How’s it going everybody. My name is Alex from Lyfted Agency, and I wanted to create a marketing guide for all those car dealerships that are unsure of how to market their dealerships in 2022, especially with all the changes we’ve seen in the last few years with the entire industry. We also recorded this video if you prefer to watch the video we’ve recorded that covers the car dealership marketing strategies for 2022.
Whether you’re a franchise dealer with multiple locations or you’re an independent dealership, but just one location. You’re going to find a lot of the different tips and topics that we’re going to be going over in this video fairly useful.
If you implement these different tactics that we’re going to be covering in your dealership, you’re going to see massive growth and massive opportunities, compared to how you’ve been previously marketing in handling the growth for your dealership.
Especially with the way things have kind of changed in the last few years, starting from the pandemic. You really can’t take the same car dealership marketing approach with the same strategy that you did maybe two, three, even five years ago.
Basically what we’re going to be kind of covering in this car dealership marketing strategies guide for 2022 is essentially how you’re going to be able to grow and scale your dealership in this new landscape.
Obviously, the three main buckets that we’re going to be looking at when we’re talking about growth is going to be obviously how you can actually increase the sales, how, how you can actually sell more vehicles, uh, really not have as many a vehicle sitting on your inventory as long, ensuring your inventory quicker.
That’s going to be the first bucket that we want to focus on and we’re going to be covering in this video.
The second thing that is also fairly important, especially with, uh, the way the, uh, supply chain and supply and demand, everything’s kind of changed with the pandemic and in recent years is we’re going to be covering how you can actually purchase more vehicles and really move away from the traditional forms of acquiring vehicles, which is going to be your typical auctions and just relying on trade-ins because with all these new changes and supply issues, if that’s the only channel that you’re really relying on and still utilizing to scale your inventory and expand your inventory, you’re really at the mercy mercy of the local market.And you’re really at the mercy of the auctions and really have no way of controlling how you can actually expand that inventory.So that’s one thing that we’re also going to be covering in this guide.
Then the other real big opportunity when your marketing a car dealership and you’re getting all this traffic is going to be to maximize the inbound leads or opportunities your dealerships receive. One thing that you can really do to really improve your business is really improving the conversion of all those inbound leads that you’re getting all those opportunities that you’re getting.
If you’re able to actually close a percentage more of sales per month, you’re going to be able to generate more revenue, more growth for your dealership, and then another untapped, uh, opportunity for a lot of different dealerships that they’re really not utilizing properly is really tapping into your previous database.Which is going to be any customer that you’ve previously interacted with, sold to be able to, or even somebody that’s even just inquired about a vehicle and maybe you didn’t potentially sell them a vehicle or get too far along, but you do have their name number, email, and phone number.So that’s another real powerful way that you can actually utilize the, your, uh, your business, expand your revenue as well too.
So that’s the three main things we’re going to be covering in this car dealership marketing guide for dealerships. So if you stay tuned, we’re going to be kind of going over the best, different, best ways that you can kind of utilize, um, the different marketing strategies to really increase your sales, increase the amount of vehicles that you’re purchasing and maximize your conversions.
And the reason why this is so important is, I mean, starting from dependent and we were talking about earlier, we’ve seen a huge change in all three fronts, and this is kind of been the first time, uh, that I can really think of in the last, maybe 10, 15 years where we’ve seen this dramatic of a change for the car business.I mean, I don’t really think there’s ever been a time where the used car market seen the change. The new car market seen a change, uh, auction prices have seen a change and buyer behaviors also shifted and changed as well too.
It’s kind of like the perfect storm and if you’re really not paying attention to all these different areas, and you’re really not incorporating a new strategy to make sure you’re, uh, marketing your viewership as best as possible to kind of adapt to these new changes in 2022, you’re going to get left in the dust and you’re really leaving that much opportunity on the table and, uh, potential ways for your competitors to kind of out shine you and outgrow you, uh, as well too.
So basically, I mean, used car prices are higher than ever, unfortunately, and that has a part to do with it with the new car inventory shortage because new car stores are facing inventory shortages and ship shortages. A lot of consumers are forced to either buy used cars, especially if they’re in the market for a new car right now, they don’t have the ability to wait one month, three months, or sometimes even longer for an allocation.You’re starting to see more and more people purchase used cars.
