When engaging with customers through marketing it can be beneficial to either finance or lease customers, depending on the strategy that makes the most sense for your dealership. Both have positive points that can resonate with prospective customers and be highlighted in your marketing.

Ownership

Start by emphasizing the benefits of ownership, such as having equity in the vehicle and the ability to customize or modify it. You can do this by highlighting that while monthly payments may be higher than leasing once the loan is paid off, there are no more payments. The customer will not have to worry about any mileage restrictions, and they are making a long-term investment where the vehicle’s value can be retained or even appreciate over time.

Leasing

When leasing you can emphasize that leasing typically offers lower monthly payments compared to buying, making it more affordable in the short term. The customer has the opportunity to drive a new vehicle every few years, often under warranty, with access to the latest technology and features. Leased vehicles are usually under warranty, reducing the cost of maintenance and repairs. Dealerships benefit from stronger residual values on leased vehicles because they retain ownership of the vehicle at the end of the lease. This can result in better profitability when the vehicle is resold. Leasing encourages customers to return to the dealership multiple times throughout their lease, potentially leading to more frequent transactions and opportunities to upsell or cross-sell other products and services.

Which strategy is right for your dealership?

When it comes to which option is best for you, the dealer, there are a lot of factors to take in. Car dealers generally prefer selling cars over leasing them, as selling a vehicle outright results in a larger upfront profit for the dealership. When a customer leases a car, the dealer earns money primarily through the monthly lease payments, which are usually lower than if the customer had purchased the vehicle. This, of course, depends on your sales team and strategy in both the front and back end of the sale. However, leasing does provide some advantages for dealers as well. Leases create repeat business, as customers will often return to the dealer to lease a new vehicle when their lease is up. This can lead to more long-term revenue.  Leasing also allows dealers to move inventory more quickly, as leases are typically shorter-term than financing the purchase of a vehicle.

When marketing either option, consider your audience’s preferences, lifestyle, and financial situation. For instance, young professionals might be attracted to leasing for lower upfront costs and newer models, while families might prefer buying for long-term savings and ownership benefits. It’s essential to tailor your dealership digital marketing message to highlight the advantages that resonate most with your target demographic.

Whichever direction you chose is best for your dealership marketing can all be done within the same ways. Utilize online channels like social media, search engine marketing, and email marketing to reach potential customers effectively. Use data to tailor messages and offers to individual preferences and behaviors, whether they’re interested in buying or leasing. Provide clear, straightforward information about the benefits and processes of both purchasing and leasing to help customers make informed decisions.

For help developing a marketing plan around both finance and lease customers, call us today at 877-958-4524 or contact us online.

Understanding and utilizing hashtags in social media will take your engagement to the next level. It is an effective marketing strategy that helps build target audiences while they are engaging in content they care about. It is a way to categorize your content so people can find it easily – think of it as a search engine for users to find what they like. It’s important to use relevant hashtags for your brand so hashtag research is important before implementing them into your social strategy.

How to Create a Hashtag:

A hashtag is the pound symbol, #, followed by a keyword or phrase without spaces. For example, if you put the # before ‘Cars of Instagram’ and remove the spaces, it becomes a hashtag: #carsofinstagram.

Why Should You Implement Hashtags for Your Dealership?

Using targeted Instagram hashtags will help your profile stand out. When you add relevant hashtags to your captions or comments, your content will appear in the hashtag feed of anyone searching for it. It helps your posts reach a wider audience.

Key benefits of implementing hashtags:

• • Easy to Search – hashtags make you searchable, which increases the chances of new users discovering your dealership and engaging with your brand.

  • Building Target Audiences – they bring in your specific audience and people who are interested in your type of content.

  • Build Relationships – you can connect with your current customers and potential new customers.

  • Branding – you can create brand-specific hashtags about your dealership, inventory, incentives, events, awards, and more.

  • Measure Performance – you can track the hashtag usage to see what is performing best.

Beneficial Hashtags for Your Dealership:

As an automotive digital marketing agency, we know that finding the right hashtags to use takes a little research to see which ones fit your profile and brand best. Search the top posts and competitors using car hashtags for relevant hashtags.

