From the days of hanging posters around town to the modern world of social media and websites, getting the name of your dealership into the local community has always been important to its success. Without proper promotion, how would drivers know what it is that you have to offer? As time continues on and technology continues to improve, doing so is only becoming more complex. To keep up with the times, you need modern automotive marketing solutions.
You cannot repeat the same actions over and over, hoping for sales growth. You need to be dynamic and hit the target in all different directions. Today’s world requires a bit of everything: search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, social media marketing, and even reputation management. So if you are wondering if it’s possible to outperform your competition, know that there are solutions out there. You just need a partner to help you make the most of every marketing opportunity.
Modern Marketing: Keeping Up with the Times
The world is constantly evolving, and the automotive industry is not immune to said changes. Whether you are competing with same-brand dealerships in your general area or are in a remote area where the competition is inevitably more diverse, your strategy needs to be unique and crafted specifically for your situation. But it still needs to keep up with the modern practices to get or stay on top. Let’s take a look at the modern practices you should be focused on today.
Search Engine Optimization for Your Dealership
Because car dealerships are local businesses with local competition, automotive SEO is essential. From developing an internal linking structure to fixing page errors, technical SEO work will help your dealership’s website rank well on the search engine result pages for keywords and phrases that will help increase traffic and, in turn, sales. SEO is all about figuring out what keywords you should rank for, what keywords you could rank for, and how you can rank for them. Every increase in ranking helps you gain traction via searches on Google and other search engines like Bing and Yahoo.
Content Marketing to Teach & Sell
Content marketing is a large part of SEO; to rank well for a keyword, you must have quality content surrounding the topic. That said, as a stand-alone piece, it is a very important part of marketing your dealership. Aside from its ties to SEO, writing and publishing useful content on your site is easily one of the best ways to market your business.
By offering an abundance of meaningful, accurate information to people online, you have the capacity to become a valuable resource; possibly one people feel inclined to revisit the next time they have a question. The more these users return to your site, the more likely they are to purchase a vehicle from your lot. The more these visitors trust you, again, the more likely they are to buy a car from you in the future. Plus, consistent content on your website gives you more content for social media.
Social Media & Managing Your Reputation
Social media plays a significant role in our lives, both professionally and personally. People are on some form of social media for hours every single day. This makes social media marketing crucial. Posting unique, interesting, and informative content on your Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other profiles could catch the eye of someone new or help to build a relationship with locals over time, growing trust like content marketing tends to do.
Similarly, you need good reputation management for your dealership. This means responding to reviews, both good and bad, from past customers. Interacting with those who have left reviews proves that you value your relationships, just as social media interaction does. There is no denying the fact that potential customers take a look at reviews and testimonials before deciding to shop at a dealership. So reply to your reviews, thank those who left a compliment, and address those with complaints in a professional manner. You care about your customers, so show that outwardly.
Marketing Your Dealership: It’s Not Pick & Choose
Each of these components—SEO, content marketing, social media, and reputation management—are essential to making the most of your online marketing efforts. They all tie in together, too. Technical SEO finds the keywords of focus for content marketing. Social media takes the content marketing and posts it on a public, algorithm-based platform. And, of course, reviews can be found in various places, including social media platforms. The way these pieces tie in together and the way they stand alone makes it impossible to pick and choose. To be successful, you should really be doing it all.
Finding an Automotive Marketing Partner
Keeping up with each pertinent area of automotive marketing can be challenging all on your own. That is why it is typically a good idea to partner with professionals to handle it for and with you. But finding the right automotive marketing company for your dealership can actually be a bit challenging. How do you pick one that will best serve your needs?
First, know what it is that you need. Do you have a social media savvy team that is already managing an engaging online presence? Maybe you only need someone to specialize in the other areas. Are you missing an on-site marketing team altogether? You should probably find a partner that can help with each aspect of your marketing. Once you know what you need, you should do research on the various agencies out there and find one that will focus on what you value most. In most cases, that could be us here at Wikimotive.
Crush Your Competition with Wikimotive Today
Whether you only need an agency to cover some of the pieces of your marketing strategy or one to handle it all, we are the right choice. At Wikimotive, we value transparency and hard work, the two most important factors in building a meaningful relationship with our dealers.
More than anything, we want you to be successful. For that reason, we offer dealerships a free website audit to show you the opportunities you have to grow your online presence. And when we say free, we mean free. Absolutely no payment or obligation necessary. So, what are you waiting for?
Contact us to get started today. We cannot wait to help you crush your competition.