As marketers, we’ve heard it said time and again that today’s customer craves customization. From the way they shop online to how they pick a car from the lot, the modern client is discerning, keeping an eye out for tailored content as well as promotions and deals that are hand-selected for their specific requirements.

To this end, how can an automotive dealer harness this potential to deliver a focused outreach strategy that not only impresses current customers but helps build the type of brand loyalty that catalyzes sustainable long-term growth? The answer lies in viewing every person who walks through the doors of your dealership as a separate and unique account, with varying interests, positions, visions and more. By making the transition from viewing your clientele in a general pool to seeing everyone for who they are and what they bring to the table, you’ll be better able to deliver on their expectations for personalization.

A Brief History of Personalized Marketing

The notion of catering to your customer is nothing new. In both the B2B and B2C spheres, this technique is known as account-based marketing, or ABM, and it isn’t so much of a marketing tactic as it is a customer engagement strategy. In short, it is the practice of intentionally adjusting offers and communication strategies to fit the individual needs of each patient, rather than taking a blanketed one-size-fits-all strategy.

How Your Automotive Teams Can Benefit From ABM

During a team meeting, have any of your departments expressed frustration over spinning their wheels? Do your marketing managers ever feel that, for all their efforts to create compelling blog content, graphic-rich print materials and exceptional promotions, they just aren’t seeing the foot traffic or the web traffic that they want? If so, it could be because they aren’t appealing to anyone’s individual interests as they seek to attract everyone in the same manner.

As they zero in on each customer’s account, your department leads are rendered that much more effective. They are no longer spending copious amounts of time guessing what their customer base will like. Instead, they’re talking one-on-one to each client, assessing their purchase history, analyzing their web visit patterns and more to better understand what they need.

Answering the Call to Customize

Recent research reveals that by taking an ABM approach, marketers are delivering on client expectations and helping to make the path to purchase as smooth and seamless as possible. When this happens, customers aren’t just satisfied. They also tell their friends and are more likely to return to your same dealership when they have a similar need in the future.

In fact, one study shows that 78% of shoppers are frustrated when they engage in a shopping experience that doesn’t feel customized to their needs. On the other hand, when they did feel that a salesperson was engaging them on an individual level, 49% of those same respondents ended up buying more than they originally intended to while 40% spent more than they originally thought they would, all thanks to personalized recommendations that fit their bill exactly. In an industry in which up-sales and cross-sales are key, automotive experts can stand to benefit from this new approach.

They’re also less likely to deal with frustrated clients in the future. The same study showed that of those impulse purchases entered into, only 5% were returned later, as more than 80% of buyers were ultimately satisfied with the purchases they made.

Moving forward, automotive marketers and those in similar departments can take advantage of ABM to better align their advertising efforts with the individual needs of the shoppers they’re intending to serve. At the end of the day, no two accounts are the same and a generic outreach approach is quickly becoming obsolete as dealerships seek to outperform each other, build their bottom line, and keep their clients as happy as possible.