See below for some recommended hashtags for dealerships:

• • Top hashtags: #cars, #carsofinstagram, #cartalk, #carshow, #supercar, #classiccar, #autocross

  • Niche-specific hashtags to target car enthusiasts: #tuning, #caraudio, #motorheads

  • Brand and model specific are great to target loyal customers: #Subaru, #Toyota, #Honda, #Chevrolet. #SubaruImpreza, ToyotaTacoma, #HondaCivic, #ChevroletBlazer

  • General automotive hashtags: #dealershiplife, #autoindustry, #dealership, #usedcars, #carsforsale, #cardealer, #autosales, #usedcarsforsale, #carshopping, #luxurycars, #forsale, #autosales, #carstagram, #carfinance

  • Campaign specific: #ChevyTruckMonth, #SubaruSharetheLove

Tips for Each Social Media Platform:

Hashtags originated on Twitter, now X, but have taken off on all social media platforms now. The usage of hashtags can vary throughout each platform. See below for a few tips for each platform.

X (Twitter):

On X (Twitter), they can serve as both a humor add-on, and a click-through link to threads of conversations. It can also help you populate in Twitter searches. It is recommended to use maximum of two hashtags per tweet. Explore using the trending topics or help connect your brand with trending topics. Keep the short and simple, but easy to remember. Keep the hashtags relevant to the content in your tweet.

Instagram:

Instagram is a high-performing platform for car enthusiasts, dealerships, and brands. It is advised to use between 3-5 hashtags on your posts, but Instagram does allow up to 30. The best number for your strategy will depend on the size of the audience in the hashtag, but you can also try implementing the remaining hashtags in a comment. Use 3-5 within the caption itself and use the first comment for a handful of other relevant hashtags. Be mindful that you are always using hashtags that pair well with your content. You can add hashtags to Instagram stories as well, these will show up in the results too.

LinkedIn:

With a newer update, LinkedIn has joined the tappable hashtags, like the other platforms, they will lead to search results with other posts that used the same tag. Your post will automatically become public, so it populates. It is recommended to use only 1-2 hashtags on LinkedIn.

Facebook:

Best practices for Facebook are joining trending topics and conversations and incorporating hashtags into sentences. You want to be aware of how many hashtags you add to your post as adding too many can come across as spam. 3-5 hashtags are ideal for your Facebook captions, keeping them at a low amount.

TikTok:

Hashtags on TikTok have the potential to increase visibility, reach a wider audience, go viral, increase your followers and brand exposure. As usual, you want to use tags that are relevant to your content. You can use up to 30 hashtags per video, but it’s best to stick to 4-6.

Take Your Social Media to the Next Level

At Digital to Dealer Direct, our Social Media Management service is designed to elevate your brand, expand your audience, and grow your platform. Give us a call for more information at 877-958-4524.

Your website is your digital showroom, and having a website without pricing or with inaccurate pricing can be detrimental to your business. Unfortunately, this may happen from time to time for one reason or another. For example, maybe you have changed website providers or maybe you have new staff that is using the incorrect pricing field within your Dealer Management System (DMS).

So, how can we get ahead of these issues or resolve them quickly when they do arise? To find the remedy, we must first diagnose the issue. What went wrong?

Below are some questions to ask yourself. Whether you decide to troubleshoot yourself or call your support team for help, knowing WHO, WHERE, WHAT, and WHEN, can make all the difference in fixing the problem quickly and figuring out WHY your pricing is out of sync.

WHO are the key players?

One layer of complexity for inventory management and pricing is all the places on the internet that your inventory appears (your website, google vehicle listings, AutoTrader, CarGurus, etc.) There are multiple vendors that touch your inventory feed/file so it is important to know who is in the mix.

1. Who is your DMS Provider?

• • • This is where the flow of inventory information typically begins.

    • When your vehicles come into inventory, what price field(s) are you using within the DMS?

    • Is your staff trained in this process and using the expected fields?

2. If you are using a merchandising tool, who is your provider?

• • • Tools like VAuto, Homenet, Redline etc. are often used to help price vehicles or manage inventory photos. This is typically the second stop in the flow of information.

