Are you generating enough leads and customers as an auto dealer? Could it be that you are not reaching your target audience easily? If your answers to the questions are yes, then it is not peculiar to you alone.
The 2016 state of automotive marketing report revealed that the biggest priority for most automotive dealers is increasing lead volume and conversions.
But there is a problem…
The automotive industry is an ever-changing industry. The way dealers generate leads and customers have evolved. To keep up as a dealer, evolve with it. Modern consumers use the internet to make research before they eventually make purchases. In fact, car buyers spend 59% of their time online researching.
The question is:
How do you reach target audience to convert them into leads and customers?
It is simple!
Use automotive digital marketing tactics.
Since your audience is online most of the time, automotive digital marketing tactics will help you reach target audience at every buying stage.
Think With Google carried out a research study to show the micro-moments or buying cycle of a customer who needs an automotive car. They came up with five buying stages and they are:
Understanding these stages will help you create the right automotive digital marketing tactics to reach your target audience where they are. You will know what they are looking for and what answers they need to buy a vehicle.
In this article, we will look at four (4) top automotive digital marketing tactics you can use to reach target audience. Let’s get started!
1.Automotive digital marketing tactics: Use the search engine optimization.
The first digital marketing tactics you can use to reach target audience at the first stage is the search engine optimization. This is because most of the research takes place on search engines (Google).
The journey of a car buyer starts with the awareness of which brand of car will serve better. They want to know which car to buy. They decide by researching online. It is very important that you position your dealership right where they can see it. The thing is, the average car purchaser makes only two visits to dealerships. The first visit is when they want to buy and the second is when they need car maintenance. All other processes are done online.
Auto shoppers do more research now than ever. They have at least 24 research touch points on average
Your audience is researching different places such as search engines, dealer sites, video sites, consumer review sites, etc searching for information.
The question is:
How do you use the search engine automotive digital marketing tactic to position your dealership in front of your target audience?
Below are tips to help you use the search engine tactic to reach target audience.
- Create search engine optimized content that can rank high on search engines.
- Use paid ads like Google AdWords to position your brand in front of the audience.
- Create a digital presence on dealer sites, consumer review sites and other aggregate sites.
- Deploy local SEO as an automotive digital marketing tactic to reach target audience. Research revealed that 76 percent of location searches result in a business visit within a day.
The next automotive digital marketing tactic you can use to reach target audience is video.
2.Automotive digital marketing tactics: Use Videos
The second automotive digital marketing tactic you can use to reach target audience is video. This automotive digital marketing tactic will help you get the attention of car shoppers. According to research, 84% of video researchers plan to watch auto videos the next time they shop for a car. In a different research, the most popular social media sites used by auto internet shoppers during the shopping process are YouTube (13%), DealerRater (7%) and Facebook (5%).
Also, 69% of people who use YouTube while shopping for a car were more influenced by it than Magazines, TV, or Newspapers.
The latest data from Google revealed that more than half of auto shoppers watch 30 minutes or more of videos as part of their vehicle research.
Do you know car buyers enjoy watching test drives, specs and features, and vehicle interior and exterior walk-through videos?
In fact, the time spent watching the videos have gone up by 2X in the past year.
Video helps to advance brand discovery and consideration. It helps to introduce your brand to target audience and also help them learn more about specific cars so they will narrow down their options. This helps them to take desired actions after watching videos as seen below:
So, how do you use the video automotive digital marketing tactics to reach target audience?
Below are ways you can use videos to reach target audience.
- Create useful video content. You can curate the cars in your dealership and use it to create walk-through videos to reach target audience.
- Showcase your service department in your videos. You can shoot videos about DIY vehicle maintenance, advice on warning signals, etc.
3.Automotive digital marketing tactics: Use social media networks
The third automotive digital marketing tactics are social media networks. Social media networks play a great role in automotive digital marketing to drive target audience to purchase.
Do you know 83% of the auto shoppers are on Facebook and 24% of them used Facebook to purchase their last vehicle? Digital Air Strike survey report revealed that social media ranks more than a dealer’s website as 75% car buyers say social media and review sites were keys to helping them select a car dealership.
Below are tips you can use to reach target audience on the social media networks:
- Create content that will educate your target audience and influence them to make purchases.
- Target auto shoppers on Facebook with retargeting ads
- Monitor Twitter for mentions and strategic hashtags. This will help you better understand your target audience.
- Tell your brand stories on Instagram to reach target audienceThe last automotive digital marketing tactic is mobile optimization.
4.Automotive digital marketing tactics: Mobile Optimization
The fourth automotive digital marketing tactic is mobile optimization. A study Google carried out on one consumer’s journey from awareness to purchase, revealed that 71% of digital interactions take place on mobile. Also, 58% of auto shoppers agree that their future smartphone will be the only device they use for vehicle research.
Using the mobile optimization automotive digital marketing tactics, you can target first-time buyers through a mobile responsive website.
Below are tips on how to reach target audience using the mobile tactic
- Create mobile apps to reach more target audience. Most people use apps to get information on the nearest dealer.
- Ensure your website is mobile responsive
- Use different marketing strategies to reach target audiences such as SMS messaging and MMS messaging.
- Add our phone number to all your mobile content to make it easy for people to reach you.
- Track all your mobile campaigns.
Conclusion
The automotive industry is changing. It is becoming easier to reach target audience through different automotive digital marketing tactics explained above such as the use of search engine optimization, videos, social media networks and the mobile.
Have you tried any of the automotive digital marketing tactics mentioned above? Let’s know in the comment section below.
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