How do you go about marketing a classic car dealership? What are the best avenues for getting the word out about your dealership? My name is Francisco, and if you have been asking yourself these questions, you have come to the right place. Through my company Planet Marketing, I have helped thousands of companies achieve their dreams over the past 13 years. In this article, I am going to;
- Talk about the challenges that people face marketing classic car dealerships.
- Give you 8 ways to market your classic car dealership.
Challenges when marketing classic car dealerships
Getting your classic car dealership noticed by your target audience takes effort and diligence. There are many challenges that you face along the way;
- Because you’re in such a niche industry, your audience will be smaller than, say, a law firm or a dental office. However, making visibility your #1 priority is key from day one.
- You have an added challenge: because so many people these days are opting for faster, safer, more reliable and more energy efficient cars, you have to play up on the nostalgia aspect that comes with the charm of classic cars. Once you get noticed by your core group of followers, this won’t be as much of a problem. After all, classic cars outperformed all the asset classes in 2016, from gold and wine to stamps and coins, with an increase of 467% in the index over the last 10 years, says The Huffington Post.
- In order to sufficiently market your classic car dealership, you need to come up with a list of strategies that you can review on a regular basis and change when needed. After all, goals and needs change from month to month, year to year.
8 Ways to Market Classic Cars
Check out these eight recommended strategies to properly market your classic car dealership.
1) Use Social Media
This is where you can really shine. Did you know that cars are the third most popular type of photograph on Facebook after children and pets? Research shows that social networks such as Instagram act as important platforms for elevating the resale value of modern and classic luxury cars. Heed these tips to maximize your social media presence:
• Post the latest industry news and maintenance tips.
• Show off the latest classic car pictures available.
• Run contests to create and foster curiosity.
• Generate online leads by investing in Facebook ads that target your demographic. Offer a free guide, newsletter, or other rewards just for signing up.
Advertise on Facebook
Facebook Advertising has been growing over the past few years. That is hardly surprising, considering that Facebook is the world’s largest social networking site. Feel free to sign up for our Facebook Ads Setup Plan to get going creating kick-ass Facebook Ads for your Classic Car dealership.
Need to learn how to create your own ads? Simply search on this website for “Facebook Ads,” and read any of the relevant articles. You can also sign up for our DIY Facebook Ads marketing course for videos tutorials.
2. Be honest to your buyers
Welcome prospects by being honest about your pricing. No one wants to waste their time. Show them the fair market value of the classic cars you’re selling, including sales and restoration history. Being transparent in your approach will foster trust among your customers and potential customers. You can promote this in two ways:
- Word of mouth recommendations by family, friends and colleagues.
- Repeat customers, focusing much of your energy into converting one-time buyers into repeat buyers.
3. Be smart about remarketing
Whenever a user visits your classic car dealership website, a cookie is embedded in their browser placing targeted ads that follow them around as they navigate the Internet. You’ve probably seen it firsthand: you search for a gold watch in the morning and later as you’re browsing something totally different, you see an ad for gold watches. That’s not coincidence; in fact, companies pay big bucks to get their products and services noticed like that.
Remarketing can also be done in regards to YouTube videos. You pay pennies (about 20 cents) to have your ad appear right before the main video. People are forced to sit through them if they want to get to the real deal. This is a more affordable option than above, plus you’re getting the exposure you need. Remember, Adwords and YouTube are both owned by Google, so you know your video ad is getting the coverage it deserves and then some. Think of it this way: YouTube, part of the Google Ad Display network, has a monthly viewership equal to 10 Superbowl audiences.
Facebook Pixel
If, as you should, you are running Facebook Advertising campaigns, then Facebook Pixel is one way through which you can carry out remarketing. Once you have installed Pixel on your website, it ensures that people who visit the site are shown your ads in their Facebook feeds. This boosts conversion rates by as much as 30%!
4. Do link building
To boost your content marketing for rankings, link building is a great approach to get people to your website through the strategic use of quality content. Blogs in particular are an effective way to go about it. At first you won’t have trouble coming up with classic car topics that pique your readers’ interest, but if the well does run dry at some point, check out BuzzSumo for quality link-worthy content.
Whether you do this through a blog post, infographic, video or white paper, the content should solve their problem, provide interesting information, and compel them to reach out to you. You’ll need an SEO-friendly title for the best search engine rankings, along with a strong meta description and image tags.
5. Try Bing instead of Google Ads
While the much-talked-about Google Ads does get results and does lead to high per-click rates, it’s not the only option out there. Trying to get people to click on your PPC ads can be extremely expensive. Last we checked, classic car dealerships were paying $10 per click! When it first made its debut, Google Ads (formerly Adwords) charged less than $1 per click. Truth is, Google can charge whatever it wants, as it’s earning 33 percent of all online ad revenue (about 38.6 billion out of 117.6 billion).
If you’re looking to save money, Bing Ads is less than half the price of Adwords at $2-3 per click.
6. Join a Directory
Being visible and accessible right when prospective clients need you is key. Join a search directory that ALREADY ranks for your area so people can easily locate you at the very moment they want your services, and make sure it’s accurate. For instance, if the Yellow Pages directory ranks for your targeted keywords, you better join that directory. Maybe you might want to use their paid services to show at the top of that YP page.
7. Blog Regularly
Blogging is important, but even more important is how often you do it. Once every few months is not going to cut it. Aim for twice a week to start. This acts as your platform on which to display your subject matter expertise, which builds trust. It all has to do with Google’s freshness algorithm, which shows the latest news and information categorized by timely results. Failing to blog regularly can have negative impacts on your dealership.
If you have two car dealerships of equal success, but one is active on social media and posts blogs every other day but the other is not, the first car dealership will be the one to stand out. Why? The timeliness and relevancy of the blogs adds to the freshness algorithm.
8. Study the competition
Spying isn’t bad if you’re using it to better yourself! Use tools like SEMrush (or ahrefs or Moz) to perform some competitive analysis on other local classic car dealerships to see where they are failing and excelling. SEMrush scans 80 million keywords to gather information on its database, then breaks that info down by organic search, display ads, paid search, backlinks, and organic keywords vs. ad keywords.
BONUS
Partner with a shipping company
We have a client who is an international classic car shipping company. Every day they ship cars to people overseas. Guess what? They have connections to repeat customers who live overseas. People from Europe, Australia, and Asia buy American classic cars because they are sought for.
Employing all or even one of these strategies will put your classic car dealership in the position for success.
