Evolution. It occurs consistently across all markets, and the automotive industry is no exception. Customers no longer just rock up to the showroom to see the options. These customers have done their research, they know what they're looking for. In a competitive industry, it's up to you to get ahead of your competition, before your customers even step foot on your lot. Read on to find out how best to market for car dealerships.
UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE
Don't spend your marketing budget on customers that aren't interested. The best way to avoid this is to identify who your target market is. And the quickest way to do that is to define the characteristics of those who have already purchased from you. Data that you may want to consider can include age, location, language, spending power, interests, challenges, and stage of life. A marketing strategy for a retired couple will look much different from a marketing strategy targeting a new family.
Creating a buyer persona can be a great way to understand your buyer's desires and needs better. A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representative of who your ideal customer is, based on market research, knowledge of your existing customers and similar interest.
During your research phase, learn about the preferences of your customers. This is part of your target market data. Marketing an Audi will be a lot different from marketing a Toyota. Audi buyers are likelier to be interested in luxury features, whereas Toyota buyers are more concerned with mileage and durability.
BUILD YOUR BRAND
Separate yourself from others in the automotive industry by having a unique selling perspective (USP). Marketing for car dealerships is extremely competitive, so you need to understand what it is you're offering that stands out above the rest. Is it your low kilometres vehicles that have the edge above the competition, or maybe it's the additional cap price servicing? Choose your USP and own it.
If you've found your unique USP, that's great! But now you must market it as part of your brand. In general, there are four areas to your brand. Brand identity, brand image, brand culture and brand personality. Identity is how you want your brand, your business to be seen. Image is similar to identity, in that it's all about perception. The difference is, identity is how you want your brand to be seen, image is how it is actually seen. Culture considers your business values, and more recently, morals too. Finally, personality refers to the human characteristics of your business and looks at connecting with your customers on emotional levels to make your brand relatable.
When marketing for car dealerships, you must consider your brand. The message you put out across all channels must be consistent to your brand, and consistent to the other messages. This will further establish your brand trust, loyalty and awareness.
CREATING A MARKETING PLAN FOR CAR DEALERSHIPS
To make the greatest impact in car sales advertising, you must make a marketing plan. It's of no good to throw your budget at ads without having a purpose to your marketing. The first thing to establish is the purpose of your marketing; what are your goals and objectives when it comes to marketing? When making your goals, remember to make them SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. Once you have decided on these goals and objectives, you can begin planning.
Now that you know your goals, you have to decide how you will market for your car dealership. There are four types of marketing channels: paid, free, digital and traditional. While separate, these channels also connect in that you can pay for digital marketing or free traditional marketing. These channels can be broken down into email newsletters, social media, newspapers, television ads, etc. You must decide on which of these channels will suit you, and it may be the case that more than one of these channels will be appropriate to your needs.
You've got goals, and you know where you want to market. Combine these to create your automotive marketing plan. The final thing to consider is your budget. You may still need to learn what your marketing budget is and the best way to allocate funds is to compare to what others are spending. After some time, you will be able to see the results of your spending and know whether to reallocate funds to different marketing channels.
EMBRACE THE DIGITAL AGE
The rise of the digital age has meant that car sales advertising has had to adjust their methods. Not only is this another area for you to advertise and bring in sales, but it's also a place to establish your brand, and the community awareness of your brand. The upside to social media is that you can easily see how your customers engage with you. Create interactive posts to engage, and use different types of posts and videos to attract different types of customers.
Today, customers do their research before they even step on the car lot. Get ahead of the competition by making sure your website is the one that customers are directed to first, and it's so good that they don't leave. The best way to do that: optimise your website both for search engines and user experience. The best way to do that is to optimise your Google Ads with the following strategies:
Build relationships with both future and ongoing customers via email marketing campaigns. Share information about new model offers, offer deals and promotions. You can reach out to those who haven't yet purchased from you, keeping you at the forefront of their mind for when they're ready for a more significant purchase. Stay in contact with those who have purchased from you to check in with them that they are happy with their purchase. You know your customers, you know what they want to hear from you. Keep it short, keep it simple, keep the line of communication open.
TRADITIONAL IS STILL WORTHWHILE
The traditional car sales advertising route has been printed ads, direct mail, and radio/television advertising. While traditional, it still has its place in marketing for car dealerships. The message that you communicate in these traditional methods will most likely differ from that in digital marketing, so remember that one marketing strategy does not fit all channels.
Choose an automotive marketing strategy that is going to drive foot traffic to your door. Once the customer is inside, they are far more inclined to look across the ranges and spend more time finding out more. Offer incentives to bring the customers in, for example: sign up for a test drive and go in the running to win a prize of sorts. Continue a relationship with current and previous customers for their servicing needs by offering additional extras during a service, such as a dedicated service lounge or a complimentary loan vehicle during the service.
Keep old customers returning, and new ones coming for the first time by developing coalition programs with other businesses. Partner with other local businesses who will direct their customers to your dealership, and vice versa. Not only does this type of program refer business to you, but you then get access to potential customers for marketing purposes.
TRACK, TRACK, TRACK
Automotive marketing metrics are something that must be considered and frequently tracked. This data is used to monitor, record and measure progress of your marketing strategies over time. There are multiple tools that you can use to track your digital metrics, such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMrush, and more. By tracking these metrics, you will be able to identify the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and know what changes to make to improve your effectiveness.
Now that you've identified the effectiveness of your automotive marketing strategies, find room for improvement. Consider whether your target market is being reached, if it's only just reaching one of your pre-determined demographics, look at how you can alter your campaigns or keywords to reach more demographics. It's okay to adjust your marketing strategy to reach more customers.
Consumer behaviour changes through the years. With emotions, attitudes and preferences influencing the buyer, your marketing strategies must consider each of these variables. With the general lean towards more climate-friendly purchases, customers will be thinking more about electric or hybrid vehicles. Due to the increasing living costs, they may be considering a car with good fuel efficiency and mileage. This is where knowing your target market is paramount. By knowing what your customers want to purchase, you can direct your car sales advertising in that way.
At first glance, marketing for car dealerships can seem a little overwhelming when you consider the general populace, along with your competition. However, marketing is very much a trial-and-error process until you find your stride. Research on trends and your target market is one step to take to reduce the errors that you may make along the way. Remember that both traditional and digital marketing have their place today, and it's up to you to decide how you will go about using them both. Grow your dealership and increase sales by implementing these marketing for car dealership strategies today.
