Author: Steve DiMatteoUpdated on 03/28/2023
The automotive industry encompasses various types of businesses, from car dealerships to repair shops to automotive manufacturers, and much more. For most of these companies, the prospect of attracting business isn’t the same as it used to be.
For example, it is more common for someone looking to buy a new car to head straight to the internet rather than show up to a dealership to take a look around. For repair businesses, the number of shops is drastically increasing, which means you must figure out a way to make yourself stand out in a way that favors you over your competitors.
Lucky for you, the following guide is all about how automotive digital marketing can play a key role in showing customers your products and services, building your credibility, enhancing your online presence, and increasing the number of qualified leads for your business.
When you invest in automotive digital marketing services such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), and website design, you are opening the door to more website visitors becoming real customers.
What Is Automotive Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing – or online marketing – refers to any marketing that is implemented to get your company’s website higher up in the results on various search engines.
We use digital marketing as a way to better connect with and reach current and prospective customers. Typically, this is a strategy implemented to not only increase your online presence, but also as a way to increase leads and overall sales revenue.
Specific to the automotive industry, implementing a digital marketing strategy is a great way to show how you differ from your competitors, build business credibility, and make sure you’re showing up at the top of Google searches.
How to Measure Your Digital Marketing Efforts
It is one thing to implement a creative and well-strategized digital marketing plan, but how do you know if it’s working? Taking the time to put together a system to track your online efforts is crucial. Not only will it tell you if your plan is working, but it will give you an idea of where you might need to make some changes.
Some of the metrics that you should measure include:
- Volume of leads per month
- Average conversion rate
- Cost per lead/cost of acquisition
- Leads by a particular source (organic, direct, referral, etc.)
- Keyword ranking increases and decreases
- Total revenue from leads
Start with Our Digital Marketing Quiz
Are you covering all your bases when it comes to making sure your automotive company’s website, profiles, and more are all in their best position?
Answer the following questions:
- Is your website HTTPS?
- Do you use Google Analytics and Google Search Console?
- Are there unique page titles and descriptions on every page?
- Do your key pages have more than 500 words on them?
- Are you linking to other relevant pages in your page copy?
- Do you have a blog you are updating consistently?
- Have you conducted competitor research recently?
- Does your content include proper keyword optimization?
- Have you claimed and populated your Google Business Profile?
- Is there an easy way to contact your business on every page?
- Do all of your social profiles link to your site?
- If applicable, do you have custom landing pages for your online ads?
- Are you sending out emails to your sales funnel?
- Is your website’s look and feel up to date?
- Is your website mobile-friendly?
If you answered no to the majority of these questions, then your business could be a great candidate to invest in a digital marketing campaign.
5 Ways Digital Marketing Helps Businesses in the Auto Industry
Improves Online Presence
More than ever, having a good online presence can make or break your business. A variety of marketing tactics such as content optimization, technical web improvements, and more can all enhance your current rankings to help customers find your business.
Boosts Brand Reputation
Some of our strategies are based around helping your business gain more reviews online, which is especially important for companies that have a hyper-local focus, such as dealerships, car washes, detailers, and repair shops. Getting more testimonials for potential customers to read creates great leverage and encourages clicks and leads.
Expands Your Current Market
While you have likely depended on various traditional marketing methods over the years, search engines and social media sites can help you reach more potential customers your other tactics could not.
The Targeting Is Specific
If you decide to invest in PPC, one of the best benefits of it is the ability to narrow down who your ads are shown to based on aspects such as age, location, income, interests, and more. All of these factors help you get more qualified leads and make the most of your budget.
It Has Lasting Results
For approaches such as SEO, the results of the work done during campaigns can last for years to come, making it a timeless investment for your business.
Who Our Automotive Marketing Services Can Help
We’d be happy to get more leads and sales for your business through our innovative internet marketing efforts. Our automotive marketing services are ideal for:
- Car dealerships – It doesn’t matter if you sell new or used cars; we can bring in more customers to your select dealership locations.
- Online dealerships – Many businesses have moved their car sales completely online, which makes internet marketing particularly vital for companies in this field.
- Auto repair shops – Our services are ideal for auto body shops, window repair shops, and any similar companies looking to gain a better presence on the web.
- Automotive manufacturers – Our agency has vast experience assisting manufacturers of all kinds through digital marketing, allowing us to help your special niche succeed.
- Other companies in the industry – No matter where your business falls within the auto industry – maybe you sell aftermarket parts or custom console storage, or perhaps you run a car wash or detailing company – we would be happy to give your automotive marketing efforts a boost.
“I recently consulted with Sixth City Marketing to learn more about internet marketing – especially search engine optimization, social media marketing and pay per click marketing. I found their experience and knowledge in these areas can turn my ideas into revenue and explained the execution in ways I clearly understood.” – Eric Gulledge, Sherwin-Williams
How We Produce Results Through Automotive Digital Marketing Services
There are numerous aspects of automotive digital marketing that can help get your business where it needs to be to start seeing results. Here are some of the services that we offer to auto businesses:
Website Content Optimization
Many forget that the content on your website is not just for the benefit of the user, but also for search engines. Lack of a cohesive SEO strategy could be one of the main reasons you might not be seeing results and are ranking below your competitors. Our strategists will determine what opportunities are available for fresh content, relevant keywords, new metadata, and more, all designed to convert your site’s visitors into potential customers.
