Tricks of the (auto)Trade

Did you know that just about every car buyer in the UK can be quickly pigeon-holed into three distinct types?

The ‘speedy chooser’, the ‘benefit-maximiser’, and the ‘car enthusiast’.*¹

Just reading their names will get heads nodding in recognition. We’ve all met them.

But they’re very different breeds. And so the way the business talks to them in its marketing has to be nuanced. One size certainly doesn’t fit all.

Just to set the ground rules, successful automotive marketing should really deliver in three key areas.

1. The obvious. It should simply sell more cars. End of story.
2. It should foster amazing relationships. Every £ earned through servicing, repairs, MOTs, new tyres, or just being the first name exiting customers think of when they’re in the market for a new car is profitable.
3.  It’s not just about chasing the quick sale. Playing the long game and increasing the customer lifetime revenue value always beats simple car unit sales figures.*²

That’s all quite text book and old school. But now, these three vitally important outcomes have to be delivered on a different, emerging and quickly changing battleground.

Defining your difference

One thing we hear a lot is dealerships feeling distinctly short-changed by paying pretty hefty monthly subscriptions for the identical digital platform as their competitors.

They can’t customise it, and it’s difficult to update. So they don’t feel they can create their own individual brand identity and really stand out from the crowd.

Not good when a hefty 63%*³ of customers cite an online search as their preferred method of background research and 43%*⁴ rank a trip to the dealer website as their No.1 source of information.

But there is an alternative.

Dealerships can now choose to independently own their unique website platform; and take control of its content – improving flexibility and offering significant savings in time and money. (A good example of this is Sitecore. If that’s a name you’ve not come across before, there’s a bit more background here.)

According to research published by Mintel a couple of years ago, “the answer to achieving sustainable differentiation and competitive advantage is to innovate the customer experience”. The Sitecore software that we use allows dealerships to fully maximise on this to create a single customer view.

Kagool uses Sitecore to bring together all a dealership’s marketing tools – website, mobile apps, social media and e-mail programmes – into one, more manageable place. This consolidation makes it so much simpler to offer a consistent, seamless customer experience at every touchpoint.

Key benefits this digital platform can bring to motor dealerships:

• Seamless integration with any Customer Relationship Management and Dealer Management system
• Built-in automated marketing – improving back office efficiency and the customer service with effortless email and mobile MOT, as well as service alerts and scheduling
• Improved SEO – so you’ll get to the top of the search results and beat the competition to the people looking for a new car. (You can find out more about how SEO can help your dealership here)
• Richer, more effective analytics – right down to individual customer level
• A 360° birds-eye digital view of a customer – with the ability to see their complete journey, even if your dealership has individual websites for individual branches
• The facility to start experimental marketing – with real time A/B testing and analytics.

References

1 Market Leader Report 20152 Forbes and Sitecore 20143 Car Review UK, February Mintel 20164 Mintel 2015

Ready for a test drive?

If you’d like to take your automotive marketing up a gear, you can book a free consultation and see exactly how working with Sitecore could be a real game-changer.

To book, just fill your contact details here.