CarGurus recently hosted a webinar with Facebook and Bosak Motors to discuss digital marketing trends for a new 2020. The participants shared many key insights over 30 minutes. Here are four important takeaways:
Update your marketing messages for the moment
Make sure to update your creative and messaging to communicate exactly what’s happening at the dealership right now. Bosak Motors updated all their messaging to advertise the services they’re offering to help keep customers safe, such as home delivery, contactless services, and online vehicle sales.
Brand creative is still important
Consumers may know the big OEM names, but they need to know your dealership brand and what makes you different from the dealership down the street. Leverage the creative abilities of your OEM brands, but bring it home to your dealership and create your own identity.
Lead with mobile
For most, online shopping means mobile shopping—56% of shoppers start on mobile. Technology has made it easier to discover and purchase, but also has created expectations that shopping will be fast and frictionless. The COVID-19 situation has only accelerated auto shoppers’ expectations. As we emerge from coronavirus, dealers should challenge themselves to lead with mobile. Enable 70% of the buying process digitally through 1-1 communication, virtual car demos, and delivery solutions.
Retention is just as important as lead conversion
Dealers are always focused on leads and ROI. But retention is just as important. It’s much more expensive to acquire a customer the first time than it is to reacquire a customer down the road. If a consumer is only buying a car every five years or so, it’s hard to have the discipline to stay engaged with them. This is a great time to use your owned and earned media to engage them, free of charge. Leverage your owned channels such as social media, Facebook Business pages, or email so that when the customer needs to make a decision about where to shop, you don’t need to work to acquire that customer again—they walk right into your door.
Watch the full recap of 2020 Digital Marketing Trends webinar now.