Using Pinterest for your Car Dealership

When one hears the mention of Pinterest one might think of craft projects, house décor, or dinner recipes, but what about Automotive Marketing? Probably not. However, Pinterest has a wide range of sources to help you sell more vehicles! “Pinners” are more influenced by the content they see – more than other social media platforms.

First, let’s look at some numbers to show which audience Pinterest targets. According to Sincro (Ansira), 430 million “Pinners” use Pinterest every month! 60% of those users are US Women, 3 in 4 of them being US moms. The household decision makers. Of the 430 million, 30 million are US men, using Auto as their top interest. 52% of these Pinners have a household income of $100k plus. 7 out of 10 Auto shoppers on Pinterest use it for final purchase decisions. That’s a whole lot of stats with high outcomes for your dealership.

Now that you have the numbers, I’m sure you’re thinking ok; but HOW? Other than needing to open a business account on the platform and set up billing etc., you can market in a few different ways.

Create Brand Awareness – this is your dealership’s narrative. Brand awareness on Pinterest should be done in a “Story Telling” way staring your real-time inventory and your dealer brand. Leverage reviews, photos, and service accessories. Using creative lifestyle imagery, showcasing how the vehicle enables a pinner to live a life they love.

Cultivate Consideration – This is the step that intersects between discovery and the decision. Reach people who are ready to buy a new or used vehicle and drive them to make that decision step. This will transfer you from the “who we are” to the “what we have”. You can introduce payments, and model levels. This creative would do best with interior/exterior shots, strong CTAs, and lease & APR offers.

Sales to Service – Target owners with helpful information about their vehicles or your services and accessories. Make sure to have a clear CTA encouraging the consumer to take action.

Optimize your Pinterest profile: Your Pinterest profile is the first impression potential customers will have of your dealership. Make sure your profile includes a high-quality profile picture, a clear and concise description of your dealership, and links to your website and other social media profiles.

Create boards for your inventory: Pinterest is all about organizing content into boards, so create boards that showcase your inventory. For example, you could create a board for new cars, used cars, luxury cars, or even seasonal cars (like convertibles in the summer). Make sure each board is visually appealing and easy to navigate.

Use high-quality images: Pinterest is a visual platform, so it’s important to use high-quality images that showcase your inventory in the best possible light. Make sure your images are well-lit and include multiple angles of the vehicle. You could also include lifestyle shots that show the car in action or in a beautiful setting.

Use keyword-rich descriptions: When you create a Pin, make sure the description includes keywords that will help potential customers find your inventory. Use descriptive language that highlights the features of the vehicle, such as the make and model, year, color, and mileage.

If you’ve never used Pinterest before, you search for different things from your main page which will populate what Pinterest thinks you want to see and target you based on the boards you have made. For example: Family Cars for large families. Pinterest also allows for multiple places where your ad or ads can appear. Starting on the home feed, this gives people ideas based on their interests. Next is in the search mode, giving people ideas based on keyword searches. Lastly in related pins, giving users similar ideas to a Pin they have already looked at.

Overall, Pinterest is definitely not just for household tasks and items. It has many ways to help market inventory or services you can provide as well! If you’re looking for help to get started, you’re in the right place! Digital to Dealer Direct can help you set up and optimize an account as well as manage a campaign for your dealership. Contact us online or call us today at 877-958-4524 to get started!

Emails are integrated into our lives – they are often checked multiple times throughout the day. It is important to learn about why and how emails are an effective source of communication from your dealership to customers and potential customers! With proper coding emails will be easy to view, links should direct viewers to appropriate sources, and supply data to your dealership on what content is interesting to your viewers.

The Foundation of Building an HTML

All emails start with coding behind them, it’s the foundational structure of an email. Email creative is put together to show what the completed email will look like when launched. Once the creative is approved by the dealership the process begins to build the HTML. The creative is broken down into individual slices, each slice will then be labeled and exported through Adobe Photoshop. These slices are our “building blocks” for when we build the HTML to the original format from the approved creative. Labeling is a critical step for later when we are building the HTML file. If the slice names are long and confusing it will be harder to remember what you named them, and the slices won’t load properly in the HTML file. When naming slices, it is also important that there are no spaces and that the labels are sensitive to capitalization, this will cause an error later when building the file. This can always be adjusted later, but it is better to get into a routine from the beginning to ensure there’s a system in place to save troubleshooting in the future.  

