No matter how busy your dealership gets, every morning when you come in, you turn on the lights, you unlock the doors, and you point your sign to the road. These are the things you simply have to do to run a business, no matter how chaotic your day job is. The same principles apply to your automotive digital marketing strategy. Your day is jam-packed, but there are a few essential tasks you must do to keep your digital marketing mojo running to sustain your presence and keep competitors from crowding in. Here are three ways to “keep your digital marketing lights on,” when you need to maintain your business presence with the absolute minimum marketing effort.

3 Steps to Ensure Your Dealership Digital Marketing is “Always On” (With Minimal Effort)

1. If you do nothing else…..make sure you are running a search campaign for the following variations:

• FRANCHISE BRAND + DEALER, DEALERSHIP (Chevrolet Dealer, Chevrolet Dealership)
• FRANCHISE BRAND+DEALER, DEALERSHIP+CITY (Chevrolet Dealer  Dallas, Dallas Chevy Dealer)
• BUSINESS NAME (ALL VARIATIONS) + FRANCHISE NAME+DEALERSHIP (Charles Matthews Chevrolet Dealership, Chuck Matthews Chevrolet Dealership)

This digital marketing tactic is a must because search engines are the primary way most car-shoppers will find you, and these keyword combos offer the absolute best value for your SEM spend. It’s the most economical type of search campaign (most targeted) and it offers the best ROI (most traffic). Last but not least, remember that you don’t want your competitors squatting on your key terms- so get ‘em, guard ‘em and get a great return by doing so. This is one of those digital marketing musts; you absolutely cannot afford not to do it.

2. If you do nothing else….align your advertising campaigns with the OEM wherever possible. For busy dealers who need a no-fuss way to maintain their marketing presence, aligning with OEM marketing campaigns is the obvious answer. Plugging your OEM’s latest million-dollar national advertising campaign into your own website provides a nearly effortless alternative to the stress, cost, time, and manpower necessary of creating a ground-up marketing campaign. Especially if  you are a dealer who is not in a position to invest in marketing staff or partner with a local agency, integrating your OEM campaigns into your digital marketing is an absolute must. Don’t reinvent the wheel; simply integrate the OEM’s ready-made assets (banner ads, messaging,offer) into your  own digital marketing, and use those national campaigns to bring money into your own store.

3. If you do nothing else….invest in a retargeting campaign to stay top-of-mind. At this point in the plan, you know your customers can find you, you know they’ve heard about your latest promotion, but how do you sustain the momentum to make actual sales? Most customers need to see a message seven times to take action, so the next digital marketing must-have is retargeting.  Retargeting sets that final puzzle piece in place; it helps you stay top-of-mind with customers by serving up targeted display ads in your prospects’ Internet surfing experience. Many customers express initial interest and then get busy and distracted; don’t make them do the work to seek out your business again. Meet them where they live/”surf” by serving up retargeting ads so they have that “Oh yeah!” moment and regain interest in your business. Retargeting is that final piece of strategy that dealers simply must have; it sustains your marketing momentum from a single impression to an ongoing user experience. This rich experience vastly increases your chances of turning impressions into actual sales-woohoo!

Max Steckler is the Vice President of Advertising Products for ADP Digital Marketing.  An automotive buff in both his professional and personal life, Max spends his spare time restoring vintage Japanese motorcycles, and is preparing for an off-road motorcycle trip to Alaska.