Link Acquisition
A major part of having your website gain more authority in the eyes of search engines is having a strong backlink profile. Our team is highly skilled in creating unique link-building strategies that can give your website some much-needed support.
Local Focus
If you run a dealership, local repair shop, or something similar, being found in your specific region – especially within Google’s Local Map Pack – is the key to getting more customers. Because of this, your business requires local SEO tactics that are crafted for your unique business type. This approach includes various strategies that are made to help you beat out your local competition.
Paid Online Advertising
Pay-per-click marketing is a great way to reach a specific area or type of customer when you are on a tight timeline, on a budget, or both. Our PPC management team will do the heavy lifting for you, like writing ads, creating landing pages, continuously monitoring your account, and making strategic adjustments to get results.
Paid Social Media
Utilizing your social media channels to gain exposure and generate leads is a great way to leverage your current strategy. And with various ways to target your current sales funnel, remarket to past website visitors, or target people similar to your customer base, there are endless methods to running ads on Facebook, Instagram, and others.
Competitor Analysis
For both SEO and PPC, we take a deep look into your main competitors and top ad positions to gain a better understanding of how we can craft a strategy that will get you the results you desire. From keyword usage to content analysis to website structure and more, our findings help us get a leg up for your digital marketing.
Design for Conversion
Something that could be holding your business back from getting more leads is a bad website design. As web design experts, we can upgrade your site to be cleaner and more functional, and one that not only still reflects your brand but also converts.
Social Media Management
Depending on your business type, brand management across social media platforms can be important. Social media is also a great way to spread the word on any promotions you have and gives you a chance to interact with customers. We can write posts and manage your platforms on your behalf.
Strategic Graphic Design
Alongside calls to action to encourage visitors of your site to contact your team, we can also create graphics to highlight your ongoing sales specials, promotions, and more to post on social media and your homepage, and to use in advertising.
Email Marketing
Looking to better reach prospective customers, or want to keep in touch with your current clients? We can help craft monthly email newsletters that address your specials, new products, or anything else you need.
Digital Analytics and Reporting
The most important part of what we do is show you that our efforts are working. To prove that, we will send you a monthly report breaking down key data from your campaign and other metrics that highlight the success of our work.
What Makes Our Automotive Marketing Agency Different?
Wondering what makes Sixth City stand out? Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- We’re authentic – Our entire team is in-house! We don’t outsource any of our work, which means everything you get is produced by experts who know your company and its needs, along with the industry in which you operate.
- We’re transparent – Like we were taught as kids, honesty is the best policy, and we believe in that. We will always be truthful and forthright when reporting data and relaying ways to help your campaign.
- We’re adaptable – Just like your industry, digital marketing is always changing, and we do our due diligence to stay on top of major industry updates to ensure your marketing doesn’t skip a beat.
- We’re knowledgeable – Our team has 25+ years of collective experience, meaning you are getting the help of real marketing experts who have worked with a wide range of business types.
- We’re close-knit – Our culture is important, and we thrive off being a close-knit team. And since we are a smaller agency, we work close together to produce quality work for your business.
- We’re proven – If you aren’t sold that we can show results for your company, head on over to our case studies to see for yourself that what we do works across all industries.
“John was someone who came highly recommended to me for digital marketing and SEO. To my surprise he was easily accessible for a telephone appointment. Although I expected his knowledge of a SEO to be far beyond mine (it is) he was also able to speak to me at a level I could understand. He seemed interested in making clear how he could help me and not overpromising. He seems to be a much more straightforward marketing asset that I am used to dealing with. Thank you John!” – Brandon Shroy, Attorney at Law
Frequently Asked Questions About Digital Marketing for the Auto Industry
What exactly are keywords?
Keywords are especially important when it comes to search engine optimization and pay-per-click campaigns. These are words and phrases that searchers will type into search engines to find what they’re looking for. For example, an auto body shop might want to rank for a keyword like “car repair near me.”
Do I need a blog on my website?
Blogs are often overlooked by the automotive industry but can be extremely helpful in digital marketing. Not only can you use blog posts to target different keywords, but blogs are great credibility boosters and will show potential customers they can trust you and your team to meet their needs.
What’s the secret to a successful digital marketing campaign?
There are many factors to consider when evaluating a success digital marketing campaign. This also depends on what specific strategies you choose to implement, as they will be measured in different ways. At Sixth City Marketing, we provide detailed monthly reporting that will show in-depth analytics for the campaign. Our team of experts frequently checks the data throughout the month to make any pivots that will further benefit the digital marketing campaign.
Most importantly, the success of our work is based on constant communication with our clients, a transparency in the work we do, and fostering a collaborative environment between both sides. We truly want you to feel like we’re an extension of your current marketing team.
Should I invest in SEO, PPC, or both?
Here at Sixth City, we tell our clients that utilizing multiple forms of digital marketing will typically give you the best results. This is because you’re not putting all of your eggs in one marketing basket. Using multiple channels like SEO and PPC will allow you to target a wider audience and different mediums in order to get leads and traffic.
Contact Us Today for Automotive Digital Marketing Services That Get Results
We’ve provided all of the most important tips and strategies for you to get started on your automotive digital marketing efforts. However, if you’re looking for an expert in the field to get the job done for you, contact us today for more information on our services and how we can help you. We look forward to working with your team!
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