Automotive Marketing Strategies

The automotive industry is evolving daily and accounts for around 3% of our country’s GDP!

Even the customers are more tech-savvy than ever, with several expectations ranging from 360° test drive videos to personalized experiences. Thus, well-curated automotive marketing strategies are critical to nurturing leads and boosting sales.

Automotive marketers focus on the latest trends to entice prospects and get them to purchase from their brand. Luckily, several car marketing strategies help them achieve these goals without burning a hole in their pockets.

This article discusses the top 17 tips and tricks they can employ to push potential buyers to the bottom of the funnel.

Let us begin!

Gone are the days when businesses relied on customers to learn about their products and services. Now, companies require systematic and tailored marketing strategies for the automotive industry to get leads and grow sales.

These strategies are helpful to car manufacturers and other businesses in several ways, including- 

• Long-Term Lead Generation: The automotive marketing strategies allow you to produce innumerable leads for your sales pipeline for several months and years. They also let you manage your incoming revenue and plan upcoming campaigns accordingly. 
• Better Brand Reputation: Use interactive advertising plans to communicate with prospects and clients and improve your brand image. You may add real-life examples and customer testimonials to win clients’ trust and form valuable connections. 
• Target Your Relevant Audience: A customized automotive marketing strategy helps focus on the relevant prospects and accelerate responses. It enables you to avoid generic advertising and channel your efforts in the right direction. 
• Beat the Competition: You can hook buyers to your brand by advertising your products. The best automotive marketing ideas guarantee your prospects don’t shop around and select you.
• Manage Your Budget Well: You can use strategic promotions to use your marketing budget best and get the desired ROI!

The advertising techniques and channels your company uses dictate your campaign performance. Hence, it is essential to take the time and choose the ones that best suit your objectives and requirements.

Here are the 17 inspirational ideas to help you get started:

Define Your Target Audience

Knowing your targeted prospects can help you tailor your automotive marketing ideas and improve campaign performance. Start small by learning their location, age, gender, and profession. Then, dive into their preferences, lifestyles, online buying behavior, and more!

These factors give you adequate knowledge to ensure your automotive marketing strategies work well. For instance, you can curate ads for your new car model for people who have followed your Instagram page and liked relevant posts. It helps you guarantee high responses, making the best of your budget.

Also, you may advertise your luxurious car range to high-income prospects before promoting them to others. These people have a higher paying capacity, increasing your chances of selling your vehicles to them faster.

PostGrid’s direct mail API helps you build custom mailing lists to enhance your car marketing strategies and focus on your targeted audiences.

Invite Shoppers to Your Store With Unique Offers

Average customers view all automotive marketing strategies alike. Since almost all dealerships have similar offers during the holidays or other occasions, they need creative ideas to differentiate themselves from other businesses.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, offer something unique. Consider your customers’ needs and preferences. Also, curate proposals that resonate with their location, annual income, and more!

Determine what you can offer to make your customers respond instantly. For example, your dealership can host an autograph signing session by partnering with local athletes and drama actors. Such collaborations help extend your marketing strategies for the automotive industry and increase publicity.

Other ideas for compelling offers are

• Discounts: We often see brands promoting discounted prices during year-end to lure buyers and sell their remaining inventory. Why not use this automobile marketing strategy from the beginning to extend sales and improve your brand awareness? You may offer a small discount of five to 20% to let potential buyers purchase your vehicles without hassles.
• Cashback: You may partner with banks and payment gateways to provide a small cashback to your customers. It helps make them feel good about their purchase and lets you get more repeat business.
• Limited-time offers: Use your car marketing strategies to advertise limited-time offers, like the chance to win an all-paid trip. Such contests or events help you garner more attention online and offline and make your brand more interactive.

Prioritize Traditional Marketing

Adding traditional automotive marketing strategies to your list is essential for your brand’s success. Online advertising channels help you expand your outreach faster. But offline platforms let you form emotional and long-lasting bonds that grow sales in the long run.

• Direct mail: Printing and shipping personalized items can help you bag an impressive ROI of up to 29%. This automobile marketing strategy lets reach prospects and clients directly at their homes or offices to get their attention for an extended time. Most people read emails only for 12 seconds, making email marketing less effective. But direct mailers ensure your potential customers spend more time reading your message and responding to your offers.
• Billboard advertising: People love watching images of big, luxurious cars on billboards. 87% of car enthusiasts say they notice car advertisements on roadside billboards, making it one of the most effective automotive marketing ideas you can employ this year!
• TV marketing: As discussed above, videos are one of the best ways to acquaint users with your car models. An automotive marketing strategy with visual content can give your products a larger-than-life feel, encouraging them to make a big purchase soon! TV commercials help you leverage videos and intrigue prospects, driving higher conversions.

