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Unparalleled Data: Give Customers Great Car-Buying Experience
The secret to attracting more vehicle buyers to your dealership’s pipeline and closing more sales is to offer a personalized, flexible auto-buying experience. In fact, effective dealerships are adjusting since 90% of customers demand a distinctive, individualized car-buying experience.
You deserve better than to fall behind, and neither do your customers.
No other partner in the sector can compare to SimpSocial’s patented technology, which includes unique Cox Automotive customer data. This enables you to anticipate each shopper’s subsequent actions, enabling you to:
Take each customer on a unique shopping adventure
Utilize adaptable, integrated solutions to streamline each encounter.
Find consumers who are 15x more likely to make a purchase**
2023 Tech Trends for Smarter Sales
It takes constant effort to stay on top of technological developments, particularly in the auto sales sector. Owning a company and running a department both require it. It’s your responsibility to keep up with any technology that can assist your organization in adapting (and your team in succeeding), as the next interesting and novel idea is always just around the corner.
But it’s not all a laborious job. The development of technology can greatly simplify your work. A few innovations each year help to boost sales, enhance the consumer buying experience, and provide your dealership with a competitive edge. In other words, staying on top of the latest technological advancements will benefit both you and your company.
Make digital transactions from anywhere
Although entirely online car purchases may be the way of the future, they aren’t yet as straightforward. Consumers today cannot be divided into online and in-store buyers. In actuality, most customers desire a little bit of both. In 2023, the process of buying a car will likely alternate between online and in-dealership activities, so dealerships will need to take these preferences into account.
Your dealership may greatly benefit from technology that enables your employees to create digital transactions from any location and on any device—not just at a showroom desk. No matter where your customers start or conclude the transaction, they can have the same fantastic digital shopping experience thanks to this technology, which is not only more versatile. At every stage of the purchasing process, your clients receive the same experience—not one that is significantly different depending on where they are.
A salesperson can guide a customer through the process of starting a transaction at the dealership and share the deal through email or text message, to be continued at the customer’s convenience. Similar to how a customer can readily monitor all steps taken and modifications made by the customer in the CRM, a salesperson can easily view a deal that a customer starts online and continues at the dealership. No matter where the contract begins or ends, you and your customer are always in agreement. The next step in the growth of digital auto shopping is this kind of shared insight, and it’s what your customers desire.
Utilize Consumer Data to Attract Customers
You understand, as a dealer, that no two clients are the same. Everybody has individual purchasing preferences, viewpoints, and hobbies. The sooner you can recognize this uniqueness and comprehend the unique motives of your clients, the better you can create a tailored shopping experience. Although this procedure is crucial for closing transactions, the modern digital environment makes it more challenging. Without actually meeting the customers, your sales force needs to get to know them and appeal to their interests.
In 2023, look for solutions that give you access to unique insights about consumers based on their web surfing habits. With the aid of this technology, you can actively seek out customers, communicate with them, and direct them along their specific route to buy. You can get information about your clients right in your CRM and entice them with customized offers while other dealers wait for customers to come to them.
This kind of technology can also be used to distinguish between active website browsers and clients who are ready to make a purchase. This enables you to direct team time and effort toward customers who are prepared to make purchases. Along with increasing the general efficacy and efficiency of the sales process, you gain the advantage of increasing sales and profits. Additionally, you provide your customers with the tailored shopping experience they desire.
Although staying current with technological advancements may seem like an endless obligation, it’s one of the finest ways to simplify your work and increase the profitability of your dealership. Spend some time as you ring in the new year looking for tools and solutions that will enhance the online purchasing process and provide you with more knowledge about your clients. Giving your customers the experiences they want and giving your dealership a competitive edge in the upcoming year are both possible with the proper technology.
9 Tips to Sell More EVs
Your dealership will benefit from these effective sales and marketing strategies as they get ready to sell more electric vehicles (EVs) to prospective car buyers.
Ideals for EV electric vehicle sales in auto dealerships
Drivers are increasingly choosing electric vehicles as a means to save money on gas and lessen their environmental effects. If you’re a car dealer, this gives you a chance to sell more electric vehicles (EVs) and possibly turn them into your dealership’s main sales focus. However, it’s crucial to remember that selling EVs differs from selling conventional gasoline vehicles, particularly as the general public adjusts to shifting patterns.
In the upcoming years, we’ve put together a few suggestions on how to successfully sell more electric vehicles at your dealership. For our best training, sales, and marketing advice, keep reading!
Use EV-Specific Marketing Materials as Number One
Make sure to expressly state that you sell EVs on your dealer website and marketing materials. To emphasize the advantages of driving an electric vehicle, use imagery and language that are specific to EVs. To make it simpler for potential customers to learn more about EVs and browse your EV inventory, you may also designate specific landing pages on your website for them. Reach out to the SimpSocial team to discuss your alternatives if you’re having trouble coming up with ideas or need assistance putting together an EV marketing strategy.
2. Inform Yourself and Your Employees About EVs
It’s critical that you and your staff are aware of EVs if you plan to sell them. Study the many EV models available, their range, charging times, infrastructure, EV trends, electric vehicle batteries, and other crucial characteristics. This will make it simpler for you to respond to inquiries from potential clients and establish your subject-matter authority.
3. Provide test runs
Offering test drives is one of the best methods to sell EVs. This will enable potential buyers to personally experience the advantages of driving an electric vehicle. Even if you can’t sell them just yet, make sure you have a couple of EVs accessible for test drives! Even having one model on the lot accessible for test drives can help close a deal because automobile customers are excitedly pre-ordering the vehicles they want.
4. Launch an SEO campaign.
Make sure your dealer website is search engine optimized so that potential buyers may find you quickly while looking for EVs. Use relevant keywords in your blog posts and website material, and whenever you can, establish hyperlinks to your site from other websites. Since SEO is one of our strengths, get in touch with us if you need assistance with your SEO efforts so that you can start ranking for terms relating to electric vehicles and other relevant terms.
5. Start running targeted PPC ads.
Pay-per-click (PPC) ads with a specific audience in mind are another excellent method of promoting your EVs. When consumers look up terms connected to EVs, your website will appear in advertisements that are precisely targeted at them. This may involve Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Google Vehicle Ads.
Create an EV mailing list, step 6.
Create an email mailing list just for people interested in EVs to stay in touch with potential customers. This list can be used to give out regular updates about new EVs, exclusive deals, and events. We advise all dealers to use email flows to target different lists and segments in order to keep customers in your sales funnel because email content marketing has an extraordinarily high return on investment.
7. Increase EV visibility on social media
The use of social media to raise EV awareness is highly recommended. Share EV-related news, images, and videos on social media. Additionally, you may interact with potential clients on social media and respond to their inquiries about EVs. How, then, can you post?
Respond to common questions concerning electric cars
Discuss the rebates and incentives your province offers for buying electric vehicles (this would make a terrific addition to your dealer website as a landing page or blog article).
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showcase fresh EV stock
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Time-lapse video of an electric vehicle’s charging process
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In a little drag race, compare the speed of an electric and gas-powered vehicle (safely, please!)
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Utilize your electric vehicles to procure and transport food, clothing, toys, and other necessities to your neighborhood.
8. Provide options for EV Charging
By offering EV charging options at your dealership, you can make it simple for consumers to charge their EVs. Installing EV charging stations, providing EV charging services, or giving EV charging discounts are all options.
9. Simplify the purchasing process
You and your staff should be experts in electric vehicles! An easy and enjoyable EV purchasing experience will result from the dealer’s ability to respond to inquiries, provide guidance on incentives, accept trade-ins, highlight key components, have a solid understanding of the environmental advantages, be able to discuss charging infrastructure, offer freebies (like free charging station home installation), provide EV financing and EV lease options, and generally exude enthusiasm for EVs.
Increase EV sales at your dealership!
The advice given in this article will help dealers increase the number of electric vehicle sales. Dealers will be able to reach a wider audience and make more sales by implementing the advice on how to market and sell electric automobiles both internally and externally.
If you’re looking for a dynamic marketing firm for auto dealers, get in touch with SimpSocial. We add creative and innovative concepts to your marketing strategy. For a free consultation to unlock your next steps in digital marketing, speak with Whit, one of our associates!
Protect Yourself From Data Thieves: Everything You Need to Know
If your vendors are holding your data captive, they are not your partners. They are your adversaries.
I’ve said it, there!
Would it make any sense if, for example, your hockey coach refused to give you a copy of your stats or if your doctor refused to provide you with a copy of your medical records? Nope. This essay will clarify why dealers have the right to ownership of their own data, as well as offer a few practical suggestions for reclaiming what is legally yours.
Which data is most important to dealers?
The information that suppliers to the automotive sector (particularly in marketing and technology) produce, acquire, and assess is frequently based on:
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Your business
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your online store
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Your stock
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Your assistance
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Your clients’ behaviors
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on your lists
Because it is pertinent to your business as a whole and is necessary for making wise marketing decisions, vendors and dealers are interested in this information. This information can help you make up lost sales, identify why a certain car has been lingering on the lot longer than it should, and even choose the correct inventory to boost sales in the future. Data ultimately translates into money for all parties!
So from where does all of this crucial information come? Most frequently:
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the back end of your website
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Your Facebook business manager or ad accounts
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Your property for Google Analytics/Google Analytics 4
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Ads by Google
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Tag Manager for Google
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Profile on Google Business
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program for tracking third parties
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Additional Google products and advertising channels
Before granting access to your dependable marketing and technology partners, you, as the dealer, should, first and foremost, hold all of these accounts. The truth should only come from one place, and that place should be yours. However, suppliers frequently hold these accounts and any associated data as their own.
Let’s be clear: There isn’t any justification for this.
There is no justification for keeping data hostage.
When we try to acquire ownership for our clients during onboarding, one of the most frequent things we observe is resistance from their former providers.
Many businesses may claim things such as, “We can’t provide ownership of _____ because our set-up is proprietary!” I respond by saying, “If the proprietary setup was that great, the dealer wouldn’t be leaving you!”
Additionally, the fact that we are unable to access the data that your company has been accumulating for years makes our job—as well as your job—much more difficult. We frequently have to start over, which is not ideal. Do not be concerned; we will make it happen. Just not the best!
5 Quick Methods Take Control of Your Data with the Aid of SimpSocial
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Your accounts are your property, and we are just using them for marketing purposes.
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If you don’t currently have a master account, we can assist you in setting one up
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To make sure that your dealership owns your Facebook page, business manager, and ad account(s), we’ll square off with Facebook.
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To learn how to access your accounts, including Google Ads, Google Analytics, and others, we’ll speak with your team. The power of knowledge!
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We’ll install the necessary tracking on your owned accounts to make sure that they not only gather data but also that the value is allocated and analyzed correctly to be helpful in making decisions.
Why is all this information so vital?
In other words, your data affects almost every part of your organization and is produced entirely at your expense. Must I say more?
Many of the marketing choices we make for our dealer partners are guided by this data, including:
Data created from your advertising campaigns can be used to better future advertising efforts, generate more leads, and give you more value for your money. The more historical data we have access to, the more ads “learn” over time.
Website analytics can show you whether or not visitors are converting to leads. It can tell you at what point in the purchasing process visitors decide to depart or remain on your website. It can provide information on the vehicles that people arrive in and the vehicles for which they finally submit leads. It can provide you with demographic data about your visitors and the website pages they find most interesting.
This list might last for days!
Your clients expect protection for the data that you manage through your DMS, analytics, and other properties. Imagine that!
Customers will go out of their way to collaborate with firms that give them control over their data, according to a recent study from Google. The same effort we put into safeguarding your data should also be put forward by you as a different marketing tactic to attract more clients.
Choose a vendor who will treat you and your data with respect.
Know that we’re prepared for when you’re prepared to begin treating your data with respect and partnering with someone who does the same. And please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions regarding your accounts, who owns them, or how to access your data. We’ll be able to offer you the lowdown on your finances and data so you can start making choices that are in the best interests of your company rather than those of your suppliers.
Creating an Effective Walk-Around Inventory Video
These 5 crucial suggestions can help you make walk-around inventory films that sell and reach more online auto buyers.
Your goal should be to sell your vehicles in addition to generating interest in them while doing a walk-around inventory film. The more characteristics you highlight in your videos, the better, as the majority of modern automobile buyers begin their purchasing journey online at the research stage. However, there are several more strategies you can use to set your movies apart from your competitors. Continue reading to find out more.
What Buyers Want to Know Before Buying a Vehicle Online
Important data, including horsepower, performance, fuel efficiency, wheel type, infotainment, and more, are typically found on a conventional Vehicle Display Page (VDP). The essentials, you understand! But contemporary automobile buyers are also looking for other characteristics that aren’t often featured on the VDP.
The top ten attributes of a car that consumers want the most, according to AutoPacific’s 2022 Future Attribute Demand Study (FADS), which polled over 11,000 people planning to buy a car in the next three years, are:
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Front-seat wireless charging station: 47%
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Moonroof and/or sunroof – 44%
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41% of vehicles are all-wheel drive or four-wheel drive.
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41% of dash cameras
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Parking sensors for the front and back – 41%
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Front heated seats: 40%
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Front chairs with ventilation/cooling: 40%
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Monitoring of drowsy/distracted drivers – 39%
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Complete tire fill warning – 39%
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outlets with USB-C: 38%
Making live walk-around inventory films gives you the opportunity to highlight these extra features while also giving potential customers an engaging sales presentation that will convince them to choose your dealership over a rival one.
So how can you create a sales presentation that works? Let’s investigate!
Your Walk-Around Video Guide in Five Steps
1. It’s time to make an interesting film to promote your inventory now that you are aware of what today’s shoppers look for in their cars. When filming your video, take into account the following five crucial steps:
2. Do a thorough walk-around of the vehicle to start off by demonstrating the exterior. Be sure to display any dents or scrapes if the car is used. There are no secrets! During this stage, emphasize any additional outward features like a sunroof or custom enhancements.
3. Take the potential buyer inside the automobile next; remember, you’re selling an experience, not simply a car. Think about aspects like technology, comfort, and safety. Mention the type of seats, their material (leather or cloth), and their cooling or heating capabilities. Highlight this item if the seats have power adjustments since it was ranked as one of the best features in the AutoPacific poll.
4. Next, proceed to safety. Now is the opportunity to demonstrate features like backup cameras, dash cams, drowsy driver systems, and parking sensors. Remember to note the car’s 5-star NHTSA safety rating. Then demonstrate further technological features like USB-C outlets and wireless charging stations. Show the viewer the infotainment system and briefly discuss its functions. Remind buyers of the benefits of these gadgets, such as keeping the youngsters occupied on lengthy drives with the headrest monitors.
5. Finally, display the trunk space, a crucial aspect that customers frequently ignore but would like to know. Show prospective automobile buyers how much space there is in the trunk for luggage and other goods. Put things inside to show how roomy it is!
Additional brief suggestions to remember
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Not worrying about the video’s length is a good idea. In actuality, if a customer is interested in a car, they will either watch a longer video or skip each step of the walk-around.
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Never take yourself too seriously. People are accustomed to and even enjoy engaging with authentic content in the modern digital age. Be yourself, get fired up, and let your enthusiasm for the car show.
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Take into account adding a full-time team member for this particular position. You don’t want to overwork or place unreasonable demands on the time and abilities of your current staff. Your sales team will have more time to handle all the leads these movies will generate because many skilled experts have the equipment and editing software needed to swiftly create engaging walk-around videos for your dealership.
Utilize Additional Marketing Techniques With SimpSocial
Do you need additional dealership marketing advice? Contact our staff today! We are specialists in assisting dealers in using content, advertising tactics, technology, and a variety of other tools to sell their goods and services. We’d be delighted to demonstrate our capabilities for your company.
North American Automotive Events in 2023 That You Should Not Miss
As you prepare to connect with and learn from like-minded business people in the automotive industry, mark your calendar with these fascinating North American events!
Maintaining regular contact with other members of the auto business is one of the best ways to keep your dealership current. It’s critical to discuss successes and issues, learn from other dealership operators and owners, and come away feeling inspired by new concepts you may implement at your dealership.
Each year, there are dozens (heck, hundreds!) of automotive events that provide a variety of positive experiences, from networking with other dealers in your specific market niche to learning about the future of automotive technology to hearing from the most respected thought leaders in the field.
What auto events should you be aware of in 2023? Check out our list of events in the North American car sector that you shouldn’t miss!
1. Lexington, Kentucky, will host the Kain Automotive Event from April 18 to April 20, 2023.
Conference on Digital Marketing Strategies (DMSC) Austin, Texas, May 21–May 23, 2023.
