Did you know that customers tend to make over 900 digital interactions with the dealers before making a final purchase, and search is the first place where they begin their buying journey?

The customer journey in the automobile industry is complex and lengthy, which makes it difficult for the automobile industry to invest in the right set of tools that are essential to market their business online. Hence, a digital marketing strategy for automobile industry is the best way to streamline the entire process and connect with the leads. 

But, what are the strategies that you should adopt to implement digital marketing for automobile industry? This guide will give you all the tips you can integrate into your automobile digital marketing strategy to generate great results.

Benefits of Digital Marketing Strategy for the Automobile Industry

Whether it is a car dealership, car garage, or car wash, digital marketing strategy for automobile industry offers great benefits.

1. Helps in Building Brand Reputation

A man discussing important strategies of brand building with his teammates.

With the help of an appropriate digital marketing strategy for automobile industry, you can thwart competition, keep knock-offs from creating a negative brand image, and create a unique identity for your brand. It helps you establish awareness about your brand among the target audience. 

Let us take the example of one of the top players in the automobile company, Land Rover. Since it is a premium car, it faces cutthroat competition from other car manufacturers who are introducing cutting-edge features in the industry. 

Witnessing the competition, Land Rover decided to adopt the modern solution. They opted to run engagement ads on Youtube. Doing so helps them generate intense exposure to over 23 million Youtube users within 24 hours. 

2. Increases Search Engine Visibility

A laptop showcasing the Google search page.

The utmost importance of digital marketing in automobile industry is building awareness among the potential customers of your brand. Search Engine Optimization increases search visibility and awareness so that even if the consumer is not ready to patronize your brand currently, they will be aware of it and visit you in the future. Therefore, an increase in the number of visitors to your web page will make your product or service more visible to people. 

3. Creates Buzz about your Brand on Social Media

Another benefit you can acquire by implementing a digital marketing strategy for automotive industry is social media marketing. Social media has become the most influential and fundamental virtual space for advertising your brand and products digitally. It has the commendable power to reach a wide range of people with a reduction in advertisement costs. 

Moreover, since it has a vast number of online users (nearly 59 percent of the world’s population), you have the best chance to market and create a buzz about your brand on digital forums. This way, you can reach a maximum number of potential buyers effortlessly.

4. Assists the Buyers in their Purchase Decisions

A man doing a test drive of a car before making a purchase decision.

Using digital marketing for automobile industry enables you to endorse your brand’s products at the right place and time. It is likely to appear on the feed of the customers, who are ready to make impulsive or spontaneous purchasing decisions. When you use tactics like online deals, offers, and discounts, consumers get effortlessly convinced to purchase your product.

Digital Marketing Strategy for Automobile Industry

Since most of the search is conducted online, not having an online presence makes your brand invisible. Today, consumers tend to look for multiple options while shopping for cars. Therefore, automobile digital marketing has no longer remained an option. It needs to be implemented into your automobile business to guide consumers to your dealership, position your business for growth, and retain critical market share. 

Here are some of the strategies of digital marketing for automobile industry that you must implement in your business today:

1. Make Your Website User-Friendly

The hero image example of an automobile company.

Several companies do not consider web design as a marketing strategy. But, it is a significant aspect of building your presence online and showcasing who you are.

Websites are the first thing that customers visit before making a purchase decision. So, if your website is unorganized and difficult to navigate, the customers will develop a negative opinion of your brand. Hence, your website should represent your company accurately. For instance, you can use a flat, minimalistic design to make your website simple, less cluttered, and easy to navigate.

Your dealership website should check on the following points to meet and exceed the customer’s expectations online:

  • Ensure that your website has fast loading times on all devices.
  • Has the capacity to handle traffic from multiple devices.
  • Make sure that the website offers a seamless experience to the users.
  • Integrate financing calculators and pricing tools.

Some of the other information that you can consider including on your website are:

  • Vehicle detail pages with impeccable designs, featured images, vehicle highlights, and in-depth specifics.
  • Business hours and direction.
  • Special pages for best deals, incentives, rules, and expiration dates.

2. Leverage Social Media Marketing in the Right Places

Social media post examples for automobile industry

According to Hootsuite, more than 4.62 billion use social media across the world, which has grown at a compound annual growth of 12 percent since 2012.

The data shows a significant increase in the social media population that could potentially be vehicle buyers. Hence, social media marketing is not something that you should ignore. It not only helps in enhancing brand awareness but also sparks conversation with your followers. 

The first step to getting your digital marketing strategy for automobile industry right on social media is by choosing the platforms where your audience spends most of their time. Some of the social media platforms that are worth posting content for the automobile industry are:

YouTube

Youtube constitutes over one billion users, thereby making it the second-largest platform in search engines after Google. Hence, it proves to be highly beneficial for buyer engagement. With the help of YouTube, you can post different types of videos on your channel to reach different consumers. 

