on, and to note any marketing agendas that you’ll be launching.
Be sure to update your calendar regularly to reflect changes to your social marketing plan.
3. Improve Your Visual Content
Studies show that people remember 10 percent of what they read 3 days after they read it if no images are present. Add a picture or diagram, and they remember 65 percent after that same amount of time.
Written content is important for SEO. But without stunning images, social media users will likely scroll right on by.
Any social media marketing plan needs images. But when it comes to selling cars, stunning images are a must.
4. Know Your Audience
An audiences’ age, background, and geographic location can all have an effect on the style of marketing they best respond to.
Knowing your audience will allow you to research the best social media tactics to put to use. This will help increase your chance of producing content and posts that your audience will react to.
5. Connect with Followers
An increasing amount of evidence suggests that web surfers expect the brands they interact with to interact back.
Whether your followers are leaving reviews they expect a response to or posting questions, you need to respond. While your following is small, this may be simple. If you begin receiving an overwhelming number of interactions, you may have to carefully decide when and how to respond.
Mastering Auto Dealer Marketing
Effective auto dealer marketing means setting goals, creating a plan, knowing your audience, connecting with followers, and improving your visual content strategies. But these are just starting points.
If you’re busy running a car dealership and also trying to juggle learning how to market using social media, it may be time to call in the pros.
Check out our social media management plans to see how we compare to other digital marketing professionals.