3. Dallas, Texas, will host the 2023 NADA Show from January 26–29.
4. The 2023 NIADA Convention. Las Vegas, Nevada, from June 19 to June 22, 2023.
5. The Reuters Automotive Retail Event 2023 will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 16–17, 2023.
6. Electronic Dealer. Tampa, Florida, from May 1 to May 3, 2023.
7. Canada Used Vehicle Week 2023, June 12–14, in Toronto, Ontario.
8. Used Vehicle Week. San Diego, California, November 6–9, 2023.
9. In Detroit, Michigan, November 8–9, 2023, Reuters Automotive USA.
10. On October 25 and 26, 2023, Detroit, Michigan, will host the American Automotive Summit.
AutoTech 2023, 11-2023, in Detroit, Michigan, on June 7 and 8.
12. Auto.AI. San Francisco, California, June 28–30, 2023.
Elite Auto Club at 80%
Glenn Lundy’s 800% Elite Auto Club, while not strictly a conference, is a place where dealers may partake in the “conference experience” year-round through training, networking, mentorship, group accountability, and more. Members of the 800% Club gather in person twice a year for retreats to strengthen their relationships with other dealership owners and operators and to collaborate on growth strategies for their individual companies. For dealers who are serious about improving their businesses and themselves, joining the 800% Elite Auto Club is a great investment.
The 800% Elite Auto Inventory Portal, a website that connects auto buyers with new and used vehicles offered by 800% Club dealerships in their area, is another project
SimpSocial is happy to enable it.
Making Plans for an Automotive Event Join forces with SimpSocial!
Tips for Increasing Auto Sales Through Digital Merchandising
Important pointers for enhancing your online automobile marketing to increase consumer interest and inventory turnover
To promote and sell goods or services, digital merchandising makes use of digital resources and techniques. It’s the art of showcasing your vehicles in the most alluring way possible, specifically in retail automotive.
The days of having rotating automobile pedestals on your lot and large bows on the hoods are long gone. Modern vehicle purchasers conduct their research online; therefore, it is crucial to present your inventory in aesthetically appealing photographs and videos if you want to turn viewers into customers.
In order to amaze your customers with your online automobile merchandising, where do you begin? These digital merchandising tips are for you if you want to stand out and outsell your competitors online!
Tips For Dealers On Inventory Merchandising (That Work!)
Take beautiful pictures and videos. Although it may seem simple, you’d be amazed at how frequently we see pictures where the camera lens is covered by a thumb or when essential car pieces are obscured by shadows. Surprisingly, modern cell phones are capable of taking high-quality pictures. However, it could also be beneficial to spend money on the right tools, training, or creating a specific job at your dealership for this function.
More is better. Include close-ups of any unique features or upgrades, and display your automobiles from all sides.
Do not use stock photos or watermark your photos. If you must use stock photos while you wait for inventory to arrive (when it is in pre-order status), replace them as soon as you can with your actual shots.
According to a recent Kelley Blue Book study, 90% of consumers would rather see actual photos of the cars they’re interested in buying than stock images.
Be innovative. Regarding how you showcase your vehicles online, think outside the box. Consider adding virtual walkthroughs or 360-degree videos, using eye-catching layouts, and including interactive elements like augmented reality.
Include all the pertinent details. Include information on the make, model, year, mileage, and any additional features or extras that customers would find interesting. This will improve the likelihood of a sale and assist potential clients in making wise judgments.
Be truthful about the vehicle’s state. Your clients may feel misled if you withhold information online, and word of that kind of dubious business will spread quickly if reviews are left about it.
With SimpSocial, you can make your inventory merchandising foolproof.
Working with a vendor who can make your digital marketing activities as easy and efficient as possible is our top advice for dealers. Using our LiftKit inventory platform, SimpSocial has a plethora of experience in automotive marketing and merchandising. In order to assist you in correctly displaying your vehicles and marketing them to potential customers, we’ve created our system to recognize and address frequent problems that dealers encounter.
Don’t let missing information or difficult technology hold you back; with our assistance, you can maximize the effect of your marketing budget!
How Merchandising and Inventory Control Can Help Dealers Sell More Cars
Your vehicles must be properly merchandised on your website in order to be ready for promotion through different digital marketing channels, where they might attract more high-intent buyers to your dealership. But in addition to the more immediate advantages of “seeing it and buying it” that digital merchandising offers, there are also some long-term gains to spending money on a reliable inventory software supplier for new and used auto dealers:
enhanced presence online. The website of a dealership is frequently where prospective buyers make their initial contact. Dealers can build a more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing website that endures the test of time by making an investment in a website and/or inventory software supplier that streamlines this process for them.
Individualized advice. Your inventory software should include reports that enable you to place orders for goods that are more in demand in your region and offer customized suggestions to your clients. These features—along with many more!—our inventory reporting dashboard enables our dealer partners to offer their consumers a carefully curated shopping experience.
increased openness. Dealerships may increase transparency regarding their prices, available inventory, and vehicle specifications with the use of digital merchandising. As a result, customers will trust you more and be more inclined to make long-term purchases from your dealership.
Create a Toolbox for Inventory Merchandising with SimpSocial.
Making your automobiles look good online is the main goal of inventory merchandising! Utilizing digital tools to promote and sell cars in a competitive market can give dealers an advantage and help them stand out from the crowd. With sound business practices and reliable dealer software, you can significantly influence vehicle sales at your dealership.
Please don’t hesitate to send us a message, and a member of our team will get in touch with you if you’d like to learn more about your dealership’s inventory merchandising and marketing strategy or browse our selection of inventory and marketing solutions for car and RV dealers.
Track Form Abandonment To Increase High-Intent Leads
By monitoring form abandonment on your dealership website, you can learn how to increase the number of high-intent car shopper leads for your dealership.
It’s critical now more than ever for car dealers to take advantage of all chances when car buyers express interest in purchasing due to the current status of the retail automotive sector, which includes supply chain bottlenecks and a softening of the market.
Dealers frequently wonder if they should cut back on their advertising and marketing in order to save a few dollars when the auto market is declining.
I can understand why people might think so, especially considering how many suppliers make it challenging to tactically and simply evaluate the results.
Because of this, at SimpSocial, we’re on a mission to help dealers outperform and outsell their rivals by offering the most lucid, uncomplicated, and successful marketing techniques that grab the interest of potential auto buyers.
Tracking form abandonment on the websites of our client partner companies is only one of the numerous ways we accomplish this. When trying to create leads, many auto dealerships frequently run into the issue of form abandonment. It happens when a customer opens a form on a dealership website, like a contact form or a financing application, but then navigates away before submitting it. Understanding and monitoring form abandonment can help dealerships increase the quantity of high-intent car shoppers revealing areas of friction in the customer journey.
How Google Analytics, version 4, Can Help
Google Analytics enables dealerships to measure both the number of visitors to a specific page and the number of people who abandoned a form, making it a useful tool for tracking form abandonment. Our staff at SimpSocial, however, makes it a priority when onboarding new dealer partners because tracking form abandonment isn’t configured by default in GA4.
We can use the information we discover about which forms are frequently abandoned and the stages of the process at which prospective consumers leave in one of two ways:
1. Examine the user experience to determine the potential causes of form abandonment and make smart on-site improvements to address the issue.
2. Utilize the data on abandoned carts to create clever retargeting ads that will entice those customers back to the dealer’s website.
For instance, if users leave your financing application page repeatedly, the form may need to be simplified or made shorter. In this situation, making the form simpler and adding fewer fields might enhance conversions while lowering form abandonment.
Software for Tracking Third Parties
Utilizing a service like Hotjar is another efficient method for tracking form abandonment. Dealerships can observe where website users click and browse with this heat mapping tool. This data can be used to spot areas of friction, such as forms that need brevity or precision, or pages that don’t effectively encourage users to fill out forms. Dealerships can make modifications to enhance the user experience and boost conversions after these areas have been identified.
Retargeting Form Abandonment Customers
Customers may stop completing website forms for a variety of reasons, but we’re curious as to why they even began. For someone to desire to fill out the form, a certain low-funnel level of purpose is required. These clients have progressed farther through the funnel than most.
Retargeting campaigns are a potent tool for boosting form fills and lead generation. A dealership can use this kind of campaign to advertise specifically to site visitors who have abandoned a form. They can nudge prospective buyers to return to the dealership website to finish the form by reminding them of their interest in a car. When they are executed properly, of course, these types of retargeting efforts are considered to be incredibly successful across a variety of industries.
Increase your high-intent leads now.
The amount of high-intent car shopper leads can be increased by auto dealerships through tracking form abandonment. Dealerships may improve the user experience and boost conversions by identifying points of friction in the client journey. Additionally, retargeting ad campaigns can be an effective way to remind potential consumers of their interest in cars and entice them back to the website to complete that form. Tools like Google Analytics and Hotjar can also provide useful data for form improvements.
By working together, you may increase your lead generation efforts by accessing additional tools and knowledge from SmpSocial. Let’s talk so you can receive more affordable, high-quality leads!
Why Keeping a Blog Active Is Still Important
The use of blogs in content marketing is still significant. In this post, you’ll learn more about ways to increase their effectiveness.
Does business blogging still exist today? You had better be serious! In 2022, many business owners will actually want to incorporate blogs into their content marketing plans for the first time. Using blogs, you may inform, enlighten, and interact with your audience. They can also help you improve your internet visibility and rankings while attracting new visitors to your website so you can advance them through the sales funnel.
Is there a tried-and-true method for writing blog posts? Definitely not. However, you can increase their usefulness by using techniques like formatting, keyword research, cross-linking, backlinking, and more.
The lead content creator at SimpSocial offers advice in this article on how retailers and companies can write engaging blog posts and explains why she thinks doing so is still important.
Blogs are well-liked, efficient, and offer the third-highest ROI of any format, according to HubSpot. With 29% of content marketers preparing to utilize blogs for the first time and 10% preparing to invest more in blogs than any other format, the use of blogs will continue to increase in 2022.
Create Your Own Blog Formats
Even though it’s perfectly fine sometimes, your blogs can contain much more than just lengthy text blocks. Don’t be scared to use your imagination when it comes to how you present your data. Here are some suggestions to get you going:
Quizzes
Providing FAQs
Infographics
posts in “Versus” fashion
Interviews
Formatting for “How-to”
Add endorsements, comments, or quotes as social evidence.
A competent content producer will use blogs to increase SEO.
Blog articles are a fantastic opportunity to share your thoughts and experiences with your audience, but there are also many opportunities to use innovative and successful SEO techniques in your blog posts to raise your online rankings. Let’s examine a case in point.
In a new Cognito search window, perform a quick search for “When do 2022 Toyotas come out?” The search produced the following results:
Just below a paid ad for the main Toyota website, our client Castlegar Toyota occupied the top position on the first page. Not bad for a family-run dealership in a tiny British Columbian town—they were ranked higher than Toyotamedia.ca, carconnection.com, carsdirect.com, torquenews.com, cars.com, motorbiscuit.com, auto123.com, and motortrend.com!
In order to ensure that our client would appear as high as possible on the Google results page, our writer was able to make use of a toolbox of SEO techniques.
These tactics are something we incorporate into each and every blog post we write for our clients, and we frequently have success with them. We can’t reveal all of our strategies, but if you’d like to speak with our staff about including monthly content development in your company’s digital marketing plan, don’t be shy about setting up a free consultation.
SCHEDULE A FREE CONSULTATION
Checklist for Successful Blog Posts
Ask yourself these questions the next time you’re preparing to publish a blog post. Even if you don’t check all of these boxes, doing so will increase the likelihood that your post will be successful in terms of content marketing.
Do you have a thesis or purpose that is clear?
Do all of your other arguments support this thesis or goal?
Have you included pertinent crosslinks to your site to build a “web” around it?
Does your content have a clear call to action?
Have you written a sufficient number of words?
Have headings been used to aid in immobility?
Have any quotations, photos, or other pieces of information that don’t belong to you been given due credit?
Do you have any graphic materials for your readers?
There might be someone—a company, a brand, a website, or a publication—interested in sharing your blog article.
You Should Start Blogging Soon
Blogging is the ideal platform for expressing yourself, regardless of the sector, goods, or services you provide. Get your thoughts down on paper first, then strive to post once a month. Share it with your email marketing list, on social media, or even with your friends and family.
How Auto Dealers Can Tap Social Media for Vehicle Demand
We’re discussing techniques for using social media to harness customer demand during a period of expansion.
Even though people are concerned about the rising cost of living, there is still a high demand for both new and used cars and this is anticipated to continue. Even while the auto business is continuously changing and dealers must take into account a variety of factors, no one is willing to publicly acknowledge that we are currently experiencing a recession, which has disrupted a number of supply chains. It’s the perfect moment to think about how “it’s more about harnessing the demand out there than worrying about the lack of it” because we know there is still a need for vehicles.
Many dealers find themselves faced with the question, “What do I do? How can I capitalize on this demand? In a situation like this, how should one stand out and speak up?
Although customer expectations are shifting, there is still a chance to stand out. Therefore, now is the ideal time for auto dealerships to discover how to harness the power of their brand, stand out from everyone else trying to accomplish the same goal, and, ultimately, benefit their customers. What a win-win situation!
Customers are paying more for their cars and searching for or waiting for the automobile of their dreams for weeks or even months as a result of chronic inventory shortages. However, some who don’t want to wait weeks or months for their preorders to arrive prefer to buy more easily accessible secondhand cars. Increased overall earnings for automakers and dealers, as well as record-breaking sales of automobiles before they ever arrive at the showroom, are the results of dealers achieving record profits from used inventory sales.
Dealers can take a few steps to maintain their competitive edge in their effort to understand how to manage the current vehicle demand. Here are some considerations that dealers should make in order to stay competitive in the market today!
The Use of Social Media to “Stand Out”
Whether you like it or not, social media has been a crucial component of every effective online presence and marketing strategy. In today’s social media-driven world, big businesses now recognize that a two-way communication strategy is the best approach to humanizing, legitimizing, and boosting their brand power. Treating a brand like a person and interacting with them is the best way to get consumers to open up and invest more in it. The most efficient and interesting way to do this is through social media websites. Customers are people, and people are amiable by nature. Cars are also driven by people. I believe you see what I mean!
Why Should Auto Dealerships Use Social Media?
A more pertinent query may be, “Who doesn’t use social media these days?!” If you haven’t already discovered it, you should be using social media since 4.48 billion individuals worldwide do so. There are probably buyers for your cars there. Get outside and talk to them!
The majority of pre-purchase research is done from behind a computer screen, and 62% of auto purchasers begin their search for a vehicle online. Additionally, social media influences 71% of consumer purchasing decisions, so auto dealerships should be active on platforms like TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram.
Having a presence on social media by itself can:
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Increase your trustworthiness and credibility
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Draw in new customers
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increase client loyalty
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Boost traffic and sales
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Increasing your social proof
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to increase brand awareness
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Promote your company’s values.
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Locate Relevant Trends to Use
Dealerships must adapt to survive in a market that is continuously changing. For all dealers to continue operating successfully over the long term, they must “stand out.” TikTok has become a fantastic platform for trying new things and discovering uncommon chances to separate out from the crowd. While obtaining organic exposure to your videos and gaining viewers is great, riding a trend can give your films the boost they need.
Lacking inspiration? Try not to overthink it. Is a particular dance being performed by many people, for instance? With your team, perform a dance routine on or inside one of your vehicles! With TikTok usage at an all-time high, applying TikTok to boost sales at your auto dealership is a highly worthy concept. There are many wonderful ways to market your business and raise the visibility of your videos.
Make Your Dealership More Human
Reaching today’s consumers while dealing with this extraordinary upheaval poses a new set of challenges for manufacturers. To compete in the automobile sector, brands need to preserve their adaptability and make meaningful connections. Being innovative and at the forefront of change is crucial, and this cannot be emphasized enough. Brands need to be on social media, where their customers are if they want to compete for their attention and money.
Show the world that your vehicle lot is staffed by humans! We know that buyers still prefer to interact with auto dealers personally. You and your dealership may show that you’re more than just a place to buy automobiles through social media. Exposing the fact that you and your staff are actual individuals with unique personalities will help allay any “dealership dread” that potential consumers might be experiencing.
fostering positive customer relationships
Buying a new car is a big decision because individuals don’t typically make it on a whim. Before making a final choice, a buyer conducts a great deal of analysis and study (and that’s before the test drive even begins!). Automobile dealerships must build relationships with their clients and be accessible to them throughout the whole purchasing process if they want to differentiate themselves, outperform the competition, and attract new customers.
When deciding which dealership to buy from, there are numerous other aspects to take into account in addition to the car. Dealerships should make a great deal out of whatever unique selling points they have, such as a convenient location, an extended warranty, or insurance savings.
Think of another aspect of your dealership’s uniqueness: do you assist with out-of-province or out-of-state delivery? Do you have a stellar finance group? When people buy a car from you, do you give them free oil changes for a year? special offers at your dealership? beyond simply participating in the community? Consider what you can offer, and don’t be shy about sharing it with the audience.
