The new year is a great time to evaluate your lead generation techniques and identify new trends that you should include in your marketing strategy. You already know some of the broad trends: digital marketing, and in particular, social media will continue to grow as more Millennials enter the car-buying phase of life. Other specific shifts may be harder to navigate, unless you have this easy guide to boosting your lead generation efforts this year:
Understand your website is never finished: If you’ve recently completed a website redesign, don’t assume that you can check that off your list and sit back to relax. Your website is the hub of your marketing plan, working hard to get picked up on organic search listings, converting visitors into leads and leads into customers, and providing quality resources for your target audience.
Your website works hard for your company, so dedicate a line item on your budget for your website every year, and make adjustments throughout the year as needed. If you haven’t optimized your website for SEO, you may want to outsource that to a specialist so that you know you’re being seen in search results.
Successful sales will be highly personalized: Personalization is a trend affecting all industries. Customers don’t want to be just a shot in the dark anymore; they want a personal relationship with the brands they use. Reciprocal loyalty is something you’ll want to pursue by targeting specific segments of your audience with highly personalized content.
Part of personalization is offering not just a car, but a brand experience. Techniques like inviting your audience to post pictures of their best adventures in their car on Instagram, to organizing a road rally for convertible owners, can help potential customers feel a personal connection with your brand.
Embrace video: If you have a smartphone, you can post fun videos on Facebook to show off the behind-the-scenes antics of your sales team or highlights from your holiday party. Using unified communications tools in your dealership can allow you to switch from voice calls directly to video conferencing, then take advantage of it to walk customers out to the showroom while you have them on the phone.
Be sure to use video to show off the features of a new sporty car or a new color option on a favorite SUV. These kinds of videos can grab the attention of your audience on social media, and video may appeal to some of your audience members that are not likely to read a blog but they love a two-minute video.
Your marketing strategy is likely to need some adjusting throughout the year to accommodate the trends you see emerging. These three major shifts in successful car dealership marketing can help you kick off your sales goals for 2018.
