Car Dealer Marketing

I've had the opposite happen.

I make it a point to never include a price on a CL description. At least two images & basic details on a bullet list & mention contact by email, nothing else. One ad a while back with 2 bumps in a month had +50 contacts.

Obviously the product has to be in demand, I've also seen a few flops.

OP, do some test.

Do an online search via Google for the best selling used car model in the US, look for the top 10 selling cars (or whatever number) then get your used car dealer to have one of those top selling cars in stock.

If that top 10 car doesn't sell on CL, your not going to sell anything. Assumes realistic Kelley Blue Book type pricing on the car being advertised because that's the first thing traffic will check (average price of the car).

Again, try posting the ad without a price, force traffic to make the first move by contacting you. That way traffic isn't feeling pressured into a sale.

Event marketing is what I found to be the best method. Here is why:

• Face to face customer engagement.
• Gather emails for email marketing through tickets sales.
• Revenue from ticket sales.
• Merchandising and product promotions.
• Provides content for content marketing.

Here are results from a show we hosted a few years ago:

• 1,500 tickets sold.
• Registered ~200 vehicles.
• Grew Facebook page to over 2,225 members.
• Over 5,000 video views.
• Access to automotive forums with hundreds of thousands of members.
• The dealership sold 3 cars from the event generating a positive return on their sponsorship investment. From that point on every year they host a large event at the dealership.

Another example (Vinny Ten):

• 160K plus views.
• 3,000 plus shares on Facebook.
• 200 plus Facebook comments.
• 64 plus Re-Tweets.
• Phone calls from all over the world.

Its about being creative. The same old methods are no longer effective. You also have to deal with ad blockers with PPC and banners. I know because I use it.

Is there a car buying site for new cars like lending tree is for mortgages? you specify the vehicle and you get multiple offers to compare?

According to industry demographic and stats.. at best this could only work once in every 10 times.. but still pretty good odds.

Harsh but truthful.. if you are asking? then no. the ads would probably eat your lunch

not really secrets, just put some relevant terms into your Hootsuite type of software and develop a relationship between the prospect and you (on your clients behalf)

There are no secrets...just solid techniques that actually work.

The level of targeting in Facebook is amazing!

I posted in the travel agency ideas that would apply to you as well.

The difference would be your target audience.

For example,

You can target people that are:
Interested in buying a used car now
Interested in buying a used car in 6 months
Interested in certain models of cars...and much more!

Click on the travel agency thread for more details.

Hope this helps.

what size town?
what is ave price of car?
is the lot and office nice?
sales people clean cut?
are the cars priced competitively?

if the place has a poor reputation people will ignore the ads.

people hate negotiating.
people hate calling for price.
people hate slimy sales people.

remove these obstacles if they exist. many of the big dealers have gone to one low price, no haggle, salaried sales people.

do they do service? most make money on service and much less on cars.

any good selling info on the vehicles for after hours? is the lot lit up nice? print up sell sheets for each car and leave them in a weatherproof plastic box used for real estate literature. people like to look after hours and not be hassled their first time around.

If the dealership got to be the kind of place a lot of people would send their daughter, then it would kill on Social Media. For free.

A card that says "Hey we have cars.. come and see us!" is not going to do the trick. Look up at @Rollmodl's comment and expand on that a bit. Think ahead... put together a Spooktacular 3 day sale over the Halloween weekend. "Scarry Deals" or the like.. run with the idea.

Another thing.. I have a used car place around the corner from where I live. All the guy sells is trucks. I know for a fact the guy spends a good amount of money between the time he gets them to the time they go on his lot. I do a good amount of his interior type work vinyl wrapping the dash and the like. He puts big ol knobby on the bigger trucks ( we all know that aint cheap ) and they are detailed out the caboose.

Recently did a flat black body wrap for a truck that had some body issues... They sprayed the rims in flat black and threw on some new rubber... that truck wasn't there 2 days.

why not look for that something that separates you from the rest like: 2Din 6 2" Car DVD CD MP3 Player HD Touch in Dash Stereo Bluetooth iPod FM Radio | eBay Drop one of these in a number of vehicles.. you will quickly be known as the car place that has nice stereos.