Potential for Social Media Content
Assume you follow best practices for social media (excellent content, ideal video length, popular noises, and music). In that instance, your vehicle business has a decent possibility of getting a lot of attention. By indicating your location on the app or in your postings, you may also broaden your audience by allowing the algorithm to connect you with nearby potential clients. For your car dealership, creating original and interesting content can be a terrific strategy to expand on social media.
Additionally, it need not begin and end with the sale of automobiles; material may also be created for the parts and service departments of the dealership, which are typically the biggest contributors to your bottom line. The potential reach of social media sites like TikTok can potentially surpass the effectiveness and affordability of focused advertising efforts.
Always keep in mind that the objective of your social media campaigns shouldn’t be to earn money right away but rather to plant the seed that will make your company the first one customers think of when they need to buy or repair a car in the future. Social networking is becoming more of a long-term endeavor, but the rewards are worthwhile!
Conclusion
Social media may increase brand recognition, help attract new customers, and enhance brand loyalty so that customers refer you to friends and family who are also shopping for a new car. Being present on social media shows that a car dealership is doing well, humanizes the brand, and encourages people to follow you even if they don’t need a car right now (but they might in the future!).
Even if challenges for auto dealerships will always exist in the market, it is crucial to follow trends and take all reasonable measures to (morally) remain afloat. Additionally, every auto dealer needs to develop patience and consistency.
Whit, our director of demand generation, concludes by saying, “If I could have one marketing wish, it would be that everyone could have the patience to see the boring thing work. Because you’re willing to try it again after seeing how well the unsexy thing works.
The One Marketing Tip That All Dealers Must Know
Chris Walker, CEO of Refine Labs, recently revealed the truth about bogus ad attribution and how it enables marketers to declare inflated and incorrect ROI in a LinkedIn post. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the reasons why this technique is bad for dealers and offer crucial advice for increasing your marketing success by relying on one straightforward overall idea.
In this article, we’ll discuss:
Why using fake attribution for advertisements can ultimately cost you.
The one marketing advice that can’t be beaten!
5 excellent suggestions for implementing this marketing advice at your dealership.
The ‘Ick’ of False Attribution
Let’s begin by asking, “Why would marketers lean into ‘new’ tools that promote false ad attribution and reporting?”
To continue operating and rake in more of your advertising cash, for starters!
Seriously, though, the biggest cause is that some firms, in an effort to scale, seek to appear “cutting edge” without considering how it would affect their clients in the long term. They want to spread the good news, enjoy it for as long as possible, and then dismount when the wheels finally come off. Ick.
“By utilizing the most forgiving attribution model imaginable, this strategy is fantastic for marketers to ‘prove’ the ROI of commercials. To genuinely comprehend what is effective, however, in order to scale outcomes and business growth, is quite poor. The entire purpose of attribution is to gather information from various sources to help with strategic decision-making, not to ‘prove ROI.'” Scott Walker
Of course, we don’t approve of or take part in these practices. They are carried out with a limited mindset that prioritizes quick outcomes over user data to produce results for future generations, regardless of how unstable the foundation upon which those results are built is.
We do, however, support the use of innovative marketing-based techniques that are flexible enough to expand your dealership business. To discover exactly what we’re referring to, scroll down!
The Single Best Marketing Advice You’ll Ever Get
Okay, you might need more than just this one piece of marketing advice. Despite the drama, Chris Walker’s approach is extremely adaptable and fundamental in its brevity, which is why we’re spotlighting it in this article:
Listen to your customers first and foremost if you want to scale your marketing outcomes.
Hmmmm. Could listening to your customers above all else be the secret to continued marketing success? Unbelievably, many dealers fail to recognize how crucial this is or “listen” incorrectly. They make advertising decisions that don’t suit their market because they get sucked in by the fancy (and occasionally erroneous) attribution and ROI metrics discussed above.
Let’s look at some customer-centric marketing strategies you can implement at your dealership to help guarantee outstanding results that will endure.
Customer-Centered Marketing Techniques You Can Use Right Now
1. To manage your inventory, use statistics on customer browsing and purchasing.
Between what retailers believe customers want and what they actually desire, there can be a significant divergence. No matter how much money you throw at your paid ad campaigns, if you’re pushing inventory that your clients aren’t interested in purchasing, you’ll inevitably face a brick wall.
Understanding what your clients want is the first step, followed by buying as much of that product as you can and promoting it properly. By paying attention to and satisfying your consumers’ needs, you’ll move a lot more goods.
Learn Important Inventory Information With SimpSocial
The Vehicle Reporting Dashboard from SimpSocial offers accurate information on the products and services your local clients are looking to purchase. Learn which vehicle years, makes, models, and even colors are the most popular so you can stock up on those items and sell them to customers before your rivals.
2. Pay attention to user opinions.
Although it can be difficult to hear unpleasant customer reviews, they are equally valuable as positive ones. Put your ego aside and think about how you might improve your company by incorporating client input. Have you received criticism for the way users interact with your website? Perhaps it’s time to find a new source for dealer websites. Do customers frequently complain about long waits in your service lanes? Consider developing plans to make your service appointments shorter.
Don’t be hesitant to use language in your marketing that refers to the improvements you’ve made once you’ve taken the time to answer client issues. It will demonstrate to your clients that you value their feedback and are constantly working to improve, which is a proven method to keep them coming back.
3. Ask questions and engage in active listening.
Being confident is a key component of being a good salesperson, but many experts in the business either steamroll their clients when it comes to assisting them in finding the ideal car for their requirements or they give up at the first indication of obstacles and opposition. Consider your consumers’ feedback critically and creatively to come up with solutions that will increase their likelihood of making a purchase. Challenges should be viewed as chances to practice your listening and analytical skills!
Finding a solution to someone’s problem is fundamental to becoming a successful salesperson. If you aren’t paying attention to a customer’s problems, you can’t find the best answer for them.
4. Connect with your neighborhood.
There is no better way to create a customer-centric marketing strategy than by actively participating in your neighborhood. You will learn priceless information that you can apply to the development of your marketing efforts, encompassing everything from advertising re-targeting to promotions to developing a reliable brand that attracts a consistent flow of clients.
Here is an illustration from Rainbow Motor Sales, a used car business in Coldwater, Michigan, which discovered that the region’s sizable Spanish-speaking population was underrepresented in the automotive industry. They employed a bilingual sales agent on-site, directed targeted traffic to an educational landing page, and gathered exclusive leads that their rivals had overlooked.
5. Use your data in some way.
This has previously been briefly discussed, but it bears mentioning again: it is useless to listen to your customers if you do nothing to address their concerns. Your marketing team should be developing successful tactics that satisfy the particular requirements of your niche market. And if they aren’t, it’s time to find another marketing firm!
Your website analytics, inventory data, Google reviews, and the sales team’s reports all provide information on who your customers are and what they require. With no need for bogus attributions, use that data to direct your marketing efforts and watch your sales rise.
With SimpSocial, step up your dealership marketing.
At SimpSocial, innovative and personalized marketing approaches are genuinely our area of expertise. We approach everything we do from the perspective of the client, concentrating on your specific geographic area to create campaigns that are practical for your dealership. We are your full-suite auto dealership marketing and inventory management solution, helping you with everything from conceptualization to implementation and whatever you might need in between.
We’d love to talk with you about how SimpSocial helps advance your dealership marketing. Do not be reluctant to get in touch with us right away to schedule a free, private, and obligation-free call with a member of our welcoming staff!
5 Expert Tips for Auto Dealers to Make Marketing Stick
It can be difficult for car dealers to stand out and be memorable in the fast-paced digital world of today. Customers are constantly being barraged with advertisements and marketing messages due to the intense competition. How then can auto dealers develop marketing that leaves clients with positive memories?
Here are five expert recommendations to help you improve the effectiveness and memorability of your marketing campaigns.
1. Stand out and be memorable
The key to making a brand stick in a customer’s mind is exposure and originality. Marketing for auto dealers needs to be distinctive and leave a lasting impact. This might be accomplished by employing distinctive jingles, slogans, or ad styles that differ from what consumers generally see in the marketplace.
It can be difficult for car dealers to stand out and be memorable in the fast-paced digital world of today. Customers are constantly being barraged with advertisements and marketing messages due to the intense competition. How then can auto dealers develop marketing that leaves clients with positive memories?
Here are five expert recommendations to help you improve the effectiveness and memorability of your marketing campaigns.
1. Stand out and be memorable
The key to making a brand stick in a customer’s mind is exposure and originality. Marketing for auto dealers needs to be distinctive and leave a lasting impact. This might be accomplished by employing distinctive jingles, slogans, or ad styles that differ from what consumers generally see in the marketplace.
2. Be brief and frequent.
Frequency and simplicity are just as critical for establishing memorable marketing campaigns as distinctiveness. Simple and repeated statements have a higher chance of being remembered by customers. Car dealers should therefore concentrate on producing commercials that are simple to understand and memorable. Your marketing can become more memorable by employing memorable slogans, vivid colors, or eye-catching images.
3. Evaluate the success of your campaign
Success depends on measuring the impact of your marketing initiatives. In order to adjust your advertising and marketing as you learn more about your clients, you must monitor your progress and determine what is most effective for your target demographic. Tracking progress requires having precise objectives and measurements in place.
It can be difficult for car dealers to stand out and be memorable in the fast-paced digital world of today. Customers are constantly being barraged with advertisements and marketing messages due to the intense competition. How then can auto dealers develop marketing that leaves clients with positive memories?
Here are five expert recommendations to help you improve the effectiveness and memorability of your marketing campaigns.
1. Stand out and be memorable
The key to making a brand stick in a customer’s mind is exposure and originality. Marketing for auto dealers needs to be distinctive and leave a lasting impact. This might be accomplished by employing distinctive jingles, slogans, or ad styles that differ from what consumers generally see in the marketplace.
2. Be brief and frequent.
Frequency and simplicity are just as critical for establishing memorable marketing campaigns as distinctiveness. Simple and repeated statements have a higher chance of being remembered by customers. Car dealers should therefore concentrate on producing commercials that are simple to understand and memorable. Your marketing can become more memorable by employing memorable slogans, vivid colors, or eye-catching images.
3. Evaluate the success of your campaign
Success depends on measuring the impact of your marketing initiatives. In order to adjust your advertising and marketing as you learn more about your clients, you must monitor your progress and determine what is most effective for your target demographic. Tracking progress requires having precise objectives and measurements in place.
4. Establish Emotional Bonds With Your Clients
About 70% of decisions are based on emotional considerations, according to Gallup’s own study, while just 30% are based on intellectual ones. In Gallup
One of the most effective strategies to change clients’ purchasing patterns is to build emotional relationships with them. Consider Superbowl advertising as an illustration. How many of the advertisements that are shown during the Superbowl cause viewers to cry or laugh? In your advertising, you should strive to evoke similar emotions.
As a vehicle dealer, you want your marketing to satisfy the wants and expectations of your clients. The way that cars are marketed and presented in vehicle descriptions, for example, can be one technique to elicit strong emotional responses from different audiences. It’s not only about the item, the price, or the image; it’s also about the emotional bond that companies can forge with their customers.
Be mindful of things like how your clients will feel when they purchase a new automobile from your dealership or when they conduct business with you: secure and reliable? Excited? Confident? Find ways to express these emotions!
5. Be Reliable and Sincere
Consistency and sincerity are necessary for developing a memorable brand. Customers will remember how a company treats them more than the brand’s facts, and contemporary consumers are more aware of when brands are acting dishonestly. It’s simpler than ever to get entangled in a web of lies or wrongdoings, especially in the age of social media.
Ensure that your brand identity is authentic and consistent across all platforms, including your website, social media accounts, and in-store interactions. Always check to see if your messaging is sincere and connects with your audience.
Make Automotive Marketing Stick With SimpSocial’s Assistance
Marketing can be difficult to create in a way that customers remember. However, auto dealers may create distinctive, enduring, and successful campaigns by adhering to these professional suggestions. You can build a distinctive brand that stands out in today’s cutthroat economy by being innovative, keeping it simple, assessing your success, building emotional connections, being consistent and real, and so on.
Simpsocial is prepared to be your marketing partner for vehicles! Look no further than the SimpSocial team if you’ve always wanted to learn more about effective marketing strategies. We are eager to support the success of your upcoming campaign. Talk to us at Simpsocial.com or call SimpSocial (888) 829-1110
Dealers’ Google Tag Manager 101
It’s 2022. Thus, by 2023, browsers will have more third-party cookies disabled than Will Smith at an Oscars party. You’ll also see that Google Analytics is no longer collecting data from your website as of July 1, 2023. Finding a method to consistently and accurately collect the data from your website is more crucial than ever because you have fewer Google data resources available to you.
Through code placed on your website, ad platforms (like Meta and Google) can collect data from your website. But this poses a problem: Troubleshooting installation, faulty code, website errors, lost leads, lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! All this while communicating constantly with your web team.
When it comes to efficiently running advertisements, dealerships are in a tough spot as a result of these fundamental changes to the digital world. Therefore, how can dealers avoid these very real and present risks? Simple and free are the answers. Google Tag Manager is in use.
In this article, I’ll explain how Google Tag Manager (GTM) functions and why it’s so important for running your advertising successfully in 2023.
The Importance of GTM for Your Online Marketing
Website analytics tracking with GA4
Google Analytics is currently the most popular method used by dealers to monitor website data. But in 2023, Google Analytics will phase out the version we are all familiar with in favor of GA4. GA4 is entirely an event-based system. That indicates that Google Analytics will stop collecting data and analytics from your website as of July 1, 2023. Setting up “event” tags on your website is the only way to continue to collect the reporting metrics you require from GA4. But every event tag is different. You would require hundreds of lines of correctly formatted code on your website to track all the different occurrences, such as clicks on search buttons, lead form submissions, and page views. (source) Due to the delicate nature of where code can be deployed on your website, this requires extremely close technical coordination with your web team and is also risky. Event tracking was meant to be simple and easy with Google Tag Manager. The GA4 “Tag” interacts easily with GA4, allowing you to tag “triggers” that identify events on your website, and “variables” that identify dynamic information on your website (such as year, make, and model data) with each tag. (source)
Ads Monitoring
There is a Google Tag Manager setup that is automatic on all significant advertising platforms. Microsoft can mirror your present Google Ads setup, Facebook and TikTok provide direct partner interaction with GTM, and Snapchat even has its own template for setting up within GGTMr. You can accurately implement tags within the GTM using these easily accessible methods without ever having to deal with any code yourself. For simple tracking of conversion events from your website into Google Ads, Google Tag Manager includes a predefined tag option for Google Ads. All of these services also give you the choice of having unique tags for each event placed on your website. Similar to GA4, you would need to install a little piece of code for each and every platform and event. As an alternative, you can just install one Google Tag Manager on your website and forego the individual installation approach. (source)
improved site speed
Finally, having a lot of code from many ad platforms on your website slows things down. The fewer visitors wait for your site to load, the more visitors leave, and the more leads you lose, the slower it loads. The page loads quicker when tags are added collectively through Google Tag Manager rather than separately. The user experience is better, more visitors remain, and you get more leads when the page loads more quickly. (source)
Summary
With the release of GA4, GTM will essentially be required for Google Analytics.
In GTM, tracking ads is simple to do.
By using GTM, you can avoid conflict and issues with the web team.
Faster websites generate more leads.
How to Use Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is essentially a universal plug. Data from your website feeds into GTM, where it is subsequently distributed to the websites you specify via GTM’s tags. It is simple to install code (tags) using the GTM without changing the website itself because it is a single, centralized location.
The GTM can access your website’s data because it has been set up there. You would establish a GTM “container” on the GTM platform. A tracking code is generated when the container is created, and the code is subsequently deployed on your website. Possibly the final tracking code that has to be put on your website is this one.
Everything added to the Google Tag Manager platform can now populate your site after Google Tag Manager has been deployed on it. The “pixel” (event code) of advertising platforms can now be placed without ever contacting your web team, and your website’s data can now automatically populate into Google Analytics. Now, third-party ad suppliers won’t need to consult you, your web team, your marketing team, or your third cousin’s niece (just in case we need the go-ahead! ), in order to put the tracking code they require on your website.
You now comprehend the basic principles involved. What exactly are the parts of Google Tag Manager that enable it to function, though?
The tags are located at the top level. Tags frequently serve as integrations with other websites. They might possibly be codes, though. For a complete list of the predefined tags that GTM provides, click here.
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Triggers are what tell Tags when and where to shoot. Thus, the actual action you’re intending to execute is what triggers are. They could be views of the VDP page, clicks on “buy now” buttons, or thank-you sites. Triggers are configured as directed actions. You can set the trigger to fire on pages with VINs and not fire on pages without VINs, for instance, if you don’t want that VDP to happen on the home page.
