Marketing, like many industries, is evolving in the digital age. Learning how to compete in the digital realm can help ensure your dealership’s continued success into the 2020s.

Automotive internet marketing is fairly straightforward, even if the steps do require learning new skills. Taking notes from general internet marketing, your dealership can learn to excel and fly past your competition.

Here is what you should learn in order to master automotive internet marketing.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is about using the correct keywords that are going to get your website indexed higher than your competitors on search engines result pages. With the right keywords, your site will be the first to pop up, enabling you to generate more traffic to your website.

Content Marketing

The “secret” to success in digital marketing is content, including blog articles, social media posts, whitepapers, how-tos, and more. In the dealership world, a helpful article that educates buyers on what to look for when buying a car, for example, will go a long way to increasing trust and generating more traffic to your website.

At the same time, you’ll be establishing yourself as an authority in the field. If you start to get recognized as a knowledgeable leader in the industry, one that shares valuable information, you can draw in more prospects who trust you.

Lead Nurturing & Management

When it comes to big purchases, like buying a car, consumers don’t buy on impulse. It takes time, research, thought, a test drive, more thought, and on and on until, ultimately, a buyer feels comfortable and ready to buy. This has always been a part of the industry, and with automotive internet marketing, you have a chance to leverage this buying cycle with lead management.

With automated emails, a planned strategy for communication, and material to help guide a person through the buyer’s journey, you can keep in touch and nurture leads who aren’t quite ready to buy yet—but one day will be. When that time comes, you want them to think of you.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

With CRO, it becomes easy to watch trends as people click through links to your site, interact, and either leave, make a purchase, or ask a question.

By watching your data, you start to see how people respond. Where do people bounce from your site? Which webpages make them move forward? This is invaluable data you can use to make every page effective towards making a sale.

Display Advertising

The old ways of outbound marketing—trying to get your commercial in front of as many eyes as possible and hoping for the best—are becoming ineffective. With automotive internet marketing, you’re able to get your ads in front of consumers who are more likely to want to make a purchase.

Display ads, like the ones you see on Facebook, are targeted at specific demographics. Looking to just target people in your area with a special “test drive and save” campaign? These ads appear just to consumers in your neighbourhood, while your regular ads continue to reach outwards. Target a specific audience at the right time and you’ll likely improve results.