3 Pieces of Content Your Car Dealership Needs Today

Let me ask you this: What content is your dealership creating every day?

More often than not when I ask that question I get pulled into conversations about which social media platform is best, which distribution method dealerships should be using to spread the word about themselves, or even whether video, photos, or written content does a better job stopping the scroll.

What happens much less often is that I get to have a conversation about the message. What’s the story they want to tell?

Facebook & TikTok. Email & YouTube. Radio & TV. Blog posts & matchbook covers. 

Nothing wrong with any of them. Use ‘em all, but they’re all just tools to get your message on the inside of your customers’ heads. How the message gets there isn’t anywhere near as important as what that message is.

The message is what matters.

If you want to create better, more engaging, conversation-starting content, you have to tell a better story.

Telling a better story starts with deciding what story you want to tell, then creating more content that spreads that message regardless of format or delivery platform. 

A great story can be told in many ways, in many formats, on many platforms. A great story transcends.

Community

The greatest stories that your dealership can tell, 

The stories that will resonate best with your target market,

The stories that will bring you the most likes, clicks, shares, smiley face emojis, actual real live conversations with real live people, and yes, more sales,

In those stories, you’re not the hero; you’re the sidekick.

You’re not Batman; you’re Robin.

Look for opportunities to create content that shines a light on other people in your community.

“Look for your people, and lift them up,” says business strategist Sherman Mohr.

For years, I’ve been encouraging salespeople and managers to attend Toastmasters or Dale Carnegie training to improve their communication skills. In How To Win Friends and Influence People, Carnegie says we can make it easy for other people to like us when we go out of our way to make them feel important.

Create more content that does that!

Full profiles of your employees, not just the sales department.

Spotlights about your customers’ businesses. 

Features about local sports teams from sandlot baseball to the major leagues. 

Active participation in community events.

The next time someone comes in asking you to donate $500 to some local charitable, civic, or sports organization, don’t just write the check. Show up and help. Use your dealership’s digital footprint to help them spread the word.

Get your team out in the community belly-to-belly with the people and then Tell That Story.

Use Video and pictures to put more faces on Facebook. 

Write a blog post for your website to boost your SEO. 

Share it on your Google My Business page.  

In his book Marketing Revolution, Mark Schaeffer says that in today’s media-saturated market with today’s media-savvy consumers, the businesses that present the most human messages and stories will be the businesses that thrive.

Be more human.

Commerce

Rule #1 is “It Ain’t About You!”

It’s about them, and specifically, it’s about how you can help them.

The single greatest thing about the car business is that almost every single human being you’ve ever met has, wants, or needs a car. They’ve got 99 problems and their car is definitely one!

Create content that tells the story of how you can help solve their car problems.

The best way to do that is to show how you’ve solved other people’s car problems. Post Videos of happy customers saying how you went out of your way to find them the perfect car. Post photographs from the service department showing your new Express and after-hours lanes. And get more written reviews from customers, sales customers, service customers, stopped-by-on-my-way-home-to-get-a-free-ice-cream-cone customers.

Customer reviews are the gold medal, brass ring, heavyweight champion of the content marketing world.

You can tell your story all day long, but when your customers start singing the same song that’s when a story becomes a brand.

Ask And You Get; Don’t and You Won’t.

It’s the first thing they tell you in Sales 101; you have to ask for the order.

Your dealership is in business to generate business. Create revenue. Nothing says commitment like money changing hands.

If you’re not even asking for the money, less of it is going to change hands.

In the official social media official playbook Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook!, Gary Vaynerchuk likens your social media calendar is like a prizefight with friendly, entertaining, community based or other ostensibly non-commercial content serving as the left jabs that lower defenses and leave an opening for the knock out punch.

Asking for the order. Making it easy for them to take action. Making them an offer they can’t refuse. Promising them a car buying experience they’ll never forget.

Everybody loves a deal. Create more content that gives them a deal.

Then look them dead in the eye and ask for the order - call, click or come on down.