PostGrid’s direct mail services help you automate your printing and mailing processes. You can select your campaign size, message, and more, and let our solutions conduct the entire marketing program on your behalf.

Create a User-Friendly Website

Your website is the primary lead-generation source. It helps you combine all automotive marketing strategies and guide customers ahead of their buying experience.

A user-friendly website creates a positive impression on prospects. It also makes it easy for them to contact you and discuss your offers.

You can enrich your automotive marketing ideas by drafting all campaigns around your official website. For example, PostGrid lets you print custom QR codes that redirect people to your personalized landing pages. It helps you record all customer engagement and use the data for remarketing and closing deals.

This automotive marketing strategy can only succeed if you have a functional website.

Similarly, add your website links on your social media profiles, emails, and more platforms, to streamline your leads in one place.

Ensure your website has all the relevant keywords to help it rank on the SERP. It lets your brand get more views online, allowing you to form a valuable digital presence.

Leverage Remarketing

Retargeting enables you to remarket your products to visitors with tailored web ads. They help remind the prospects to complete the CTA by calling you or filling out the online contact form.

Use remarketing automotive marketing strategies to acquire a second chance to impress potential buyers and motivate them to respond.

Remarketing plans can reduce abandonment and exit rates to keep your brand at the top of their minds while they shop around.

You may execute a remarketing automobile marketing strategy with Facebook or Google Ads. Create eye-catching display ads and new offers to entice viewers and make them click on them. The embedded links take them to your website, ensuring all leads remain in your marketing funnel.

Source: https://financesonline.com/retargeting-statistics/

Brands can leverage remarketing for all products on different platforms. It allows them to keep their lead acquisition costs low because they can focus more on their existing leads. These car marketing strategies also enable companies to measure their campaign performance more accurately, determining whether they could convert specific customers.

You can also retarget your prospects using direct mail with PostGrid. Our platform allows you to conduct triggered mailing campaigns based on specific events, like abandonment, website exit, and more.

Consider the Recent Car-Buying Trends

According to Edmunds, December is the best month to buy a car. It offers the highest discount off MSRP (6.1%).

But how can this information help enrich your automotive marketing strategies, and why?

Most buyers search for specific days and months when they can get a car for lower prices. Hence, you can painlessly double your sales if you give them discounts during these times.

People look for several car-buying occasions, like Black Friday and Thanksgiving. You may leverage these holidays to boost your car marketing strategies and get more customers.

Utilizing car-buying trends can always benefit your company. Hence, research what your potential buyers need and deliver it.

Also, you can check the best-performing channels for your automobile marketing strategy to adjust your budget accordingly. It is advisable to only spend on platforms that ensure results, preventing losses.

For instance, direct mail gives you a sure-shot way to success. It is personal and evokes nostalgia, making people trust your brand and learn more about your best-selling vehicles.

Moreover, PostGrid adds the icing by streamlining your direct mail campaigns and eliminating manual inputs. You can launch successful automotive marketing strategies without wasting time and money!

Build Productive Relationships With Custom Emails

By emailing existing and potential clients, car dealerships and manufacturers can develop personal relationships.

Imagine a customer purchasing a high-ticket car from you! It is one of the best opportunities to thank them post-purchase and get referrals.

However, calling every customer is expensive, daunting, and time-consuming. Thus, email automotive marketing ideas can help them connect with all buyers painlessly.

Consider the following car marketing strategies to nurture your connections:

• Service reminders: You can automate your email campaigns to send timely reminders to all customers. It helps them consider your brand interactive and helpful at all stages of their buying journeys.
• New car offers: Sending car offers can allow your audiences to consider buying another product. Or they can forward your emails to their family and friends, helping you get more leads.
• Latest industry news: Many are enthusiastic about the recent sector trends, allowing you to stay in touch with them. Use automotive marketing strategies to share news and keep customers in the loop. It helps you become the top information source they turn to for getting more details.

Please remember to personalize your email automotive marketing strategies to grab your audience’s attention and make them respond to your messages. It enables you to stand out from the crowd and impress customers—helping you generate more leads that convert.

Benefit from Video Marketing

92% of US car buyers research brands online before making purchase decisions! It helps them learn more about the company’s products and compare them with competitor companies.

Video creation is one of the best automotive marketing strategies to help your audience find and select you. Since 91% of customers prefer watching more visual content from brands, using video marketing is a no-brainer!