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Variables make up the GTM’s final components. On your website, variables represent dynamic information. Page views, URLs, and other elements that are incorporated into every website may all be tracked using Google Tag Manager’s built-in variables. Data layer variables are typically the variables that dealerships use the most. These variables are based on a data layer, which is essentially a table that is built into your website and provides event names and definitions so that they can be fetched automatically. In certain cases, categorizing information is simpler to record than the actual data. For instance, you might manually enter “2021 Ford EcoSport” or “2013 Chevrolet Camaro” on each trigger if you wanted to record the Year, Make, and Model information for each VDP, or you could use Data Layer Variables to simply state “Year, Make, and Model data.” Fortunately, this data layer is typically created by your website provider.
All significant ad and website monitoring companies demand that code be added to your website in order to feed that data into your advertisements, allowing you to track website data and optimize your ads. The potential for user mistakes increases if each platform, event, and action requires manual coding. As a result, your website will load slowly, users will have a poorer experience, and there will be a lag between the website and the web host. Even if they lack coding skills, using Google Tag Manager makes it simpler for you to take ownership personally or assign ownership to your team or a vendor.
Guide to a Dealership’s Total Service Strategy
We’ve created a full-funnel service strategy guide only for dealers! By guiding them through the customer service process, you can attract more likely consumers.
Your current clients come first.
The people who are most likely to drop by for service or repairs are the clients who purchased a car from you. Create a list of customers you sold cars to but who never came in for service using your CRM. Send them to your schedule page by contacting them via their news feed with a special offer. Additionally, it would be advantageous to add clients who have not recently returned for their vehicle’s maintenance.
winning over brand owners.
In your neighborhood, look for owners of particular brand models. SimpSocial provides the most recent DMV records, so you can target people who drive cars associated with your brand. “Do you own a Ford?” you ask your audience. Visit us to service it! Through our scheduler, we have open slots available.
Retargeting and returning clients
Return to the front of the room. Even if they clicked on your advertisement to see the service page, no appointments were made. Don’t let that client get overlooked. Bring them back to the website and provide them with a compelling offer!
Customers should be shown what they want to see.
Setting up an appointment will be encouraged by discounts and special offers, especially if they are time-sensitive. A few five-star evaluations from some of your prior service appointments would also be helpful. Positive evaluations go a long way, and if they previously had a bad experience somewhere else, they are more likely to choose your location.
What should customers expect from your service procedures?
Showcase your service department’s turnaround time in terms of speed. How is customer service going? Do you provide financing or payment plans for maintenance and repairs? Make sure your audience has a great experience by letting them know that skilled specialists are looking after them.
unique and innovative.
For any brand, we provide custom-branded service and creativity! Make yourself stand out from the crowd by doing something flashy and attention-grabbing. Draw them in and capture their interest. We switch.
SimpSocial Can Transform Your Advertising in 4 Ways
These days, a lot of digital advertising agencies will attempt to sell you on an established spiel about what makes them different from other automobile advertisers. At SimpSocial, we don’t have to sell you anything because we are aware that performance speaks for itself. We are now letting the general public know how our advertising is performing. Anyone may now verify for themselves how we maximize the return on our advertising investments.
Unique Creative
Genuinely individualized creativity is difficult to find. The majority of advertising firms will utilize generic carousel ads with cookie-cutter images that the average social media user will quickly scroll through. Not with us—each and every one of our dealerships gets individualized campaigns with totally unique digital creative that we create just for them to spread their particular messaging. To keep up with dealer promotions, we update our creative every month. Anything from graphics and movies to frames, phrases, and more may be found in our unique creativity! We adjust our work to the needs of the dealers. Since custom creative consistently beats generic advertisements, it is crucial that the team working for you is willing to go above and beyond to customize creative for your advertising.
Specialized Approaches
Since every dealership is unique, we think that no two dealership strategies should be the same. We take crucial information into account when recommending a plan, including market share, audience insights, location, selling objectives, inventory, and more. We collaborate with you, the dealer, to ensure that your campaigns are doing what you want them to. We boost client retention in service centers, bring in more merchandise through trade-ins, and increase sales, among other things. We provide the solutions and expertise to achieve whatever objective you have for your dealership.
Level of Traffic
Comparing our traffic to other paid advertising models, it has the highest rate of return. Seriously. Customers are 4 times more likely to return to your dealer’s website to shop than they are to do so through any other channel, and we all know how crucial it is to return to a dealer’s website several times during the car-buying process. Due to our sophisticated audience targeting, which we customize for each dealership, our traffic performs so well. Depending on factors like ad type, area, and goal, we have several audience strategies. Every dealership has a unique audience, therefore, we take full advantage of our data to drive as much traffic as we can to your business.
Cost
You’ve undoubtedly decided that you want our product at this point and are wondering how much it will cost. We offer the industry’s lowest price per VDP. Currently, the typical dealership pays a staggering $4.50 for each VDP view. Our average cost per VDP view is only $1.50, thanks to rigorous targeting and budget optimization. Consider the traffic you will not experience if you pay more for less. By switching to SimpSocial today, all of it may be altered.
We take pride in providing all of our customers with the highest-quality services. Why are you holding out? To learn more about how we can help your dealership succeed and maintain a long-term relationship with your dependable advertising partner, SimpSocial, schedule a demo with us right away.
New Opportunities are Uncovered by Inventory Shortage
There must be other methods for dealerships to continue to generate income given their struggles to maintain good inventory levels. Check out these marketing objectives to keep business flowing in rather than reducing your advertising budget.
Contact clients who have previously purchased a vehicle.
How we support our clients and develop a long-lasting relationship with them is the question at hand, not how we achieve our financial objectives. Getting in touch with former clients to inquire about their purchases can actually help reinforce your dealership’s key principles. How are they finding their brand-new car? Is there anything they would alter if they could? These inquiries prioritize the needs of the consumer and open the door to several more options, such as recommendations.
Vehicle accouterments.
There are a lot of people who desire to alter their vehicles. Showcase your accessories to people who possess specific brands and models. These marketing strategies particularly appeal to Jeep and truck customers who might be interested in off-roading, camping, or industrial jobs. Highlight components like lift kits, cold air intakes, custom exhausts, paint jobs, window tinting, etc. Showing them options that are relevant to their needs or hobbies will pique their curiosity.
Trade Promotions.
It could be time to divert your attention to some trade ads if you have a very low stock level. Describe the kinds of vehicles you are looking for in your advertisement. We are able to target owners of particular vehicles and model years thanks to access to third-party data and DMV records, ensuring that you receive queries that are pertinent and personalized to you.
Service Promotions.
Service promotions are a fantastic way to ensure ongoing revenue. Reach out to potential new customers or encourage returning consumers to return for vehicle servicing. To entice returning customers, give discounts to existing clients or place an emphasis on seasonal services like air conditioning and heating. To learn more, view our comprehensive service strategy guide!
bespoke orders.
If your website has a “build your own vehicle” function, you can use it to continue selling even if you don’t have specific inventory available on the lot. People might be more inclined to create their own unique vehicle given the current lack of possibilities. Additionally, custom orders can reduce the costs of your dealership’s insurance, lot fees, and other expenses related to holding inventory on the lot. You will probably receive custom constructions before general stock because these requests are given priority.
Plans for protection
It might be advantageous to put some emphasis on selling vehicle insurance policies if your dealership has a partnership with an insurance company. This might not be a really expensive item, but if enough people sign up, you could get a respectable kickback.
It’s a fantastic idea to consider some of these alternate campaign methods and how they can benefit your dealership while the business is sluggish. We’re here to show you how to make the most of the data you’ve already gathered in your database in order to help you survive the semiconductor scarcity.
New Digital Strategies for the Year
Through the use of objectives like “Why Buy,” “Ready to Buy,” “Customers for Life,” and “Promotions and Events,” we are aligning our offering to be more funnel-based than ever. The cost of our dealer’s ads per converted client has been shown to decrease when your ads are optimized to include each of these campaign types. Lead volume and VDP views are not the only factors. It’s about making the most of the data you’ve already gathered, reaching the correct customers with pertinent messaging, and not letting any chance pass you by. In order to ensure that people that visit your site have high intent and are prepared to take desired actions that will result in a purchase, we work to prioritize quality customer engagements over quantity of one particular KPI. Advertisers have grown accustomed to using ads that are simple to scale and can focus on a single KPI while ignoring the relationship between the client and your dealerships. Does it really result in sales? What percentage of the traffic actually visits the website again?
A “Why Buy” marketing goal to raise brand awareness will stoke engagement with potential customers. By displaying a video of your dealership and what makes it special, you can demonstrate to potential customers what your business is all about. This increases the size of your audience and directs visitors to your website toward the top of the marketing funnel.
Our ads are designed to function well on mobile devices and are organized in accordance with Facebook’s best practices. Using this technique, you can sell more cars with less work since automotive inventory advertising has 1.6 times more conversions than ordinary Facebook image advertisements do! These dynamic advertisements provide each user with a personalized experience that moves them closer to the decision-making process as part of the “Ready to Buy” marketing goal. They highlight vehicles that are pertinent to what in-market customers are looking for or have already looked at. In order to offer the intended results while avoiding vehicles that do not suit those criteria, we emphasize particular VINs that our clients have indicated an interest in moving off the lot. We can now offer dealers a more streamlined process for designing their ads thanks to this.
To keep your client base and turn consumers into “customers for life,” maintaining customer loyalty is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Utilizing personal identifying information, match people in your CRM to the Facebook network and market to a targeted clientele with special deals. Regain contact with those cold leads, maintain any existing customer relationships, and promote everything your dealership has to offer. Inform the neighborhood about significant occasions and campaigns centered around your goods and services. Promote limited-time opportunities while prioritizing the customer’s experience.
With these campaign improvements, we’re not only creating a stir on Facebook—we’re also providing cross-platform functionality! Streamline all of your social media channels so that they serve the same purpose. Determine your target audience for each platform, where each user is in the purchasing process, and take advantage of it. As an all-platform advertising firm, we make sure that each platform is prepared for users to carry out the tasks you value. Each agency develops things according to its own procedures and standards with limited communication on how these campaigns can work together as a whole when there are several agencies for each platform. We make sure that ads across all platforms operate in concert to achieve common goals.
With the help of SimpSocial’s platform, clients can now share DMS access with our marketing team more easily. This allows us to create real-time audiences that are customized to your consumers’ current interactions with your business while also reducing overall advertising expenses. Instead of bombarding a consumer who has bought a new car from your store with new car offers, introduce them to the department of fixed operations. The advertiser can develop a large number of directive messages directed at particular customers thanks to integration with your dealership.
Contact our staff right now if you need assistance creating this plan for your shop.
Best Car Accessories for Grads Going to College
Our goal at SimpSocial is to not only assist you in finding the ideal vehicle but also to make sure you get the most from it. Check out some of the most crucial auto accessories for recent graduates heading off to college.
1. a kit for roadside assistance
A roadside emergency kit is one of the most crucial items you should give your teen driver. When your child leaves for college, you never know what can occur. An emergency roadside kit will contain a number of supplies that can be used in an emergency. For instance, if the battery is dead, you could need the jumper cables to start the vehicle. Take a look at the tools contained in each emergency roadside kit to see what they include.
2. A smartphone holder, second
You must also let your kid use a smartphone holder. Nobody should ever text and drive, and if the vehicle is mounted on the dashboard or a vent, your child may reconsider. Furthermore, a smartphone holder can make it simpler to observe if your youngster utilizes their phone as a GPS. You should think about getting a college driver for this crucial safety feature.
3. A Car Hammer for Emergency
Another excellent tool is an emergency automobile hammer. An emergency car hammer could save your child’s life if they become trapped inside the car at any time. Finding an emergency vehicle hammer with a seatbelt cutter on the opposite side may be the extra step you want to take. Even though a seat belt can save your life, it can get in the way if your youngster is trying to flee the vehicle. Consider purchasing an emergency escape device.
4. An air compressor and tire pressure gauge
A tire pressure gauge and inflator are crucial pieces of crucial equipment that will enable your youngster to learn how to care for themselves. This might be a good way for you and your child to develop a close relationship before your new college student moves out.
Now is the time to teach your child how to use a tire pressure gauge if they don’t already know how. Additionally, you must demonstrate to your child where their tires’ recommended PSI is. Make sure your toddler comprehends how to correctly inflate the tires as well, and that’s the last thing.
5. A car cover
And lastly, you ought to get your kid a car cover. This is a fantastic chance for your child to modify his or her vehicle to fit their unique sense of design. Because there are so many automobiles parked close to one another at school, a car cover is essential. A car cover can help prevent door dings and scratches, which are a very real danger. This is especially crucial if you believe your youngster will go a long time without operating a vehicle. Put a car cover on to safeguard your investment.
The New Tv Commercials Are Social Videos
How many millennials are still using cable, to your knowledge? Younger generations are shifting their attention away from traditional media like television and more toward streaming and social media. This implies that you’re losing out on a whole generation of viewers if you’re not promoting videos on social media!
You would be restricting your influence in addition to missing out on huge audiences of potential clients. According to studies, media users view content that could affect their decision to buy a product or visit a website for more than 15 hours each week. You can be missing out on potential revenue if your material is not consumed during the typical 15 hours per week. The ability of a consumer to make decisions in the product/service market is greatly influenced by videos. According to a recent survey, more than 64% of customers said they watched a video about the business or product they were considering before making a purchase. A lack of video material shouldn’t cause your dealership to lose out on web traffic at all.
Despite the many advantages of social media video content, we are aware that making the actual material can be challenging. Knowing this, we’ve made it simple for our SimpSocial clients to produce original videos. In one of our packages, we include a feature called 3-2-1 Video, which allows users to record videos by simply following the app’s instructions. Once the video has been recorded, it is uploaded to our servers so that our team of highly qualified editors can add their unique spin and make the video appealing to viewers. Get your game on, and don’t miss out on prospective audiences or online traffic.
3 Ways Advertising Companies Waste Your Money
It’s crucial to ensure that every advertising dollar is used wisely in the modern world. Spending on relevant creatives, quality targeting, and current performance tracking over the course of your campaign lifespan is required. While many marketing firms may assert that they do just that, it’s crucial to know what to look for to identify whether a business is truly wasting your advertising dollars.
Here are the top 3 signs that a business is wasting your advertising dollars:
1. Use placeholder images or “Coming Soon” advertisements.
Having inadequate adverts is one of the worst ways for dealers to turn away potential buyers. This typically happens when an advertiser fails to properly filter out the photographs from the feed that they use in their adverts. Dealership advertisements will not be consistent or comprehensive; rather, they will be incomplete.
As consumers, we are all aware that this is neither visually appealing nor does it even resemble an actual advertisement. It’s incredibly simple to browse by or skip over it without giving it a second thought. Unfortunately, a dealership loses money only the fact that someone saw the advertisement. We refer to paying for an unfinished advertisement that produces little to no outcomes as a waste of advertising spend. Fortunately, we at SimpSocial create custom feeds that are designed to remove unwelcoming placeholder images, ensuring that your adverts are always current with relevant inventory images that clients WANT to see when browsing for a car.
2. ‘Cookie cutter’, generic advertisements.
No dealership wants to spend money on advertisements that are exactly the same as the 20 other dealership clients of their advertising agency. Unfortunately, a lot of marketing firms have made the mistake of trying to streamline their operations by creating generic slogans that they then apply to all of their accounts. Because of this, consumers see uninteresting, cookie-cutter advertising that is generic and that they KNOW isn’t relevant to them. Poor outcomes will occur from allocating your dealership’s advertising budget to non-custom ads. See an example of a generic advertisement that was obviously not evaluated before it was published below.
It’s critical to have entirely unique material, right down to the phrasing of each ad, in order to stand out from the competitors.
3. Unstably constructed campaigns
Do you understand how your dealership’s advertising agency plans its campaigns? Are they organized in any way? Are they employing the right targeting strategies? Knowing where your advertising dollars are going depends on the types of campaigns that are being done for your dealership being transparent. Too frequently, dealerships are left in the dark about the types of campaigns that are being run or even if they even have a framework. This is typical because advertising firms arrange their campaigns in a “one size fits all” manner, which obviously doesn’t work based on the objectives of your dealership. Depending on the size, objectives, and location of your dealership, SimpSocial offers a variety of campaign structures. Want to increase used sales in a big city? That particular structure is in place and ready for you to start seeing benefits. Looking to increase new vehicle sales in a rural location and improve your dealership’s reputation with your OEM? Our marketing structure with a rural brand focus have you covered!
Answer the question for yourself now that you are aware of what to watch out for! Your advertising budget: Is it being wasted by your agency? You will be aware that the response is a resounding NO if your dealership collaborates with SimpSocial. For each of our dealers, our team puts in a lot of effort to make sure they have the appropriate picture feeds, customized ad content, and unique campaign structures so you can get the most out of your advertising budget.
