admin | Automotive Marketing |
Automotive marketing can be challenging and time consuming, but we’re here to give you some best-practices so you can optimize your marketing efforts and increase your ROI. The following are four automotive marketing best-practices, followed by how Customer Traac can help your dealership grow.
Prioritize Customer Experience
Providing an excellent customer experience is crucial for any type of marketing, especially in the automotive industry where direct competition is fierce. As a dealership, you sell a lot of the same products as your competitors, so it is important to find a way to differentiate yourself from the competition. And one of the best ways to do this is by providing the best experience for those looking to buy or service their vehicles.
So, when coordinating your marketing efforts, always prioritize your customers’ experience. You must build their trust and make them feel as though you are their best option. You should also always communicate your messages to your customers in ways that are best for them and that will lead to the best experience for them.
Optimize Your Web Presence for SEO
In today’s world, many consumers begin their search for buying or servicing their vehicles online. It is sometimes as simple as searching for “buy a car near me,” “best Toyota dealership near me,” “service my car in New York,” or something similar. If you want to stand a chance at being recognized by the thousands of potential customers searching for vehicles online, you must build a web presence that is optimized for SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In other words, you should tailor your online marketing efforts toward ranking highly on a search engine result page when consumers search for terms related to the products you sell and the services you provide.
To illustrate, if you specialize in repairing Honda CRVs, you want to rank close to the top of a search engine result page when someone searches for “repair Honda CRV near me.” For more information about SEO and to learn some best-practices for improving your dealership’s search rankings, read this article about SEO and how it works.
Focus on Customer Retention
Customer retention is vital in the automotive industry because the lifetime value of a customer can be astronomical, seeing as one customer may purchase numerous vehicles and service each one multiple times throughout his or her life. In other words, one customer can be worth up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue over the course of that customer’s life.
One of the best ways to focus on customer retention is to “play the long game.” In other words, while creating your marketing strategy, don’t only focus on short term revenue goals. Rather, focus on how your marketing actions may affect how a customer thinks in the long run. To illustrate, while taking a certain action may seem appealing in the short term and may provide an increase in revenue now, if it could hurt your customers in the long run and possibly impact customer retention down the line, it may not be the best idea to implement.
Partner with an Automotive BDC or Contact Center
Speaking of customer retention, one of the best ways to increase customer retention is to partner with an automotive BDC or contact center. So, we recommend doing so as a part of any automotive marketing strategy.
One of the biggest ways dealerships lose customers — and especially prospective customers — is by having low call answer rates. It is often difficult for service advisors to answer calls for a number of reasons: sometimes they are working with customers at the store and cannot pick up the phone; sometimes they are on the other line; sometimes they are on a break; and sometimes they choose not to answer, especially if it is late in the day and they want to leave early. Regardless of the reason for missing calls, each missed call is a missed potential customer for life, or a current customer who is now upset and impatient and may look elsewhere to buy or service his or her vehicle.
Outsourcing your inbound and outbound call management will ensure you miss fewer calls and fill your service calendar with appointments. Partnering with automotive BDCs or contact centers will ensure trained agents answer nearly every call, schedule more appointments, and keep your customers satisfied, thus increasing your customer retention and ROI. Moreover, BDCs and contact centers will streamline your marketing activities and ensure everything is done properly, so you can focus on selling and servicing more vehicles.
Enhance Your Automotive Marketing with Customer Traac
If you would like to improve your dealership’s marketing efforts and customer experience, or if you would like to speak with an expert in the field to learn more, please reach out to us to see how we can help. At Customer Traac, we work with you to understand your specific goals and needs, so we can provide a personalized service that optimizes your dealership’s marketing and communication efforts. We offer a full range of automotive marketing services, including a full-charge contact center, appointment scheduling, outbound calling campaigns, and a full-service automotive BDC. Our agents go through extensive training to make sure they provide the best customer service and help your business grow.
We partner with dealerships across the United States. Please call us at 763-553-2989 or fill out our contact form to learn more.