Source: https://www.websiteplanet.com/blog/video-marketing-statistics/

You can use many automotive marketing ideas to draft video content for your audience, like

• Video simulation for test drives and inspections can allow prospects to narrow their choices.
• Dealership tours help buyers trust your working knowledge and contact you to take the conversion to the next stage.
• Use automotive marketing strategies with short tutorials addressing the frequently asked questions (FAQs) your company gets. They can include queries, like how often to change the oil or how to select the best auto insurance after purchase.
• Educational videos highlight the primary features and benefits of your car models.
• Car care tips and model comparisons keep prospects updated and help them make informed decisions.
• Behind-the-scenes videos make your customer interactions fun.

Please note that the marketing strategies for the automotive industry should help audiences get the car’s feel. Almost all car shoppers believe what they experience. Design your test drives and other marketing aspects based on their expectations.

Use Online Reviews to Establish Credibility

90% of customers trust a brand that other buyers recommend! Also, 26% of people ignore companies if a family member or friend shares their negative experience with these brands.

Reviews can make or break your company. Hence, use them wisely to improve car marketing strategies and get better results. You may share the positive testimonials on your website or Google My Business (GMB) page.

Mention the customer’s name and city to add more value to your automotive marketing strategy and motivate prospects to buy from you!

Use your automotive marketing ideas to connect with past clients and request feedback. It helps you balance the negative and positive reviews, letting you manage your online reputation.

Also, deal with negative feedback appropriately! Leave a public reply asking the customer to contact you via call or email to resolve the matter. It demonstrates your accountability and makes people trust your brand more.

Tailor the Social Media Posts

Social media remains a powerful automobile marketing strategy, with 302 million users. Many people prefer watching ads in their leisure time because it helps them focus on the advertised products and services. Thus, you can use this tool to communicate with potential shoppers and promote your company.

90% of new buyers who used social media to acquire information say these digital platforms impacted their decisions.

It shows how you can create compelling social media posts to get more people to respond to your offers.

Select the appropriate channels to boost your automotive marketing ideas, like Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook is your best bet if you want to focus on local advertising and cater to specific demographics. Also, it lets you share multimedia and textual content, helping you become flexible with your automotive marketing strategies and post more often.

Instagram helps your company become more popular, with a large follower base to support you. You may post your texts in captions or stories but focus more on images and videos.

Ensure you add the relevant keywords to your ‘about’ or ‘description’ pages to rank on Google and boost online traffic. Improve the digital marketing strategies for the automotive industry by staying active and interacting with all followers.

Employ SEO to Rank on Google

Most people only view the first page after searching for a keyword. Hence, the first position garners nearly 33% of all Google’s search traffic.

70% of people researching cars look for information on search engines! These statistics prove that ranking on Google matters. You can redirect most of the digital traffic for your company-related keywords to your website using SEO.

Source: https://www.honchosearch.com/blog/automotive/automotive-marketing-statistics-to-drive-your-strategy/

SEO automotive marketing strategies help you create user-friendly content that appears on the top of the SERP. Hence, consider this tool for all online advertising plans to beat your competitors and increase sales.

All car marketing strategies can succeed if you improve your SEO and capture all visitors. Here are some ways to fulfill this goal:

• Include appropriate keywords in all landing pages: Use tools like SemRush and Ahrefs to determine trending keywords. Add them to all web pages to boost responses and attract genuine leads.
• Update your GMB page: One of the best automotive marketing ideas is to add all your company information to your GMB page. Update it frequently with the correct address, phone number, services, working hours, and email address to help people contact you.
• Boost your car marketing strategies with Google’s vehicle listings: Post your listings on Google to rank faster.
• Write alt text for all images: Your pictures can also rank on search engines if you name them correctly and write relevant alt texts.
• Please bid on the trending competitor’s keywords: It allows you to enhance your automotive marketing strategies by giving your competitors a tough fight each time they create new content.
• Manage negative keywords: If you use PPC ads, looking out for negative keywords is best to avoid paying extra for irrelevant leads.

Automate Your Car Marketing Strategies to Remove Friction

Marketing automation leads to a 12.2% overhead reduction and a 14.5% increase in sales.

Do you want more reasons to automate your marketing strategies for the automotive industry?

We have enlisted some primary reasons for you:

• Save administrative costs: You can cut unnecessary expenses and avoid hiring more people if you automate your tasks. For example, you may launch your email or SMS marketing program within your CRM without allocating the job to an employee.
• Trigger actions: Send customer action-based triggered messages to reach the correct prospects at the ideal time. It helps you water your automotive marketing ideas and grab profitable opportunities.
• Nurture leads: Your company can retain customers and nurture hot leads by providing hassle-free experiences to them via automation!