The Dealership’s Manual for Social Achievement
It’s critical to not fall behind and to embrace the rise of social media as its influence continues to increase beyond all reasonable comprehension in order to make it useful for your dealership. What more effective approach to engaging potential clients than by speaking with them directly on their social media platforms?
A successful social presence is something that many dealerships overlook. The advantages include being able to communicate with your customers and reach a wider audience while presenting a favorable image of your business. All of these events have the potential to increase your revenues.
The challenge that now arises is how to increase your social media profile in order to reap the rewards. Fortunately, you can use some of the advice from our team of social media specialists, who have spent years figuring out how to grow company pages! social media strategy for a dealership
Post frequently.
Consistent posting is one of the finest strategies to increase your social media exposure. As a result, the social media platform’s algorithm will reward your page for publishing often and put you in front of audiences more frequently. It is useful to use a scheduling platform if you are having problems keeping up with posts or are too busy to update every day. You can schedule posts on these sites in advance, so you don’t have to spend time updating every day. The key is consistency! social media strategy for a dealership
Engaging with your audience is simple.
A wonderful way to collect input from your audience and future clients is through engagement. Asking a question is one of the simplest ways to encourage audience participation! To start a conversation with them about your products or services, try to make it car-related. When clients respond to a poll asking, “What is your favorite body style?” for instance, it can start a discussion about promoting particular models.
Incorporate employee appreciation.
Customers consider friendliness when choosing a store where they feel at ease making purchases. You want to distinguish yourself from your rivals, who mostly concentrate their postings on sales. Include a few staff spotlights or altruistic activities your dealership has participated in! Stories about your dealership’s charitable events or employee accomplishments that go above and beyond the call of duty will have an impact on readers and increase traffic to your business.
Promote your dealership as a leader in the field.
Before deciding to come or make a purchase, customers must have confidence in your dealership. Develop that trust through industry expertise and experience! Your dealership can demonstrate its expertise and differentiate itself from the competition by uploading industry-related content like articles, data, or insightful studies.
You’ll soon see a rise in your social media presence if you put these crucial suggestions into practice! Your client relationships will improve as a result, and it will also help draw new customers to your dealership, increasing your sales opportunities. Do you need assistance with these modifications to your dealership’s social media plan?
Stop Losing Business: Try Carousel Ads Instead
You want your independent dealer business to expand consistently. You must be the dealership that people choose to visit first if you want to do that. The issue is that following every other dealership’s cookie-cutter approach won’t make you stand apart. Inventory carousel advertisements, which are slideshow advertising that feature photographs of your inventory and vehicle prices, may appear to be the perfect solution, but there are a number of serious issues with that tactic.
These inventory ads have the following issues:
Dealership digital advertisers are increasingly using inventory carousel ads, also referred to as automobile Inventory Ads. In fact, according to Facebook/Meta, these automated and state inventory ads account for an astounding 89% of dealerships’ digital advertising budgets. While these advertisements could appear to be a quick and inexpensive approach to highlight inventory, you’ll be in direct competition with every other dealer in the market, particularly franchise businesses.
Using a broad audience as a target
The effectiveness of your targeting is another problem. These advertisements may not be being seen by the people you wish to target since the platforms on which they are displayed, like Facebook, optimize them to be seen by people who click on advertising regularly. Additionally, many platforms restrict the targeting to people over 18 who live within at least a 15-mile radius of your business if you’re a dealership. That will cost a lot to even make a dent.
Taking Away From Your Brand
Advertisements that just feature your inventory and prices have a tendency to suggest that the only value of your dealership is its selection and pricing. These kinds of marketing will quickly start to backfire unless you’re certain that you always have unique products and competitive rates.
The Cure
To solve the issue, it’s essential to work together with your marketing team and advertisers to develop a straightforward yet distinctive plan that meets the needs of your dealership and distinguishes you from your rivals.
striking out
Using video advertisements to promote your dealership to individuals who may not be familiar with you before is one such successful tactic to take into consideration. According to research, over 70% of in-stream video advertisements are completed. Additionally, video advertising can be displayed in social media newsfeeds, articles, and other online communities where your customers are most likely to be found.
Prescriptive messaging and precise audience targeting
You can use individual customer data to target a specific audience for your dealership thanks to the availability of data service providers like TransUnion. For instance, if you are excellent at qualifying customers with less-than-perfect credit, you could use data analysis to target this particular audience and show them a video demonstrating how your dealership can qualify customers with low credit scores with a low down payment and manageable monthly payments.
You may differentiate your dealership from the plethora of mass-produced, automatically generated inventory ads while still communicating with the right demographics by utilizing these specialized and distinctive tactics.
Potential buyers will be aware of your dealership and curious to learn more after seeing your video a few times. Your paid advertisements can start to work their magic here. Customers can easily touch to phone, submit a loan application, or see your website by tapping on your advertising that are designed to look like Facebook Marketplace.
Once a potential buyer has visited your website, your advertising pixel(s) will be able to identify them, allowing you to retarget them using a thorough paid ad campaign. This implies that you can target users who started filling out a lead form or credit application but abandoned it.
If all goes according to plan and a customer ultimately decides to purchase a car from your dealership, you can benefit from the ability to target them with advertisements for up to 180 days following the sale. By expressing your gratitude for their business and asking their network or anybody they know who would be interested in buying a car, these ads can serve as a simple yet effective method to say “thank you” rather than trying to sell them another vehicle. By doing this, you may easily broaden your audience and draw in new potential clients who were recommended by an individual they know and trust, all while preserving your relationship with your current clients.
Compared to the more conventional strategy of just flooding a specific area with inventory, you can significantly enhance new sales conversions by employing focused tactics like the one outlined above. The strategic approach enables you to target the right audience while being more specific with the message you want to deliver. This ultimately encourages business growth by optimizing how your advertising funds are used.
To sum up, while inventory carousel advertising might initially appear like a good idea, they may ultimately prove to be a waste of money. The best course of action would be to work with your advertiser to develop a distinctive plan that focuses on the proper demographic and highlights your dealership’s advantages, ensuring that your ads are more effective and unique than those of your rivals.
About SimpSocial
An automobile digital marketing company called SimpSocial is dedicated to assisting dealers with significantly increasing sales, service, and trades. SimpSocial, a company founded by former Facebook employees and industry leaders in the auto industry, invented a platform to hone target audiences and make advertisements more pertinent to consumers. SimpSocial’s dealership clients are able to be the dealership continuously in the shopper’s feeds thanks to white-glove dealer-specific creative.
You can get in touch with for additional details at SimpSocial.com or SimpSocial (888) 829-1110.
Are You Barely Marketing Your Dealership?
The definition of the term “bare minimum” according to Wiktionary is “The smallest possible quantity or the least fulfilling, but still adequate, condition that is required, acceptable, or suitable for some purpose.”
Are you certain that you’re taking all reasonable precautions and taking the bare minimum steps to prioritize marketing and growth? What would that even look like for someone who is simultaneously running a complete dealership? Most of the time, YOU, the busiest employee in the entire company, are responsible for this.
The phrase “bare minimum” should not be interpreted negatively; it is sufficient and acceptable! Even just running a dealership is extremely difficult to work. This article is your comprehensive guide to the simplest (but non-negotiable) marketing success factors, so you can be sure you’re doing at least the “bare minimum.”
While encouraging in-store traffic with hot dog cookouts might no longer significantly impact your sales department, terms like recall lift, retargeting, and conversions initially sound frightening and unclear. “Digital has become ingrained at every level of the customer experience,” states a Sitecore blog post from 2021. It is more than just a crucial element for businesses looking to go beyond the status quo; it is crucial for any brand hoping to increase the immersion and impact of those experiences.
In charge of your Facebook page and domain validation:
Let’s discuss your brand. When it comes to differentiating your store from the retailer down the street, social media is king. Are there any people you know that don’t use Facebook? You can reach your audience through social media advertising in the manner that they prefer. Use it to promote user-generated content, solicit opinions and reviews, plan events, and interact with your audience. Organic articles are excellent, but even a small investment will enable paid advertising to increase sales. Responding to online customer reviews can help you enhance your services and your customer’s overall experience. Sharing pertinent information, like the amusing driving video from Instagram, might draw in new clients and improve client loyalty.
Would you rather someone from your staff or one of your advertising partners mess with all that “Facebook stuff” so you can get the job done? But what would happen if that hourly worker left the business? What if you choose to work with multiple vendors who require access, or switch advertising agencies? If you’ve ever had to personally ask an unhappy ex-employee for their password or to help you find a file, you can imagine how uncomfortable it might be to ask them to give you access to their Facebook account.
Purchase a Facebook Pixel and start using it:
A special component of webpage code is the Facebook pixel. It gathers information, such as button clicks, that you may utilize to make tailored audiences for advertising that is made up only of pre-qualified leads. A potential consumer who interacts with your business and demonstrated behavior that indicates a higher possibility of making a purchase is known as a pre-qualified lead. According to statistics, these influential audiences convert to sales more frequently than others. You can remarket a specific advertisement to only people who have already used your finance app using the Facebook Pixel. By seeing what people do after being delivered your advertising, you may also research and evaluate their effects.
Even though you won’t need the data it collects right away, you should install this as soon as possible. That is YOUR priceless information; begin acquiring it now.
Use effective CRM. Speaking of pre-qualified leads, nothing is more potent than your existing clientele. You can create a database of the most valuable audience for your business if you are meticulous and precise when gathering data from customers who have already made a decision to purchase from you. Consider a customer appreciation sales event to finish the month strong or a loyalty discount offer to energize your service department. You may offer a trade-in bonus just to friends and family who suggest customers, or you could reach out to your supporters with a branding message to stay top-of-mind.
Sign up for Google Search Console for your website: According to Wikipedia, Google Search Console is “a web service by Google that allows webmasters to check indexing status, search queries, crawling errors and optimize visibility of their websites.” You may use Search Console for free, and it will assist you in examining and occasionally resolving server faults, diagnosing difficulties with site loading and security, and optimizing website performance.
Check your Google Analytics: With Google Analytics, you can uncover crucial information and find the answers to crucial questions such, Are your users using mobile devices? Are people visiting your website as a result of your social media posts? How many people used Google to look for your website? How many new users did your marketing efforts bring in? Another free tool to find vital information about your website and user traffic and find the answers to these and other questions is Google Analytics.
Using Google Tag Manager, you may manage your tags and send information about website visitors to your Google Analytics account. Do you recall when I first introduced you to the Facebook Pixel? After creating it, you ought to insert it into Tag Manager. Your website’s speed may be slowed if you include a lot of code for each ad platform you employ. “Even a one or two-second delay in loading time can harm customer engagement and generated revenues,” Joan Vega noted in a 2022 Wetopi post. For instance, online retailer Amazon estimates that missed sales due to a webpage loading slowly can total more than $1.6 billion a year. This slowness is eliminated using Google Tag Manager.
The Moral: You can do this! I can attest to how demanding dealership work can be, but you’re already in the industry, clever enough to handle it, and resourceful enough to handle the minimal minimum. You may be sure that your dealership now has the necessary digital footprint to be found while safeguarding your valuable data.
You might run into technical problems and unfamiliar marketing phrases when you apply this guidance in your daily practice, or you might need to learn more about the topic. Don’t worry; get assistance from a qualified organization! If you need a referral, I know of a terrific one.
About SimpSocial
An automobile digital marketing company called SimpSocial is dedicated to assisting dealers with significantly increased sales, service, and trades. SimpSocial, a company founded by former Facebook employees and industry leaders in the auto industry, invented a platform to hone target audiences and make advertisements more pertinent to consumers. SimpSocial’s dealership clients are able to be the dealership continuously in the shopper’s feeds thanks to white-glove dealer-specific creative.
You can get in touch with us for additional details at SimpSocial.com, SimpSocial (888) 829-1110
TikTok Can Benefit Your Dealership, but There’s a Catch
Over 1 billion people use TikTok each month. Not to mention, compared to other social media platforms, they have the highest engagement rate each post. This has made it easier for companies to expand their markets and establish their brands.
Dealerships like Stingray Chevrolet, Loudon Ford, and others have racked up tens of thousands of followers, millions of views, and a brand-new customer base. How can I participate in this, you might be thinking.
There is a catch with TikTok for your dealership. We’ll outline the three prerequisites for success on the app for you.
1. A content creator who works for the company must be present
For the content you create to have the authentic, natural feel of the app, it must be entirely filmed and edited on a smartphone. Additionally, you need to be constant in order to thrive, so blogging only once a month won’t cut it. The ideal situation would be to have a person on-site who could publish a couple of times per week. Salespeople may be excellent candidates for this role because many younger employees are active on social media and may already be familiar with the app. If you don’t know someone who fits these requirements, TikTok For Business offers a wealth of tools that can instruct you in the fundamentals.
On this platform, you shouldn’t use stuff like TV commercials. Another reason why it’s essential to have someone on-site who can consistently produce new material for you is because of this. TikTok is about being authentic and showcasing who you are as a brand, so avoid making things feel like commercials or using a widescreen format. All videos on this site must be vertical. Once more, you can find out more by visiting the TikTok For Business website.
2. A persona or branded character to serve as the face is a must-have
Your content ought to continually feature a recognizable face. While occasionally including other persons is good, having one constant person appear in each of your video thumbnails improves brand recognition and builds your identity. But you must be careful in how you present this character.
TV ads are ineffective for this app, as we have stated. Not only is it not native to the platform, but it also comes off as an advertisement too often. This means that while you are employing your branded character, use them for humorous trends, casually discussing cool cars, etc. You don’t want them to employ the same aggressive sales techniques that TV commercials frequently do. Instead of talking about MSRP savings, for instance, let them sit in a car and enjoy a few features like Apple CarPlay or the sunroof while taking a joyride. Even if it is less assertive, it generates interest in the inventory you have.
We advise choosing a dedicated employee who is fun-loving and, even better, someone who has been and will remain a part of the dealership for a significant amount of time. This reduces the possibility of having to restart if the individual you choose ends up leaving the firm.
If your dealership has a mascot, you might use it instead of coming up with a costume that only you can wear to maintain the brand’s image. Consider the Duo Lingo bird as an illustration. A person in a bird suit is the focal point of their entire page. Or, as an example of a dealership, Kyle Chapman Motors, and its camel mascot may be ideal.
3. A Brand Strategy Is A Must-Have
Many businesses attempt to participate in all of TikTok’s trends, including dances, singing, and other activities, in the hopes of becoming popular and becoming viral. Many people stumble and fall at this point. You MUST HAVE A PLAN for what you want the voice of your brand to be, and I cannot emphasize this enough. Being unique and exciting is good, but you need to know where to stop and what fits your brand. For instance, dressing up as a dance trend at a dealership can seem odd and a little too random. Finding out which dealerships are the most well-liked on the app and conducting a search for them will help you determine what is proper and what isn’t. See what they’re doing and be motivated.
Using the TikTok Creator Portal is just another fantastic tool for developing your plan. You may read the community rules here, see examples of content strategy from other pages, and keep up with new features for the product. After learning these concepts, you’ll be prepared to grab the camera and begin recording.
These are the fundamental components needed to make your dealership successful on TikTok.
Are you prepared to advance, or are you just looking for some free tips on how to launch your TikTok account? Reach out to SimpSocial at simpsocial.com or SimpSocial (888) 829-1110
In-Market Shoppers are a Hoax
Stop buying into the hype surrounding “in-market” shopper targeting, and allow me to tell you what DOES WORK.
Any seller that claims to be showing your adverts to customers just when they are about to make a purchase is lying.
Which is that? Do they all say that to you? I, therefore, advise you to read my opening line again.
One of two things is true about the claim that “we target shoppers right when they are ready to buy.”
We are all doing it, which is the first conceivable reality. We can all reach the same conclusions because we have access to the same information. The truth is, if we CAN target these customers, then every vendor and every dealership is already doing it. Your generic inventory ad that directs a customer to a VDP is in direct competition with every dealer in your market at the same time.
The second possibility is that retailers simply are unable to foresee when a customer would make a purchase, and the idea of “in-market shoppers” is just a sales tactic. What gives you the impression that Slick Jones at digital-ads-r-us knows any more than the biggest online retailers in the world, who are unable to predict when their customers will make purchases?
Targeting in-store customers is not a novel idea. Advertisers have been boasting they could do so for years, and by doing so, they would reduce your advertising budget by using your ad spend more effectively. How are things going for you with that, is the true query.
Dealers have been spending more on advertising per vehicle sold every year, with the exception of the last two years (pandemic, supply chain, chip shortage, etc.). Where did all those cost reductions and savings go? I’ll explain what took place. You fell for a scam! Bamboozled! Duped!
exclusively the auto business considers that its advertising should exclusively target “ready-to-buy” customers. The majority of shops use year-round advertising that is tailored to particular events or products.
The majority of vendors think that your content should consist entirely of “highly targeted inventory ads” throughout the entire year. Sure, they have meetings with you to discuss creative strategy during which they propose including a “Black Friday sale” in the ad content. Alternatively, they can get inventive and propose advertising a lease payment!
