Audit Your Marketing to Improve Results
There is no one-size-fits-all budget or marketing plan for dealers. Attracting your ideal local buyer requires dealers to focus on their unique value propositions. The priorities of the car buyer vary so drastically that dealerships focusing on these five key areas will find themselves building a sustainable, long-term foothold in their local markets. When creating your marketing plan, prioritize finding the most value that works for your unique operation. Your goal is to attract more foot traffic to your lot. Therefore, you should start with your branding and digital presence, which are people’s first impressions of your operation. Next, focus on your store’s internal sales operations to ensure you live out your brand values and build an authentically competitive reputation. Before you begin assessing the value of your current marketing spend or making changes to your sales commission structure, conduct an audit to get a baseline of what is and is not working.
Data Foundation
Car dealerships have always relied on a mix of data and intuition to make operational and marketing decisions. Internal data showed dealers how to improve sales. Intuition drove advertising. With print, radio, and TV taking a backseat to digital marketing when it comes to dealership advertising, dealerships have an opportunity and obligation to use and secure data of their shoppers and customers to optimize their marketing for cost-efficiency. Therefore, the first step in auditing your marketing plan is to check access points to all your systems and website data. You may be surprised that you don’t control or own access to your data as you would expect. This is an unfortunate hallmark of the automotive industry that we don’t see in other industries – wasted data and data ownership belonging to an agency or individual that leaves dealerships vulnerable in many ways. Establish a secure and integrated data backend across platforms to optimize first-party data when advertising your dealership online. Not sure where to start? Schedule your no-cost data consultation now.
Website & SEO
Many dealerships treat their website like an extension of their lot. Web providers and inventory management systems optimize the speed, accuracy, and details of showcasing inventory. However, shoppers have an overload of inventory they can access online. They are also used to being able to buy practically everything online, including vehicles in niche markets. Regarding your website, you are not competing with your local dealership. You are competing with the expectation consumers have of an online shopping experience. By prioritizing your website’s UX (user experience), you can gain a competitive edge in two respects: 1) set your online dealership apart from everyone else, and 2) optimize your website on search engines for better organic visibility and cost-efficient advertising. Over 80% of website users on car dealership websites are on a mobile device. Your website should focus on speed, ease of navigation, and searchability on a mobile device. Navigate through your website as if you were your target buyer. Make it easy for them to find what they need. In most cases, it’s more than just a vehicle and its features. It’s about financing, monthly payment, warranty, trust in the dealership, trust in the brand, and much more.
Brand & Reputation
The key to brand equity is impactful visual identity, consistency, and frequency. To strengthen your brand, ensure your logo is unique and portrays an identity you want people to feel and think about your business. Colors, fonts, and images all evoke a feeling from your audience. Make sure you’ve chosen a visual identity that captivates your target audience. Next, ensure that your visual identity choices are consistent across all platforms, including your website, print media, and social platforms. Your brand image must be memorable for the right reasons. Remember that people remember how you make them feel, not what you say or do. They also make buying decisions based on emotion, so don’t be afraid to target an emotional trigger in your brand awareness advertising. Your reputation solidifies your brand image. This is not something you can fake. In a world of influencers, people still seek authenticity and place a high value on reviews and referrals when making a large purchase.
Social Media
Social media is far more than cute dances, funny memes, and politically polarizing rants. It is used as a search tool by many users. It builds on brand and reputation. It serves in your search engine optimization efforts. Managing your dealership’s social media presence should be at the top of your priority list, not an afterthought to be left in the hands of an inexperienced intern. At The Dream Team Media Company, we advise dealers to have a good combination of the 5 Cs – Community, Company Culture, Cars on Point, Cash Deal Cars, and Customers. Check your content on all channels to ensure you hit all five content areas. What channels should you utilize? Facebook, Instagram, YouTube (Videos and Shorts), TikTok, and LinkedIn. Remember, it’s not just about if people like or comment on your posts. The boost that social media activity gives your brand and digital presence comes out in search engine visibility and credibility.
Advertising
Make sure to distinguish posting on social media or third-party marketplaces from advertising. Advertising is paying money to bid for a specific objective on any platform. Digital and traditional advertising are similar. You can pay for a reserved spot on any digital or traditional channel. On digital, you can participate in an auction where your content will be shown to spend the budget you set for the parameters you define. For example, you may budget $1,000 on a search campaign to show off your 2025 EV Trucks. If the search volume is low, your money will not be spent. If the search volume is high, but you don’t have a website or inventory that rivals your competitors, you will pay more per click or conversion (i.e., cost-inefficiency.) Approach your advertising spend like you approach buying used cars at an auction. Not everything is a good fit for your lot. You might spend too much money, get outbid, or buy a car your clientele doesn’t like. Here’s an example for the last point: customers will be dissatisfied if you bid on keywords that do not align with your offering (like prices you can’t offer). Platforms will not favor your business, increasing your advertising spending.
Strategize, Execute, Measure, & Repeat
As we start 2025, spend an hour auditing these five key areas of a successful sales funnel. Build a marketing strategy with specific, measurable objectives based on your strengths and weaknesses revealed through the assessment process. Once you have objectives, select tactics to help you achieve your goals. For example, your objective is to improve your reputation by going from a 4.1-star rating to 4.4. In that case, your tactic may be an automated text message campaign soliciting customer reviews. You may have in-store signs incentivizing reviews and a private way to air grievances. The next step is to execute your plan, measure the results, and then make improvements or change directions based on your metrics. Continue the process because if there is anything that does not remain constant, it is digital technology and the automotive industry.