The digital revolution has forever changed how potential buyers consider buying a car. With the ease of the internet at their fingertips, it's not surprising that 78% of car shoppers prefer an e-commerce approach and believe it grants greater pricing transparency. Auto buyers are drifting beyond local dealerships and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) websites to check out aggregate sites like Carvana, CarGurus, and Autotrader where they can browse a variety of models and complete the buying process. These online marketplaces, which use direct-to-consumer sales models, have intensified online competition.
If your dealership doesn't hop on the digital bandwagon, you'll get left behind. But not if you work with CMG. We've served over 1.5 billion automotive impressions, using various digital marketing methods to turn website browsers into actual customers.
With more than 46% of auto buyers using multiple devices to shop for their next vehicles, you need a marketing strategy that covers multiple platforms and mediums — all while staying consistent in your messaging. Digital marketing with CMG ensures your car dealership ad reaches the right audience. Our methods catch consumers' eyes, bring them into your business, and boost sales. How many leads are you leaving by the side of the (digital) road by not meeting your customers where they are: their phones?
What Is Digital Marketing?
By definition, digital marketing refers to any marketing methods conducted through electronic devices that utilize some form of a computer, including online marketing efforts conducted on the Internet. Digital marketing is the most effective way to reach your audience on a large scale through mobile apps, websites, social media platforms, and more to improve customer engagement. The process constantly changes, providing two-way communication between you and your customers.
With the average time we spend staring at a screen each day rising, digital marketing is no longer a 'nice to have;' it's necessary if you want to survive in our increasingly digitized reality. By promoting your car dealership online, you can maximize your advertising budget, reaching ready-to-buy customers in a way they'll be sure to see.
Why Your Dealership Should Hop On The Digital Marketing Bandwagon
When marketing a car dealership, there are many things to consider, such as your target customer base, budget, and style. Once you've grasped the direction you'd like to move within those three areas, you're ready to begin forming a digital marketing plan. CMG recommends focusing your attention on generating new leads, improving visibility, and creating a unique experience.
Generate Customer Leads
Digital marketing allows a business to interact with customers quicker than traditional marketing methods. When you answer questions, post updates, and actively participate in the online conversation, you generate interest, leading to new customers. You can apply customer feedback quickly, allowing you to improve your car dealership marketing strategies as you go. Coincidentally, you'll also improve your dealership's trust and credibility within the community. This can lead to a higher likelihood of customers buying a car from you- something your competitors most likely lack.
Increase Online Visibility
The closer your website is to the top of the search result page (SERP), the more likely you attract potential customers. As we said before, consumers now spend most of their time engaging with online ads compared to TV ads. While other forms of marketing, such as billboards, still play an important role in marketing and sales, their impact is at an all-time low compared to other forms. With more than 99,000 Google searches happening per second, your dealership can't afford to be lacking in its online presence.
Create A Personalized Customer Experience
Getting your product in front of the right customer is easier now than ever. The same can be said for customizing your actions to provide a better experience for your audience. Targeting like this allows CMG to show your dealership ads to people who are in the area or even actively shopping for cars. You can target consumers in real time and serve them a deal as they're in your neighborhood. You can identify consumers who are most likely to be receptive to your message, increasing your chances of making a sale. Whether through a live chat, fresh content, or a newsletter sign-up, designing your site so that users can find answers to their questions as quickly and efficiently as possible is critical.
Essential Digital Marketing Strategies For Car Dealerships
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Engineering your SEO so that people can find your business before the competition is a crucial step in improving the marketing of a car dealership. As the digital realm grows in influence, 68% of shoppers have reported that their experiences with a business begin with an online search. To reach the top of the SERPs, you must determine a keyword group to use and implement it naturally throughout your content. A good way to do this is by observing competitor sites and reapplying their terms to yours to bring customers over to your side.
Optimizing your SEO will increase traffic to your website without you having to crack your wallet open wider. With an average of 3.5 billion Google searches daily, the better your site is suited for customers, the better your chances are at making a profit.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Over-The-Top (OTT) Advertisements
Pay-per-click advertising is a form of advertisement that drives website traffic through payments to publishers when ads are clicked. It's a fast and direct car dealership marketing method, with 50% of users being more likely to make a purchase than organic visitors. Like SEO, a good PPC campaign is nothing without a list of targeted keywords and a goal in mind. As different objectives require different strategies, this is important to remember. PPC advertising targets ads in location-specific regions, such as your town or region.
