Identify & Prioritize Your Marketing Needs in an Ever-Changing Market

Navigating the Ever-Changing Consumer Landscape When it comes to consumer demand, running a business can feel like feast or famine. At times, business is booming - it's all you can do just to keep up. Other times, customers can be hard to come by. Economic factors, including inflation, can diminish consumers' collective desire to spend money. And unfortunately, businesses like yours feel the brunt of economic change and lack of consumer consistency. During times like these, when consumer scarcity is the economic norm and shoppers aren't necessarily searching high and low for the right unit, you can't rely on your website and word-of-mouth alone to generate leads. You need to take marketing matters into your own hands to proactively drive consumers to your dealership. To reach, re-engage and convert shoppers at any time (and maintain sales and revenue goals), you need to double-down on digital marketing.
01 Digital Marketing Overview 02 Identify and Prioritize Your Digital Marketing Needs 03 Integrated Marketing 04 Digital Marketing Strategies 05 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 06 Search Engine Marketing (SEM) 07 Social Media Marketing 08 Targeted Digital Advertising 09 Automated Email Marketing 10 Conclusion
01. Digital Marketing Overview
What is Digital Marketing? Digital marketing is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide range of marketing practices, approaches, and products. It's a collection of sales strategies that can be custom-tailored to fit a variety of business needs and reach more consumers through a variety of marketing channels.
A Modern Marketing Necessity Given the current retail realities of today's online world, digital marketing is both more necessary and more effective than ever before. Without digital marketing, dealerships cannot consistently connect with online leads, thus compromising their sales, growth, and revenue potential.
"Digital marketing is both more necessary and more effective than ever before."
The Ups and Downs of Consumer Demand
  • Find the right audience.
    • No matter how great your dealership is, if you can't reach the right audience, no one will benefit from your products or services.
  • Deliver the right content.
    • Instead of casting a wide marketing net and hoping for the best, dive into the data to find the most effective online platforms for reaching potential customers. Then, target those customers with specific content.
Digital Marketing Strategy When digital marketing and dealership strategy come together, you win more customers.
  • A digital marketing strategy is a plan to generate sales leads and to reconnect with customers by aligning your content with consumer searches across digital channels.
  • A good digital marketing strategy provides a framework for your dealership to leverage the strengths of each digital channel to determine what works best for your dealership.
02. Identify and Prioritize Your Digital Marketing Needs
You can do a lot with digital marketing. Technology is always evolving and new digital marketing trends are always emerging. Sometimes, it's easy to lose sight of your business' objectives when implementing a digital marketing strategy.
Align Your Digital Marketing with Your Business Objectives Know what you want to accomplish. When it comes to digital marketing, it's not a matter of which method is more effective (i.e. organic search vs. paid ads), but rather which method is most applicable to your circumstances and goals.
Identify Your Dealership's Greatest Marketing Needs Understand where your brand stands to benefit from new trends and proven digital marketing methods, then implement the right combination to meet your marketing needs and maximize your customer reach.
"...it's best to implement a variety of digital marketing products to improve results"
Implement a Multi-Tier Approach Rather than putting all your eggs into one marketing basket, it's best to implement a variety of digital marketing products to improve results. At the same time, you don't necessarily need to dive into every possible digital marketing platform.
03. Integrated Marketing
One marketing channel, by itself, usually isn't enough to communicate your entire story. Most consumers connect with your messages, in their entirety, at different times and through different marketing channels.

Integrated marketing refers to the combination of digital marketing components that your dealership can use to reach your audience. It's a holistic approach to marketing, using multiple channels to effectively communicate your dealership's message to customers at every stage of the buying journey.
Keep It Consistent
  • Even though you're using different marketing channels to communicate your message, you don't want to confuse customers. Keep messaging and branding consistent across all platforms.
  • Whether driving customers to an inventory listing, a blog article, a landing page, or service page, stay on brand in terms of design and messaging.
Reach Shoppers at Every Stage
  • Not every shopper is ready to make a purchase right now. To keep customers consistently flowing through the sales funnel, you need to communicate with them at every stage of the buying journey.
