Dealership Digital Marketing: 3 Best Practices & Strategies

Who Should You Partner With?

It’s a no-brainer that we all want the best outcomes when we allocate any budget to our digital marketing spend. But who can we trust to guide our business to its goals?

Do This:

Partner with a digital marketing company that only works with auto dealerships.

There are digital marketing experts out there who know how to drive profits to your dealership. These companies usually are partnered and fully integrated with your DMS, with large desking software companies, and understand ALL of the shopping habits of in market car buyers. This will make marketing more highly focused on the right kind of shoppers, instead of broadcast marketing to people who aren’t in the market at all.

Not This:

Don’t assume any digital marketing expert will yield the results you’re expecting. Someone who knows how to drive business to the big game on Sunday, might not know how to find and direct in market car buyers to your dealership.

How Many Marketing Channels Should You Use?

Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket! Cliché, I know, but hear me out…

Do This:

A precise, custom recipe for every dealership is the best approach.  Every dealership has different needs- even two seemingly similar dealerships who are directly next to each other will have individual needs. It still takes a custom blend of all digital marketing to maximize your digital budget every month.

An ideal digital marketing advisor for a dealership will reach out to your dealership team several times a month. The goal is always to analyze, optimize, and communicate what is working and what needs changed.

Not This:

There are multiple ways of putting all of your eggs in “one basket.” Perhaps you are using only your manufacturers digital platform to have web presence. Maybe your third-party digital provider is driving traffic to their website to view and shop your inventory (as well as your competitors). Lastly you might only be relying on SEO, PPC, or GMB for all your digital efforts.

While the above methods are all important and effective, they become ineffective when you rely solely on one tactic.

When Should You Evolve Your Brand?

How long has it been since you looked in depth at how your digital was working? Making sure someone from your dealership is working very closely with your digital provider is key to success.

Do This:

Keep things fresh!   Customer’s first look at your dealership/showroom is online.

Keeping your efforts fluid instead of getting bound into a “program” that has defined parameters, that will play over and over again, will keep your inventory in more hands than any of your competitors.

Not This:

Don’t get drawn into long contracts with providers that will put your acct on cruise control for the next 12-18 months. Make changes with your digital partner each month to optimize your digital budget.

Let’s First Take A Look At Your Digital Strategy

A good digital process versus a bad one might just be letting someone do a deep dive into your current process to see where improvements can be made. Utilizing some of the ideas that we have presented above will put you ahead of most of your competition.

Bad digital marketing processes could just be antiquated, or stale. Take a look at your digital marketing in depth.

Call a proven partner that can help you decipher all of the complexities that we now face marketing in the digital era.