Digital marketing is still a fairly new concept in the grand scheme of things. However, digital marketing is becoming so prevalent as technology continues to advance that it has become almost paramount for any business to invest in digital marketing as part of their advertising campaigns. If we learned anything from the COVID era, it’s that it’s time car dealers go digital.
More than 45% of all advertising revenue spent worldwide is now invested in digital marketing rather than any other more traditional form of marketing. This is because digital marketing strategies can be incredibly effective at helping businesses grow and leading them toward success.
Digital marketing can be especially lucrative in the auto industry among car dealerships. Drivers who are in the market for their next vehicle are leaning on digital sources of information more heavily now than ever before. Car shoppers search the Internet to research car prices, determine the approximate value of their current vehicle, find cars that are currently for sale, look into different vehicle models, and—most importantly for car dealerships—potential car buyers also use digital sources to find reputable local dealerships in their area.
More than 90% of drivers in the market for a new vehicle use the Internet as a source while in the process of finding and purchasing their next vehicle model. More than 50% of car shoppers use mobile devices to find out more information about the car-buying process or decide which vehicle they want to buy. Almost 25% of car shoppers look to social media for help in finding a reputable car dealership.
These statistics show how important it is for car dealerships to develop strong digital marketing campaigns in order to stay afloat in the auto industry and come out on top among their competitors. Keep reading to learn 3 advantages of digital marketing for auto dealers to find out why it’s time for car dealers to go digital with their marketing strategies.
1. Drivers Dread Dealerships
You can try your very best to enhance the amenities of your car dealership and make it a comfortable and welcoming place for your customers to be, but there’s really no way to get drivers excited about going to a car dealership.
While choosing a new car on a dealership lot can be very exciting, it can also be an extremely stressful process. Making decisions about models, packages, and financing on a dime and completing the entire car-buying process while at a car dealership can be overwhelming for many car buyers.
By enhancing your car dealership’s digital presence, you can incentivize potential car buyers to use your dealership’s website to browse your current inventory, start their vehicle financing process, and more. This allows your customers to complete as much of the car-buying process as possible from the comfort of their own homes and minimizes the amount of time your customers have to spend on your dealership lot in person.
2. Free Up Manpower
By setting up your car dealership’s website and social media accounts to showcase pictures of your current inventory and allow potential buyers to do things like estimate the value of their trade-in vehicle or schedule a maintenance service appointment online, you can free up a lot of manpower among the team that is employed at your auto dealership.
If your car dealership website is optimized to streamline the car-buying process for potential buyers, the team members at your car dealership will have to spend less time showing potential buyers vehicles, fielding questions about financing, and sitting around waiting for buyers to fill out endless paperwork, etc.
Incorporating digital marketing into your marketing strategies allows buyers to get a lot of their questions answered by information listed online about your car dealership—on your dealership’s website, on social media, on platforms like Yelp and Google Business, and preferably all of these sources—and takes a lot of pressure off of your dealership’s employees.
3. Cover Your Bases
If your car dealership has little to no online presence or an outdated, non-mobile-friendly website, it is going to inevitably miss out on bringing in a wider customer base.
Almost 50% of modern car buyers use multiple devices to browse through vehicles and shop around to find different dealerships online. Therefore, your car dealership’s marketing strategies should center around multiple different digital sources—including platforms like Yelp, your dealership website, and social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
Not every car buyer uses the same type of device or the same platforms to search for information when they are in the market for their next vehicle, so it is important to spread out your digital marketing strategies across multiple platforms to capture as wide an audience as possible. It is also very important to optimize your car dealership’s website for mobile use so that potential buyers can successfully access it from their smartphone or tablet.
Contact us for more information on how your dealership can go digital now.