- Dealer Marketing Magazine

Did you know that 70% of people in the U.S. have a profile on at least one social network? This means that the vast majority of your potential customers is already using such platforms.

If you want to connect with them effectively, you’ll need to come up with a social media strategy that represents your dealership in the best possible way.

Know your audience

To come up with the best possible campaign, you should know your audience, as well as some statistics about it.

For example, 75% of car buyers say internet research, including the use of social media, is the most useful source of information when it comes to the selection of a dealership? In fact, buyers rank social profiles as much more important than the websites of dealerships.

Nearly 75% of car buyers say that they’d be willing to travel up to 60 miles in order to visit a dealership that has good online reviews. This number shows a decisiveness in today’s buyer, and a massive trust in the information provided by others. So, what do all of these numbers mean for you? Start working on your social media profile today. Populate it with content that your audience is going to like. Stimulate people to write reviews. Use analytics to learn a bit more about what your audience wants. All of these tools are at your disposal, and they’ll give you a much better idea about how to connect organically with prospects.

Try Facebook Ads

Once you know the specifics of your target audience, you can move on to employing the channels and techniques that will deliver the best results. Facebook Ads, for example, provide a cost-efficient opportunity for reaching the right people. In addition, statistics show that Facebook Ads are particularly effective in the automobile industry.

Unified research suggests that automobile ads have a two times higher click-through rate (CTR) than the average Facebook ad. At the same time, the cost per click is exactly the same as for an ad focusing on any other product. Facebook advertising allows for a lot of targeting. For example, you can easily cater your campaign to the needs of a male audience. It’s a well-known fact that such ads are mainly viewed by men. In addition, it’s 17% cheaper to advertise to men on Facebook, and guys are 79% more likely to engage with an auto ad than women.

The secret to a successful Facebook advertising campaign is to choose the right message and the right channel. Researchers have found out that automobile ads that target men on a mobile platform will perform much better than the ones presented on a desktop screen. Visuals are very important also, especially when it comes to grabbing the interest of the audience and generating instant engagement.

The quality of your content matters

Writing good content for a social media campaign is far from an easy task. At the same time, this is the biggest prerequisite for driving organic engagement and establishing yourself as the authority in your field. Accomplishing these goals will build a genuine connection with prospects. People like to interact with brands that share useful, entertaining, and unique content with them. In other words, the higher the quality of your content, the more cost-efficient your advertising efforts will be.

Good social media content is niche. Stick to the topics that you’re familiar with and that you’re an expert in. For example, start an auto repair series, or give people useful tips about increasing their gas mileage. Make the content relatable, and make it valuable. This way, you’ll keep the audience coming back time and time again.

Diversifying the content with charts, infographics, and even video clips is also a good idea. For example, start a video series about vehicle maintenance. Video tends to generate higher levels of engagement, and it can go viral easily. All that you need is a smartphone and free video-editing software. The quality will be high enough to get people interested.

Learn from your audience

Social media gives you a great chance to learn from your audience because people rely on these platforms to interact with the businesses that they’re interested in. You can get a lot of valuable information about the quality of your service, the things that your buyers are interested in, and the ways in which you can increase client satisfaction. Always answer inquiries that you get online. If you get a negative review, you should definitely investigate into the complaint.

A disgruntled customer can easily be turned into your most loyal fan through the provision of the right compensation. In the past, companies didn’t have access to such massive resources. In essence, they had to “shoot in the dark” to figure out which campaign would deliver results.

Things have changed today. In order to be successful, you simply have to ask your audience about what it wants. Social media marketing is not easy, and it will require consistent effort, especially if you want tangible results. This is why you should first start by defining your audience and the goals of the campaign. Figure out which channels will help you accomplish the goal, and which techniques can deliver the best results. Based on this analysis, you can guarantee your campaign has a particularly strong start.

Alicia Honeycutt is a content marketer and writer. Join her on Facebook or her website.