  • Use different marketing channels to nurture consumer interest, all the way through the decision-making process and beyond the first sale.
04. Digital Marketing Strategies
Consider the following digital marketing strategies and how each one individually (and in combination with each other) can help you meet your business objectives.
05. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When consumer demand is low and sales are slow, you can do more to drive traffic to your website. The secret is to enhance your dealership's searchability.
What is SEO? Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing and driving website traffic from search engines to your website organically. It's a combination of using keywords, copy marketing, link building and meta descriptions to align your website's content with search engine algorithms.
  • The first objective of SEO is to generate new leads online. By aligning your website's content with what shoppers are searching for, you can drive traffic to your website and increase the visibility of your business.
  • SEO is also about building brand recognition and trust with shoppers. When you produce quality, engaging SEO content that's well-researched, well-written and actually helpful to consumers, you increase your SEO performance and build your brand's reputation.
Websites that appear at the top of the search results page get42%of traffic.
- Bing
Why SEO Matters
  • Organic search results - the unpaid listings that appear on search results pages - are targeted and more accurately align with shoppers' intents and interests. Organic search is the foundation of a successful online presence.
  • According to Microsoft's search engine, Bing, websites that appear at the top of the search results page get 42% of traffic.
Components of a Successful SEO Strategy KEYWORDS When it comes to SEO, keywords are king. Every internet search starts with a set of search terms. In general, the more closely you can align your website content with the words and phrases your audience uses most often in their internet searches, the better your search rankings.
KEYWORDS BEST PRACTICES
  • Don't just post content for content's sake.
    • Create content that actually addresses your shoppers' search inquiries, not just a page full of keywords haphazardly put together, which may actually lower your search ranking.
  • Use relevant keywords.
    • Research and implement keywords that are applicable to your business, in terms of inventory, services and location.
  • Run a competitor analysis for your keywords.
    • Search for keywords that your competitors are targeting to see how well they perform.
  • Choose keywords with low competition.
    • Go beyond basic terms and frequently used keywords. Target phrases used by shoppers who have a strong intent to buy, i.e. "Used Honda bike dealer Albany GA."
  • Use secondary keywords.
    • Consider the various ways customers search for a topic. Try to answer the primary questions they search for, as well as similar questions on the topic.
  • Optimize for voice search.
    • Many consumers are shopping on Google Voice, Amazon Alexa and other voice assistants. Focus content on conversational keywords and tone, and keywords that answer commonly asked questions.
COPY MARKETING Creating copy and content, in the form of webpages and blog posts, is a great way to engage your audience and incorporate keywords to improve your search rankings. Good copy marketing can also keep your audience on your website longer, signaling to search engines that your website is a reliable source.
COPY MARKETING BEST PRACTICES
  • Focus on solving your customers' problems.
    • Make sure your copy is thought-out and engaging, not just random writing that fills a space.
  • Start with a specific goal in mind.
    • Use descriptive titles and keep content focused to one topic per page to consolidate your keywords and attract shoppers who are looking for a specific topic.
  • Add links.
    • Include links within your content to popular, reputable and related webpages to improve the "shareability," credibility and value of your content in the eyes of search engines.
LINK BUILDING Link building is the practice of reaching out to owners of other websites and asking them to share your content via inbound links (sometimes called backlinks). Not only is this a great way to share your content and bring in new users, it builds domain authority, signaling to search engines that your site is worth being recommended.
LINK BUILDING BEST PRACTICES
  • Create content that's worth sharing.
    • Make sure that your blog posts and webpages address a specific industry question or need.
  • Backlink with reputable sites.
    • Choose sites that share the same audience and have a higher domain authority.
  • Create linkable content.
  • Create your own backlinks.
    • Link to your website's content within your dealership's social media profiles.
META DESCRIPTIONS Meta descriptions are micro-pitches for your webpages. They are HTML tags that describe content, appearing just below your webpage title and URL in search results. The meta description is often the first opportunity you have to sell your shoppers on your content.
META DESCRIPTIONS BEST PRACTICES
  • Keep meta descriptions concise.
    • As a general rule, limit meta description copy to 140-160 characters so shoppers can see the entire message.
  • Include a unique selling point.
