4 Marketing Tips for Auto Dealerships To Help Drive Leads and Close Sales
At the end of 2017, the automotive industry experienced its first sales decline in 7 years. As more consumers hold on to their cars longer or choose used cars, marketing for auto dealerships will need to include ways that can be understood and measured.
The success of your car dealership relies significantly on the amount of traffic you can bring to your business. You must sell cars to make money, but there is ample competition between dealerships and bringing traffic into your business requires plenty of creativity and innovative ideas. Here are four ways to help improve marketing of your car dealership.
Include Radio Advertising, but with SMS
If you understand your customer demographics, radio advertising is an excellent way to target your message and drive people to your car dealership. Maybe your goal is to promote a year-end sale to try to move unsold inventory or perhaps your sales team is trying to hit its monthly goal and need some help.
Be sure, however, to include a strong call-to-action in your radio campaigns in order to measure your return on investment. Integrate mobile marketing into your campaign and include a text call-to-action like ” Text DEALERSHIPNAME to 37373 to enter to win a a new car!” and increase the volume of leads you generate.
Host Fun Events
You must bring potential buyers to your car dealership if you want to sell cars. You can do this by hosting large family-friendly events. Have a mini carnival or a free pizza party. Hire the local radio station to do an on-site show promoting your event and current sales. You can even host fundraisers for charities or to help a local family in need.
These events provide the opportunity to engage with individuals, let them browse your inventory, showcase the latest features, etc.— all while simply attending your event. You can easily promote deals, vehicles, features, etc., without being pushy and even receive contact information for potential leads by text. And if nothing else, these events are an excellent way to make your presence known in the community and stand out from other local dealerships.
Conduct Surveys
Instead of trying the same marketing tactic over and over again, interact with current, past, and future customers to evaluate your current marketing strategy. You can do this by conducting customer surveys. Text messaging is one of the best ways to gather information quickly and to gather a lot of it. Text messaging allows individuals to respond almost immediately and because more than 90% of individuals carry smartphones, text messaging surveys are an excellent way to reach customers and be seen, instead of being buried in an email inbox.
Go Digital
Most buyers are only going to visit car dealerships they trust. They don’t want to fall prey to a greedy salesman or to someone who is simply moving cars — whether reliable or not — off the lot. If you want successful leads that convert, you must build a strong digital presence online and in the community. Encourage customers to leave online customer reviews and offer referral programs. Have your marketing staff create content, including educational videos, that can be distributed through your social channels like Facebook and Instagram.
Additionally, it is important to maintain an active social media page and encourage engagement. Be quick to respond to inquiries and questions. The better experience potential customers have with your dealership and your salesmen, the more likely they are to refer potential customers and write positive customer reviews. Additionally, it never hurts to host giveaways on your social media pages and offer incentives to those who post, share, or like your posts.
Promoting your car dealership doesn’t have to be a struggle. In fact, by being smart and a little creative and by following some of these marketing tips for auto dealerhips, you can determine what your customers want, what will bring them to the dealership, and how to close sales.
Interested in learning more about SMS Marketing for Car Dealerships? Contact TextMarks here are call 800-696-1393.