Even the new car dealerships that often times in the past were were sending a lot of their trade-ins, lease return vehicles to auctions, especially if it didn’t meet within their inventory model.For example, if they’re a Toyota store, they usually tried to retain the newer Toyota used inventory and just sent everything else to the auctions.But because of the scarcity that they’re facing on the new inventory side they’re having to kind of make up for that loss revenue with with used car sales.So they’re starting to keep the, the best inventory, the best use inventory and just kind of dumping whatever is really not the best retail vehicles for them at the auction.
So that’s where it started to become harder to purchase vehicles to auction. And then on top of that, you’re sometimes paying about 50% more compared to what you were paying before the pandemic and in some cases, even paying retail as well.So that’s kind of like the biggest thing that we’ve seen
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It’s not just used cars that have kind of been affected, the new cars side of the business has also kind of seen a huge shift.New car stores are starting to see a change as well , mainly because of the new car demand is still really high. That really hasn’t really gone anywhere thankfully. If anything, it’s increased because of the used car prices kind of going up a bit as well.
But, these New Car Franchise Dealerships, even two years post pandemic, are still having inventory shortages and struggling with limited availability at certain franchise stores and certain new car stores.And then in some cases you’re just forced to just order a car and wait one month, three months, six months, potentially even a year for a car to get in or whenever they become available essentially.
So you’re starting to see some dealerships even talk about possibly changing their model, moving away from those huge large scale sized lots and kind of downsizing everything really only having a few different options for display and maybe a few different options for people to purchase, but then really kind of moving everything towards online, shopping and ordering.So it’s kind of interesting that we’re starting to see that shift in the new car market as well, too. And then what’s really kind of adding a little bit of, um, a little bit of an interesting challenge for dealerships as well too, is not only are you, you’re dealing with this change in the use and new car market, but you’re also seeing a change in just buyer behavior, right?
Ever since it started the pandemic. And in recent years, even before the pandemic, more and more people are shopping online and preferring online shopping for pretty much everything as opposed to kind of dealing with retail or, and going in person.Same with the car business as well too. And, and this is pretty much the first time that we’ve seen, especially with this older demographic, like the 50 to 70 year olds that weren’t really as, uh, dominant with online shopping and really didn’t prefer online shopping, especially when it came to, uh, shopping for cars.
You’re starting to see them actually prefer online shopping as well, too. So that’s actually been like the first time that we’ve seen in recent years where we’ve seen like that older baby boomer, that older demographic also shift towards online and really not prefer that traditional in-person, uh, form of shopping.So as more and more people are preferring online shopping, that’s why it’s becoming more and more important for your dealership to kind of change and shift how you’re marketing and running your dealership.
Not only making sure you’re more visible online, as you saw in this, this other article here, it was kind of showing you that, uh, because the used car market has so many different issues with supply and pricing and everything like that online presence is becoming more and more of a success factor and an important factor and key factor for your dealership.
Because at the end of the day, did you have ships that are the most visible, get the most opportunities for sales and purchasing vehicles, which are going to be covering as well too in a second.
If you’re looking to kind of increase your visibility and increase the sales of your dealership, the most first important thing that you really need to make sure your viewership is covering is you’re actually visible when people are looking for, um, for example, like if you’re a used car dealership, specializing in used car sales, you really want to make sure your dealership is popping up as an option when somebody is in your area, searching for exotic cars for sale, same thing with, with this example, right over here, you can take a look here.So for example, if you do sell luxury cars or luxury used vehicles, it’s very important for your dealership to pop up as an option when somebody is looking for used car dealerships or used cars near them.
Especially if you’re a, uh, independent dealership, right? Franchise stores. A lot of times, if you get a little bit more traffic, as people tend to already know about them, but if you’re a, uh, independent dealership, making sure you’re visible, making sure people know about your business and dealership is very crucial.
And then you also want to make sure you’re not just focusing on popping up, for example, there’s different stages of the buying process and the funnel, essentially when somebody is looking for an exotic car for sale that is a little bit more towards the end of the funnel, they’re ready to buy.
They’re not really researching. They’re not really worried about financing necessarily or anything like that, but that can also be another way you can really increase the visibility for in-market buyers, right?
