You’ve probably noticed by now that we live in a world of multi-channel marketing. Customers are researching products and services online using multiple devices, multiple screens, multiple platforms and you’re working hard to reach the people where they are. You might be on social media utilizing popular channels like Facebook and Instagram, you could be running campaigns on Google Adwords and Bing, or even going after organic traffic with a search engine optimization strategy. With all of that advertising and promotion do you have any idea what you’re actually getting back?

Social media advocates will argue that their efforts create branding and engagement value that go beyond hard conversions and they’re probably at least a little bit right so let’s focus on organic and paid channels. Do you know how many phone calls were generated this month by customers who found your new or used car dealership in search or from your Facebook ad etc..? How does that compare to last month or last year? What’s the cost per lead on those channels or better yet, the cost per acquisition?

If you don’t know how well your channels are performing it’s very unlikely you’re going to do anything to improve them. However, with the help tools like Google Analytics and your favourite call-tracking software ( I like CallRail ) you can better understand what’s happening to your ad dollars and you can make the necessary changes to make your dealership marketing better than ever. Check out a case study for Mercedes-Benz dealership in Alberta. 

For those who don't know software like CallRail uses dynamic number insertion to dynamically change the phone number displaying on your website based on the channel your visitor came from. It’s not flawless but it will give you some great insight about which channels are creating those valuable phone conversions. For example if you’re running an adwords campaign, now we can see which keywords are generating the most phone calls and form submissions so next month you can spend more on higher-performing keywords and less on the keywords that just aren’t working. Sounds a like good idea doesn’t it?

Your Google analytics dashboard not only integrates with tools like CallRail but also allows you to track all kinds of conversions and behaviour metrics on your website so you can learn how to serve your customers better. Some dealership website providers are a little inhospitable in this environment ( if you’re on CDK you can forget all about dynamic number insertion, at least for now ) but for the most part there’s nothing holding you back from a better performing digital strategy. How well are your digital campaigns really performing? If you don’t already know the answer it’s time you did the work to find out.

Dealers have known for a long time now that putting up great sales numbers consistently month after month take a little more effort than a slick newspaper ad. Most of you have already "made the move to digital" but what does that really mean at this point? With fast-growing competition as dealers continue to allocate more and more of their budgets to automotive digital marketing, what does it take to have success as a modern car dealership? These 5 essential digital strategies will help you cut through the noise and focus on no-nonsense marketing tactics that produce tangible results. 

1. Responsive Website

Did you know that Google recently made the move to a mobile-first index? We all knew mobile was coming and those of you who already have a responsive website will be well-prepared, in fact, you don't need to change a thing. Responsive sites will help ensure all your content is indexed and designated mobile friendly while providing an optimal user experience for your customers across all of their devices. Nice! If you have separate desktop and mobile sites then your situation might not be so simple, and worse yet, if you have no mobile site at all then it's high time you make the upgrade. If you're not sure how your website handles mobile then be sure to ask your website provider, it could be costing you traffic and sales!

2. Great Merchandising

There's been more than enough research and data from authoritative sources like Google and Auto Trader to demonstrate definitively that quality merchandising leads to more VDP views and ultimately more sales. It's so obvious that someone is bound to wonder why I even included it in the list. However, I still find dealer websites with stock photos or low quality images. Why? There's several great mobile app solutions that make it so easy to generate photos and videos for your inventory seamlessly. You also get the benefit of adding search friendly semantic mark-up to your inventory records. If you're spending thousands of dollars to market your website and you don't have exceptional merchandising then there's no doubt that your ROI is suffering. Do yourself a favor and make your cars the stars with high quality photos and videos your customers will love.

3. Local SEO

You want potential customers in your area that searching for your products and services to be able to find your right? Of course you do! To make sure the shoppers in your area can find you when it matters you need to make sure your local seo strategy is up to speed - Are your web pages optimized for your city/province? - Does your content answer the questions your audience is searching for? - Do you have great online reviews? - Do you have consistent NAP info ( name, address, phone number ) across all your citations on the web - Have you built up some inbound links from other local businesses? - Is your website marked up with local business schema? These are just a few of the ways you can start capitalizing on local search so potential shoppers end up where they belong - in your dealership. After running an Edmonton SEO campaign for a local dealership we were able to substantially improve phone calls and store visits primarily by improving visibility in the local pack results.

4. Paid Ads

There's some debate about the value of paid marketing strategies with some people suggesting that there's not enough return on the investment. I can understand how that might occasionally be the case but in my experience, if you build a good campaign you're going to see the results. Platforms like Google Adwords and Facebook give you the opportunity to create targeted campaigns to reach potential shoppers and bring in leads while delivering thousands of impressions that help create brand awareness as well. You have to spend your ad dollars somewhere, why not use effective platforms that let you accurately measure the results?

5. Analytics & Reporting

Sometimes the solution to your marketing woes isn't spending more money but spending your money better. You can't improve what you aren't measuring so it's absolutely essential that you have the analytics in place to understand the value of your marketing campaigns. With Google tools like analytics, tag manager, and url builder there's no reason you shouldn't be able to see exactly how many leads your campaigns are generating. A lot of modern CRM systems like dealersocket and one-eighty will also offer integrations so you can go a step further and see how many of those leads turn into sales to really understand ROI. Now that you know which marketing channels and campaigns are performing the best you can start adjusting your marketing mix for the most efficient results.