Do you need a better return on your advertising spend? Are you looking for more online sales? Do you need help with your online reviews? Or is the problem that potential customers can’t find you on Google?
Even in the era of online marketing, the majority of auto sales are still made in person. There is a simple reason for that. People still like to see cars before they buy them. And sellers of used cars are wary of revealing too much information about themselves to total strangers online.
Auto sales remain largely a face-to-face business, but there are methods of reaching more prospects online and getting them to come into your dealership to seal the deal. Effective automotive marketing programs that get people to your dealership to test drive the car of their dreams depend on following the best practices of digital marketing for the automotive industry. Here are seven secrets of success for all automotive marketing programs courtesy of the Automotive Marketing Group.
Set Metrics Before Beginning Your Sales Campaign
There is an old saying that if you don’t aim at anything in particular, that’s what you’ll hit. Marketing strategies in the car business, or any business, for that matter, depending on objective, measurable key performance indicators. Set measurable goals for all of your custom automotive marketing programs, and then do A/B testing to determine what works best.
Drive Traffic to Your Site with Search Engine Marketing
Here are three important statistics that explain digital marketing goals for the automotive industry.
According to Google, 92 percent of car buyers look for information online before they contact dealerships. Over 25 percent click on the first search result they see. Forbes tells us that 75 percent of people never look past the first page of search engine results.
Since nearly every potential customer looks for car information online, you have to be online, too. But since the overwhelming majority of prospective customers never click past the first page of search results, your inks need to be on that page. Preferably, your link should be the first link a prospect sees.
It may seem impossible to make the first page of search results, but Google has a way for you to rank ahead of your competition.
Optimize Your Pages for Local Search
Two people who enter the same term in Google search won’t get the same list of websites. Google matches web pages to search intent. It calculates search intent from the entire online history of the person using their search engine—including shopping, videos, and emails.
Unless you are selling cars all over the country, or all over the world, your goal is not for your pages to rank high in global search. Your goal is for your pages to rank high in local searches. For Google to recognize that your pages are what a local prospect is looking for, you must:
- Post content relevant to your location.
- Identify your business the same way, with the same name, the same address with the same abbreviations, and the same city, state, and zip code, on each of your pages.
- Format your pages to be viewed on mobile devices.
As of January 2023, 60.9 percent of Internet traffic comes through mobile devices. Your pages must contain the html code that sizes them for phones as well as laptops and, if you do a lot of marketing to seniors, desktops, too. But it is not enough to rely on organic search.
Ramp up your presence on social media
Social media, especially Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, is a great way to reach prospective customers. You can maximize your ROI on social media advertising by maintaining an honest, responsive, and positive presence on the various social media platforms. However, there are additional considerations for success on YouTube.
YouTube videos give you a way to give buyers a virtual test drive. The right YouTube videos can prepare customers to simply come in and sign on the dotted line, or to buy entirely online. What you need to remember is that a winning YouTube video is very different from a good TV ad.
YouTube videos can be and should be much longer than TV ads. Google has found that 73 percent of people in the market for a car will watch a YouTube video from a car dealership for at least a minute. However, when someone the viewer respects (an influencer) is doing a virtual test drive of a car, 64 percent will watch for at least 10 minutes.
Keep leads warm with email marketing
One of the reasons prospects don’t progress down the sales funnel to become customers is that they get distracted. Kids, work, bills, and unexpected events can interrupt the sales journey to buying a car. When leads don’t follow up with a good offer, make them a better offer in an email targeted to their specific needs.
Or keep your leads warm with content marketing crafted to provide them with the information they need but they don’t know what they need to look for. Make sure your brand matches your offers with online reputation management.
Pay for clicks with a strategy in mind
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing can make new customers fast, or it can be a huge, unprofitable drain on your advertising budget. The best PPC campaigns actually lower your cost of customer acquisition, provided you base them on the keywords that are most likely to convert.
Encourage reviews
When customers search for car dealerships “near me,” Google returns a 3-pack of reviews along with addresses to three dealerships, but no names or phone numbers. Customers click on the location to find the dealership. You want great reviews on Google. Encourage good reviews by asking for them. But make sure Google can direct customers to your location through professional local SEO.
If you want more sales, choose Automotive-Marketing.com
You don’t have to do SEO alone. The marketing strategists at Automotive-Marketing.com understand automotive marketing programs and the automotive industry inside and out, so they can give you exactly the services you need. Call us today at (844) 793-1170.
