UK car sales hit a record high in 2016 and the competition between independents and chains has never been fiercer as each dealership looks to take an increasing share of the local market.
In order to ensure your dealership’s presence dominates your local market, an effective digital marketing strategy is key. Here are five tactics to undertake to be in the driver’s seat when it comes to digital marketing:
- Search Engine Optimisation
In order for potential buyers to spend their money with you, they first need to be able to find you. 80% of major purchases (purchases that require research, including cars) start online and end in-store (FierceRetail.com).
This means having a presence on major search engines such as Google and Bing is vital. Although Google is the most-used search engine, Bing is the default search engine on most work browsers and so should still be included in the marketing strategies of those in the automotive industry.
Optimising your website copy, URLs, meta descriptions, and H1 headings will all contribute towards your site’s rankings.
Setting up your dealership’s Google My Business profile will also assist with your SEO efforts. For example, those searching for ‘car dealerships’ or ‘car dealerships near me’ will see their nearest dealerships appear on a map. In the case below, this has meant independent dealerships have a SEO profile that puts them ahead of sites like autotrader.co.uk thanks to their Google My Business profile (you can also see in the example below how Auto Trader has optimised its SEO to appear in the search results through its meta description).
- PPC Marketing
As well as earning your place on the top of a search engine’s rankings, you can also buy it. Using the same search term, below are the PPC ads that appear:
You’ll notice in the above examples, a host of different approaches to PPC advertising have been used by each dealer. Because Google picks up that the office we are searching from is based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, our results are relevant to us. As each dealer has chosen a different set of information that will appear that is relevant to our location, we compare Vauxhall’s approach to Kia’s:
- Vauxhall – Vauxhall has chosen to link to its generic ‘dealers near me’ page (vauxhall.co.uk/dealers-near-me). It’s likely this has been chosen because it has multiple dealerships in the area. Ratings are pulled through from the ‘Google My Business’ listing to build dealership reputation.
In the description, we can see that there are two calls to action – ‘Find your nearest dealer or book a test drive online!’ – signalling searchers to click, and letting them know that booking a test drive is very simple. The next set of keywords lets us know this is the official website and dealer, that they will buy any car and they are an award-winning company – all keywords that build their credentials and increase the chances of people clicking on their ad over their competitors. Finally, the nearest dealership to my location is pulled through along with the opening times. If the searcher was planning to visit dealerships today, then he / she would know where their nearest dealership is located along with its opening hours.
- Kia – In contrast, Kia’s PPC ad is content-lite. In the hyperlinked text, the 7-year warranty message is the main benefit on display to catch the searcher’s eye. Other than that, the word Newcastle is used twice in the copy to emphasise the local presence.
No dealership information is pulled through nor any reviews. This ad would have benefitted from additional information such as that found in the Hyundai ad below, which includes key benefits of their cars along with hyperlinks to other useful landing pages.
- Content Marketing
Although content marketing partially falls into your dealership’s SEO strategy, content marketing can be a great way to generate leads for your sales team.
Content marketing includes:
- News and blog posts
- PR (earned links from other sites)
- Online brochures
- Newsletters
- Promotional content (banners, calls-to-action)
- Service and warranty information
- FAQs
Content marketing is essential in order to learn about how your customers use your site and how far along they are on their buying journey. For example, asking a customer to provide their email address in order to save their configured car model or to receive one of your e-brochures allows you to personalise their marketing messages. You know that this person is in the market for a car, the type of car(s) (makes, models, spec) and have an indication of their budget. With this information, they are now a lead for your dealership – a lead that you can nurture into a customer through personalised marketing.
- Lead Nurturing
This brings us nicely onto lead nurturing – moving strangers from your site to leads to qualified sales leads and finally onto customers.
Leads (those that have downloaded useful content from your site or left their email address with you) can be marketed to via email with other relevant content. Remember, not all leads are ready to buy straight away, so ensure your marketing adds value to guarantee that your dealership remains on his or her radar.
- Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO)
Conversion rate optimisation (CRO) gives you an effective way to increase conversions and sales through your website.
CRO allows you to look at the performance of each page on your site and make changes to increase conversions. Remember to make changes one at a time so you know which changes yield positive results.
At AlphaGraphics, we specialise in helping automotive businesses deliver personalised, data-driven, automated marketing campaigns that include direct mail to improve lead generation. To find out more, visit: https://automotive.alphagraphics.co.uk/