    • Your webpages are competing with similar content in the search results. Ask why shoppers should click your link and construct your meta description accordingly.
  • Include keywords.
    • Meta descriptions offer another opportunity to implement target keywords for a particular webpage to improve search results.
06. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Not all website traffic is worth your while - some leads aren't ready to make a purchase and still others may not be a good fit for your dealership. In a market where buyers are scarce, take the extra step to stand out from the competition and target qualified leads.
What is Search Engine Marketing? Search engine marketing (SEM) is a practice of partnering with search engines to market your dealership through pay-per-click (PPC) ads. Because search engines are the primary way people find inventory and dealership services, a strong search engine marketing strategy is essential. Why Search Engine Marketing Matters
  • Search engine marketing works quickly to build your brand presence, whereas organic rankings promote success over time.
  • Paid ads appear above organic content, helping your brand to stand out in search results.
Search engine marketing ads generate an average of$2for every $1 spent.
- Google
"The best way to think about [SEM] is starting with the premise: a user goes to a search engine with a question in . If you can provide that answer - and it's profitable for you to do so - you can benefit from SEM."

- Michele Dappert, Senior Media Specialist at Planit, as told to Forbes Advisor
  • The pay-per-click nature of search engine marketing means businesses of any size, with any budget, can drive clicks-throughs and conversions in a cost-effective way.
  • Because you only pay when someone clicks your ad, search engine marketing reduces cost per acquisition (CPA) and improves ROI by targeting and reaching the right customers.
  • According to an Economic Impact Report published by Google, SEM ads generate an average of $2 for every $1 spent.
  • Search engine marketing lets you see what your customers are searching for when they view your ads, giving you stronger insights into consumer psychology to optimize your online ads.
PAY-PER-CLICK ADS Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are the most common form of SEM. PPC ads level the playing field between big multi-location businesses and smaller dealerships. Even the smallest business has the opportunity to be featured at the top of search results.
PAY-PER-CLICK BEST PRACTICES
  • Explore targeting options.
    • Segment your audience by demographic, geography, online behavior, and interests.
    • Schedule ads to appear during peak online scrolling times or during business hours to optimize your ad spend.
    • Target local customers by setting your ads to appear within a certain geographic location or radius around your shop.
  • Follow standard search ad copy guidelines.
    • Use up to three headlines (30 characters each) and up to two description blocks (90 characters each) to grab attention and show the value your ad can fulfill.
  • Aim to educate.
    • Tailor your ads to provide a service (i.e. maintenance, repairs or seasonal services), solve a problem (i.e. need to find the right unit, explore pricing opportunities) or provide new information (i.e. a new model on the market, how-to articles). Consumers are 131% more likely to make a purchase after reading educational content.
  • Frequently adjust your ad bid amount.
    • Monitor how much money you're spending on a specific keyword when a customer clicks your ad.
    • Single out your highest-performing ads and keywords and dedicate your ad spend to them.
    • Consider increasing your bid for successful keywords to improve the likelihood that your ad will appear in searches that include that keyword.
  • Set spend limits.
    • Determine a maximum daily, monthly and lifetime budget amount to ensure that your ad spend won't exceed your cap.
  • Run ads on your brand name.
    • Use your business and brand terms as keywords in your campaigns to prevent competitors from targeting your brand name and stealing your traffic.
Consumers are 131% more likely to make a purchase after reading educational content.
- Conductor
07. Social Media Marketing
Social media isn't just mindless scrolling. It provides a real opportunity for your dealership to leverage the power and prevalence of social media platforms to engage shoppers and drive traffic to your website.
What is Social Media Marketing? Social media marketing is the practice of using social media platforms to deliver paid ads that promote your dealership's products and services.
  • Social ads allow you to craft a specific narrative for a specific audience, inviting them to take a specific action. They work in combination with your website and contribute to your overall SEO.
1 out of 2social media users have made a purchase after viewing an ad.
- Survey Monkey
Why Social Media Marketing Matters
  • Shoppers use social media as a second search engine. Social media marketing can help you communicate your services, list your incoming inventory, and link customers directly to your website.
