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Automotive Marketing Strategies

Published on November 10, 2023

Looking to take your online marketing game to the next level? We’ve got you covered. Today, we’re sharing three proven automotive marketing strategies that will drive traffic to your dealership and help you grow.

But before we dive in, let’s talk about traditional marketing versus agile marketing. This distinction is crucial if you want to avoid costly mistakes and maximize your dealership’s potential.

Traditional marketing is a one-shot, hope-for-the-best approach. You create a marketing campaign, launch it without any feedback, and cross your fingers. This method was necessary in the pre-digital era, but it comes with a high risk of wasting money on unvalidated campaigns. Small businesses like yours can’t afford that kind of gamble.

Luckily, traditional marketing is outdated. Thanks to digital technologies, agile marketing has emerged as the smarter way to grow your car dealership.

Agile marketing is all about adaptability and getting feedback from your target audience early on. You create a minimum viable version of your campaign, test it with your audience, analyze the results, and make adjustments as needed. Repeat the cycle until you achieve optimal results. If a campaign isn’t working, you can quickly pivot and come up with something better.

Using agile marketing allows you to get the most out of your marketing budget while minimizing risk. You fail small and learn from your mistakes, without jeopardizing your business’s future.

One essential technique in agile marketing is A/B testing (also known as split testing). This practice is key to optimizing your conversion rates and growing your dealership.

Here’s how it works: you create two versions of a page or ad, each with a single difference. Then, you split your traffic between the two versions and evaluate which one performs better. This data-driven approach helps you make informed decisions and continually improve your marketing efforts.

With A/B testing, you can test various elements of your campaigns, such as ad copy, images, and colors, to optimize for conversions. It’s not just for marketing either – you can apply this strategy to your entire sales funnel to maximize profits.

Ready to drive success for your car dealership? Let’s dive into these automotive marketing strategies and take your business to new heights!

Discover the Surprising Impact of Button Color on Conversion Rates

Have you ever wondered how the color of a call to action (CTA) button can affect the success of your landing page? Performable conducted an A/B test to find out, and the results were shocking!

Their hypothesis was that the color of the button wouldn’t have a significant impact on conversion rates. But to their surprise, the red button outperformed the green button by a whopping 21%! This proves that even small design choices can make a huge difference in your conversion rate.

This test serves as a reminder of the importance of A/B testing. Don’t rely on assumptions or gut feelings. Run tests to get concrete data and make informed decisions about your website’s design and layout.

Ready to level up your automotive marketing strategy?

If you’re in the car dealership business, you’ll want to pay attention to these effective marketing strategies.

Automotive Marketing Strategy #1: Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is a tried-and-true method for getting targeted, immediate, and scalable traffic to your dealership. Start with Facebook ads since they provide great targeting options for reaching potential customers in your area. As you master Facebook ads, you can expand to Instagram and YouTube for even more reach.

Remember to start small, optimize for profitability, and gradually scale your campaign for the best results.

Automotive Marketing Strategy #2: Social Media Marketing

While paid advertising should be the foundation of your marketing strategy, it’s also important to invest in creating your own traffic-generating assets. One of the easiest assets to build is a social media following.

Create a consistent content schedule that provides value to your followers. Use social media scheduling tools to stay organized and interact with your audience. Focus on promoting your lead magnet without being pushy, and target people in your area to increase conversion rates.

Don’t rely on assumptions or old strategies. Embrace A/B testing, paid advertising, and social media marketing to drive more traffic and attract new customers to your car dealership.

#3: Increase Your Car Dealership’s Success with Influencer Marketing

If you want to promote your car dealership effectively, influencer marketing is the way to go. But it’s crucial to choose the right influencers for your specific geographical area.

Instead of opting for big influencers due to budget constraints, consider nano-influencers and micro-influencers. They may be relatively unknown outside your region, but their local influence can make a significant impact on your marketing efforts.

Here’s what we suggest:

Identify promising nano-influencers and micro-influencers who have a strong local presence.
Reach out to them and establish an agreement for three shoutouts over three months (one per month).
After three months, analyze the results. Let go of the underperforming influencers, continue working with the average performers, and invest more in those who delivered the best results.

To track the effectiveness of each influencer, provide them with a unique link to promote to their followers.

Additionally, consider partnering with local businesses that have a decent social media following. This collaboration can be beneficial, especially if their target audience overlaps with yours.

Stop Making This Online Marketing Mistake!

One common online marketing mistake that we see is driving traffic straight to your company website or product sales page.

Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean it’s the right approach. In fact, it’s a terrible way to sell online. Why?

It’s like approaching a stranger and saying, “Hey, here’s my product, buy it!”.

While this approach might work for inexpensive items like $2 bracelets, it’s not ideal for selling more expensive products like cars. The higher the cost, the more trust you need to build to close a sale.

So don’t waste your marketing budget on pitching cars to people who don’t know or trust you, and who may not even be interested in buying a car right now!

Introducing the Value Ladder Sales Funnel

We believe the most effective way to sell anything online is through the Value Ladder sales funnel.

This powerful sales funnel, created by our co-founder Russel Brunson, enabled ClickFunnels to achieve over $10M in annual revenue within a year (now over $100M!).

The Value Ladder sales funnel consists of four stages:

Bait: Offer a lead magnet in exchange for their email address.
Frontend: Provide your least expensive and least valuable product or service.
Middle: Offer a more expensive and more valuable product or service.
Backend: Provide your most expensive and most valuable product or service.

