Leads can make or break your business when you run an auto dealership.
When you have good leads, your business can thrive and outshine competitors in the automotive industry.
But if you’re still utilizing traditional methods to get auto leads, you’re not going to see much success.
The old methods don’t work anymore. As most customers now prefer searching online, you need to be up to date with your automotive lead generation strategies as well to meet the new expectations of your customers.
This also means that you must be equipped to cater to the internet and social media savvy car audience. This is where digital transformation comes in. You need to embrace the digital and do away with the traditional.
In this article, we’ll share some of the best automotive lead generation strategies to boost your business in the automotive industry.
Automotive Lead Generation Strategies to Succeed in the Industry
Incorporate Local SEO
Any good list of automotive lead generation strategies will include local SEO. Sometimes, returning to the basics is key. Most leads will be from your local area. People usually purchase cars from nearby dealerships. This is why it’s crucial to optimize your website for local searches.
You can begin by adding multiple reviews on your Google Business profile, and other important information about your dealership such as opening times.
Businesses with high star ratings and multiple company information usually show up the highest on local searches. So, by doing this, your business is more likely to show up in the top search results when a potential client locally searches for an automotive business like yours.
Ads & Retargeting Ads
Ads enable you to reach people who may not have heard of your business. This is important if you want to outshine more popular competitors in the market or local area.
Both social ads and Google ads provide highly specific targeting and allow you to run specific campaigns for specific groups of audience. Get the best leads by segmenting your audience and sending them ads based on this needs, such as:
- The type of vehicle they’ve indicated preference in
- Their demographic information such as location, occupation and age
- Whether they’re a new or returning customer
We suggest you use lookalike audiences to target those similar to your existing customers. You can aslo retarget leads on your email list with relevant content and offers to make them remember your brand and improve your automotive lead generation efforts.
Social Media Marketing to Attract Leads
When we talk about automotive lead generation strategies, we can’t not talk about social media. A great way to attract leads is to show up on your target audience’s feeds on the platforms they frequently use.
By sharing regular content that is linked to a lead generation form on websites such as Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc. will boost brand visibility and enhance your chances of attracting new leads.
As a matter of fact, many believe that the automotive industry will benefit the most from the new lead generation feature of TikTok. You should incorporate integrations for social platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn to ensure easy optimization of automotive lead generation on social media.
Create High Quality Videos
Most people interested in purchasing cars are detailed and want to see every nook and cranny of the model they’re investing in. They prefer to know each and every feature, visually and otherwise too.
And if your automotive business doesn’t provide them this, they’ll most likely look elsewhere.
So, it’s best that you offer a complete car review through high quality walk-through videos to provide information to your potential customers.
Besides your website, you can release the videos on popular social channels such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Adopt Referral Campaigns
Referral campaigns are one of the most effective automotive lead generation strategies. This is because people tend to trust recommendations from friends and family. By offering your existing customers incentives for recommending your automotive business to someone they know, you gain trust and get a new lead simultaneously.
Offer incentives in the form of discounts, freebies, free test drives, etc. as part of your referral campaign.
Offer Value in Exchange of Email Address
Emails are everything as they’re usually a top lead source.
But customers don’t usually give away their contact details, even if they’re going to buy a car.
So, if you want the email addresses of potential customers, you have to step up your game.
You can offer some value in exchange for emails such as some attractive content, or anything that provides them some kind of value.
Once you have the email address, your automotive business can always nurture it through email or phone. This is how you benefit from your automotive lead generation strategies.
Incorporate Re-engagement Campaigns
Your existing customers are usually your best loyal customers.
They spend the most on you, and they’re also highly likely to refer you to friends and family. So, instead of letting these repeat customers go to waste and neglecting them after they’ve made a purchase from your automotive business, create re-engagement campaigns to keep them interested until the next time they plan to buy something from you again.
You can re-spark their interest by sending re-engagement email marketing campaigns as a reminder of your services, provide discounts to repeat customers, or various other incentives to keep them coming back for more and choose your automotive business over competitors.
Collaborate & Promote with Local Businesses
Local businesses and the relationship you build with them are very important as a car dealership. Customers that shop at other places may also want to buy from you at some point, so it’s best to collaborate with businesses in your local area and promote each other.
You can offer discount codes to customers that find you through other businesses or run referral programs that offer other incentives.
Offer Customers Various Financing Options
Many customers look for financing options when they want to buy a car. So, you can expect most customers to either check for such options on your website or make a request for them.
As investing in a car is a huge purchase, it’s a good idea for your automotive business to offer multiple financing options to ensure a smooth buying experience for potential customers.
As a car dealer, it’s best to display every information in detail about financing, EMI, and credit check options as this gives depth to your automotive lead generation efforts.
The more financing options you provide, the more likely customers are to find a relevant deal for them, which can thus get you more leads for your automotive business.
Provide Online Chat Support
Customers who are in purchase mode usually have last-minute objections, especially when making a huge purchase like buying a car.
So, we suggest you to not make them work to get the answers to their questions. Instead, your automotive business will do well to incorporate a live online chat support or a chatbot set up to send answers to common questions so that you can seamlessly handle last-minute objections and gain leads.