  • You can get your content in front of shoppers, even if you don't have a large social following. Paid ads appear prominently in timelines and newsfeeds, ensuring that your social media presence is front and center, and top of mind.
  • Paid ads have a high ROI. Nearly half of social media users have made a purchase after viewing an ad.
  • In addition to driving sales, social media ads increase brand awareness and support your organic content strategy.
Popular Social Media Marketing Platforms With social media platforms aplenty, it's important to learn the characteristics of each and identify which platform and type of social media ads align best with your dealership's goals.
  • Facebook
    • The third most-visited website in the world.
    • Popular with Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millennials.
    • 2 billion active monthly users.
    • 65.9% of users log in daily.
  • Instagram
    • 1.1 billion active monthly users.
    • Popular with Millennials and Gen Z.
  • Twitter
    • 319 million monthly active users.
    • Popular with Gen X and Millennials.
    • Skews toward a male audience.
Types of Social Media Marketing There are several effective ways to capture the attention of social media users. The right combination of social media marketing types will depend on the platforms you choose and the types of message you're trying to communicate.
  • Photos
    • Photos are static, eye-catching images or graphics designed to capture attention and encourage consumers to click a link to learn more.
  • Videos
    • Video ads allow you to show off your inventory in action or delve deeply into a particular topic that may be on the minds of consumers.
  • Carousel
    • Carousel ads let you communicate a narrative with consecutive images. They're a great way to showcase multiple units in a single post or spotlight several features on one unit.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING BEST PRACTICES
  • Don't stretch yourself thin.
    • Instead of trying to market on every social platform, learn the characteristics of each platform and identify which types of marketing align best with your dealership.
  • Capture consumers' attention.
    • Use graphics that are more visual and less text-based to capture consumers' attention.
  • Stay on brand.
    • Social media is a breeding ground for new trends - it can be easy to stray outside the bounds of your established brand. Keep your social media messaging and design consistent with your website and other paid ads to keep your brand memorable for shoppers.
  • Play to each platform's strengths.
    • Understand the reasons your audience uses each social media platform and custom tailor messages for each platform type.
      • Facebook and Instagram are popular for discovering new products and services.
      • LinkedIn caters to building social connections.
      • Twitter favors sharing industry news.
  • Reach the right customers.
    • Use audience segmentation and targeting tools to deliver the right messages to the right customers and maximize your ad performance. Separate current customers from new prospects and deliver ads relevant to their respective buying funnels.
08. Targeted Digital Advertising
When it comes to online advertising, there's no shortage of opportunities or potential customers. The key is to use available tools to reach the right customers at the right time.
What is Targeted Digital Advertising? Targeted digital advertising is a way for your dealership to deliver highly personalized ads that match each shopper's individual interests at every stage of the buying journey.
  • Targeted digital advertising automates the work of analyzing online data to determine which customers are searching for the products and services you sell, which customers are visiting your website, what these customers want and how they prefer to communicate.
Why Targeted Digital Advertising Matters
  • Targeted digital advertising allows you to tailor your messaging and focus your ad spend to capture the attention of customers with a high intention to buy.
  • Targeted ads are highly personalized - where they appear, how they look and what they say depends on your audience's actions.
  • Targeted digital advertising is effective - 71% of consumers want to receive personalized ads.
71% of consumers want to receive personalized ads.
- AdRoll
Types of Targeting Every customer is different and each may respond to a different type of targeted advertising, depending on their interests, location and situation.
  • Behavioral Targeting
    • Target leads based on their web browsing behavior, such as previous searches and pages visited.
  • Contextual Targeting
    • Target leads by advertising on websites that have similar content and share similar audiences.
  • Retargeting
    • Re-engage leads who have visited your website and clicked on your inventory listings and encourage them to come back and make a purchase.
    • These ads may appear on other websites and in social media newsfeeds.
  • Geotargeting
    • Advertise to leads within a certain geographic location (such as your dealership, a competing dealership or a trade show you'll be attending) or to those who have visited a specific location within the last 30 days.
TARGETED DIGITAL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES
  • Identify your ideal audience.
    • Determine the demographic, interests, location, etc. of the people you're trying to reach. If you're unsure of your ideal audience, use your current customers as a starting point.