3. The merchandising tool provider or DMS sends your inventory and pricing information to other syndicates e.g. your website or online vehicle listings.

So how can you apply this information?

Let’s say your pricing is inaccurate on your website. In our example, we price our vehicles in the DMS which goes to the merchandising tool then to the website.

DMS > Merchandising Tool > Syndicate (Website)

IF the information is correct in your DMS, correct in your merchandising, and incorrect on your website. THEN we can infer that the disconnect is happening either in the feed/file of pricing information between the merchandising tool and your website provider OR in the display settings of the website. With this, we can eliminate the possibility of the pricing issue stemming from your DMS.

WHERE do you see the inaccurate pricing?

• Is it only impacting your website or is it in multiple places across the internet (for example, online listings like Autotrader, CarGurus, Cars.com, etc.)?

• Do you see this issue on new inventory, used, or both?

• Is the issue happening on a few select stocks or all inventory?

These answers will give you an idea of the scope of the issue. All inventory pricing being incorrect might indicate an outage or an issue in the way fields are mapped between providers while single stock with inaccurate pricing is more likely a human error or typo. D2D’s Website Watchdog program helps catch issues like this quickly to get the site consistent as fast as possible!

 WHAT is showing, and what should be showing?

It is good practice (particularly when working with website provider customer support) to grab 3 example stocks when your pricing is off. Share with support 3 specific vehicles affected, the exact amount their prices are currently showing, and the exact amount that should be displayed. This information is helpful to determine if your website provider is receiving the expected dollar amounts in the inventory feed/file they are getting. This gives them insight into possible causes for the issue.

WHEN did you notice the pricing issue?

Did pricing inaccuracies coincide with a known change, like a switch in website provider? Big changes to your dealership’s technology mix might impact your inventory feed/files as you are working through the initial setup.

In the end, pricing and inventory issues can be frustrating and at times complex. As an automotive digital marketing agency, we handle these kind of issues often! Luckily, our clients are able to lean on us when and if something happens, but knowing who your vendors are, where the issue is occurring, what your expected outcome is, and when the inaccurate pricing began can help you and your support representative(s) diagnose the problem and find a solution.

As you’re probably already aware, the automotive industry is one of the world’s most competitive sectors. With the release of new models every year from numerous automotive brands, at least 42 in the United States alone, dealerships need to continuously devise new and innovative ways to stand out from the rest of the competition and sell their vehicles. According to recent research, 91% of consumers want to see more online video content from brands, so let’s discuss some key reasons why video marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies, and how it can increase sales and improve customer engagement. 

Increased Engagement and Conversion Rates

Short-form videos captivate audiences more effectively than just text or images alone, offering a dynamic and visually appealing way to highlight vehicle features. These videos not only boost engagement and conversion rates by 80%, but also provide potential customers with a realistic sense of what this vehicle is like without having to see it in person. Increased engagement leads to increased clicks, which in turn, leads to more visits to your website.

 Improve SEO

Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can improve in numerous amounts of ways by utilizing video marketing.

1. Video content is great for SEO as videos keep potential customers’ attention for a longer period. If a potential customer is on your site longer, there is an increase in dwell time, which is an indicator for search engines that you have valuable content that others should see. In response, your website’s rankings can improve.

2. Search engines favor websites with diverse content types, including videos. Well-optimized videos with relevant keywords in titles, descriptions, and tags can improve your site’s search engine ranking, making it more visible to potential visitors.

3. With the ever-rising use of mobile devices, video content is particularly effective. Videos are easily consumed on mobile devices, leading to increased traffic from mobile users, which is an important factor for SEO as search engines prioritize mobile-friendly content.

Improve Website Traffic

After a boost in your SEO ranking, you’re likely to also see an improvement in your website traffic. This increased engagement can lead to higher retention rates and more return visits, boosting overall traffic. If you’re utilizing social media, when your videos are shared, they reach a broader audience, driving more visitors directly back to your website. These social media videos are also likely to be mobile-friendly content which can drive more traffic from this audience and improve your overall site performance.