So for example, somebody that’s in the market for a used car, whether it’s before, they’re really kind of narrowing down the kind of car they want, or after they found the car, they want chances are they may start researching the different options they have in terms of, uh, loans, right?
For, for car loans and stuff like that. So making sure if you do sell exotic vehicles also popping up when somebody is actually researching exotic car loans or exotic car financing can be a real powerful way for you to actually increase your visibility, win more business, and really dominate your competition.
You can also utilize this to also really connect with people in your backyard. So whether you’re looking to purchase more vehicles locally, or even nationwide, um, making sure your dealership pops up when somebody is in the market to sell a vehicle is also really important, especially with the way the used car market has changed.
If you’re just relying on auctions and trade-ins, you’re really at the mercy of the markets, and if any other competitors have better means and better ways of allocating vehicles and expanding your inventory, you’re going to get left in the dust. And it’s going to be very hard for you to compete in scale and expand that inventory. So for example, if you’re an exotic dealership, it’s going to be very important and very powerful for you to actually pop up, uh, when somebody is looking to sell an exotic car in your area, and same thing over here, you can see in this example, um, this is one of our clients here sell your car.
We’ll see. So as you can see in the example above when somebody is in orange county, you’re looking at selling Mercedes-Benz our clients, actually the first option that anybody sees even before they’re local Mercedes-Benz dealerships in the local results.And even underneath the local results in the organic search results section is what we call this right over here. So this is going to be really powerful because that allows you to really kind of take control of your inventory.
You can really reach people in your local area. You can also reach people nationally as well, too. If you are into purchasing vehicles out of state as well, too, um, and with SEO and popping up, um, these ways that we were kind of covering this is more so the organic methods.So essentially anytime anybody clicks on your listing here, or your link here, or your business, you’re not getting charged for each click, this is all free traffic there.You’re getting free visibility. So it’s really, really powerful. It has a really high quality behind it because typically when somebody goes to Google and they type in exotic cars for sale, chances are they’re looking for an exotic car for sale.
Compared to when you run an ad on TV, you don’t really know the person that’s watching that ad, or even on Facebook.You don’t know that person that’s watching that ad is in the market to purchase a vehicle or anything like that.
So that’s why Google organic search results, uh, and even being search results and visibility can be so powerful and have such a high quality behind it because people are really in the markets.
Um, and they’re typing in the search stuff. Your business pops up and it’s relevant. You’re going to have a high chance of capturing that lead and converting that lead.So that’s what we’re talking about in terms of making sure you’re visible organically for in-market buyers and for in-market sellers.
Um, the only downside with SEO and organic visibility is sometimes it can take a little bit at a time for your dealership to gain visibility and traction, and it’s more of a long-term strategy.
So you don’t want to just rely on SEO to really scale your inventory and increase your sales. You also want to incorporate some paid advertisement, uh, as well too, to really expand your sales and increase your sales.So this is a couple of different examples here. You can see, for example, if you are trying to sell a used Porsche cayenne, you can run an ad similar to this.
If you’re just trying to really get some eyeballs and visibility, all your inventory, you can run a general ad like this, or for example, if you’re a Mercedes-Benz dealership or you’re selling use Mercedes-Benz, this is an example of a style ad that you can run to really kind of reach people that are looking for a certified pre-owned Mercedes, a used Mercedes B, uh, GLA, or a used Mercedes Benz, right?
You can also use this same tactic and same strategy to also expand your inventory and reach people locally and nationwide that are looking to sell their vehicles.So for example, if I’m looking to sell my exotic car and I go to Google and I see this ad here, sell your exotic car today, get more for your exotic car. This can be really powerful. If you’re actually able to pop up for people, um, or run ads and pop up when people are actually searching this other vehicle.
Right? So for example, if you’re looking to purchase Lamborghinis, it can be very beneficial for you to pop up right in the paid search results section, as well too, same thing that you can see in this example below for the search term “Sell my Mercedes”
You can see here for this particular client, this is actually a real good example. Here You can see there’s shifts and there’s cargurus, etc.These are both really big online competitors. And in most cases, when we’re talking to you as ships, they wouldn’t really think they’d have a real chance of competing online, especially when it comes to paid advertisement against some of these big players like CarGurus and shift, because they have such big budgets.