  • Establish a goal.
    • Whether you're trying to generate new business or retarget past customers, paid ad campaigns have much greater success if they're based on one clear goal.
  • Choose the appropriate platform.
    • Know where your audience is most likely to encounter your ad (i.e. search results, social media platforms, similar websites, etc.) and advertise accordingly.
  • Analyze the results.
    • Run advertising year-round to see the biggest benefit. Routinely view data and identify opportunities to optimize and enhance your campaigns.
09. Automated Email Marketing
Whether you're nurturing new leads or trying to retain long-time customers, sending automated emails is an essential part of engaging with your audience.
What is Automated Email Marketing? Automated email marketing is the practice of sending prewritten emails, triggered by shoppers' specific actions, to ensure that every member of your audience receives content tailored to their interests.
  • When shoppers browse your inventory listings, they may submit a lead form to get more information. Automated email marketing captures contact information, tracks website visits and sends an email tailored to their interests, encouraging them to make a purchase.
  • Automated email marketing can also keep your content in front of your customers by way of monthly newsletters featuring inventory, and through routine follow-up emails inviting customers to upgrade or trade in older units.
Email marketing generates an average of $38 for every dollar spent.
- Constant Contact
Why Automated Email Marketing Matters
  • Automated email marketing is an effective way to stay top-of-mind with customers and convert your existing base into a rich source of revenue. According to Constant Contact, email marketing generates an average of $38 in revenue for every dollar spent.
  • Marketing emails keep current customers engaged with your brand. Dealers who don't maintain an ongoing relationship with their customers are less likely to receive repeat business and more likely to lose customers to competitors.
  • Automated email marketing lets you nurture leads - guiding them through a personalized buying journey and helping them to take next steps in the purchase process.
  • Consumers are inundated with marketing emails - they're likely to delete or ignore any emails that aren't relevant to their interests. Automated email marketing not only helps your business nurture leads, it can help you find purchase-ready customers.
  • When inventory is plentiful and consumer demand is low, shoppers have the luxury of being choosy about what and where they buy. Email marketing can keep customers engaged with your brand, helping you maintain ongoing relationships and close more sales.
AUTOMATED EMAIL MARKETING BEST PRACTICES
  • Segment your audience.
    • To get the most out of your marketing emails, segment your audience by the actions they perform on your website, and send emails that match their interests.
    • Businesses that use audience segmentation in their emails see up to a 760% increase in revenue, according to Campaign Monitor.
  • Don't just market new inventory.
    • Email marketing is most effective when customers are already interested in your brand. Nurture customers through the entire buying process, prompting them to further explore what you offer.
  • Target the full customer journey.
    • Accompany every step of the customer journey with a relevant email:
      • "Oops, you still have items in your cart - come back and finish your purchase."
      • "Thanks for buying! Here's what else is new."
      • "Are you ready for an upgrade? We'll buy your unit back."
      • "Check out our newsletter for the latest inventory and season-specific services."
  • Review reporting metrics.
    • Optimize your marketing emails by frequently reviewing open rates, click-through rates and opt-outs, and adjust your marketing campaigns accordingly.
10. Conclusion
Whether business is booming or customers are hard to come by, digital marketing is essential element of your sales success. Especially during times when consumer demand dips below ideal levels, digital marketing can help you take marketing matters into your own hands to drive customers to your dealership.

As you develop your own digital marketing strategy, refer to this resource often to learn more about digital marketing and discover what works best for your dealership. Oftentimes, the lessons you learn from one channel may be used to improve strategy in another. Just be careful not to copy and paste the same method for each marketing channel. A one-size-fits-all platforms approach likely won't achieve the conversion rates and sales results you're searching for.

As you continue on your digital marketing journey, remember to identify your dealership's greatest needs and match them with the marketing tactics to meet your objectives. Blend different tactics to funnel shoppers all the way through the buying journey - from first website click to retargeting ads, to a timely newsletter in their inbox each month. When your brand is strategic about delivering the right messages to the right customers, using the right digital marketing channels, you can attract leads, convert shoppers and maintain sales and revenue goals - no matter the circumstances.