Congratulations, you’ve set up your own car dealership and are ready to take the car world by storm. You’ve probably already printed out your flyers and posted them through the doors of your local community, but did you know that there are loads of ways you can advertise your business online?
Get Social!
Social media isn’t just for selfies and holiday snaps; it’s a fantastic tool for business owners like yourself to get the word out there about their car dealerships. Set up a company Facebook page and invite people from your local area to ‘like’ it. They’ll then be able to see updates and offers you post.
Twitter is another great tool for enhancing your business’ exposure. You can tweet directly to your followers and answer any queries quickly. As your social following grows, hosting social media competitions is great fun. These don’t have to be overly complicated; we find that simple ‘like and share for a chance to win’ are often the most popular!
Start Blogging!
A blog on your company website can help you connect with your customers. Your car dealership blog could contain hints and tips for car owners, from cool car accessories to the best way to clean a windscreen and even where to find insurance for motor traders. Why not take a look at some motor blogs to get some inspiration?
Unsure of how to set up a blog? Log onto WordPress.com. This is a simple-to-use blogging platform that will enable your blog to look professional. There are loads of handy YouTube tutorials, too, which brings us nicely to our next point.
However, a successful blog will post regularly—at least once a week. A dormant, unused blog is useless.
Set up a YouTube channel
You couldn’t be more wrong if you think that YouTube is just for teenagers. Setting up a YouTube channel is a fantastic way to gain more exposure for your business. If you get a desirable or interesting vehicle through your doors, why not use your smartphone and video what it looks like inside? You’d be amazed at how many car fans would be interested in viewing these types of videos.
If you’re skilled at fixing cars, you could even post video tutorials on how to change a tyre, change the brake fluid, or do anything else useful for others to know.
Regularly contribute to industry-specific forums
There are loads of car forums online – piston heads is a good example for an ‘all-rounder’, but there are also loads of manufacturer-specific ones. The trick to posting on these forums is to engage with the people on them. By all means, put your company name and address in your signature, but don’t just spam loads of boards with a sales pitch.
Chat with car owners and answer any motor queries, and by all means recommend your business if you have a specific vehicle that someone is looking for. This way, you’ll get a good reputation within the forum. This could mean more traffic to your website and, in turn, more customers for your business!
Email Marketing
A great way to build a relationship with potential and existing customers is by using email marketing techniques. You need to trade this information for something valuable to obtain email addresses. We’re talking about giving away a car, but creating a really thought-provoking ebook on finding the right vehicle for you, for example, should do the trick.
Mailchimp and Aweber are useful platforms for email marketing campaigns. But remember—don’t oversell, as this will only alienate customers. Why not produce a monthly newsletter with everything you’ve been up to? Mailchimp has some brilliant and FREE newsletter templates that are great for getting started.
Let Insurance Revolution help you find insurance for your motor trade business.