If you look at the car industry as a whole right now.. its stuff like that, that is being used to draw in the younger crowd to buy cars SCION as an example.. They sneeked in and hit on that tuners market, everyone else is still to this day trying to play catch up.

If you step beyond the fact that you are "Selling Cars" and look more towards the idea of HOW you are selling cars.. you can be like everyone else.. or you can find a way to be different.

Instead of thinking about it, why don't you just test it and see if it works?

You had a lot of suggestions above, how many did you test?

Richie311,

take the time to answer the questions in Post 20, New Paradigm asked.

BECAUSE, as it still stands, you have not provided us with enough information.

Marketing used cars for a dealership. Means nothing.

There are different types of used car dealers. You have only told us you have about 35 cars currently on the lot. Is this a stand alone lot, only used cars?

Does he finance (buy here/pay here)?
Have a garage? Repair?

Is he a transportation guy (under 5k)?
Does he sell nicer cars, over 5k?

By giving us a little more information to work with, we might be able to give you something other than generic answers, even those responses that have worked for other dealers, may not work for your guy because his lot may be different.

Are you being paid...or on a commission?

Where have his last 10 buyers come from? How did he do it before you decided to share your "expertise" with him?

There are different solutions for different circumstances. The guy down the street from me has about the same size lot and moves a ton of cars, mainly selling to KSU and U of Akron students, by advertising on their campuses.

His cars are clean, tend to be sporty looking (without being real sporty), and he usually makes sure they have a new or good stereo (easy and low cost for him to do). But, another guy down the street, sells soccer mom vans, morning noon and night and his "hook" is safety and economy. He also finances, which is where many small lots make their money, on the financing...

NOT on the sale of the car. See? They are all different.

What type of lot are you working on?

gjabiz

Listing the price did not work, or not listing the price did not work?

That's a really good price range ($5k-$15k) as long as the vehicles are decent & the quality matches the price. From what I've read here, the 80% drop looks like sticker shock.

You might have already said but have you tested an online lead capture form instead of calls? I have a good example of an online form for you If I can find it (buried on my PC). I found the form source from a guy selling cars on Craigslist (I think from New Jersey).

Did it harm sales, or just eliminate tire kickers?

We all want to get to our ideal customers faster, and get more of them.

Rocky's Autos, the dealership in Colorado that consistently sells the most used cars,
does a lot of TV ads with price. They are educating their market with examples of the
cars they sell at what price. They are in what I would call the good value, daily driver market.

Sooo much more can be looked at, such as conversion of prospects to buyers.

Again, what is their reputation?

Is their sales process a real turn off?
Can their sales process be improved to meet goals from existing prospects?

Are they earning and asking for repeat and referral business?

Are their cars of good quality and actually handled enough to earn their dealer and handling fees?
(Colorado now has a law that says dealer and handling fees have to be included in the asking price,
not separate and above the asking price.)

I've been thinking about this subject a lot lately for my hotel. It may change if the
economy softens, but out of the ten hotels in my county, I'm the only one who is
not concerned with the steady long term business of the construction worker business.
There are a lot of long term highway and hydroelectric power plant projects, but I'd have
to cut prices by a third to one half.

And, the fact is that the majority of the guys on these crews live like they would at home,
or worse. They get drunk and rowdy and leave a mess or damages. Some who used to
work in those other hotels tell me that repairs and cleaning needed after long term stays
is not worth the cash flow from the construction crews.

Instead, by providing a clean, safe, quiet, comfortable environment, I'm getting record
revenues and increasing the business value by a lot. Catering to nice, quiet vacationers
is working well. I'm also taking advantage of the fact that we are a little away from the highway,
so it is naturally quieter and naturally brings in less riff raff.

Hopefully you and the dealership can draw their own conclusions about reaching their target market,
and adjusting policies and procedures so they get more sales from their prospect flow.


Dan

Why would they do that instead of using a desktop app that allows them to use their keyboard?

I do all of my texting using Google Hangouts, which ties to my landline number and mobile.

Or are you suggesting it is integrated to their desktop?