As a car dealership, your reach is limited which means you need to ensure you’re employing local online marketing strategies.
This type of marketing targets regional audiences near your physical business location. Because you want shoppers to work with your dealership and take delivery of a vehicle you sell them, you need to target the area near your location to ensure they choose you first.
Target Your Local Area with These Online Marketing Tips
Optimize and Localize Your Website
Your website is the key to your traffic and bringing customers to your dealership. If your website isn’t easy to use, you’ll need to optimize it to make sure your customers can find what they want when they visit your site. If it doesn’t offer local geographic information, you may have visitors to your site that cost you marketing dollars that aren’t going to be able to buy a car from you.
Ensure your Content Uses Proper Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Using title tags will help search engines understand what your content is about. Meta descriptions give a short summary of the content you’ve created and will make it easy for users to know if they want to visit your page. These two elements are key in bringing your pages to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) more naturally than if you pay for one of the spots at the top of the page.
Your Paid Ads Should be Localized
The ads you’re paying for do not need to be shown to users in other countries or even in other states unless you’re next to a borderline. Your ads need to be localized to give the audience in your area the information they need and to keep you from paying for others to see your ads that won’t be able to benefit from them. This is a big part of your local online marketing because it can help direct the money spend where you need it to be.
Become a Supporter of Local Businesses
Your dealership can be a great place to advertise for small businesses in the area and they can be perfect places for your ads to be offered. Partner together both with physical flyers and ads at each other’s locations and with online support through tagging, following, and partnered sponsorships. This can be a great way to get the support you need from other professionals in your area.
Localize Your Email Marketing
Although email marketing seems to be an old-school way of advertising, it’s still viable and important to your business. Your email list will likely be mostly local clients, which should make this an easy part of your dealership marketing. You may find that local online marketing through email is one of the most effective ways to bring business to your location.
Get Connected With Your Local Community Online
There are several great ways for you to connect with your local community and share the events online. You can share a fundraiser you’re hosting at your dealership, offer blogs about local events going on in the community, or show support for charities that need help. Get connected and let your social media feeds be a big part of how you showcase your dealership to the local community.
Positive Reviews and Photos Are Great Local Marketing Tools
Whenever you have a happy customer that purchases a vehicle or has service done at your location, you should try and have them write a review or take photos with your team and their new purchase. These positive reviews and customer photos are an excellent way for you to show your community their friends and neighbors who have bought a vehicle from your location.
Complete Your Google My Business Listing
Local online marketing begins with the Google My Business listing. You want to claim yours to let your local community know that you’re doing business in their area. This is how Google is going to show your dealership to those looking for vehicles for sale in your area. Get this listing completed and let it be the first thing you do to market your location online.
Multiple Locations: Create Local Landing Pages
If you have several different dealership locations as part of a group, each one needs to have a local landing page to support the fact that it’s operating in the area. Create these landing pages and let your customers find each one of your dealers when they are looking for the next vehicle they will purchase.
This post may contain affiliate links. Meaning a commission is given should you decide to make a purchase through these links, at no cost to you. All products shown are researched and tested to give an accurate review for you.