Educational and explainer videos work as the best digital marketing strategy for automobile industry. While you can share educational videos in the form of handy tips to use particular products, you can also talk about your business, products, and services you offer via explainer videos. This way, you will not only meet the expectations of your customers but also solve their problems. 

Around 70 percent of car buyers using Youtube for research are easily influenced by video content. 

Instagram

Instagram is another best social media platform that is efficient in visual marketing. It has over 1.22 billion users per month. Among them, 60 percent use it to look for and discover particular products. 

To integrate Instagram as a digital marketing strategy for automotive industry, all you need to do is get a business account and track the analytics to create and share the best content. 

Facebook

Facebook is one of the top and most crucial tools preferred by marketers today. The platform includes several tools that are considered highly effective for digital marketing in automobile industry. It comprises Facebook Business Page, Messenger, your own profile, live videos, and groups. You can share videos, images, GIFs, and status updates to engage your audience and see what is working the best. 

However, there is a catch here! The content should be original and useful. You should also keep your audience engaged by replying to their messages and comments. 

3. Create Relevant Content to Market Your Brand

A digital marketing strategy for automotive industry should align with the goals of the consumers. 

About 95 percent of vehicle buyers go online to search for relevant information. Among them, sixty percent of the searches are conducted on mobile devices. 

Consumers also look for information on video-driven platforms as it makes them experience a part of the video journey. 

All these interactions provide you with a prominent opportunity to deliver your customer with relevant and valuable information that would be of noble influence to make a purchasing decision. The information that they gather online is what drives them to your business. Therefore, it is your responsibility to reach and retain them by providing appropriate information online on the platform they are most frequent in.

4. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Rank Higher

You can acquire leads for free by using Google’s search results. Implementing organic SEO as one of your strategies for digital marketing in the automobile industry can help you list your website on the first page of the Google search results and other search engines for specific keywords. 

If you make your automotive website easy to understand for Google, it is more likely that your customers will find you online. It means that when a user searches for something on Google, the algorithm will return results that are most beneficial and relevant for the user. 

In this case, search engine optimization (SEO) serves as a significant digital marketing strategy for automotive industry. You can leverage SEO tactics to rank for keywords and phrases that are related to your business so more users can see and land on your website.

In fact, around 75 percent of online users will never scroll past the first page on Google.

This shows why SEO is a crucial part of the automobile digital marketing strategy. However, you need some patience to achieve the desired results as SEO is an ongoing strategy. 

5. Get Reviews from your Satisfied Customers

A laptop displays the feedback of the customers on a product or a service.

Customer reviews are considered the most effective digital marketing strategy for automobile industry. For marketing your automotive business online, you need to confirm that you have good reviews about your brand on every platform. From Yelp and Google to social media platforms, you should ensure to cover all the necessary bases. 

You can also move a step ahead by creating custom success stories and videos of your most valued customer. Moreover, you should not forget to use it in multiple places as there is no better way to instill trust than to let your customer speak for you. 

6. Implement and Monitor Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)

A Google page screenshot displaying the PPC Ads of an automobile company.
Source: CallRail

Pay-Per-Click or PPC is yet another best digital marketing strategy for automobile industry. PPC ads can be placed in search engines like Google and Bing and work on a bidding system. 

To enable pay-per-click ads, you have to first choose the keywords you are willing to target and the amount you can pay every time the ad is clicked. If your bid is the highest for a given keyword, your ads will be shown to the user who searches for it. 

It is the budget-friendly strategy of digital marketing in the automotive industry as you are required to pay only when the ad is clicked and not alone for the ad space. 

7. Create and Market Special Offers and Discounts through Email Marketing

Example of offers and discounts

Email marketing is the most effective and efficient channel of marketing, regardless of the industry. Today, every person owns a mobile phone and have their own email addresses, which is a great tool to stay on top of the minds of your clients and customer. Moreover, sending newsletters via email helps you drive traffic to your website, thereby increasing sales. It aids in building trust through the content you share. 

If a person has purchased a high-priced product like a car from you, he will buy other related things from you as well. Hence, you can grab this opportunity and provide him with special offers like upselling insurance, enabling him to upgrade features, letting him know about discounts, selling new models, and a lot more. This way, you will definitely achieve the desired results. 

The Bottom Line

In today’s world, automotive companies from all over the world use digital marketing strategies to reach more customers and improve sales. Using the above-mentioned digital marketing strategy for automobile industry, you will increase your online visibility, attract more qualified leads, and generate more revenue. 

If you are ready to reach more customers with an automobile digital marketing campaign, consider contacting Incrediwire. With the help of Incrediwire, you can create a result-oriented digital marketing strategy for automotive industry that caters to your needs and goals.

Contact us for a free evaluation of your business today!