 Establish Trust and Build Brand Awareness

While this is an oldie but goodie, no matter what changes in the digital world, you always want to maintain your trust and brand awareness with consumers. Using video to showcase the features and benefits of a vehicle enables you to boost your trust and credibility by showing your transparency and expertise with potential customers.

Videos can also help set you apart from other dealerships by showing the culture and style of your dealership. Just like an influencer gains a following for their personality and interests, so can your dealership. Highlight your dealership’s unique qualities, what sets you apart from others, and how you give back to the community. This all helps establish trust and build brand awareness.

Social Media Engagement

Social media videos can attract 1200% more shares than text and image content combined. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter prioritize video content in their algorithms. Videos are more likely to appear in a potential customer’s feeds, increasing visibility and the likelihood of engagement. Our new AI video tool allows our team at D2D to create custom video content for our clients with consumer reviews, offers and dealership promotions. It has increased our performance, reach and engagement on social media and includes closed captioning for those social viewers who never have their sound on!

You can also dive into new audiences through TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, expanding your reach for new potential customers. Videos are highly shareable on social media platforms. When your videos are shared, they reach a broader audience, driving more visitors back to your website and increasing your chances of a sale.

While we only covered a small number of benefits that can come from video marketing, the possibilities in this digital era are endless. Ask your digital marketing partner today about how they can help you with your video marketing. Don’t have a digital marketing partner? Digital to Dealer Direct is here to help you! Contact us today to learn more about a customized advertising approach from Digital to Dealer Direct!

Sources: Wyzowl, Zight, Forbes,

During the 4th of July holiday in the United States, many automotive dealerships and car manufacturers typically offer special sales events and promotions to attract customers. These events often include discounts, rebates, low-interest financing offers, and other incentives to encourage people to buy a new or used vehicle.

When July rolls around even though Summer has just begun, the year is more than half over. Meaning it’s time to make room for new inventory. Some dealerships may use the 4th of July as an opportunity to clear out older inventory to make room for new models, offering deep discounts on last year’s cars.

Summer has people feeling freer, and in turn going out more and spending more money. Financing deals are great for offering low or even zero percent offers for qualified buyers. With the financing deals you’ll be offering you can roll right into special 4th of July lease pricing. Lease deals with lower monthly payments, reduced down-payments, or bundle deals with discounted prices on accessories, extended warranties, or service packages along with the purchase of a vehicle are great to offer to your customers during this time of year.

When marketing to your customers during the 4th of July and summer months, remember the patriotic spirit of the holiday while highlighting irresistible offers and incentives. You can go the bright and bold way and infuse your marketing materials with red, white, and blue colors, American flags, and other patriotic symbols to evoke the spirit of Independence Day. Use slogans like “Rev up your patriotism with unbeatable deals!” or “Declare independence from high prices!” You could also pay tribute to military personnel and advertise military discounts or even increase what the manufacturer offers.

Highlight the savings you’ll be offering and emphasize the limited-time nature of the promotions to create a sense of urgency. Develop engaging content such as videos, blog posts, and social media posts that showcase your vehicles against the backdrop of Independence Day celebrations. Consider incorporating fireworks, barbecues, and other summer imagery to capture attention. Send out targeted email campaigns to your customers promoting your 4th of July sales event. Host contests or giveaways on social media with patriotic themes to generate excitement and encourage user participation. Offer prizes such as gift cards, car accessories, or free oil changes to incentivize engagement. Maybe a hot dog eating contest? Many outdoor activities are taking part during the summer, which opens many community events you could participate in and promote your dealership.  Local 4th of July parades, fireworks displays, food truck events, or other community events to increase brand visibility and connect with potential customers.

Make sure when advertising to target the right customers. Use targeted online advertising campaigns to reach consumers actively searching for automotive deals or browsing related content. Leverage platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and YouTube Ads to reach specific demographics and interests. Contact your automotive digital marketing agency to strategize the best tactics for your market and brand. If you don’t have one, contact us today!

