Marketing is essential for any auto dealership to be successful. Online auto dealer marketing can come with some hefty costs, but there are still several options for small or new car dealers that don’t have a big budget for marketing. Keep reading to find out how to capitalize on your online marketing potential without spending a penny.
Social Media – If you aren’t utilizing this free marketing tool, this should be a priority because it has great potential to help your car dealership. Social media platforms give your dealership a way to directly engage with potential customers. You can learn a lot about your target audience by using social media. Try listening to what they have to say, and whether it’s positive or negative, respond politely to strengthen your customer service. Depending on the platform(s) you use, you can share your own blog articles, link to third-party articles that are useful for your followers, post videos, or share current events or deals happening at your dealership.
Hootsuite – Once you start taking advantage of your opportunities on social media, you might get overwhelmed trying to keep track of everything on multiple platforms. Hootsuite links to your social media accounts and allows you to schedule posts for the future. You can link up to 3 social media platforms for free. Hootsuite makes it easy to see comments, likes, and general feedback for each post that you make. Your free weekly report includes information about the number of clicks and likes you get, which links/posts are most popular, and much more. If you find yourself constantly rewriting answers to FAQ’s, simply create a draft post on Hootsuite to reply with when needed. Overall, Hootsuite makes staying up-to-date on social media a breeze for car dealers.
Blogs – What better way to drive traffic to your website than through blog posts about topics that your potential customers are interested in? Once car shoppers land on your website, they might come back later for more information, turn into a lead, or even convert into a sale. When there’s a call-to-action present in a blog post, readers of your blog have a much higher chance of converting. Even if your blog doesn’t result in higher sales right away, it can increase brand equity and brand awareness for your auto dealership. Creating new, unique content gives current and potential customers the chance to share your blog posts with more people or start conversations in the feedback section.
Google Analytics – You can use Google Analytics for many different purposes. If you have any campaigns going, it’s simple to track the traffic that it draws to your website. Easily monitor whether your decisions are successful or if they have little effects on your target audience. You can find out how people got to your website and characteristics about the people that your website is attracting. Once they’re on your site, analyze what pages they looked at and, ultimately, whether their visit resulted in a lead or a conversion. This information is valuable for any car dealership.
Google Keyword Planner – If you’re looking for a free tool that can somewhat be used in place of Google AdWords, Google Keyword Planner is a good choice. Type in your landing page to find out what keywords the planner associates with it. You can do the same thing for competing websites to help you brainstorm ideas. Search on a global scale or a local scale to see the difference in how your local audience responds to keywords. The Google Keyword Planner is a great tool to help you come up with new blog ideas because it will recommend frequently searched for words/phrases related to your auto dealership. If you choose to blog about those topics, you have just reached a piece of the market that you didn’t know was there before.