Ideally, include a continuity program, such as a subscription product, to generate recurring revenue. You can maximize your revenue by incorporating downsells, upsells, and cross-sells to these core offers.

Why the Value Ladder Sales Funnel Works

This sales funnel is incredibly effective because it allows you to:

Start the relationship by offering free value.
Nurture the relationship by providing valuable content via email.
Build trust by offering increasingly valuable paid products or services.

Implementing the Value Ladder Sales Funnel for Your Car Dealership

Now that you understand the concept of the Value Ladder, let’s see how you can apply it to your business:

Use agile marketing to drive traffic to your lead magnet landing page and convert visitors into email subscribers.
Direct traffic from your email list to the sales page of your introductory offer and convert subscribers into paying customers.
Once they purchase your first product, encourage them to book a free 30-minute consultation with you.
If they seem like a good fit, schedule an in-person appointment at your dealership to showcase the cars you have.

Building a sales funnel like this is straightforward, especially if you utilize ClickFunnels 2.0!

Create an Irresistible Lead Magnet for Your Dream Customers

A lead magnet is a valuable freebie that you offer to potential customers in exchange for their email address. It could be a report, ebook, video class, email course, webinar, or anything else that provides an effective solution to a problem they’re struggling with. People won’t give you their email addresses unless you offer them something super valuable in return.

Designing an effective lead magnet involves creating something that your dream customers desperately want and then giving it to them for free. For example, you could create a video where you explain the three most important things someone needs to know when buying a car. This lead magnet will attract potential customers who are in the market for a car.

Create a Compelling Landing Page for Your Lead Magnet

Now that you have your lead magnet, it’s time to create a landing page for it. This is the page that you’ll drive traffic to with paid ads. The best option is a squeeze page, a simple one-screen long landing page.

Designing a landing page from scratch is not recommended unless you have previous experience in landing page design. Online marketers have been optimizing landing pages for years, so it’s wise to follow the established best practices. You can use a proven, high-converting landing page template from ClickFunnels 2.0’s template library instead of reinventing the wheel.

Create an Unbeatable Frontend Offer to Convert Leads

To convert leads into paying customers, create an irresistible frontend offer. Make it digital, price it at $7, and provide a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee to remove financial risk. The formula for an offer that converts is High Value + Low Price = Irresistible Offer.

For example, if your lead magnet is a video about buying a car, you can create a comprehensive video course as your frontend offer. If the potential customer liked your free video, they’ll likely be interested in your frontend offer, especially at a low price with a money-back guarantee.

Craft a Persuasive Sales Page for Your Frontend Offer

You also need a sales page for your frontend offer, which you’ll drive traffic to from your email list. Instead of designing it from scratch, use one of ClickFunnels 2.0’s sales page templates for a professional look.

To write persuasive sales copy, focus on a compelling headline that conveys the value of your offer. Appeal to emotional buyers first, then logical buyers with benefit-driven copy, and finally to fearful buyers with scarcity-driven copy. Use social proof, such as customer testimonials and endorsements, to build trust. And don’t forget a clear call to action button with offer-specific copy.

Start creating your lead magnet, landing page, frontend offer, and sales page today to attract and convert your dream customers.

Create a Trust-Building Email Series

Hey there! We know you’re excited to connect with potential customers, but it’s important to build trust first before diving into a sales pitch. Here’s a welcome sequence that will help you do just that:

Email #1: Let’s Get Acquainted – Introduce yourself to the new subscriber.
Email #2: Our Story – Share how you got into the car selling business.
Email #3: What We Offer – Provide more details about the cars, accessories, and services you provide.
Email #4: Trustworthy Expertise – Explain why you’re qualified to help them make informed car-related decisions.
Email #5: Success Stories – Showcase a case study of how you helped someone find their dream car.
Email #6: Exclusive Offer – Pitch your frontend offer and provide a link to its sales page.

This welcome sequence is designed to build trust and improve your lead-to-customer conversion rate. Give it a try and see the results!

Offer a FREE 30-Minute Consultation

Congrats on getting subscribers hooked on your frontend product! Now, let’s take it a step further:

Take them to your thank you page and express your gratitude for their purchase. Then, offer them a FREE 30-minute consultation if they’re in the market for a car. Make it easy for them to schedule by using appointment management software that shows available times.

During the consultation, understand their needs and budget range. If you can help them, encourage them to visit your car dealership in person to explore the models available. It’s all about providing personalized assistance and making their car-buying experience exceptional.

Keep Providing Value through Email!

Here’s a common mistake we want to help you avoid: Don’t just stop reaching out to your new subscribers after the welcome sequence!

Email marketing is all about building trust and staying top of mind with your potential and existing customers. Keep providing value even if they’re not ready to buy a car yet. Send them engaging content related to cars – think articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, and the latest car news.

In every newsletter, include a “P.S.” section that encourages them to book a FREE 30-minute consultation when they’re ready to buy. This way, you’ll continue building trust and be their go-to choice when the time comes.

Ready to level up your car dealership’s sales funnel? ClickFunnels 2.0 has got your back! With our easy-to-use templates, customizability, and email marketing features, you’ll have everything you need to succeed. Don’t forget, we offer a risk-free trial, so start building your Value Ladder sales funnel today!