Digital marketing and the automotive industry
Before purchasing a vehicle, the typical consumer considers multiple brands and is generally in the market for a few months, they spend endless hours online doing research. Gone are the days of blindly walking into a dealership and beginning the negotiation process…
Today, the consumer is educated.
According to a study by SiriusDecisions, 67% of the buyer’s journey is now completed digitally. This should be enough reason for an automotive company to have a good digital strategy in place.
Digital marketing isn’t something new, but it is a great way to ensure success in the ever-changing automotive industry.
Here are a few tactics and trends to focus on:
- Email marketing
‘Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective online marketing strategies that dealerships can conduct. In fact, nearly 75% of adults say that email is their preferred method of communication (Apogee Results).’ Email marketing is highly versatile, it can drive test drive bookings, show videos, new car launches and allows you to promote anything, while being able to track exactly how your customers respond to that email, in real time.
- SEO
If you want to sell more cars, you need to ensure your SEO strategy is effective and can boost your website to the top of a search engine results page. The higher your rank, the greater the amount of opportunities you have to generate leads and close a deal.
- Content marketing
A successful content marketing plan will help you provide the answers to questions shoppers have. By answering specific questions your company will be seen as a knowledgeable and trusted leader, which means, potential buyers are more likely to buy a vehicle from you than your competitors.
- Mobile targeted marketing
You marketing strategy should be optimised for the mobile user. Individuals are using different devices to search, but ensure your content, videos, design etc. are mobile friendly. More and more individuals turn to their smartphones to search.
- Create a single customer view
Through different systems, you should collect data from around your ecosystem and consolidate this into a 360 single customer view, by merging identities from multiple devices into a single one. By unifying your data around each customer, you can send them marketing material based on their needs and behaviour to purchase a car. Automation will play a key role in this.
You can have the most optimised and well-designed website in the industry, but none of that will matter if you don’t market where your target audience is. This is why digital marketing and advertising is important, your audience is online, you need to be to.
Digital marketing in the automotive industry is crucial, if you don’t have a digital strategy, chances are you won’t get the sales.
References:
http://www.dealermarketing.com/5-steps-digital-marketing-success/
https://www.v12data.com/blog/digital-advertising-strategies-on-the-rise-for-the-automotive-industry/
https://www.v12data.com/blog/5-tips-successful-email-marketing-car-dealerships/
https://www.v12data.com/customer-data-platform-cdp/
