There are many ways to promote your dealership online, and there is no escaping the fact that your dealership’s online presence is vital to attracting customers. But, it can be difficult to decide on a plan that is affordable and easy enough to allow you to focus on running your business. To make this easier, we’ve put together 5 ways to improve your dealership’s online presence that you might not have thought of.
1. Try Video
Today, it’s no surprise that 70% of car buyers who use YouTube to research their purchase are influenced by video content. Video is powerful; it gives people an instant, immersive way to experience your cars from a different perspective, and allows you to show off all their best features. Consumers are looking for car walkarounds, model comparisons and a showcase of additional features of the vehicle, all which can be done best through video.
Video is also a great way to expand your audience reach by utilising the multitude of online video platforms available, like YouTube and Vimeo. It often has higher engagement rates than other types of online content, so it’s perfect for sharing on social media and embedding on your website.
It has benefits for the search engine optimisation (SEO) of your website as it improves engagement and the time people spend browsing your site.
Invest once in professional, quality video footage and it will keep bringing in value for your business over time. You can repurpose your video footage across different platforms and for different uses, to continue reaping the benefits it can bring.
2. Create a Facebook business page
Not having an active business page on social media is the equivalent of closing your dealership at weekends; you’re missing out on leads and people are going to your competitors instead. It’s completely free and really easy to set up a Facebook page for your dealership, which you can use to engage with your customers and be more discoverable online.
Encourage your customers to leave reviews on your Facebook page and to share pictures of their purchases, tagging your dealership in them. One of the first things people see when they look at pages on Facebook is the number of stars the page has based on reviews – happy customers won’t mind leaving you positive reviews!
As social media is a very public platform, it also provides a great opportunity to demonstrate your excellent customer service – if people ask questions, respond quickly and helpfully.
Need more ideas for a great Facebook Business Page? Check out Meta’s own best practice guidelines here.
3. Partner with other businesses
All other businesses are not your competitors: working with businesses who are not your direct competitors but with whom you could create a mutually beneficial partnership for you both is a great way to reach new people and to build good business relationships.
These partnerships can be created on a contra deal basis, where you agree some kind of cross-promotion of each other’s businesses, without any cost to either of you. For example, if your business focuses on car sales and there is a car servicing shop in the local area that does not sell cars, you could partner with them and agree to promote one another online. You could both agree to offer a special discount for any customers that are referred from your partner.
4. Be wise with social media
It might seem like you need to be posting every day on social media to make the most of it, but sometimes, less is more. For example, don’t feel the need to be on every platform. Instead, focus your energy on the platforms that work for you. Are most of the people you want to target on Facebook? Do you only have time for a handful of posts of week? Feel like TikTok is a bridge too far? All of these are valid points. So, come up with an easy to follow schedule for posting to social media, and stick to it. If you are still struggling, take advantage of scheduling services like Hootsuite, or the integrated setting in Autopromotor.
5. Talk to us
If you still feel a little bit lost, or feel like you need some professional support with promoting your business, talk to us. We offer all kinds of services to support your business online, from enhanced SEO packages, to Facebook Automotive Industry Ads, to special features within our proprietary Dealer Management System, Autopromotor. With our exceptional customer service team, you can be sure you will always be in safe hands, and we are always happy to help you with any queries.
Reach out to us today to begin making the most of your online presence!