Once the slices are exported, they are then saved on a server host that holds all the images there. Adobe Dreamweaver is then opened and where the actual HTML coding process begins. Within the HTML file, it will be coded directly to pull the image slices from the server using the names that were previously labeled and placed into the HTML file into tables. Tables act like a group within the HTML file that keep the slices together, whether they are stacked on top of one another or side by side. This is an important step because if coded wrong the slices will show disorganized and not laying properly in an even column when a viewer scrolls down an email. Side-by-side slices always must be within their own table separate from slices stacked on top of one another.

When a viewer gets an email and they click on an image in an email, it typically brings them to a website. This is the next step in building an HTML. Once the slice is pulled from the server it gets attributes added to it. It will be coded in the HTML directly so that when a viewer clicks this one individual slice it will link to a URL, phone call, or email when applicable. Each slice will also get a UTM code, this code is highly useful for tracking the email. UTM codes show who is the sender, what type of email list the email is being sent to, and what email went out. Once an email is sent out this data will help show how many people opened what email and how many clicks each slice receives. This becomes useful data to evaluate the launched email and what seems to be drawing the most traffic to your dealership’s website. If the UTM code isn’t managed properly the data will be funneled wrong and will no longer be accurate. While this is certainly a lot of work, an individual or automotive marketing agency like Digital to Dealer Direct, who are properly trained in coding can get this done for you!

Get The Most Out of Emails

Building an HTML file has many steps and if not done accurately it won’t be successful to meet your dealership’s goals. Proper HTML formats and processes help an email look functional as well as provide useful data for your dealership. Take advantage of technology and spread your dealership’s specials through emails to all your current customers as well as protentional customers. D2D can manage everything from email campaigns, database marketing, BDC support and so much more. If you need help making sure your dealership emails stand out above the rest, contact us today!

As inventory begins to become more readily available, and the automotive industry continues to evolve, so do the consumers. A dealership’s Business Development Center (BDC) has always served an important role in the sales processes across the dealership. Think of your BDC as an extension of your sales team, a jack of all trades that can be used for so much more, so let’s maximize what they can do for your dealership!

Proper Training

In any position, but especially BDC, it all comes down to proper training. Sure, they can learn a few scripts and how to role-play, but to fully maximize your BDC you want them to understand and meet the customers’ needs. As the world of car buying has changed over the last few years it is no longer about quantity but quality when it comes to leads. With the proper training, your BDC can convert those leads, getting them into the store and connecting them with your sales team. The BDC is a critical step in the car buying process, ensuring that they have the right training and understanding to get the job done will help create a seamless customer experience and get your dealership those sales.

According to the NADA, the average dealership spends approximately $64,000 per month on advertising but spends less than $1,000 per month to train their entire dealership. Placing more value on developing your team will only lead to success.

Proper Tools

Like any profession, your BDC will need to have the proper tools to enable them to succeed. Yes, a phone and computer are a good start, however, you also need to look at your dealership’s BDC process. Is your BDC equipped with goals and a realistic way to meet them? Are they involved in the weekly sales meetings and interacting with your sales team? Do they have a successful CRM service that will enable them to reach their goals? When the BDC has the proper tools, they can focus on bringing in those quality leads.

Clear Roles

There is nothing more confusing than having a position but not defining what their role and tasks are. The BDC department can have many roles in your dealership, so clearly defining what their roles are, what they should be accomplishing, and what they are responsible for is a key factor in maximizing your dealership’s BDC. You want to ensure that everyone from the dealer principal, GM, and managers, down to your sales team are on the same page about the role your BDC plays in the overall structure of your dealership. Giving them the support, they need ensures that clicks and calls become leads and sales.

More than Just New Car Sales

While you usually think of BDC for new car sales, why not maximize your BDC efforts in other areas of your dealership? Service departments can be a successful area to apply your BDC efforts. Not only could it help generate ongoing service revenue, but an upcoming service appointment could support new or used sales. They can identify a prospective trade or buy-back opportunity as well as someone coming to their lease end.

Promote Customer Retention

For any business, customer retention is huge. At a dealership, you always want to protect your customer base in the hope they will stay loyal to your brand. This is a perfect job for your BDC department by engaging with your loyal audience and using personalized messaging. By engaging with loyal customers, your BDC can help guarantee that your dealership is top-of-mind the next time your customer is back in the market.

While the automotive market is always changing and evolving, as an automotive digital marketing agency sending traffic and leads to the BDC, we need to be sure that your BDC departments do the same. BDC departments are no longer just note-takers hiding in the back broom closet cold calling potential leads. They are now one of the first impressions potential customers can have of your dealership, and so much more, why not maximize and make your BDC the best it could be.

Interested in how Digital to Dealer can help with your BDC? Contact us today to see how we can help your dealership!