Utilize QR Codes to Drive Leads to Your Car Dealership

If you keep up with the latest digital trends, you know about QR codes. They're similar to bar codes (only with a 2-dimensional pattern) and can be scanned by any smartphone with a QR reader. Once someone scans a QR code, he sees a coupon, special website, video, or whatever the advertiser chooses to use. The opportunities for automotive advertising with QR codes are endless, and we've talked about several ways to use them in the past.

Some car dealers might dismiss QR codes as a passing fad and insist on sticking with traditional advertising. But QR codes are being used everywhere from bookstores to movie posters, and (a bit closer to home for dealers) by auto manufacturers such as GM and service centers such as Jiffy Lube. A QR code in a direct mail piece, flier, window sticker, computer screen, or anywhere else offers great potential to engage consumers beyond just a passing glance for both sales and automotive service center marketing.

It's just a matter of time before QR codes become so widespread that everyone knows about them and is using them. Dealerships would do well to get ahead of the game.

Utilize QR Codes to Drive Leads to Your Car Dealership

If you keep up with the latest digital trends, you know about QR codes. They're similar to bar codes (only with a 2-dimensional pattern) and can be scanned by any smartphone with a QR reader. Once someone scans a QR code, he sees a coupon, special website, video, or whatever the advertiser chooses to use. The opportunities for automotive advertising with QR codes are endless, and we've talked about several ways to use them in the past.

Some car dealers might dismiss QR codes as a passing fad and insist on sticking with traditional advertising. But QR codes are being used everywhere from bookstores to movie posters, and (a bit closer to home for dealers) by auto manufacturers such as GM and service centers such as Jiffy Lube. A QR code in a direct mail piece, flier, window sticker, computer screen, or anywhere else offers great potential to engage consumers beyond just a passing glance for both sales and automotive service center marketing.

It's just a matter of time before QR codes become so widespread that everyone knows about them and is using them. Dealerships would do well to get ahead of the game.

Running an Ethical PPC Campaign for Your Dealership

Recently, we were searching one of our dealership clients (Bill Rapp Superstore) in Google and found that a competitor, Nemith Nissan, is bidding on their dealership's name in search. So when we typed in "Bill Rapp Nissan," a pay-per-click ad showed up saying "Bill Rapp Nissan-we beat their price." Further investigation showed that Nemith is bidding on several other nearby dealers' names.

Now, it's all fair to bid on keywords for the cars you sell, like "Nissan" or "Nissan Altima" or even "Nissan Altima Albany" to try to rank your ads as high as possible. But a dealer crosses an ethical line when he bids on the actual names of competitors.

Every car dealer wants to drive leads and sell more cars, but with a well-planned search engine marketing campaign you can do this without using competitors' names. Besides, a car shopper that sees a dealership using this kind of tactic will not trust them to be honest in selling a car. Ultimately, a campaign run like this will hurt a dealer's reputation, causing lasting damage that extends beyond the few extra leads that might come from the ads.

Running an Ethical PPC Campaign for Your Dealership

Recently, we were searching one of our dealership clients (Bill Rapp Superstore) in Google and found that a competitor, Nemith Nissan, is bidding on their dealership's name in search. So when we typed in "Bill Rapp Nissan," a pay-per-click ad showed up saying "Bill Rapp Nissan-we beat their price." Further investigation showed that Nemith is bidding on several other nearby dealers' names.

Now, it's all fair to bid on keywords for the cars you sell, like "Nissan" or "Nissan Altima" or even "Nissan Altima Albany" to try to rank your ads as high as possible. But a dealer crosses an ethical line when he bids on the actual names of competitors.

Every car dealer wants to drive leads and sell more cars, but with a well-planned search engine marketing campaign you can do this without using competitors' names. Besides, a car shopper that sees a dealership using this kind of tactic will not trust them to be honest in selling a car. Ultimately, a campaign run like this will hurt a dealer's reputation, causing lasting damage that extends beyond the few extra leads that might come from the ads.

Facebook is still a Gorilla and not showing any signs of slowing down!  Here is a quick tidbit that should make you think hmmmmmm do I really have a Social Media Strategy!  A real Social Media Strategy actually planned out.

There are 57,514 apps on Facebook with over 200,000 developers currently evaluating the platform.

These applications were used 34,175,797 times in the last 24 hours and have a combined valuation of $269,323,488.

