If you’ve found yourself here, there are a few things that are probably true: you work in the automotive industry, you know that digital marketing matters, but you (probably) aren’t sure why, and you want to learn how to step up your automotive digital marketing game, generate new business, and keep existing customers loyal.

Sound about right? If so, you’re in the right place! Here are three specific tactics that you can incorporate into your automotive digital marketing plan right now.

Transform Your Shop with Automotive Digital Marketing

Tactic #1 - Get Creative with Social Media

Social media marketing is full of possibilities. However, if you aren’t sure how to effectively use different platforms for your digital marketing, it can seem intimidating - and poorly utilized social media is sometimes worse than no social media at all.

When it comes to using social media in your automotive digital marketing, start by figuring out which platforms make the most sense for your business. Ask yourself:

• How much time can I (and my team) dedicate to social media every day?
• What kind of information am I trying to provide on social media?
• Which platforms will allow me to best communicate my brand and my values?
• Where does my audience live online?

Once you’ve established which social media platforms you want to utilize, it’s time to make your business stand out! Whether it’s posting religiously to your Instagram Story or taking advantage of Facebook Marketplace, don’t let your social media presence be a dud. Take the time to create interesting, informative, and entertaining posts and you’ll see your online engagement soare as a result.

Tactic #2 - Automotive Content is King

Content marketing is all the rage across a wide variety of industries. Adapting the content trend to your automotive digital marketing strategy is not as much of a stretch as you may think - after all, it’s trendy because it works. In fact, we’d argue that content is the one thing most auto shops aren’t doing but definitely should be.

Here’s why: A good content marketing strategy will help you deepen your connection with existing and potential customers. It also positions you as a thought leader, makes customers more likely to trust you, and helps you to seal the deal on leads who may find your shop online.

In the auto world, this could take many forms. Here are a few freebie ideas to inspire you:

• Post reviews of new models that come through your shop
• Create a cheat sheet for people to understand when it’s time to take their car in for a service
• Put together a short video explaining how customers can deal with a small issue (like a flat tire) until they can get into your shop for a professional opinion

Tactic #3 - Make it Mobile

If you aren’t already designing your website for mobile, it’s time to start. Today. 18% of people in the market for a new vehicle or an automotive service use mobile devices exclusively when shopping around for car-related purchases, and more than half of all car shoppers use their smartphones at some point in the process.

If you aren’t mobile-friendly, you are losing business. Combat this by optimizing your online presence and meeting your customers where they are. Why not give Geo-Fencing (the use of GPS to create a geographic boundary and trigger a notification when a mobile device is within the boundary) a try?

Are you feeling overwhelmed? We get it--marketing doesn’t always come naturally to folks in the automotive industry. That’s why we’ve created our cloud-based marketing platform to help you get the most out of your marketing efforts. Let us help you manage and grow your business by booking a demo today.