A Look At Why Media Partners Should Be Calling On Auto Dealers
opens IMAGE file With almost endless combinations of data to apply to email marketing campaigns and other digital advertising tactics Data-Dynamix maintains the ability to serve a number of industries. And, over the years we have found a few industries that consistently perform well in email marketing campaigns, especially with our customized data. We love studying these industries because it helps us understand other similar situations where email marketing would be ideal.
The number one reason the automotive sector is the strongest vertical within email marketing is that nearly 100% of their walk in traffic has pre-shopped before ever stepping a foot on the dealer’s lot. Some dealerships even refer to themselves as an internet store. This means they better have their best pricing or one price shopping in front of the prospective auto buyer online. Dealerships were early adopters to digital platforms and their sites are updated on a daily basis to keep available inventory front and center. Nobody wants to tell a buyer that the car or truck they fell in love with has gone home with someone else. It’s just bad business.
Today’s buyers are armed with more information than ever before and with automotive sites being some of the most heavily traveled tools such as carfax.com, Edmunds, and many more can share the vehicle history report from its first owner. Auto Trader and Cars.com keep things competitive. Who would have thought 24 years ago that Craigslist would have such an impact?
Here are the top three observations we have made about the automotive industry and why car dealerships typically perform well in digital advertising campaigns.
- They Know Their Location – Businesses like car dealerships excel at targeted, data-driven marketing strategies because they know their location. As we’re seeing more and more virtual brands popping up around the world, individual car dealerships have a leg up. They know their exact geographic location and their exact target location of prospective customers. Utilizing zip codes and this geographic information, email and digital ad campaigns can excel because they can pinpoint the prospects right around the corner.
A car buyer, especially a pre-owned car buyer, is willing to drive 100 miles or more for the right vehicle at the right price. The cool thing about the Internet is your inventory is at the world’s fingertips. It’s now possible to have your dream car delivered right to your front door.
Whether a car dealership, or some other business, targeting by geographic location will help you niche and focus your campaign.
- They Know Their Audience Demographic – While not always true, most car brands have a certain personality behind them. There are general demographics that like large, powerful trucks as opposed to people looking for energy efficient compact cars. While you can’t go off of these rules entirely, they do provide a good guideline to target the people you want to attract. When we have a car dealership wanting to focus on increasing their pickup truck sales, we can target people with specific interests such as hunting, ranching, four-wheeling, construction, and more. Also, individual car dealerships excel in using data because there is usually a wealth of demographic intel provided by the brands themselves. Toyota Corporate or Ford Corporate have a wealth of information on the types of people that are most likely to buy a Toyota or Ford. Individual stores can employ that same information for their local campaigns. Lets face it: if you are running a BMW store and your looking to sell more BMW’s wouldn’t you like to target those folks driving around in an Audi Jaguar Range Rover Mercedes? The list goes on with your own imagination.
Regardless of industry, brands that know the common interests of their ideal clientele get better leads from email marketing and digital ad campaigns.
- They Know Their Ideal Income Level. Fact: a Hyundai is in a different price point as a Porsche. Simple and obvious? Yes – but auto dealerships don’t want to waste time sending ads to people who don’t have the ability to buy their cars. Therefore, applying income filters to a data set on a digital marketing campaign is essential. Car dealers also are very in tune with the financing side of the sale and learn some general ranges of income that work well for purchasing at their location. Not all businesses and sales folks are in tune this much with the income level that is ideal for purchasing their product. Car dealerships are VERY in tune with this, and it makes any digital campaign that much more effective.
Typically people think about high income as a deciding factor, but those that need help with financing may be a good target and many dealerships have departments that specialize in credit-challenged buyers. This is a very important profit center for many dealerships and they have the lenders to make it happen. With income filters, you can find them for your client. And guess what” these consumers are strong responders. They need your help and so do the dealers
Auto dealerships are ideal to embrace email marketing, but also to embrace email marketing WITH customized data plans. Using data sets like IP address and Device ID targeting to enhance your email campaign’s performance is ideal. When you have various data identifiers that provide insight into a target audience you can use data like IP addresses, mobile device IDs, and other behavioral data to ensure you are reaching your target audience and version ads and offers to different segments accordingly. This takes most of the guesswork out of your advertising and helps maximize margins and return on investment in your marketing!
At Data-Dynamix, we work with a myriad of industries, and can get great results for each one in their own way. However, in the course of our history, we have found consistent success with the automotive industry and it has made us evaluate some of the reasons why it is so effective. Understanding those patterns helps us and our media partners make wise suggestions and plans for other industries that have similar characteristics and objectives.