Industry News

Does your marketing need Lasik?

It’s an awesome feeling. When car sales are strong, life is good.

Inventory is perfect. The dealership is clicking on all cylinders. Car buyers are plentiful and everyone is making money.

Now, be honest. How frequent are month’s like that at your dealership? Are they pretty regular occurrences or do consistent sales and sustained growth month after month feel as impossible as nailing jello to a tree?

The truth is, every dealership can have a good month occasionally. The real test is maintaining that same success even in the slower times. The times when things like prolonged periods of rainy or snowy weather, annual community events like back to school, long year end seasonal holidays, and uncontrollable variables such as inventory delays and lack of manufacturer incentives are working against you.

Every dealership has been there. The month starts unpredictably slow. Sales aren’t where they should be and the decision is made to take a wait and see approach. The middle of the month rolls around and nothing improves.

Panic starts to set in. Options are considered like: upping the media buy, changing creative strategy, adding additional last minute tactics, or cutting the losses from getting any bigger and trying again next month.

Trouble is, these panic decisions don’t address the real problem: there’s no true plan for attracting enough of the right kind of car buyers to the dealership on a regular basis.

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE & THE ANSWERS BECOME CLEAR

While the short-term options above can be a temporary fix, there’s a much clearer and sustainable marketing solution for targeting the right customers your dealership needs for consistent results.

The solution is to stop blindly spraying bird shot style media tactics in all directions in hopes of hitting anybody listening. Instead, flip the script and abandon the old traditional way of identifying and reaching an unpredictable audience. Use technology to focus your advertising efforts on harnessing the power of the data in your DMS combined with predictive analytics from your market to create custom audiences unique to your dealership and its needs.

When analyzed properly and appended with robust data sources and intelligence, your DMS can be transformed into a crystal ball of insight that can tell you which of your current customers are primed for another purchase, as well as, which people in your community (that you’ve never done business with before) are perfect conquest targets for your services.

The key is to look at the intelligence through the correct optics. By tapping into the right data, it’s no longer necessary to unpredictably use tv, radio, and other forms of mass media to hopefully target the necessary revenue producing car buyers you need each and every month. Instead, focus your efforts on actually reaching and engaging the people who want to hear from your dealership and are truly interested in what your store can provide. It’s efficient, sustainable, and (most importantly) consistent in delivering results.

It’s no secret car buyers have changed the way they shop for cars. With that, they’ve also changed the way they filter letting in marketing messages. It’s the dealerships that can instinctually connect via messages and channels that audiences are willing to pay attention to that will benefit from the best returns on their marketing investments and continue sustained long-term success – even in the periods when everyone else is slow.

Make the switch and learn how to lead your marketing efforts with the insights specific to your dealership’s data and you’ll create a force so powerful Darth Vader would be jealous of what you can do.