After you’ve targeted your future or repeat customers you will want to make sure when they click and arrive at your website everything is up to date and looking current. Have your website complete with banners, pop-ups, and landing pages promoting your 4th of July sales event. Extend your dealership hours leading up to the 4th of July to accommodate busy shoppers. Host special sales events or BBQs at your dealership to create a festive atmosphere and attract visitors. Offer incentives for customers to schedule and complete test drives during your 4th of July sales event. Provide complimentary gifts, gas cards, or discounts on future service appointments to incentivize test drives and increase conversion rates.

By implementing these marketing strategies, you can effectively promote your dealership and capitalize on the excitement of the 4th of July holiday and the summer months to drive sales and increase customer engagement!

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS stands for ‘Short Message Service’, better known as a text message. There are many different valuable ways to incorporate text messaging into your marketing and client communications. It’s direct, quick, and easy to talk with customers. According to VoiceAge, 90% of text messages are reached within the first 3 minutes, 82% of people open every text message they receive, and 70% of customers say SMS is a good way for businesses to get their attention.

The benefit of SMS marketing is that they are short, and to the point. This provides high engagement from the customer and a higher chance that they will engage with it. With users being so engaged with their cell phones, it’s an extremely beneficial way to build your relationship with them.

How Does Text Messaging Help Increase Sales?

It is an instantaneous point of contact for your customers. Some potential buyers prefer to send over a quick text message rather than having a lengthy phone conversation. It gives you an advantage to touch base with a buyer at any time without interrupting their workday and daily activities. It gives you an advantage when you’re discussing a vehicle of interest. You can easily answer questions, send detail-oriented photos and videos, schedule appointments, and even discuss pricing all within a few quick text messages.

How to Use SMS Marketing?

Promotional SMS marketing campaigns are a successful marketing strategy. There is a higher open rate on text messages compared to emails which makes it a good platform to announce special incentives.

You can target a specific audience to promote monthly specials, updates on vehicles, or news at your dealership. Including a call to action with a clickable link can direct the user to your website and your inventory. It’s a cost-effective marketing strategy to bring brand awareness to a wide audience.

Another way to incorporate this strategy is to use text messaging as a response to an event, or an action. This can offer time-sensitive information such as reminders, vehicle releases, or a thank you for shopping with your company. One example of such a program is with Call Team Six, our BDC partners, have developed an aggressive text campaign strategy as part of their outreach that result in solid appointments for your dealership.

It’s important to prepare these text messages properly to gain success from them. Stay transparent and up-front by being clear about who you are and where the text is coming from. Stay away from using unnecessary characters, emojis, or capitalization. Review all grammar and spelling before sending your message. With the number of spammers that utilize text messaging, you want to avoid a customer thinking your message is spam and you want to come across as a real person on the other side.

SMS Marketing is Taking Over

With the increase of advancements in technology over the last decade, there has been significant growth and evolution of MSM marketing. According to SMS Comparison, 7.86 billion people are expected to have smartphones by 2028 and 90% of customers prefer text messages over direct calls. This gives your business a huge market to push out text messages in beneficial ways. With the technology advancements, SMS platforms and tools have expanded. Some platforms make it easier for businesses to create, manage, and deploy SMS campaigns.

SMS Practices to Ensure a Good Customer Relationship

Using text messaging is a great tool to build your relationships with your customers. Receiving customized and personalized text messages allows them to feel valued. This can increase the chance of them returning to your dealership and giving a referral. 

These are practices you want to follow to ensure that you are getting the most out of your campaigns. Only send text messages to customers to have opted in through your CRM, or opt-in form on the website. Once you have an opt-in, it’s smart to send them a message thanking them and confirming the opt-in by responding with a Yes or No. Make it easy for a customer to opt-out of your texts as well. It is as easy as adding ‘STOP’ or ‘Unsubscribe’ to your messages.

Be aware of the pricy laws and regulations around text message marketing. Having written consent by confirming the opt-in is a great way to ensure your text messaging is wanted. Be sure that when you are setting up your SMS strategies, to send these messages during business hours. Always be clear about who the company is and respect customers’ privacy.

Looking to Start SMS Marketing?

Digital to Dealer Direct can help build out effective SMS marketing strategies to increase ROI, build brand awareness, and strengthen customer relationships.  Contact us today and watch your sales increase with one simple marketing strategy!