Marketing to Women in the Dealer World She Loves Her Mobile Device

In a recent study, Time, Inc. and Nuance Digital Marketing discovered that women are increasingly attached to their mobile devices. In fact, the study (called “Women + Mobile: The Unbreakable Bond,” found that 60% of women say their smartphone is the most important device they own, and 88% of women say their phones give them something to do during their “empty” time every day. What does that mean for you and your dealership? Well, if you're not fully engaging the mobile space in your marketing to women efforts, you're missing out.

Mobile Marketing to Women: Text Reminders and Alerts

If you're not taking steps to go paperless at your dealership, you're in danger of being left behind by dealers who are. Not only is paper becoming increasingly cost-prohibitive (if you don't believe us, just take a look at how much you spend each year on printing alone), but women are very responsive to auto dealers who have green practices, and going paperless is a major step in that direction.

Using paperless agreements, email, web, and mobile advertising, online appointment scheduling and finance qualification, and even utilizing text messaging to keep in touch with your customers after the sale are great ways to make sure your dealership remains front-of-mind for your women customers. Service reminders, 30k, 60k, and 90k maintenance notices, recall information and more can all be transmitted wirelessly straight to the conduit via which she gets all her other important updates: her mobile phone.

Mobile Marketing to Women: The Mobile Web

Of course, you also want to use the mobile space to reach women who aren't already your customers, and the mobile web is where you do that. Smartphone and tablet users are threatening to overtake the population of desktop PC users on the web, so if your dealership is still using a website designed for desktop viewing, it's time to give that site a face-lift and retrofit to fit inside the mobile space. It'll make your site cleaner, simpler, and easier to navigate from a smaller screen, with some added benefits on the back-end as well: mobile SEO.

Giving your website a mobile makeover is a great time to revisit your SEO practices, ensure your entire website is “crawlable,” that you're still targeting the right keywords, and most importantly, that you're capitalizing on SEO geared at the mobile user. Mobile searchers are on the go, which means she's actively looking for a business like yours if they're searching for a car dealer on her phone—so if you're not taking steps to make sure she finds you first, you're going to miss out on important sales opportunities.

Mobile Marketing to Women: The Pitfalls

When it comes to advertising on the web, mobile, or otherwise, most women don't mind ads as long as they can control the experience. Location-based offers are very effective right now, 41% of women saying they prefer ads that are relevant to where they're searching from. 52% say they prefer ads that are relevant to what they're currently doing on the web, and the number one negative? Intrusive ads—91% of women say they hate ads that pop up, take over, or otherwise distract from her browsing experience, so stay away from that! Simply make yourself visible, mobile-friendly, and allow your business to become part of her mobile webspace, and when she finds herself ready to shop for a new car, she'll find you!

Jody DeVere is the CEO and President of AskPatty.com, Inc., AskPatty.com helps dealerships attract, sell, retain and increase loyalty with women customers, certified dealers are held to a high level of customer satisfaction. Visit www.askpatty.com/getcertified to learn more about how to become an AskPatty.com Certified Female Friendly.