The truth is that you must constantly market to everyone, and your material must take into account the demographics of your target audience as well as where they are in the car ownership cycle. That’s correct; your advertisements must target both the person who made a purchase from you 90 days ago and the person who bought a car from a rival three years ago, and they must be very different from one another.
The capacity to build new audiences based on how your advertisements are being interacted with is one of the most potent features of digital advertising. Customers who visit your website and navigate to the credit or finance page, for instance, should see a different audience than customers who visit and go to the scheduling service page. Both shouldn’t be in the same room as a customer who looked at your merchandise. Unfortunately, the majority of auto advertising doesn’t support their dealers in this way.
Exactly why not?
It requires a lot more work than simply running the same old, boring carousel advertising that everyone else does. It requires effort, innovation, technical knowledge, and testing. There are many wonderful agencies out there, but there are also plenty that want to automate your marketing rather than make the necessary investments.
What can you do as a result of everything?
Well, asking what you can do after reading this post is a good first start. Understanding how crucial the consumer is to your advertising plan will be helpful whether you’re working with your in-house marketing team or an agency.
Getting curious about the procedure is the first and easiest thing to take. If your agency provides you with advertising samples (and they should! ), don’t merely proofread them. Instead, take action. Pose inquiries.
Who is this advertisement aimed at?
When people interact with it, what are we doing?
Do we divide up our audience into segments and create relevant adverts depending on those divisions?
How does all of that appear?
These are crucial inquiries that your agency must be able to address for you, and you must comprehend the answers if you hope to expand your dealership more successfully. Find someone who can if they are unable to satisfactorily respond to your questions.
Are you prepared to advance, or do you simply need some free marketing advice? Reach out to SimpSocial at simpsocial.com or SimpSocial (888) 829-1110
Traditional Online Marketing Is Dead
How AI and Web 3.0 Are Taking Over
Understanding new technology can increase productivity, resolve issues, and aid in decision-making. Keeping up with all the developments in technology can be challenging. I’ll help you get started by deconstructing some of the fundamentals of the newest technological developments. By reading this article, you are already one step ahead of the game! Consider Web 3.0 and artificial intelligence as two of the most recent technological developments. This article provides a high-level, easily readable overview of some of the digital marketing applications that these technologies enable.
Web 3.0
The “decentralized web,” or Web 3.0, is the next stage in the development of the internet and will be built on open-source blockchain technology. I can provide a simple explanation of blockchain technology.
Imagine there are thousands of identical sticky notes that are scattered over the world and are owned by various persons. Every time you conduct business, you record it on your sticky note, and everyone else records it on their sticky note as well. Since each sticky note is connected to the others, if someone tries to edit or delete a transaction from their sticky note, everyone else will quickly notice since their note does not match.
A decentralized digital ledger is a blockchain. Every block functions as a sticky note. A block cannot be changed or removed after it has been added to the chain without doing so on the entire chain. In contrast to Web 2.0, which places a heavy emphasis on corporate control over data, such as Facebook and Google, Web 3.0 is built to share power and control among its users.
Decentralized Applications (Apps): Web 3.0 makes it possible to build centralized apps that use a blockchain network to operate. Users might be compensated for sharing their data with marketers by using dApps, which would enable more transparent and secure advertising systems. This would improve the precision of ad targeting and make it possible to develop new advertising models like peer-to-peer advertising networks and micropayments. By using this precision targeting, smaller advertisers may have more opportunities to reach their target demographics.
Peer-to-Peer Advertising: Peer-to-peer advertising is a new digital advertising paradigm that enables users to safely and directly monetize their attention and data. Users have the option to take part in advertising campaigns that match their interests and values under this paradigm. This is a considerable departure from Web 2.0’s advertising paradigms. Peer-to-peer advertising makes it possible for new kinds of token-based incentives and micropayments, where consumers can receive cryptocurrencies or other digital assets like NFTs in exchange for interacting with adverts, disclosing their personal information, or supporting the advertising industry.
Using micropayments, this style of advertising encourages viewers to view and engage with the commercials. These are manufactured with the aid of cryptocurrencies, which enable quick and inexpensive transactions. As users are more inclined to provide feedback or take actions like joining up for a service or making a purchase if they are being compensated for their time, this can result in more meaningful interactions. This can support the development of brand trust. Users will not be subjected to invasive or irrelevant adverts and can control their own online interactions.
Smart Contracts: Self-executing contract systems, or “smart contracts,” automatically enact an agreement’s provisions. By using blockchain technology, smart contracts are made transparent and impermeable to manipulation. Online advertising, which has long been plagued by problems like fraud, poor visibility, and data privacy issues, may be significantly impacted by this. On Web 3.0, smart contracts will decentralize user data storage, make it more difficult for hackers to access data, and give users more control over their personal information.
Machine intelligence
Online advertising is already being changed by AI, and this trend will continue. Powerful computer systems that mimic human cognitive functions, such as decision-making, problem-solving, experience-based learning, and pattern recognition, are referred to as artificial intelligence (AI). AI can seek to combine speech recognition, language translation, and visual perception, and it can evolve and get better over time as it is exposed to more data. Deep learning, rule-based systems, and artificial neural networks are a few examples of various design strategies.
Humans first program a set of instructions into a computer to create rule-based systems. Then, in order to decide what to do or resolve an issue, the program will rely on this set of rules and logic. Your online marketing campaign could benefit from this technology in a variety of ways. Examples include the use of AI to tailor advertising experiences to each user based on their data, or the use of correlation, statistics, and logical data comparison to spot possible click fraud or bots and stop them from hurting campaigns.
Artificial neural networks function similarly to how your brain processes information via a network of connected neurons. Artificial neural networks process information using interconnected nodes that cooperate. Artificial neural networks are utilized in a variety of applications, including personalized recommendations, self-driving automobiles, and natural language processing. Advertising campaigns can be made more effective with AI by analyzing user behavior and interests and modifying targeting, messaging, and creative components in accordance with these algorithms.
A subtype of artificial neural networks called deep learning aims to build smart computer systems that can learn and advance on their own without being explicitly taught to do so. A deep learning system, for instance, could be taught to distinguish between photographs of apples and oranges by being fed thousands of each type of image and altering the connections between its nodes until it was successful. These models have demonstrated excellent performance in areas like voice and picture recognition. AI is playing a bigger role in voice search advertising as voice-activated devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home become more popular.
How This Will End
How online advertising is produced, distributed, and optimized is changing as a result of AI. It is a crucial tool for digital marketing since it can instantly analyze enormous amounts of data. We can anticipate even more substantial changes in the future as AI technology develops. Although Web 3.0 is still in its infancy, it is evident that this new version of the web has the potential to profoundly alter the online advertising landscape by enhancing user control, security, and transparency.
About SimpSocial
An automobile digital marketing company called SimpSocial is dedicated to assisting dealers with significantly increased sales, service, and trades. SimpSocial, a company founded by former Facebook employees and industry leaders in the auto industry, invented a platform to hone target audiences and make advertisements more pertinent to consumers. SimpSocial’s dealership clients are able to be the dealership continuously in the shopper’s feeds thanks to white-glove dealer-specific creative.
You can get in touch with us for additional details at SimpSocial.com or SimpSocial (888) 829-1110.
It’s Time to Discard Your “Omnichannel” Marketing Strategy.
If you haven’t heard of it, omnichannel marketing has been a popular phrase for more than ten years. This snappy term, which was once known as Multichannel, is widely used in the automotive marketing sector. However, the team in charge of coming up with creative titles believed that it wasn’t specific enough, so it was renamed to make sure you knew how crucial it was.
What does that signify, then? In essence, it means having a marketing presence on numerous platforms, including websites, social media, and email, as well as an offline presence at your store or at other events.
Don’t get me wrong; omnichannel marketing may be a very successful strategy for expanding a dealership if done correctly. Unfortunately, this method has been poorly executed, at best, in the field of vehicle advertising. Industries that successfully implement omnichannel marketing will distribute distinctive advertising messages over numerous platforms. But when it comes to the car industry, the implementation is frequently the same: a generic inventory ad gets spammed across a few different digital platforms. In other words, the 2005 Pontiac Aztec you’ve been trying to sell will show up in paid searches, social media, your website, and a few third-party listings. Voila! Multichannel marketing!
Consider using consumer lifecycle marketing instead of omnichannel.
Consumer lifecycle marketing is more successful and efficient in generating both short-term and long-term revenue for your dealership. You need to comprehend the fundamentals in order to use this advertising strategy effectively.
Delivering the correct message to the right audience at the right time is lifecycle marketing. These phases are Awareness (making people know you exist! ), Engagement (getting them to interact with your ads! ), Evaluation (having them decide they want to do business with you! ), Purchase (this is the part you want! ), and eventually, repeat business.
So how do we begin?
The first channel is the CONSUMER. An effective customer experience strategy MUST come first in any advertising or marketing plan, and using your customers as a channel will lead to more lucrative opportunities. With this fundamental strategy, you may implement lifecycle marketing tactics that will reduce friction and result in a positive client experience.
Put the customer in the channel that is most profitable.
After putting the client in their proper spot, we need to use data and insights to make sure the most crucial elements of the customer journey are functioning properly.
Segmenting your present consumers from your future customers is the first step. Customers and potential customers are the two channels we are working with when we think of the consumer as the channel. Each of these mediums needs a unique method of advertising reach. We may have comparable messages, but they cannot and should not be the same.
Right, we just run inventory advertising and direct everyone to the VDP page.
No, just halt now. Not every customer needs to be bashed over the head with the VDP hammer because they are bloody nails. This contradicts the whole idea behind lifecycle marketing.
Take the client who purchased a brand-new pickup truck from your neighborhood rival about 12 to 15 months ago. Should we direct them to the Vehicle Detail Page (VDP) on your website for a new truck? Probably not. We want to change that if they are in your market area but not doing business with you. We want to start by informing the customer about your dealership’s identity, what it stands for, and the benefits of doing business with you in the future. You may more precisely identify the demands of the consumer as they interact with your ads and deliver customized, targeted messages, so effectively building a funnel of YOUR customers or future customers.
Permit the channel to be more clearly focused.
Based on the data we have, we continue to categorize our two channels (consumers and potential consumers). What kind of car do they drive, when did they get it, how many miles are on it, how often do they trade in their cars, how much money do they have, and more?
Customers who purchased their vehicles from you, for instance, will be included in a different campaign plan than those who made their purchases elsewhere. We create a series of adverts based on these insights that speak directly to the “most likely needs” of each individual consumer and direct them to the right page on your website.
Right now, we’re using VDP advertisements to retarget them.
A possibility, but only if it makes sense. Making it simpler for your clients to do business with you and removing friction points from the lifecycle marketing process are both objectives. Why would we use an inventory ad to retarget clients who we aren’t driving to a VDP page in a credit-focused manner?
In lifecycle marketing, behavioral retargeting produces better results.
After they visit your site, we continue our lifecycle marketing by using behavioral retargeting. After leaving your website, a buyer looking at a 2018 F150 ought to see an advertisement for that car. But what if they looked at the car and then began filling out a credit form but never finished it? Do you wish to talk to them about your credit approval procedure or the online credit application instead of sending them back to the VDP? Similarly to this, a visitor to your page for trade-in evaluations is generally not going to want to see an advertisement for your new car deals, but rather anything that discusses the trade-in procedure.
When properly executed, consumer lifecycle marketing enables your auto dealership to interact via all of your channels with the message that is pertinent to the target audience and the stage of the customer’s vehicle ownership lifecycle. Lifecycle marketing benefits dealership branding, inventory targeting, finance, conquest and retention, ownership loyalty, and vehicle purchase.
The VDP View Illusion
Let’s talk about busting the myth of VDP traffic and how dealerships can prioritize it in their digital advertising.
In the past, when I was in senior management at the dealership, I, too, had fallen for the newest and best item out there and drank the Kool-Aid. As a result, I could have used my advertising budget more wisely to maintain the current level of earnings.
Let’s go back to the last Dealer 20 group where I gave a speech. I found that many of those dealerships needed to work on interacting with potential consumers more effectively by sending the incorrect message at the incorrect time while taking into account where the customer was in the process of purchasing and maintaining a car.
The main objective of a dealership should be to effectively enhance showroom traffic through interpersonal communication.
Increasing online and ultimately in-person interaction between customers and the dealership is one method to make this strategy more effective.
Let’s dispel the myth of the VDP approach and show why putting all your eggs in one basket is not the best strategy for boosting sales and service revenue.
Many suppliers have supported the idea of promoting VDP views as the best method to use your digital budget ever since the VDP view campaign was launched in 2012, and this trend continues today.
The concept of bringing them straight to a vehicle of interest rather than to the dealer’s home page or SRP was fantastic. However, sadly, a lot of suppliers have jumped on that bandwagon while ignoring the principles of really guiding the customer to the showroom floor and instead leading them down a one-way street.
In many ways, the significance of sales has been overshadowed by this idea. Don’t misunderstand me, however; there is something to the argument that when a potential customer lands on a vehicle they are interested in, it is one of the last pages they visit before entering your showroom floor.
Dealers have been persuaded by many vendors that VDP views are the best strategy for increasing car sales. Sadly, this concept is gaining much more attention than it ought to. Before committing a potential buyer to a vehicle, there are considerably more important factors to take into account.
In the current environment, individuals choose to enter a showroom floor or service drive based on their knowledge of the dealer. What is their track record? What might customers anticipate if they buy or service their car with you? How simple is it to talk to your staff? How simple is it for people to find what they are looking for on your website? Can they relate to the causes that you, as a dealer, promote in your neighborhood?
What call to action is most important to website visitors who are considering visiting your showroom?
In my opinion, it would be like landing me on a VDP without giving me a cause to think about it if I walked into your dealership and was met by a salesperson who immediately started selling me a car instead of getting to know me and connecting with me.
Although vital, getting someone on a VDP is not the most crucial step. As a result, for a possible customer, it is lower on the list of marketing priorities.
You will see more views but lower-quality traffic when you solely concentrate on VDP traffic. If VDP views are your primary objective, the majority of VDP traffic will never visit your site again and will only stay for 30 seconds or less on average.
How to enhance showroom traffic and interpersonal connection should be your main concern.
Concentrate your attention on the factors that lead customers to choose you above your rivals. After that, picture yourself in their position and develop a marketing strategy that addresses the consumer lifecycle and the path that brings them to your showroom and service drive.
erect a solid fundamental advertising framework. Nothing is more crucial than boosting sales and service revenue and keeping that customer for life when examining your variable and fixed operations, absorption rate, and overall advertising budget. Your priorities as a dealer should be laid out in this aim, which will serve as your working foundation. The consumer may evaluate the vehicle you are selling as a result of VDP traffic, but frequently the vehicle needs to represent a discount because your digital budget was developed backward.
Recognize who your audience is. Before entering your showroom, shift your attention to comprehending the journey of your potential customers. As a result, the quality of the traffic will be significantly higher, and more crucially, showroom and service-drive activities will rise.
Dealership advertising and the Robot Uprising
Future predictions throughout history have frequently focused on convenience and effectiveness.
The mass production of commodities was a result of the industrial revolution. Accessibility to the outside world increased with the growth of the car sector.
Global connections between people, ideas, and products were made feasible by the advent of the digital age.
Advertising is, of course, getting increasingly automated. In fact, research indicates that by 2023, spending on automated marketing and advertising might total up to $25.1 billion yearly. When you consider how it improves targeting effectiveness and budget performance, it is simple to see why.
Planning is made simpler by automation, which frequently anticipates our needs. With the advent of automation, measurement has improved, enabling advertisers to enhance performance. Automated bid changes direct more of your budget toward ads that are doing well. This makes future planning and ad purchase decisions clear-cut and simple.
The artificial intelligence of the advertising industry is better than most humans in comprehending human behavior. It closely monitors all of our internet activity to identify our unique interests and purchasing patterns. While interacting with customers, it records and examines every aspect of that contact. This data is used to match the most pertinent customers with digital ads.
You could be asking yourself, “What about authenticity?” at this point. Will advertising appear manufactured and impersonal if it is powered by machines? But because of its better targeting, automation can actually promote authenticity. This enables companies to better target their advertising to elicit a response from consumers. Everyone benefits when companies reach their desired laser-targeted audiences and consumers receive the messaging they desire for topics in which they have already expressed interest.
Contrary to what is portrayed in the media, the world will not be ruled by dystopia or artificial intelligence in the future. It’s not even close to assuming control of all advertising. There will always be a need for tact and human interaction. To produce advertisements that effectively express their message, dealerships still need personnel who are familiar with their business and their objectives. Furthermore, integrating that message into a comprehensive marketing plan is far from simple.
