This stuff works wonders and so few dealers and vendors in the automotive industry know about it. By “working wonders”, I mean that it is having an impact on dealerships’ abilities to sell more cars. The reason is pretty straight forward, but oddly missed by so many, and that’s the point. We can thank the poor social media products that have invaded the automotive industry in the last few years for giving us and our clients this opportunity.
It’s something we internally call “secret agent social media”. The big secret behind it is only a secret thanks to the inability of social media companies to promote what they have and the unwillingness of social media vendors in the automotive industry to take advantage of the value behind the data. It’s not hard but it can be very time consuming, which is why they choose to ignore it.
The key to it remaining a secret for so long lies in the manual labor. There’s not a ton of labor to be certain, but the fact that it’s a daily grind makes it not cost-effective for larger companies and often not worthwhile for smaller companies or individual dealers. Many vendors and some dealers realize that you can manually promote specific messages to specific people on social media. They realize that you can target people in the dealership’s database (customer appreciation specials!), specific demographics of people like students (college grad programs!) and particular vehicle owners (service conquest specials!), but they also realize that to do it right requires the steady grind of building, promoting, tracking, and enhancing content. If there’s one thing this industry avoids, it’s fresh content.
All of this brings me to the reason that it’s so important for “P&A” (progressive and aggressive) dealers to invest into social media now rather than later. You will do it at some point if you’re truly aggressive because it’s the way that the trends are pointing. As social media sites gain more insights into their users and more users turn to social media sites for more than just a poke or a birthday announcement, P&A dealers will be forced to keep up with those who are already jumping on board.
It all reminds me of what was happening 7 years ago when I first came over from the dealership side of the business to the vendor side. At the time, there was still a need to convince many dealers that search engines were important. I’m proud to have been part of the education process for many over the years to acquire an understanding of the need for SEO, PPC, and other forms of search marketing. Today, the same type of enlightenment must be done for social media. There have been so many poor products released to dealers over the years and many of them have become jaded to the concept as a result. Just as there were (and still are) worthless search marketing products that we needed to overcome, so too must we engage with more dealers to take advantage of the growing need for proper social media marketing.
Social media can help dealers sell more cars. We see it every day. However, that does not mean that everyone who is offering it is able to deliver. We take pride in the idea that we’re one of those. Are you willing to let us show you how? If so, fill out the form below.
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