My point for the stat above... If app developers are doing this well then how can your dealership start to benefit from all of this traffic.  I am not saying you need an app but I am saying it's time to understand the Social Selling Ecosystem and develop a strategy to capitalize on the traffic Facebook has every minute of every day.

Facebook is still a Gorilla and not showing any signs of slowing down!  Here is a quick tidbit that should make you think hmmmmmm do I really have a Social Media Strategy!  A real Social Media Strategy actually planned out.

There are 57,514 apps on Facebook with over 200,000 developers currently evaluating the platform.

These applications were used 34,175,797 times in the last 24 hours and have a combined valuation of $269,323,488.

My point for the stat above... If app developers are doing this well then how can your dealership start to benefit from all of this traffic.  I am not saying you need an app but I am saying it's time to understand the Social Selling Ecosystem and develop a strategy to capitalize on the traffic Facebook has every minute of every day.

Event Planning to Drive Traffic to Your Dealership

Overwhelmed with the prospect of planning an event at your car dealership? You know that you want to get people from your community to come out. But you're not sure about how you'll go about all the work involved in organizing everything from finding food vendors to sending out fliers.

That's when you should sit down and figure out your process for planning and promoting the event before jumping ahead blindly. If you're going to invest time and money into an event, you want to make it the best it can possibly be to get the most people from your community out.

You want to make the event nice enough that people will want to come--a free burger isn't going to be enough to get the whole neighborhood out, but a chance to win a car is. And it doesn't have to be a giveaway as big as a car; if promoted right, giveaways for service like free oil changes or inspections or even free gas cards can pull a lot of people out. A live band or DJ, free food, and play areas for children can do a lot to bring families out.

Use as many mediums as possible to promote the event. You can combine email and direct mail marketing with Google pay per click ads, social updates, and web panels. Get your salespeople involved and give them buttons and fliers to help them talk about the upcoming event.

You can drive hundreds of people (and potential car shopper leads) to your dealership with a well-planned event.

Event Planning to Drive Traffic to Your Dealership

Overwhelmed with the prospect of planning an event at your car dealership? You know that you want to get people from your community to come out. But you're not sure about how you'll go about all the work involved in organizing everything from finding food vendors to sending out fliers.

That's when you should sit down and figure out your process for planning and promoting the event before jumping ahead blindly. If you're going to invest time and money into an event, you want to make it the best it can possibly be to get the most people from your community out.

You want to make the event nice enough that people will want to come--a free burger isn't going to be enough to get the whole neighborhood out, but a chance to win a car is. And it doesn't have to be a giveaway as big as a car; if promoted right, giveaways for service like free oil changes or inspections or even free gas cards can pull a lot of people out. A live band or DJ, free food, and play areas for children can do a lot to bring families out.

Use as many mediums as possible to promote the event. You can combine email and direct mail marketing with Google pay per click ads, social updates, and web panels. Get your salespeople involved and give them buttons and fliers to help them talk about the upcoming event.

You can drive hundreds of people (and potential car shopper leads) to your dealership with a well-planned event.

You can increase leads and conversions through your dealership's Facebook business page. However, you need to take an approach different from hard-sell methods you may have used in the past with traditional advertising. Social media marketing is all about building relationships with your dealership's followers instead of just blasting a message out to the world.

Offer content that people will want to see. For some people buying a car is an impulse decision, but for others it is a process of months or even years of research. You should promote your current sales and specials, but you should mix those with things that people will be interested in seeing and make your page worthy to be followed.

To drive people to your dealership, you can market car service specials and giveaways. They might not be in the market for a new car right away, but more people will come in for a free oil change they won or a discount they get for checking in. That could lead from a good experience to a purchase when they need a car.

Social media marketing for auto dealerships has the ultimate goal of driving people to come and convert.

Paul Potratz

You can increase leads and conversions through your dealership's Facebook business page. However, you need to take an approach different from hard-sell methods you may have used in the past with traditional advertising. Social media marketing is all about building relationships with your dealership's followers instead of just blasting a message out to the world.

Offer content that people will want to see. For some people buying a car is an impulse decision, but for others it is a process of months or even years of research. You should promote your current sales and specials, but you should mix those with things that people will be interested in seeing and make your page worthy to be followed.

To drive people to your dealership, you can market car service specials and giveaways. They might not be in the market for a new car right away, but more people will come in for a free oil change they won or a discount they get for checking in. That could lead from a good experience to a purchase when they need a car.

Social media marketing for auto dealerships has the ultimate goal of driving people to come and convert.

Paul Potratz