It’s that time of year again where it’s getting darker earlier, the days are shorter, and the temperatures are getting cooler in most places. Within a few short months we will be at the end of 2021 and welcoming 2022. Crazy, right?! With that being said now is the time to prepare your dealership for the holiday season. Granted this year doesn’t quite look like years passed with inventory shortages, but planning ahead makes all your marketing run smoothly, ensuring your website is loading and linking correctly makes it user friendly, and get ready to get festive! Within a blink of an eye the holidays will be here so don’t wait and start planning to get ahead of the game.
Preparing a Plan Early
Planning ahead is the main key factor to making an easy flowing, attention grabbing holiday season campaign. With so many holidays in the next couple months planning ahead makes all your marketing run effortlessly without a tight deadline as each holiday sneaks up one after another. First, you need to get a plan of what type of event your dealership wants to advertise for each upcoming holiday. Are you feeling in a bah humbug mood? No problem! Create a plan to be more season themed, i.e. autumn or winter, so you still are participating in the time of the year-end excitement without screaming Thanksgiving with a turkey. Planning ahead with also help you prepare for what you want to push – is it used cars given the lack of new inventory? Is it acquiring trade ins, or is it your service department? Whatever it is, it’s best to decide now so you can move forward.
Spreading Some Holiday Cheer
Having fun is what the holidays are all about, and customers love something exciting! This is the time of year to break your typical headlines and campaigns. Thanksgiving is a great universal holiday that can pull in wonderful fall colors while also being the broadest for brand compliance. Since fall colors can be more muted and toned down this becomes a great asset for those brands who are restrictive of bright and bold colors while also still pulling in the Thanksgiving feeling.
After Thanksgiving follows the Holiday Savings Event and Year End push. Depending on which way your dealership prefers to go it call pull more winter and holiday season or pull towards the year end and new year creative. If you like both ideas, you can even switch it up by starting with the holiday season for December and switching it to a campaign about New Years! This time of year, brands will also come out with their own campaigns so be sure to check with the manufacturers to see if there is a campaign that must be used. Even if there is a campaign that must be used you can still put your own personal twist with it by using different backgrounds while using the campaign logos the asset sites provide and pulling the colors for the campaign to creative a cohesive look.
Is Your Website Ready?
Once you approve of a creative plan for the holiday season, you want to make sure that your website is ready to handle the traffic. This can include that all links, tabs and images are clicking and linking to correct pages. Nothing is more frustrating when you click a tab that leads you the wrong page! Since most dealerships are focusing on used car inventory, you’ll want to take a look at your used car photos. Are they high quality detailed images with consistency? This is something that is often overlooked.
Contact your automotive digital marketing agency and inquire about a website maintenance program like D2D’s Website Watchdog! This ensures that your website is running smoothly, stays compliant and you are using the most out of your co-op dollars for your holiday campaigns.
Get Ready for Holiday Cheer!
There are several holidays to work with between November and January, this is also the time where business may boom a bit! Who doesn’t love a little gift to themselves with a big red bow in their driveway?! Create a plan of action ahead of time, have fun with the creative, and make sure your website is ready to handle all the business that may be coming your way! D2D has managed everything from websites, digital marketing, and email campaigns. If you need on getting ready for the holidays ahead, contact us today!
