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.
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