As a request from our audience, we’ve decided to go a bit deeper on what it means to know your objectives before starting a social campaign for your dealership. In a prior article Social Campaigns for Car Dealers we have recommended some of the basic steps every car dealership should consider before engaging on social campaigns.

Today, we’ll discuss some basic helpful information on what works when thinking about social campaigns.

Social Campaigns are about your business and not your history

On every car dealership’s website, is important to have a dedicated “about us” page that lets the viewer know where you, as a dealership, as coming from. I’ve seen some elaborate details that have actually help me realize how difficult and competitive becoming a dealership can be. This is good as an informative tool. Not as a social campaign objective.

By the time a prospect is reading your “about us” page, it means that this particular prospect found your dealership to be interesting enough because of prices, inventory, specials, rebates and anything along those lines and not because you have been in business for the past four decades. Don’t spend your money on promoting your history on the social marketing campaigns.

Social campaigns are about your business. Channel your efforts here.

Tips on down to earth objectives for a dealership

Promote your inventory. By taking the time to promote your inventory thru well organized VDPs (Vehicle Detail Pages) that included the adequate links back to your main URL, you’re automatically targeting the car buying prospects.

Take the time to organize your VDPs according to importance, rotation, manufacturers’ incentives and more. Don’t do random posting since you may be losing sales opportunities. By considering your inventory as an objective for a social marketing campaign, be sure that you understand how you want this social campaign to work and set the time goals for each item.

Here is an example:

Dealership 1 has 300 new cars distributed like this:

100 trucks – two models with a 30-day factory rebate incentive.

100 SUVs – college program incentives, first time buyers, and great leasing options

100 automobiles (sports cars, sedans, coupes, convertibles, etc.) – No current incentives

Create a social marketing campaign for the truck models that have the factory rebate incentive first. You’ll benefit from the manufacturers’ budget on the running promotions on these trucks on their official website and all you have to do is adapt these ads to your dealership. Things like the digital brochure, videos, and official factory rebate ads listed and posted on the manufacturers’ website will benefit your dealership if done correctly.

Promote your Service Department. Car service is a very competitive industry where many dealerships today are losing valuable opportunities to connect and enhance customer loyalty. Promote your service specials all year. From oil change to body shop, if you have the tools and the factory trained technicians for the job, let the rest of your community know it! Why leave money on the table for others?

Promote your reviews. Just like you’ll take the time to create social campaigns for your inventories and services, you need to pay attention to your reviews. Share these on your social channels always. Reviews are the result of your dealership’s success. In today’s digital era, the online shopper hunts for these as a source of true reference about your dealership.

Keep in mind that as you create and organize the possible social campaigns you may need based on your objectives, you’re also directly and indirectly organizing all your assets. Every VDP is linked to an inner page in your dealership’s website. Every page has an existing contact form connected to your CRM. Every email is directed to your sales team. Every sales team is trained to follow up and convert that email into a successful visit to the dealership for further details.

Bottom line, the success of any social campaign you’re interest in, will be greater if you, as a dealership, are involved in the starting process and set the objective to be followed by your marketing agency. Don’t get sucked into the common “let us care for what we think is important to your business” sales gimmicks presented by many of the inexperienced marketers.

Nobody knows your dealership better than you. You know your store, you know your sales team and you know what you need. Marketing agencies can polish and bring forth the knowledge and professionalism you’re looking for to make it happen, but the objectives that need to be accomplished can only come from you.