Successful dealers understand that today’s car buyer checks several sources before setting foot in a dealership
Car dealers interested in reaching the broadest car buying audience need to cast a wide net and invest their online advertising budget in a variety of lead sources. Data from comScore shows that there are unique audiences to be found on many of the different third-party lead generation websites. A case in point: 55% of CarGurus traffic doesn’t visit another leading car shopping website.
According to CIO.com, investing in just one channel creates dependency and contract lock-in. Diversity keeps your brand fresh, interesting and engaging. Dealers should consider the prospect of managing and tracking multiple digital advertising campaigns as an opportunity to reach more prospects and increase profitability.
If there’s an accessible digital community of prospective car buyers already researching the vehicles you sell and rating the quality of service of dealerships in your area, shouldn’t you investigate that opportunity?
Create presence through digital diversification
By running campaigns on multiple dealer review sites and online marketplaces, car dealers avoid the pitfalls associated with going “all in” on a single lead generation platform. A growing segment of car buyers is hunting for car deals on alternatives to the leading third-party marketers.
Dealers that invest in multiple car sales lead generation websites can:
- Position their brand to a broader audience and build more trust in the community
- Protect themselves from getting too dependent on a single provider and becoming vulnerable to rate hikes and changes in lead volume and quality
- Avoid becoming overlooked as part of the “regular scenery” on a web property
- Create more trusted backlinks to their content for search engine marketing
Set up digital marketing for success
Today’s digital marketing environment offers auto dealers many opportunities: search engine optimization, content, retargeting, and inbound marketing.
Instead of focusing only on the cars they sell and building awareness, dealers can differentiate their business by providing valuable information for shoppers and educating them about pricing, service, options, and more.
In today’s dynamic digital marketing environment, variety is important across both channels (where an ad appears) and content types (what an ad is). As digital and inbound marketing have evolved into vital customer-engagement channels, many dealers are hiring dedicated resources to:
- Interact with customers through online website chats and community sites
- Write blogs and microblogs on social media channels
- Craft email newsletters for car sales lead nurturing campaigns
- Write copy and create graphics for display ads, web pages, and online videos
By hiring dedicated digital specialists, or contracting out these functions to a service provider, car dealers can increase their return on digital investment. A dedicated digital resource can make sure your content is consistent across multiple community websites, and lead generation platforms.
Cast a wide digital net to expand your audience
A recent article by Google profiled a car buyer who made 139 search engine queries, considered 14 brands, and had online interactions with 69 dealers.
Clearly, this car buyer felt she needed to seek out multiple online opinions and information resources. This scenario plays out more often than you might think, and demonstrates how vital it is for dealers to promote their business across more than one vehicle marketplace or dealer directory.
Consumers have access to numerous resources, and often digest several points of view before setting foot in a dealership. Leading dealers understand this and are diversifying their digital marketing to cover more of the lead generation platforms that their potential customers are using.
Are you looking for a new online venue to promote your dealership’s vehicles to a broader audience?
Sign up for a CarGurus dealer account and see the difference that diversified digital advertising makes.