1. Build Trust with Customer Reviews
A business website without authentic reviews from present or past customers is viewed as suspicious by customers. If the brand is not well-known and the customer hasn’t dealt with them before, they will likely be skeptical. Today’s customers give a lot of weightage to reviews and are eager to both read and write them. (You can refer to the best practices for responding to car dealership reviews here!)
The negative image of car dealers and similar automotive firms as untrustworthy and aggressive during the purchasing stages is not beneficial. When prospecting buyers perform an organic search on Google and come across your dealership and a website that lacks customer reviews and satisfaction feedback, they are more inclined to reject you and opt for other options to purchase their vehicle.
Consumer trust is vital to growing your business, with more customers than ever paying attention to online reviews. Good reviews can help with more than your business’s website. Using them in marketing campaigns instantly makes you appear more trustworthy and valid in the eyes of the consumer. When potential buyers think you’re trustworthy, they’re more willing to look into your business and consider buying from you.
Additionally, customers are inclined to have a pleasant car buying experience and refer your car dealership to their acquaintances, when you have a strong marketing strategy in place. They may even leave a favorable feedback themselves. A well-executed marketing campaign not only elevates your sales prospects but also widens your brand’s reach and reinforces its integrity among potential clients.
The importance of this step in top-notch automotive marketing strategies is often underestimated and disregarded.
2. Be at the Top of Google SERP
The brands a potential customer notices primarily depends on Google’s SERP (search engine results page). If the customer has to go through numerous pages to reach your website, their chances of reaching it are low. Marketers around the world seek to appear at the top of Google’s SERP, making it a crucial goal for their marketing strategies.
Shoppers are unwilling to spend hours scrolling through the internet among a multitude of dealership and other automotive advertisements, each claiming to be the best. Instead, they prefer to click on the initial few results and select the dealership with the most impressive website and favorable customer reviews.
Due to the fact that the majority of shoppers only view the initial page of Google results, the first position in Google results obtains 33% of all search traffic for that specific term. Hence, it is crucial to have competent marketers who can ensure your dealership site appears on the first or second page of online car dealer results. This strategy will ensure that when shoppers search for car dealerships online, yours will be one of the initial ones they observe on the unmatched leader of search engines.
Moreover, we suggest enhancing your content marketing strategy, particularly by utilizing the increasing popularity of YouTube videos and visual content in general. A brief video is easily understood and does not require extensive reading. Additionally, it serves as an excellent visual depiction of the product or service being offered.
3. Bid on Competitor Keywords
Due to the limited pool of customers in the automotive industry, dealerships are known for their fierce competition. When it comes to targeting potential customers who are initiating the car buying process online, it takes a skilled team of automotive marketers, thorough research, effective digital marketing strategies, impactful advertisements, and extensive sales experience within the automotive field.
As a part of your keyword strategy, you have the option to bid on specific terms that are often used by other dealers to persuade online shoppers to make a car purchase. Google previously prohibited the bidding on competitor keywords, but this rule has been lifted on the entire platform, allowing you to purchase them without any restrictions.
It is important to remember that purchasing competitor keywords and using them in your advertisements is still prohibited, especially if the keywords include another dealer’s name.
4. Actively Manage your Negative Keyword List
Sometimes in marketing, the current PPC rate may be too high for your budget. However, merely excluding a word or phrase from your online automotive marketing campaigns will not suffice. The lack of keywords will not prevent ads and social media marketing strategies from being seen by customers who search for vehicles using that particular word.
By incorporating negative keywords, you can concentrate on the keywords that you want to emphasize and avoid targeting unimportant customers, thus optimizing your marketing endeavors. It is crucial to select your keyword list meticulously and ensure that your automotive marketing team toggles them efficiently.
To optimize your ad spend in online marketing, digital marketers can utilize negative keywords. Negate the possibility of showing your business and related media to customers searching specific words or phrases on the web and social media using negative keywords. By implementing this automotive marketing strategy, there is a higher probability of targeting the appropriate shoppers and maintaining low PPC costs, which is crucial for overall automotive digital ad expenditure.
5. Adjust your Campaign Budgets Based on Car-Buying Trends
The effectiveness of conventional marketing tactics has dwindled as the world becomes more digital. Consequently, automotive marketing methods and ad campaigns should become more digitally focused. These days, potential car buyers primarily rely on trusted auto review sites to gather information about a vehicle before deciding to purchase or test drive it.
With the advent of a novel digital channel for automotive marketing, sales can be increased as customers can be persuaded to buy vehicles through content marketing, mobile ads, and other previously unavailable forms of media. The crucial aspect in this process is the use of compelling video content to showcase the solutions required.
For digital marketing options, a distinct budget should be allocated, rather than using funds reserved for traditional techniques. Predicting future trends and directing a consumer’s car purchasing journey towards one’s company is possible with current vehicle purchase data, which can be combined with social platforms for greater outreach and dealership credibility enhancement.
The effectiveness of these novel marketing techniques in attracting customers cannot be denied, but costs may increase based on the prevailing keyword bids for videos, mobile ads, and other media formats.