Our print and mail solutions enable you to automate direct mail campaigns, helping you benefit from high-tech benefits and features! You can integrate our API into your CRM or download our software application to send mailers directly from your system.

Source: https://99firms.com/blog/marketing-automation-statistics/

Post Ads on Third-Party Sites

Advertising your products on third-party sites can complement your brand’s automotive marketing strategies and broaden your reach.

• Display ads: They help grab a prospect’s attention on other websites. For example, you may contact small websites like yours to negotiate a deal. Set a specific time frame and relevant web pages where you want to place your ads. However, most companies associate with programmatic advertising platforms to automatically show the display ads on websites your prospects visit frequently. It enables you to implement your marketing strategies for automotive industry and reach your desired ROI.
• Listings: Sponsoring listings can allow your brand to appear on the top whenever someone searches for a vehicle you sell. Research the best sites to buy listings and hook visitors.

These third-party sites give your automotive marketing ideas a headstart by driving more prospects to your dealership. Since 78% of buyers use these sites for car shopping, sponsoring ads can increase your chances of getting more sales.

Keep in Touch With Existing Customers

Many car manufacturers and dealerships believe people wait to buy a second car after their first purchase. Though it stands true for many shoppers, staying connected with all existing customers can be beneficial.

Hence, it is best to direct your automotive marketing strategies to your existing client base with the same energy as new leads. This practice lets you identify and grab sales opportunities before your competitors.

You may employ your marketing strategies for the automotive industry to provide standard upgrades to people who have bought from you. Additionally, offering new model information, refueling packages, and maintenance promotions help you engage buyers again and increase revenue.

Plan Referral Marketing Campaigns

Referrals work almost the same as reviews but contribute more to direct sales than online publicity. 92% of customers trust brand referrals from people they know! Hence, draft some automotive marketing strategies to convince your existing customers to refer you to other people!

The best automotive marketing strategy to drive referrals is sending customers a small gift. They consider it your token of appreciation, making them feel special.

Send a small thank-you note with your gift to remind them of your company. PostGrid lets you draft, print, and ship personalized postcards and letters to impress your audience!

Employ Call Tracking

Call extensions, call-only programs, tracking, and mobile bid adjustments are excellent Google Ads features to nurture leads. They let you derive the maximum value from phone calls and convert these prospects into paying clients.

For instance, adding the call tracking feature to your automotive marketing strategies helps you determine your lead source. It lets you tie every call to a campaign and measure accurate results.

Call-only campaigns also work well as an automobile marketing strategy because it enables you to generate more potential clients. Like PPC ads, you pay for every phone call Google helps you get!

Combine Your Marketing Channels

Integrate your offline and online marketing strategies for the automotive industry to connect with all age groups and potential customers.

Though you may believe traditional mail only works for the older generation, 77% of millennials pay attention to it. Also, more people who are 65 or older are becoming tech users.

It is an ideal example of how combining your automotive marketing ideas can help you appeal to all potential buyers. You can still target relevant prospects based on demographics, but being active on multiple channels gives you the upper hand.

We provide turnkey print and mail services to all businesses in the automotive sector. Our API allows them to design catchy mail items that speak directly to their audience and motivates them to buy!

You can integrate our direct mail API in your HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Zapier, or other accounts. These API integrations let you adopt direct mailing without changing your automotive marketing strategies and more existing workflows.

One of our clients recently used our platform to conduct a lead acquisition campaign. They wanted to send thousands of postcards to everyone they engaged online. 

PostGrid helped them design their postcards using the pre-built templates. Thus, they saved their marketing dollars by not outsourcing design to a third party!

Also, they built a segmented mailing list from scratch using our services, eradicating the need to buy it. Our platform helped boost their automotive marketing strategy by offering variable data printing, template editor, and address verification. 

The client wanted a response rate of at least 10%. PostGrid ensured they sent their customized postcards to the correct destinations, improving their chances of getting a reply. 

The outcome of their automobile marketing strategy was better than expected! They received a 25% response ratio and 10% conversion, helping them grow their revenue more than they ever thought!

“PostGrid gave us all the tools to send 4,000+ postcards across five weeks. We didn’t expect much when we started, but the responses were fantastic. This platform allowed us to launch top-notch quality campaigns without our staff spending hours on them.”

You can bring your automotive marketing ideas to life by finding the ideal channels to execute them. It is not a rule to stick with any one platform. Hence, consider testing different methods and get creative to form a unique marketing mix for your company.

PostGrid’s direct mail services assist you in preparing and sending offline mailers. Hence, it makes traditional marketing as simple as online promotions and guarantees the best results.

Sign up now to learn more about how PostGrid helps you launch your automotive marketing strategies via direct mail!