As you may know, Black Friday is known as one of, if not, THE biggest retail sales days of the year. When consumers see those two words, they immediately connect them with huge savings. Companies like Walmart, Target, and Macy’s, for example, over-saturate the media with their sales messages to ensure people will line up at the late hours of the night outside their doors. Lucky for you, you don’t need to open your doors at 5AM or bombard customers to sell cars. So, how do you get heavy foot traffic through your dealership’s doors for Black Friday? D2D has a few tips on how to accomplish this.

1. Have a plan with everyone on board

When your team is prepping for November advertising, your agency should remind you that planning for Black Friday car sales should also be on the drawing board. Decide when you want to start advertising your Black Friday messaging. All month long? All week long? Just that weekend? Keep in mind that customers who are seriously interested in buying a car have already been doing research and shopping around – so, the earlier the better. Since Black Friday lands on the last Friday of the month, it would be beneficial to advertise your savings either the entire month of November, or the entire week leading up to Black Friday. Plus, people want to hit the snooze button the day after Thanksgiving or relax with family, so it’s best to give them more time to get into your dealership by making your Black Friday savings available ahead of time.

In order to have a successful campaign, it’s important to get your whole team on board with what you plan on promoting. Make sure your sales team, BDC department, and advertising agency are all on the same page. Inform your team of any extra incentives or vehicles you want to push. This information should be included on your ads.

2. Be consistent and have powerful CTAs

The best way to ensure someone will click on your email, digital banner, or SEM ad is to have an enticing message. It’s also important to remain consistent through each advertising platform. Your website, Google Business page, and social media pages should also include the same messages. Include pop-up banners, slideshow banners, a countdown clock and anything else to help grab a potential customer’s attention. All advertisements going out in that timeframe should include consistent sales messages, strong call to actions and a sense of urgency, like:

• • Limited Time Only!
  • This Week Only!
  • Only XX Days to Save!
  • Save an Additional $XXX

3. Set aside additional money to help boost your sales

You don’t have to break the bank to get results. Some dealers make the mistake of spending exuberant amounts of advertising dollars during holidays and may not achieve the results they anticipated. Make sure you’re putting that extra money toward something that brings in qualified leads and customers. Once you have a timeline finalized on when you’ll be starting your Black Friday ads, your agency should give you recommendations on how to optimize your digital campaigns.

At Digital to Dealer, we will never just “set it and forget it”. The best thing about digital advertising is the flexibility you have in being able switch up your marketing tactics on the dime. If needed, we will always look for ways to tweak any campaigns we run to ensure the best results possible. And, more importantly, that every cent you’re spending is being utilized properly.

4. Decide where you’re going to put that extra money

Once you have your Black Friday budget down, decide where you want that extra money to be spent for that timeframe. As explained in our previous blog, ‘Does Email Marketing Still Work?’, a great perk of an email campaign is that it can sit in the customer’s inbox so they can go back and shop your email at any point. Sending out 2-3 emails during the month is a nice reminder for your target audience that you’re offering Black Friday specials.

Not a big fan of email blasts? We also recommend other digital strategies such as Search Engine Marketing, Facebook Lead Ads and Search Retargeting. These are other great tactics to get potential customers to visit your website over your competitor’s. You’ll be able to target people who are in your dealership’s area and in the market for a vehicle. And more importantly, your message will get across to them. Your automotive advertising agency should be able to help guide you in the right direction to put your spend towards the most effective area.

Review all your advertising efforts

Once November is in full swing, your agency should provide feedback on how well your campaigns are performing. Luckily, not everything has to be set and stone when it comes to digital advertising – you can adjust as needed. If one of your digital campaigns isn’t performing as strong as you hoped for, you can move the remainder of that budget into a different digital strategy. Or, you can adjust your geography and targets. Campaigns can work for differently for dealerships depending on the brand, area and budget. It is also important to pay attention to the pricing and incentives your competitors are advertising. Just like how you can adjust your digital campaigns, you can always re-adjust your advertisements to be more competitive.

If you’re interested in Black Friday advertising and what we can do for you to help boost your sales, please give us a call at 877-958-4524 or email us at info@digital2dealer.com.