Social media marketing (SMM) is the most popular and versatile form of advertising in the 21st century. Today, millions of businesses around the world use social media to connect with their target audiences, promote their offers, and generate more leads. If you are a car dealership, then you should be using social media to promote your inventory online.
But starting off can be daunting, especially if you think social media marketing is just a matter of posts and hashtags. In reality, social media marketing has to connect to your broader business goals in order to be successful. Here’s how to successfully use social media to promote a dealership and see results.
Perform an Audience Analysis
To be successful online, you should know four key things about your target audience: where they live, how ready they are to buy a new vehicle, what their budget is, and how they’re searching for their options online.
Do they look up test drives for models on YouTube? Do they follow certain car hashtags on Instagram? Are they auto enthusiasts or not? These factors will impact the type of content you make, where you post it, and the value you provide to your audience.
Social media success is all about exchanging value for attention. You give your audience something they want to see and, in return, they pay you with their attention. Hopefully, this attention can then turn into engagement, which can lead to new leads or even quick conversions.
Set Measurable Goals
To be successful online, your dealership should have definitive goals. This can include how often you post, target click-through rates (CTRs), ideal reach, and increased follower activity.
Measuring website performance with social media clickthroughs is a good way to assess how effective your campaigns actually are.
Don’t Pay for Ads Without a Good Content Strategy
One of the surefire ways to lose money online is to pay for social media promotions without actually having a strategy. Your content should be consistent, cohesive, and relevant to your audience’s lives and interests. Avoid paying for views alone as these don’t translate into any real-world currency.
You should boost posts that you know perform well, and make sure you have a strong profile with good calls to action (CTAs) that inspire clickthroughs.
Create Videos
Video content outperforms any other type of social media content, so ditch the photo galleries and static promo images. Your audience wants to really see what your dealership has to offer. In other words, they want to see the inventory, learn more about the vehicles you’re selling, and see what makes you different from the competition.
By understanding your target audience, you can come up with video ideas that feel relevant and keep viewers’ attention. Avoid going the salesman approach, as this generally feels inauthentic and can push people away.
Instead, focus on delivering maximum value and connecting each post to a campaign. This will help you leverage social media to promote your dealership, drive more traffic, and boost your leads.