6. Get a CRM tool
Do you face difficulty in managing your sales leads and customer information? If yes, then opt for a CRM tool that can simplify your dealership marketing efforts.
Your auto dealership business can benefit greatly from a customer relationship management tool (CRM). By using a CRM, you can easily manage all your leads, sales, and contacts, as well as their contact details, purchasing history, and communication preferences. Additionally, a CRM can help you streamline your marketing efforts and improve the overall customer experience provided by your auto dealership.
You can effectively keep track of your sales leads and effectively follow up with potential clients with the help of a CRM tool. By being aware of the stage of the sales cycle each lead is in, you can prioritize your actions and increase the number of sales. For instance, if a lead has indicated interest in a particular car model, you can contact them to provide more details or a unique proposal tailored to their needs.
Utilizing a CRM tool could enhance your dealership’s marketing endeavors via the provision of data and analytics. By scrutinizing customer behaviors, you could derive significant knowledge about the effectiveness of your dealership’s marketing campaigns and pinpoint areas that require improvement. You may identify that certain email campaigns elicit positive responses from customers. Consequently, with the aid of a CRM tool, you can tailor your marketing strategy accordingly and concentrate on the approach that yields positive results.
In conclusion, utilizing a CRM tool can enhance efficiency and save you time. By automating tasks such as sending texts or email campaigns and follow-ups, you no longer need to manually conduct them for every customer. As a result, you can concentrate on the more crucial aspects of your business which, in turn, can lead to higher productivity and revenue for your dealership.
If you own an auto dealership business, utilizing a CRM tool can bring numerous advantages. These may include tailored marketing campaigns, enhanced data analysis, and efficient automation, making it a worthwhile investment for any dealership seeking to enhance their advertising tactics. Thus, it is recommended to evaluate the available alternatives and understand how a CRM tool can enhance your business.
7. Invest in SEO
Having an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy for your auto dealership business offers various benefits and is a crucial aspect of your dealership’s marketing plan.
The influence of search engines is worth discussing as they are being used to locate various things ranging from the finest pizza parlor in the locality to a fresh car dealership. Suppose your vehicle dealership fails to appear on the topmost page during a search for pre-owned Chevy cars, then there are minimal chances that potential customers will approach you. This is where SEO plays a significant role by ensuring your dealership achieves a prominent rank on search engine results.
Why is this significant? Consider the last time you searched for something on the internet. Did you browse through numerous pages of search results or select one of the top few links? It’s likely that you went with the latter option. Similarly, your potential clients are likely to do the same. If they can’t find you online, they’ll likely move on to the next dealership.
Investing in SEO enables you to effectively target your desired audience by incorporating appropriate keywords on your website, which can attract potential customers who are actively seeking the products or services you offer.
Contrary to conventional advertising approaches that entail constant expenses, SEO is a long-term investment that yields continuous benefits. As you progress, you’ll notice a rise in search engine rankings, which, in turn, attracts more visitors to your website.
To sum it up, it is vital to invest in SEO for your auto dealership business as it enables you to expand your customer base, focus on the relevant audience, and ultimately yield profitable results in the future.
Furthermore, it’s much more entertaining than missing out on potential customers due to your dealership being listed on the 10th page of Google search outcomes.
8.Use Video Marketing
The creation of video commercials or video marketing is not a novel concept in the dealership industry, and many dealerships are renowned for their clever and humorous ads. Such videos can serve as an effective strategy for promoting your brand, and a memorable phrase or sentence is sure to leave a lasting impression on customers.
Auto dealerships can enjoy various advantages through adopting video marketing.
The most captivating approach to advertising is through the use of video content, which tends to hold the viewer’s interest longer than plain text or pictures. As a tried and true method, commercials are a common technique that auto dealerships utilize for marketing purposes. Your video advertisement is more memorable to prospective clients when compared to either written materials or images.
Incorporating video content into your car dealership’s marketing plan can enhance your search engine rankings. Major search engines, such as Google, prefer video content and may display your dealership more prominently in search outcomes if your videos are captivating.
The ability of video content to visually narrate a story can improve the customer experience of your dealership’s products or services by presenting a more comprehensive and engaging view.
9. Partnering with Local Businesses
Partnering with a few of the local businesses or even local communities to promote your dealership could prove to be a great way of expanding your auto dealership and finding new customers.
One can always integrate with nearby businesses that cater to similar customers during festivals or holidays. Keep an eye out for such opportunities to engage in face-to-face marketing at local events.
Collaborating with local businesses is a great way to access a fresh market. Connecting with businesses in your vicinity will allow you to extend your reach to potential customers who may not have been aware of your dealership. Partnering with a well-known local eatery will also enable you to access their patrons, and you never know who might be in the market for a new vehicle.
Collaborating with local businesses can enhance the popularity of your dealership in the vicinity. Active participation in community events can establish your dealership as a reliable and trustworthy brand. To demonstrate your commitment to the locality, supporting events of a local charity can be a way to boost your image. This, in turn, can aid in building a strong reputation.
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