The future of automation is simply using it as a tool to reduce some of the tedious job, which is less dramatic. Make use of it to customize communications, maximize financial resources, and boost business efficiency, giving your staff more time to concentrate on other ways to promote your company.
A Guide on How to Get Google Reviews (2023)
When someone conducts a quick search for your company, one of the first things they may look at is their Google reviews. These evaluations can be absolutely useful to help you develop and scale if you’re a new startup, just starting to build your online presence, or wanting to improve your online reputation.
The query?
How do you earn sufficient (positive) Google Reviews to have an impact?
Today, we’re going to go through step-by-step instructions on how to improve your Google Business Profile and boost your revenue.
Methods For Increasing Google Business Reviews
We must comprehend how the review procedure functions in order to know how to gain more reviews.
Google analyzes customer reviews of businesses as one of its variables to assess how “useful” a certain entry may be to searchers. The more you have, the more “relevant” you are perceived to be, giving you a better chance of ranking above other businesses.
A correctly configured Google Business Profile (previously Google My Business) account, a perfect market fit for the product and incentivization techniques for all client categories are typically the three main requirements for harvesting Google reviews.
What Is Required To Create A Google Business Profile Account?
Make sure your account is correctly optimized before trying to collect reviews. To do this, follow these steps:
creating a profile to completion
your Google My Business account by claiming it and validating it
Verifying facts and adding photographs are just a few examples of how you can improve and personalize your dash. This crucial step paves the way for future inspections.
Your Product-Market Fit: Creating (And Maintaining) It
Your business was never intended to be popular with everyone. The quality and frequency of your reviews will be impacted by realizing this and customizing your experience to your customer. You want to completely outdo your customers by addressing their demands in a way that they can’t help but rave about.
If you haven’t already, we advise spending the time to research your customers and rival businesses in order to find fresh ways to service them throughout this season.
Developing Your Review Harvesting Plan
There are no two reviews that are alike. Offering incentives to your customers during the review process can assist you get them to leave a review in the first place and gradually teach them how to improve the quality of the review to benefit your GBP listing. This can entail improving the review with images, precise citations, anecdotes, or specific criticism.
You should think about various incentives and strategies to appeal to the various types of customers when you take this stage. For individuals who want to save money, this may seem as greater discounts or exclusive sales chances, or as unique featured benefits for those who want a bigger platform for their own microblogging or influence prospects. Feel free to use your imagination in this step because you are the expert on your audience.
Want to Increase Conversions?
Searching for a boost as you develop and build your brand? Contact the SimpSocial staff right now. Cutting-edge local SEO, along with technical SEO and content-driven SEO, are just a few of the ways our team of specialists can help you stand out from the competition.
Dealership Facebook Pages Lose Inventory Tabs
The requirement for Automotive Inventory Ads (AIAs) in your comprehensive marketing plan is highlighted by Meta’s removal of the ability for dealerships to have “Vehicles” or a “manage inventory” tab at the top of their Facebook company pages on January 30, 2023. Let’s discuss what this means for businesses like yours that sell cars.
Let’s have a look at how it used to flow before we examine the motivation and use case. While users were on Facebook, they could shop because this tab grabbed merchandise from the feed.
This used to look like this:
Earlier inventory layout on the dealership’s Facebook business page.
This choice was probably made by Meta in an effort to reduce the number of spam leads that dealers frequently find when using Facebook leads. However, people who continue to be allowed to use their personal profiles to sell their cars or other property on Facebook Marketplace are unaffected by this change.
What does this entail for you, then?
This essentially reiterates the necessity for dealers to accept and make use of automotive inventory ads (AIAs). These advertisements make use of the inventory stream and interactively display automobiles to specific audiences, thus affecting your capacity to close sales to prospects with greater intent.
These advertisements continue to be the most economical and clever method to market on Facebook, even though it’s unclear what other adjustments Facebook will make for dealers.
2023 Google Marketing Live
Every year, Google holds Google Marketing Live, a conference for marketers that covers the most recent advancements in Google’s marketing tools and services. This year’s subject was relevant and simple to understand. While AI predominated the GML discussion tracks this year, a number of additional releases and improvements were also revealed.
Here is our summary of Google Marketing Live 2023’s most significant announcements and developments.
AI for conversation and Google Ads
Digital marketing has undergone a transformation thanks to AI, and Google Marketing Live 2023 emphasized how crucial this is to the automobile sector. Google unveiled cutting-edge AI-powered tools and solutions that streamline advertising campaigns, improve bidding tactics, and boost ad effectiveness. With Google AI-driven conversation, you can now even develop Google Ads campaigns right inside the Google Ads interface.
Dealerships can more efficiently allocate resources and increase the return on advertising spend by embracing automation.
Experiences with Personalized Ads
Personalization has emerged as a crucial component of marketing in a time when customers demand customized experiences. The need of providing potential automobile purchasers with individualized experiences was underlined at Google Marketing Live 2023. Google demonstrated its improved skills for precision targeting and personalization through search ads and YouTube ads. Throughout the buyer’s journey, automotive manufacturers may use these tools to distribute pertinent content, engage customers with customised offers, and forge deep connections.
Search and shopping adverts are combined in the Google Search Generative Experience.
Google Ads now offers two additional campaign types: Demand & Video Views Gen
Google Marketing Live 2023 highlighted the enormous potential of video advertising for the automotive industry as video content continues to rule online platforms. The event highlighted YouTube’s improved targeting, measurement, and creative optimization capabilities. Automotive companies can use video advertisements to attract audiences,
To increase conversions, demand generation campaigns will appear on YouTube Shorts, YouTube in-stream, YouTube in-feed, Discover, and Gmail. Additionally, a new lookalike segment builder will assist advertisers in reaching new audiences.
Consumer Trust and Privacy
Google Marketing Live 2023 emphasized the value of consumer trust and data protection in a time of rising privacy concerns. In order to provide relevant ad targeting while respecting users’ privacy preferences, Google released modifications relating to user privacy, such as the Federated Learning of Cohorts or FLoC (one of the standards in the Privacy Sandbox).
GML2023 insights came prepared with enabling advancements for the automotive industry, including tailored experiences, video advertising, and machine intelligence. Automotive firms can effectively engage their target audience and achieve sustainable development in the digital era by embracing the power of personalisation, automation, video advertising, and machine learning while preserving privacy and customer trust. If you have any inquiries, get in touch with a member of our team of digital marketers.
Change is the New Normal for SimpSocial
In spite of hopes and predictions that the epidemic may be nearing its end, there are many things that will be permanently altered in the automotive sector. Change has become a typical aspect of the business. Regarding the future of the automotive industry, there are numerous factors outside of COVID to take into account. Common topics among dealer principals and other auto business owners include electric vehicles, supply chain disruptions, the great recession and tech shortages, increased competition in the used market, dealership consolidation, on-demand mobility, changing privacy laws, and numerous other opportunities or concerns.
Change is also welcomed and expected by the SimpSocial team as a component of our corporate culture. After we won the industry’s Most Valuable Insight contest, I had the pleasure of giving a keynote address at Driving Sales near the end of last year. The main idea was that change can only be successfully embraced when fear and reluctance to change are overcome. Prior to starting SimpSocial, I oversaw an $8 million marketing budget while leading a team of marketers for a dealership group with 33 locations. Prior to leaving to launch SimpSocial, we saw a 400% spike in leads, which helped the company’s overall revenue climb by close to 75% during that period. That resulted from getting rid of the newspaper, dramatically cutting back on many of our stimulus channels, and concentrating on digital marketing channels that allowed for more precise budget targeting and an emphasis on in-market customers at a time when few dealerships were using the same cutting-edge tactics. As consumer behavior changed, we changed with it and produced an amazing success story that gave us the courage to quit the group and start SimpSocial.
Naturally, SimpSocial was rife with change from the start, and this is part of our culture. Myself and our co-founders left a large corporate setting to work on our own dime without the support of a significant corporation, working out of our homes and apartments. We’ve been able to develop into one of the most well-respected marketing firms in the business, working with hundreds of dealerships across the nation, thanks to that culture of change over the past six and a half years. Our team thrives in an experimental culture that enables us to find out quickly how the newest marketing ideas and trends affect our dealers. We have also created a solid support system to truly grasp how our efforts are affecting our partners. To better evaluate how our ongoing efforts are benefiting our clients, we cap off our Client Success Specialists at about 25 dealerships, as opposed to companies where each support person covers 50, 60, 80, or even 100+ stores at once. I want to express my gratitude to all of our dealer partners for their positive reviews and the strong bonds that they have helped to build, which are the foundation of SimpSocial. And to our effective support staff, who helped us maintain our partnerships for 98.8% of the second half of last year!
However, I’m positive that this year will be even more spectacular. Our partners have a lot to anticipate in terms of innovation and reaping the rewards of our culture of experimentation. Because of the shifting privacy landscape, we continue to embrace our expectations that Google, Facebook, and other platforms will enhance their on-platform buying experiences. The requirement for these channels to design retail experiences without diverting traffic elsewhere or risking the loss of targeting and shopping behaviors has been influenced by regulations like GDPR, the California Privacy Act, iOS 14.5, and upcoming legislation. The transition has started, and many dealerships that weren’t as attentive during the pandemic might already be behind. By adjusting to this shifting environment, you can save money and get a better return on investment. Here are just a handful of the amazing initiatives we have either put into place or are currently testing out as we continue to lead the way in innovation and transformation. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions regarding any of these subjects. Either myself or a member of our knowledgeable staff will be happy to offer insight and knowledge about any of these ideas or tactics. We are quite enthusiastic about our continued excellence and progress as a pioneer in the automobile marketing industry as a consequence of the demonstrated outcomes for several of these paired with the early testing performance.
Vehicle Listing Ads on Google
Automated Google Business Profile improvement
Content technology to increase the volume of landing pages
Competitor Listing On AIA Destination
greater variety in social media ad volume
Improvements to First-Party Data
Improvements to the Custom Intent Display Image Extension
Market-Based Display
Adapting to the evolving Apple platform
increasing the difficulty of integrating our IHS and Polk data
This hardly even touches the surface of what is in store for us in 2022. We’ve never moved more quickly. Never have we been more in line. We are better now than ever. We are confident in our edge over many competitors at a time when Stellantis is leading the industry in allowing all businesses to join in co-op for SEO and social media marketing since our focus is on innovation and results rather than being limited to constraints frequently observed in similar programs. Although we are co-op qualified for the majority of OEMs, we have always chosen to avoid the programs’ imposed restrictions on innovation. That and the requirements to impose commission on advertising expenditures, which we as previous dealers have always been against!
Our DNA and approach are adaptable and innovative. It defines us as a group. It enables us to take on our top business priorities for the year. The SimpSocial experience and growth. We have made significant investments in automation to increase productivity, and accuracy, and to give our staff more time for critical thinking, brainstorming, and skill- and knowledge-building. To meet our standards for Unrivaled Customer Service, regular training is essential, and it is now another key element of our success. We are always learning and developing on a personal and professional level. We help one another, and as we spread success across the entire organization through trial and learning, everyone in the organization develops. This year, we’re going to expand on and define the employee experience even further. Building on the fact that our team makes us great might be what excites me the most.
Safeguard Your Historical Data! Google Analytics 4
Although it can be difficult, change is inescapable. The ability to evaluate data to find out about the facts that can help your organization will change just as quickly as user journeys online have in recent years. Although Google Analytics 4 (the company’s fourth version) is expected to replace Universal Analytics as the standard for modern marketers, there are some significant differences between the two.
Google Analytics: The Fundamentals 4
To build up historical data in the new format, Google advises switching from Universal Analytics to GA 4 as soon as possible. On July 1, 2023, Universal Analytics will officially stop operating, at which point users won’t be able to access their historical data from previous years or achieve goals set up in the Universal version.
You should start making plans for the move if you developed your GA property before October 14, 2020, as you are probably using a Universal Analytics property. Google Analytics 4 is probably already being used if you set up a property after October 14, 2020, but it’s always a good idea to double-check.
What Causes This Change to Occur?
Change is inevitable, as was already stated, especially in digital marketing and advertising. As stated above by Russell Ketchum, Director of Product Management at Google, “In today’s measurement landscape, businesses need to navigate new challenges to understand the complex, multi-platform journeys of their customers — all while prioritizing user privacy.”
Google Analytics 4, according to the company, “allows businesses to see unified user journeys across their websites and apps, uses Google’s machine learning technology to surface and predict new insights, and most importantly, it’s built to keep up with a changing ecosystem.”
An experience for a user is no longer straightforward, linear, or even solitary. GA 4 is being released to assist marketers in more simply attributing and comprehending the numerous touchpoints of their effort so that success may be replicated.
Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics Metrics Comparison
The KPIs that Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics track will differ from one another. Here is a list of such variations, along with a link to a detailed explanation.
Both existing and new users will continue to be accessible. A new metric called “active people will show how many people have been active during the previous 28 days.
The total number of pages viewed during a session is referred to as page views, which will henceforth simply be referred to as views. Unique pageviews will eventually disappear.
Sessions In UA, a session is defined as a period of time during which a user interacts actively with your website, app, etc. However, there are conditions that can cause a session to terminate early, such as inactivity on the website, interacting with the website through another campaign, or even the midnight cutoff. In GA 4, Session Start starts immediately after engagement but does not adhere to the earlier UA restrictions.
Conversions
Goals, which were also sometimes referred to as objectives, denoted important actions, such as submitting a form. Because goals are now called “conversion events” in GA 4, Universal Analytics will no longer count only one conversion per session.
Engagement Rate vs. Bounce Rate
With GA 4, bounce rates will expire. A once-reasonable way to monitor site activity has lost some of its value as websites, applications, etc. have evolved. The next key performance indicator to pay attention to is engagement rate, which counts sessions that last more than 10 seconds, resulted in a conversion, or had at least 2 pageviews.
Event Number
On the website, notable occurrences were chronicled by total occurrences. For instance, a remarkable CTA was clicked. Each triggered event in Universal Analytics has a category, action, or label associated with it. In GA4, all activities are considered events, hence, event counts don’t need to have such precise labels and can instead represent a larger range of actions and events.
How Do You Begin Your Migration?
You are already in line for the transfer to Google Analytics 4 if you work with SimpSocial, and your client success specialist will keep you informed as we move forward.
Even though you are not a client, we would be pleased to help you with the new setup and tracking features of Google Analytics 4. Contact us at simpsocial.com or SimpSocial (888) 829-1110
Google Search Essentials Update: What You Need to Know
After 20 years, Google has decided it’s time to rebrand as the new and improved Google Search Essentials and drop the outdated Webmaster Guidelines. Maintaining your position at the top of the first page and the viability of your SEO strategy depend on your ability to comprehend the preferences and restrictions that come with the new update.
Continue reading to find out more about how to use the most recent Google Search Essentials upgrade to become (and remain) popular.
What alterations did the Google Search Essentials update bring about?
It can be challenging to keep track of what matters most for your dealership with so many updates coming out in 2022. To give you all the essential information you need for your SEO and content strategy, our staff has taken an effort to look over the changes and compress them.
Update on the core: Content is king
The new version provides simple, simplified settings for navigating your SEO strategy and gives you immediate knowledge of what the engine expects from your material moving ahead. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft increased the demands placed on users and webmasters to post and produce “people-first” content in the September 2022 core upgrade. Even though they are still crucial, keywords are no longer the only factor in ranking. Coming at the appropriate time, especially with the rise of AI and co-writing tools, Google grabbed the chance to underline this in the context of quality.
combining some publication pages
The search engine expanded on some functionality and best practices using the most recent Google Webmaster Guidelines update, including the addition of spam-law updates, best practices and recommendations, and technical requirements for publication. In addition, we observed some rather strong consolidation in the following crucial sectors:
Pages with affiliate links in the links
pages with material relating to security
The New Google Webmaster Guidelines: Why Do They Matter?
Without the use of secondary keyword tools, you can create high-quality, optimized content by following the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Since they haven’t changed in the past 20 years, the emphasis has radically shifted from optimization to user intent and well-written content in tandem with updated and enhanced optimization principles. Your comprehensive SEO and sales plan using the Google search engine will be strengthened if you comprehend the upgrades and study up on the areas of addition and consolidation.
Questions? SimpSocial’s staff is available to assist you. If you would like more information about this modification and how it might affect the website of your dealership, please contact SimpSocial.
Dynamic Remarketing: A Must For Used Car Marketing
In this world, only death and taxes may be said to be certain, according to Benjamin Franklin. Dealers all over the country are searching for innovative and economical ways to get rid of their heaps of winter surplus inventory before tax season comes to an end on April 15. Determining how dynamic remarketing, a frequently overlooked possibility, has evolved into one of the most effective strategies for re-engaging website visitors and generating more leads is the focus of this blog.
Dynamic remarketing: What is it?
It is best explained in the Google Ads Help Center. You can use remarketing to display advertisements to users of your mobile app or website. This is furthered by dynamic remarketing, which enables you to display ads to past visitors that feature goods and services they looked at on your website.
