Ready to Update Your Automotive Marketing Plan?

Your dealership gets decent foot traffic and your sales have been consistently steady; however, you’re confident business could be better with an updated automotive marketing plan. You’re not really sure if your current methods are that effective and wonder what your sales could be like if you gave marketing a push.

But where do you start when you know it’s time to update your automotive marketing plan? One of the best ways to get started is by bringing in some experts to help you assess and plan your strategy. But what does an update look like? How does an automotive marketing plan go from good to great?

When you know your dealership is ready for an update to its automotive marketing plan, here are some solid strategies to employ.

Build a Website That Works for Customers

Your website is a great place to start an update. Your website is your dealership’s face in the digital realm, so it’s important to keep it fresh and relevant.

The key to any website updates, though, is making sure you’re prioritizing customer needs. Decide what a potential customer needs from your website and provide it clearly and effectively. Focusing on the customer can go a surprising distance towards future revenue.

Get Search Engine Friendly

Ensuring potential customers can find your website can help you generate more foot traffic at your lot. You need to ensure your site is discoverable in Google search engine result pages and other search engines so that when someone searches “local car dealership,” yours is the one they find.

Search engine optimization is your friend, as is an active blog. Together, these two elements can help keep your site relevant and near the top of search results.

Blog!

Speaking of blogging—you need to do it. As a part of inbound marketing, the new staple in marketing, your site should have a consistent and steady flow of relevant, informative, entertaining, and helpful articles. As mentioned, this helps with your discoverability, but it also helps place your dealership as an expert in the field.

When blogging, your goal is not to sell in that moment. Your blog should be where prospects can find valuable information and answers to their questions when they need it. People are doing more research before making purchases, especially when it comes to buying a car. You want them to find helpful information from you to build goodwill that will bring them to your lot when it comes time to buy.

Email Distribution

Email is still very much effective, despite some claims that it’s dead. It has and will continue to evolve, but it’s still an excellent addition to your automotive marketing plan. The trick to email marketing these days is not to treat it like a scattershot, trying to reach as many people as possible. Instead, you want to target interested leads and prospects with opt-in email marketing.

Have an email sign-up button on your site that is readily available. Make sure you’re not tricking people into signing up and that way you know that every person on that list is already interested in what you have to say. As a lead generation tool, it’s incredibly valuable—you just have to ensure you’re using it correctly.

These are just some of the techniques you should consider when preparing to update your automotive marketing plan.