Online search is the first place where a buyer’s journey begins. The key to generating new leads in business and establishing a strong online presence requires effective digital marketing practices.
This is applicable for all the industries and the automotive industry is not an exception. Online advertising is the key to a sustainable automotive organization. However, digital marketing strategies for the automotive industry come with certain challenges.
It is a competitive market. You will find it hard to gain the trust of your target audience. This is a challenge that almost every automotive marketer has to face. So, how do automotive marketers deal with this scenario?
The only way is to figure out smarter and better digital marketing practices for the automotive industry. Here in this blog today, we are going to share the best digital marketing strategies for the automotive industry.
We hope that this blog makes things easier for you. Let’s begin, shall we?
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Establish an online presence
This is imperative to survive in the World Wide Web. Frankly speaking, if you don’t have an online presence, you don’t have any business at all.
Why is it important to establish an online presence?
People now let the search engines do the legwork for them. A car dealership cannot rely on extraordinary signage and traditional advertising. The importance of online marketing is at its peak.
If you don’t own a website, you needed it yesterday. To sustain in this competitive market you need to ensure that it meets the standards of search engines. Make sure the website is optimized for mobile devices as well.
User experience design is an important aspect. It is going to be the first point of contact for most of your visitors and prospective buyers. A 2015 Auto Trader survey found that the internet is 20x times more influential than any other source.
It is applicable for the millennials and Gen X car buyers. Since then, the influence of online marketing got increased with the increase in smartphones and fast data connections.
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Leave no stones unturned to attract prospects
The automotive industry cannot expect people to do business with them immediately, especially if the company is in its early years. Online marketing for car manufacturing is a long haul.
You might get the best products in town. However, the majority of people will make their decisions after they have searched for different options and providers.
How to attract prospects towards your brand?
To enhance the number of leads and sales, you need to be visible to people. This means rigorous digital marketing, use of paid ads, native and display advertising. These can help you get in front of your specific audiences and demographics.
Using website cookies and Facebook pixels, it has become possible to show ads to the audience who visited your website. These tools make it easier to be visible to people while they decide to buy a new car.
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Build an authority over the automotive market
With online search facilities available, most of the buyers want to make an informed purchase. For those looking to buy cars, the model, price, build and year of manufacturing are the basics.
Along these, they also want to know the features that address the pain points and make life easy. In simple terms, they want to know what to expect from a vehicle and how effective it is for their lifestyle. That’s where influencer marketing techniques come in.
How to build a brand authority over an automotive market?
The first step is to make use of content to garner attention and generate leads. By content, we mean video contents, images, blog posts, social media posts on multiple accounts, discussion forums, groups, and communities.
The target should be to quench people’s thirst for information. Create product comparisons, reviews, share industry insights, reports, and more. Make sure to deliver clear and accurate information so that even a layman can understand it.
When you are marketing cars for niche audiences, you cannot rely on run-of-the-mill materials and traditional tactics. You have to demonstrate your expertise and experience in the automotive industry domain. That’s how you build stable brand authority and online reputation.
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Engage with your audience – keep it consistent!
A lot of automotive marketers feel that social media is optional for car industries. This is not true at all, especially with the rise of smartphones and easy internet connectivity.
Why is brand engagement important?
With the increase in the number of ride-sharing services and smart booking applications, we have easy access to car rides. This is why a lot of us don’t think of owning a car. But this doesn’t stop the automobile manufacturing and marketing process, right?
In fact, this is your chance to expand your business through social media. Whether your target audience opts for paid car rides or buying personal cars, they express all their issues on social media.
Setting up a grievance resolving community or group on different social media platforms is your best chance at engagement. Along with establishing authority, creating an engaged community will offer you an opportunity to keep in touch with your audience.
Merely setting up a Facebook page will offer you a valuable tool. Share articles, post original content, and gauge the reactions of their audiences. Soon it will become a place for customers to leave their reviews and feedback.
This will offer you a chance to modify your brand operations depending on your customer preferences. Also, Facebook says 53% of the people are likely to shop with a business where they can message directly.
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Generating return traffic
Staying on the minds of your target audience is difficult. High-quality blog posts will not mean anything if you post them twice a year. Again, posting daily videos will not make sense if they don’t add any value to the customers.
It is important to maintain balance while posting different content on social media platforms and marketing channels. Make sure to create a proper content strategy and implement it across all the channels. You will create a base of users that a loyal and will return.
Car reviews are a vital source. People that read the reviews in the car-buying process will be back for more within the next few months.
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Nurturing the leads
This may sound a bit old school, but car dealers and automotive marketers cannot ignore email marketing. Make sure that your lead management and sales team do not abandon customers that don’t sign on the dotted line.
With a bit of time and follow up, you will find them coming back when they are ready to buy. Set up an email newsletter and target your entire pool of prospects. Monitor the open and click-through rates for identifying strong prospects. Follow them up.
In conclusion, we can say that if you are in the automobile sales market, these digital marketing tactics will get you the ammunition you need. You might find some strategies to be more effective than others. However, there is no silver bullet.
Don’t get upset if you don’t receive a significant bottom-line impact from a single channel. Cars are high-involvement and high investment products. Thus, you have to hit multiple customer touchpoints.