The mechanics of setting up an inventory feed so that it may be properly enabled to work as a source of material for remarketing campaigns are not the simplest of processes, but they are a necessary component of a functioning website and marketing plan. But since “the cars are the stars,” as the phrase goes, adequately satisfying the needs of today’s automobile shoppers necessitates subtly encouraging them to make more purchases. One of the most cutting-edge and cost-effective methods of advertising available today is to display to potential customers the automobiles they specifically observed or those that closely resemble them, thus matching their stated desires.
The Workings of Dynamic Remarketing
Dynamic remarketing requires some setup work, as was already noted, but it is time and effort well spent. The burden of figuring out complex setups and methods is, in fact, a fundamental factor in the creation of automobile-paid search companies.
You’ll need to add some remarketing tags to your website to get things going. After the coding has been properly implemented, you must configure Google Ads. You must create some audiences to target, just like with any other remarketing campaign. We’ll rely on the data from that tag to discover users who have previously visited your website because we are only interested in dynamically retargeting past users. We would set up a dynamic prospecting campaign, which differs in audience segmentation but has the same general setup process if we were interested in targeting new users.
The real work of defining some criteria for obtaining those ad impressions starts after all that complicated setup and linking feeds with the Google Merchant Center.
Recall the past. Maybe you added something to a website’s shopping basket but never finished the transaction. You later come across an advertisement urging you to finish the purchase of the said item. For your remarketing effort, the same reasoning holds true. When a user spends a lot of time on your website interacting with a vehicle, whether it’s calculating her trade-in value or looking at payment choices, that user is probably an excellent candidate to see a dynamic retargeting ad. The campaign will be designed to present her with the precise automobile she was looking into. There’s also the option to highlight a few additional models at your dealership that have comparable features.
Why should I use dynamic remarketing?
The benefits of investing in dynamic remarketing are numerous. You want as many people to look at cars as you can when trying to move inventory off the lot, such as during tax season. Here are all the justifications Google offers for launching a dynamic remarketing strategy:
Ads that scale your products – After a person interacts with one vehicle for a long time or across several touchpoints, they may leave the site without seeing another that is much more suitable for their needs.
High-performance layouts: Google Ads makes predictions about which dynamic ad layout will perform best depending on the target audience, the ad’s location, and the platform it will appear on.
Real-time bid optimization: Using the conversion optimizer and increased CPC, Google Ads determines the best bid for each impression, minimizing wastage.
When attempting to move large surpluses of used vehicles off the lot, you probably have methods in place to up the ante. But determine whether dynamic remarketing is a component of that strategy by asking yourself or your agency. Has dynamic remarketing even been alluded to or recommended as a possible investment? If the answer to those questions is a reluctant “no,” get in touch with us right away so we can begin envisioning the chances that your paid search strategy as a whole might be overlooking.
The future success of any dealer website will depend on dynamic remarketing, so if you don’t get on board fast, you risk falling behind and losing out on possible leads and sales.
A Year of Introspection and Strength
SimpSocial’s theme for the year was originally supposed to be growth, but it swiftly changed to adaptability and resilience. We had some of the greatest growth in our history in the first quarter and were fresh off a prosperous NADA conference. The orders to stay at home in North Carolina and the rest of the country then arrived in the middle of March. Suddenly, the year wasn’t about growth but survival, as 25% of our firm disappeared apparently overnight. Our first concern was making sure that everyone on our team was safe and healthy, so we swiftly closed our office and began working remotely. After converting to a remote workforce, we were able to concentrate on the well-being of our company as well as that of our clients and partners.
Although our leadership team wasn’t involved in making decisions during the 2009 financial crisis, we were unable to overlook the upcoming recession due to the hardships the previous recession caused us in our early professions and the lessons we learned in school. Since 2018, our company’s top objective has been to actively save and get SimpSocial ready for a potential economic crisis. We reduced wasteful spending, made costs more variable, invested in automation, saved money, and developed backup plans as we became leaner. At all costs, we wanted to avoid layoffs.
Although we believed we were well-prepared, we observed as the worst-case scenarios in our backup plans quickly came to pass over the course of two weeks. However, our team consistently demonstrated our company’s key principles of grit and elevating others, as everyone promptly made the necessary sacrifices. Our executive team took temporary pay cutbacks, our entire workforce postponed their usual rises in April, we increased workload owing to cost-cutting measures, and we communicated with one another more and offered support wherever we could. This team’s altruism enabled us to respond to requirements as they developed and helped us survive the crisis’s early unknowns.
We have incomparable gratitude for our customers and business partners. They stayed with us and had faith in the digital marketing efforts they were making despite shutdowns, inventory disruptions, COVID sickness, and risks to their own enterprises. Without the dedication of our clientele, we could not have progressed or endured this long. In order to reflect the new environment in which we found ourselves, our staff changed everything and worked harder than ever before for our clients. It never means more for us to maintain our dedication to unmatched customer service and results than when it might be more convenient to “take it easy.” Instead, we strengthened this commitment to our consumers, vowing to be there for them in times of need and devoting more resources to it.
As working from home grew a little more commonplace, racism and the ongoing struggle for social justice once again confronted our country. We started to ask ourselves some challenging questions as protests spread across the country, including in Raleigh, our hometown: “What could we be doing better?” “Where are our own biases?” and “How could we better contribute to a company culture of diversity and inclusion?” We vowed to our team that we would continue to work toward building a diverse and inclusive organization and seek to be a more uplifting force in our communities. Although we are aware that there is always more work to be done and that progress never happens overnight, we are committing to this for all time. We’ve made a number of investments so far this year, including:
Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be celebrated with an additional company holiday, bringing our total number of company holidays to 11.
We have broadened our scholarship and recruitment efforts in the state of North Carolina to include Shaw University, North Carolina State University, and UNC Wilmington, all of which can provide us with prospects from a variety of backgrounds.
invested in a committed human resources team to strengthen our HR procedures and add greater responsibility.
SimpSocial’s Culture Committee was established with an emphasis on the four pillars of involvement in the community, the SimpSocial community, alignment, and recognition.
facilitated access to learning opportunities for diversity and inclusion for our employees.
A webinar on mental health was delivered in collaboration with Modern Health.
Several individuals on our team received regular coaching and leadership development opportunities.
We were able to assess the damage done to us after the initial shock of pandemic shutdowns. We once again focused on the future and the investments we would need to make in order to remain strong in the years to come. We started to reinvest and take more risks rather than make judgments based on fear and the unknown. The following investments will sustain us for a very long time:
Zero layoffs to assist us in resuming operations as shutdowns started to lessen and business increased.
After the first delay, the entire workforce received raises.
creation of PRO Drive, a fixed operations tool, to help our clients’ service divisions succeed in marketing.
Our organization has made new hires in a number of its departments as an investment in future growth.
We are tremendously appreciative as the year’s finale draws near. We are appreciative of our wonderful team, our customers, our business partners, and our friends and family. Although we are stronger, more resilient, alert, compassionate, and sensitive as a result of 2022, we do not know when these trying times will end. Every challenge presents an opportunity. Because of this, this year, while we confronted challenges, our guiding principles of comfortable being uncomfortable and continuous improvement served as guidance.
Setting Dealership Success Goals
Setting objectives can be difficult, especially for a corporation. You are aware of the improvements you want to see in the New Year, and you are aware that creating goals will help you stay focused on those changes, but it can be challenging to do so. By following these recommendations, you can make sure that your goal-setting efforts are successful and don’t go to waste.
Make your objectives clear and measurable.
Undefined and unclear goals are frequently forgotten. Successful goals include sums, dates, or other measurements in addition to clearly defining the outcomes they hope to achieve. Setting deadlines helps you stay on track and prevents daily responsibilities from taking precedence over your long-term objectives. While “increasing visits to our website” is commendable, “increasing website visits to our site by 3% this quarter” is quantifiable and significantly more significant.
Aim high but remain realistic
Nobody can harm themselves by having a little ambition, but you shouldn’t set yourself up for failure. Make sure your objectives are difficult yet still attainable. Setting objectives that are too simple can demotivate people while setting goals that are too challenging are depressing. Ask yourself if your dealership currently possesses the resources and expertise required to meet your objectives. You can bring larger long-term goals into perspective by breaking them down into smaller short-term goals.
Include an action plan
Setting goals alone is insufficient. Don’t let your outcomes cause you to lose sight of the “how” in the process. How do you intend to gain more followers on social media? How do you want to increase the number of people that visit your website? Write down your strategy somewhere everyone involved may review it frequently. Include your initial plans as well as any changes you may make if you don’t see the outcomes you need to continue on track.
While we hope that your dealership had a prosperous and successful 2022, there is always an opportunity for improvement. Utilize these suggestions in 2023 to expand on your current level of accomplishment.
Effective Email Marketing for Dealerships
Today, it would be difficult to find someone who has never felt irritated by the marketing emails that arrive in their mailbox. Email marketing gets a poor rap when clients receive spam emails, click-bait promotions, or useless messages, not to mention the person sending them.
In order to effectively use email marketing, you must not only reach your customers but also convey the message that will appeal to them the most. the secret to it all? Effective targeting, in two terms.
Everything Begins with Data
Do you remember the adage that says you receive out of something that you put into it? That also applies to your email marketing plan.
Think about the 40% of your customers’ emails that are incomplete or incorrect in your dealership’s DMS. Consider how effective your dealership’s reach is using those data.
The data you utilize in your marketing campaigns makes a MASSIVE difference, and starting off with outdated or incorrect data restricts your success. It’s important to assess how frequently your data is updated and cleaned, and if your marketing isn’t producing results, think about whether inaccurate data might be caused.
Short tip:
Sending emails to addresses that have hard bounced will gradually lower your delivery rate, and sending emails to unsubscribed addresses may result in irate customers (not to mention possible compliance issues). Make sure to frequently update your email send lists to delete addresses that fit into these categories.
Segmentation is another option.
No one wants to receive an email that has nothing to do with them or their interests, even if the data is clean. Since you haven’t rented a car in years, how would you feel if you received an email about renewing it? According to 78% of organizations, subscriber segmentation is the most successful approach for email marketing efforts. This makes it possible to guarantee that your clients only receive emails that are pertinent to them.
Looking at your consumer profiles and connecting them based on comparable interests, buying habits, demographics, and projected needs constitutes effective segmentation. It implies verifying that the customers who purchased a pre-owned SUV from you aren’t receiving lease notifications and specials for a new model year sedan.
Predictive segmentation that considers client life changes is the most effective. The consumer may no longer be interested in the same kinds of offerings from you if they move to a larger city, graduate from college, purchase a house, get married, have children, or even just get a little older.
For instance, a person who recently relocated to the city could be more interested in a tiny car than a large SUV, whereas a couple who recently welcomed a child might be wanting to replace their current vehicle with one that is safer and more suitable for families.
Short Tip:
Unsubscribes are unavoidable, but it might be useful to understand the reasons why people choose not to receive your communications. Adding a poll or comment section can provide you with some insight into how relevant customers find the emails you’re sending them. In many cases, an unsubscribe is nothing personal (whether the customer moved to a new location or they simply don’t remember signing up), but in these cases, it’s still not a big deal.
Now all it needs is a little personalization.
So segmentation determines who to distribute to and clean data makes your message deliverable, but what about the message itself?
Whatever message you want to communicate, it’s crucial to seem personable because emails often come out as clunky, mechanized, or like a shortened sales pitch, which is annoying.
Most clients value learning that your dealership consists of people who are similar to them. Let that personality come through in the emails you send to your clients. This can entail adding that funny quip or corny pun to a few emails.
Customers don’t want to feel taken advantage of, so avoid sending emails with incomplete details about an offer or with subject lines that can be perceived as clickbait. The audience may open an email with the subject line “Our Best Offer Yet!” but you will lose their trust if you oversell the offer and fall short of your promise.
Short tip:
Everyone appreciates being spoken to directly. Use personalization tokens sparingly, but they can be a terrific way to get clients’ attention. Consumers are adept at spotting dishonesty. Most people will avoid your message if adopting customization feels like a forced marketing strategy.
Effective targeting is the difference between an email that gets marked as spam and one that gets flagged to come back later. Customers want to hear from you via email, but they prefer for those messages to be meaningful. With the right tools—clean data, proper segmentation, and a personal message—your dealership will see greater results from your email efforts.
The Top 5 Embarrassing SEO Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
It’s challenging to manage a website in a way that improves search results. Even mistakes that only take a few seconds to make might have long-term consequences. Using strategies that were effective for maintaining a high search rank a few years ago can now backfire.
We looked to the internet and asked SEO experts to describe the worst mistakes they’ve ever encountered. These are their comments.
1. “Fool me once, shame on your rank,” a new client who had previously dealt with a different third-party SEO agency contacted me. They were receiving a fairly consistent stream of Google traffic, but I saw that Google Images accounted for the majority of it. After doing some research, I discovered that they were receiving this traffic as a result of “adult-related search terms,” which their previous agency had modified the alt-text of their images to. This, of course, set off Google’s quality-checking algorithms, which caused their rank to collapse.
How to prevent:
Being dishonest may attract some visitors to your website, but as soon as they understand it’s not what they were looking for, they quickly depart. Search engines are informed when users swiftly leave your site because it didn’t answer their questions, which decreases your site’s ranking. Google’s search engines also consider a page’s overall consistency. Google will flag your page as spam if your textual content discusses new features for the Subaru Outback but your image description is, um, something else.
Who requires content? Our demand for speed is urgent. The fact that the client’s site was for professional services only served to heighten the surprise at this proposal since the content was simply a list of their services. The website included about 7-8 service pages, each of which contained about 800-1000 words of original, excellent content.
While the website’s performance on Google wasn’t too poor, there were some speed difficulties. The “SEO agency” advised them to reduce the material on their service pages to a maximum of 50 words in order to speed up the website.
Without a doubt, they entirely dropped out of the rankings, continued to have problems with site speed, and saw a terrible decline in visitors.
How to prevent:
Content reigns supreme in the SEO industry. One of the most important ranking factors for search engines is having high-quality, relevant content. It’s how search engines decide whether or not your page contains the response to a user’s search query. Page speed is another crucial ranking aspect to take into account, but there are a myriad of factors that could be influencing it. Have an expert do a thorough diagnostic test on your website if page speed is a problem to identify your choices.
Where links go when they die. One of my clients was a wealth of knowledge.
He said, “We don’t disavow bad backlinks because that signals to Google there might be bad links on that site,” “Google is smart enough to know when a link is broken and it will fix itself,” and “Just stuff the page with links but make the font white so people can’t see them!” during our initial consultation.
Additionally, he had his adolescent nephew post spam comments on various websites, including blogs, YouTube, and spam sites, with connections to their website. Of course, they blamed Google for their poor ranking because they thought they were doing everything correctly.
Google can detect your bad links from a mile away, so avoid doing it. Because of these, you won’t think twice about reducing your rank. Conduct routine site audits to make sure all links are active and pertinent. Spamming your site with low-quality links will only get you punished. Instead, concentrate your efforts on acquiring links of high caliber. Some ways of getting these links are: getting covered by local news sources, getting listed in your OEM directory, or producing your own quality content that links to your site.
4. The simple change and costly mistake.
“This happened for an organization I worked for a few years back. They snatched up their domain name when the “.org” extension became available. All is well thus far.
They immediately set up a 301 redirect pointing the newly acquired.org domain to their main.com website. Their reasoning made sense — to capture wayward visitors who might type in the wrong extension.
But the next day, they called us, frantic. Their site traffic was nonexistent. They had no idea why.
A few quick checks revealed that their search rankings had disappeared from Google overnight. It didn’t take too much Q&A to figure out what had happened.
They put the redirect in place without considering the risk. We did some digging and discovered that the.org had an unfavorable past.
The previous owner of the.org site had used it for spam. With the redirect, Google was assigning all of that poison to the company’s main site!”
How to avoid:
Honest mistakes happen all the time in Search Engine Optimization. Always do your research before associating your website with another. And always consult with an SEO expert before making large changes to your website.
5. Just give Google a call.
“I had a potential client come to me saying that their website had already been ‘SEO optimized’, and all I needed to do was let Google know about their website—five to ten minutes worth of work in their eyes.”
How to avoid:
Optimizing your search results is a never-ending task. Ranking factors are constantly changing. If you want your site to consistently do well, you need to have someone on your team who knows how to navigate those changes and keep your site at the top.
Want to learn more about how to increase your dealership’s search rank and keep it at the top?
Download our free eBook, Level Up! A Holistic Guide to SEO, to:
Navigate the evolving world of search engine optimization for dealerships in 2019.
Recognize the role of Google’s algorithms and use them to your site’s advantage.
Adapt your website’s functions to increase search rank.
Build a holistic network of marketing channels to complement your SEO strategy.