But with our agency, we’re kind of able to target and narrow and really optimize your campaigns and your ads to give you a, a good chance to really kind of capture that visibility and even beats a lot of these bigger players, uh, vocally, or even nationwide for different terms that are relevant to your business, right?
So this is a good example that you can see right over here. And then the other way that you can also increase your sales and your leads, uh, for car dealerships, this is something that’s actually brand new.This was an advertising channel that was only available for, Carvana, CarMax and the third party advertising platforms because it was more of a beta program that Google had came up with, which is their “Vehicles For Sale” Platform.
And this is something they came out with to really steal traffic and really, really kind of deter people from using these third party websites and really kind of pay Google to, to get that same visibility into direct people, to the dealership website, as opposed to like a third party, um, website, for example, like car gurus and stuff like that.So now if you’re an independent dealership or a franchise dealership starting March, 2022, you’re able to advertise your inventory, your live inventory under this vehicles for sale section.
So you can see here, for example, how useful and how powerful this can be. So for example, if I go to Google and I’m looking for a used Porsche client, and you have a particular, a use Porsche client, uh, available your inventory can show up right over here, um, for potential in-market buyers and same thing, right, right over here, this is actually a pretty good example.
So you can see here, I just went to Google and I searched for a Mercedes-Benz S550 And just to give you guys a little context here, I’m in the city of Laguna Gale, and literally three lights away from where I’m living.There is a Mercedes-Benz dealership, a fairly big one as well too. That’s been here for quite some time and they do have a few different used Mercedes-Benz S550’s for sale, but you can see here when I went to Google, they don’t even pop up as an option
.
In my mind,they weren’t even an option because I saw this ad right over here from Fletcher Jones, Newport beach shift, shift, car gurus, and CarMax.So I didn’t even really consider, and it’s really hard for buyers to even consider the closer option because they’re not even popping up and they have no visibility here.
So this can be a real powerful way for you to really dominate any other dealerships in your surrounding areas. And especially if you’re the only dealership to really, incorporate this and utilize this in such a brand new avenue for dealerships to advertise on. Also not a lot of dealerships would even know about this. If you’re the first one to jump on board with this you can really dominate your local market and really crush your competitors.. You want to ensure you jump on board as soon as possible, because this is something that’s very new. It’s going to get saturated fairly quickly. Once everybody realizes the potential and the power behind the vehicles for sale platform that Google has rolled out and the ability to actually just sign up for it as well.So it’s going to get very competitive and a lot more expensive in the near future.
It’s still going to be profitable in the future, even though it’s going to be more competitive in the cost per click and cost per results going to go up.But it’s definitely going to be beneficial for you to be one of those early adopters. If you, one of those first people in your area to incorporate this, especially if your other competitors don’t even know this exists.So that’s actually something that’s going to be pretty powerful for you as a new car store used car store, independent, or even franchise, right.
And then just kind of taking everything a little bit further here, none that we’ve kind of covered how you can kind of grow your visibility, um, and the search results through organic and paid, um, marketing tactics.
You can also fuel your inventory sales and purchase more vehicles by incorporating social media ads as well too.
So these are a couple of different examples. So for example, if you’re a, uh, a new car store, a franchise store, and you’re trying to run promotions for these specials, you can run carousel ads to really kind of showcase any particular offers and specials you have for any particular vehicle.
So for example, if you’re trying to run a special for like a Dodge Ram, you can run like a nice little carousel ad and really choose where your ads are running.
So you can pinpoint and target any geographic area that you want to, you can really expand your reach locally or even hit up nationwide as well too, if you’re an independent dealership stealing, uh, state to state.
This is another example, right over here, too, you can see here, for example, they’re advertising a Lease special here, advertising it, early bird program,etc.
This next strategy is actually going to be the most powerful way you can actually advertise on social media, which is going to be dynamic inventory ads.The way this works is we pretty much tap into your dealership’s Inventory Management system and your inventory management system to create a live inventory feed that gets fed over to Facebook.So that way you can actually really get a lot better results than you typically would with these style of ads.
The reason why Dynamic Inventory Ads are so powerful but for example, if you run this ad and you wanted to really run this ad in like a 30 mile radius, you really hoping that somebody is looking for a Dodge Ram in that 30 mile radius, versus when you run a carousel live inventory ad or a dynamic inventory ad, you’re able to run ads for multiple different vehicles.