Another method to consider is over-the-top marketing or OTT. OTT refers to delivering ads via streaming media services offered to viewers over the Internet, bypassing traditional cable, broadcast, and satellite TV platforms. Creating unique OTT ads with the right audio and visuals will put your best inventory on display. OTT can be adjusted to highlight promotions and share info on new model arrivals as well. It allows companies to reach specific audiences through analytics that measure the ad's effectiveness and can be viewed anywhere there is an internet connection.
Organic Social Media
If your dealership isn't active on social media, you're missing out on a huge customer pool- 82% of the U.S. population is on social media. Your car dealership could greatly benefit from the power of social media marketing, as many users consult social media for brand research before making a purchase. Share relevant and helpful content multiple times a week to get their attention. Make it interesting so they will engage in a conversation. A few ways to do this are by sharing photos of happy customers and your inventory, responding to reviews, and posting contact details in a place that's easily accessible.
Additional things to consider when planning marketing for a car dealership are your target audience, visual appeal, and personalized communication. The first two are fairly self-explanatory; you need to understand who you're trying to reach and do it in a way that catches their eye and maintains attention. Personalized communication means directly talking with your customers, whether it be through responding to comments and reviews or sharing new messages regularly.
Social Media Ads
Another way you can use social media marketing to your advantage is with a good old-fashioned ad. As 74% of consumers make purchasing decisions using social media, you can maximize your leads by sharing content this way. If your car dealership isn't targeting leads on social media, you could be missing out on thousands of inbound leads. This digital marketing strategy should focus on cultivating data based on demographics and psychographics. Social media ads can also be more affordable than search engine ads, as they allow you to set a budget for each channel without exceeding your total budget limit.
Social media ads used as car dealership marketing will help you target your ideal customers more effectively than traditional advertising methods, building brand awareness while it does so. When managed by an experienced marketing team (like us), increased visibility will lead to more sales as people become familiar with your dealership.
Email Marketing
Despite rumors of its demise, email marketing still has the biggest return on investment out of all other marketing methods at around $42 in return for every $1 spent. Email marketing messages are effective when the message is focused, clear, and quickly loadable. They should also smoothly tie into your website since they usually have a link attached. This top-rate tactic allows your dealership to monitor which messaging is bringing people into the dealership and which is getting sent straight to spam, allowing you to amass data-rich insights that traditional marketing, like TV commercials, just can't achieve.
Personalized emails work best for customers, resulting in many clicks if they include the model, color, or style of the car they're interested in. CMG will create a strategy based on your target customers and their needs. Using customer demographics, interests, and more, your email marketing of a car dealership will work better than ever.
Video Marketing
Video marketing is the strategic use of videos to promote and inform about your dealership and product inventory to boost engagement on digital and social channels. Consumers can't get enough of car videos. In fact, 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. watches automotive-related YouTube videos at least once per month, according to Google. This makes online video advertising a viable option for engaging active shoppers and is a great way to nurture customers' interest between purchases. If video is not part of your strategy, your competitors are likely standing out in ways that you aren't- giving them the competitive edge.
To create an effective car dealership video marketing campaign, it's crucial that you:
Know what your audience wants
Know how to showcase your inventory
Know how to stay on brand
Know to keep it short
Local Influencer Marketing
Local influencer marketing refers to a plan that works with a local content creator who is relevant in the region where you want to promote a product or service. For car dealership marketing, the influencer with the highest standing on social media is the person you want to work with (usually over 10,000 followers). However, if you're a small, local dealership, influencers with less than 10,000 followers are probably better for your brand as their smaller reach gives them more authority and credibility.
As social media has grown in popularity, 71% of consumers have reported being more likely to buy from a business if an influencer has done so. Many people view influencers as friends, so they're more likely to trust their recommendations over a stranger's review or an ad on their feed.
CMG Makes All Your Auto Dealership Dreams Come True
We've given you a lot of information to consider, which provides a solid understanding of the importance of digital marketing for your auto dealership in today's world. Testing a new strategy's waters can be exciting and stressful, especially if you're not entirely confident in what you're doing. Luckily, CMG has years of experience in all aspects of digital marketing.
With modern data and analytics, we can develop a highly specific strategy that maximizes results, targets the exact customers you need, and provides trackable key performance indicators (KPIs). CMG has produced 14,000+ digital ads for over 360 auto dealerships, generating over 10,000 consumer leads.
Whether you're looking for a complete redo of your marketing efforts or want to fluff up what you already have, your partnership with CMG will ensure the right people see your local car dealership commercial.
Are you ready to start your digital marketing journey with CMG?
