How To Give Better Gifts To Your Dealership’s Audience This Holiday

Dec 9, 2016 | SEO and PPC

It’s the second week of December. Holiday banners already adorn your dealership’s website, direct mail campaigns are waiting to drop, and your red and white inventory is sparkling on your main showroom floor. Yeah, yours and every other dealership’s. What are you doing differently this year? What will make you take the search engines by storm, create lasting connections with your customers, and ultimately help you move more metal? Here are 4 ways you can give better gifts to your customers this season.

First, A Lesson From The Big-Leagues

How do OEMs and other big advertisers rake in attention over the holidays?

They create good content.

But these big-leagues have blogs that publish 10 posts daily. Their content is handled by teams of content strategists, written by the-best-of-the-best copywriters, and beautified by skilled designers.

So what can your dealership do?

1. Be A Breath of Fresh Air

A few years ago, a survey found that 41% of Americans wished they could skip Christmas. Why? In-laws, pricey shopping lists, and crowded malls make us quickly lose our holiday cheer.

As consumers, we’re also filtering through a blizzard of brands: thousands of companies’ offers plague our mailbox, inbox, and social feeds from November to February.

However, the true spirit of the holiday isn’t in a sale. The gift of the season can still be heard in the jingle of the Salvation Army bell, or in the bustle of a community coming together.

If your dealership supports or participates in any local causes, now is the time to tell your story. Get your team together for an event hosted at your dealership, and invite your audience to join you. Have your dealership match donations given by your customers, or simply just raise awareness and spread some holiday cheer.

Really, Brooke? A feel-good Christmas ad promoting my Toy Drive will perform better than my vehicle specials?

Yes, it will.

Creating content like this will position you as a respected member of your community, and your dealership will no doubt come to mind the next time that person is In-Market for a new vehicle.

Want more inspiration on how you can share the story of your community involvement? Watch: How Street Auto Group Uses Community To Impact Their Bottom Line

2. Be Meaningful and Relevant

Sure, discounts will help lighten the holiday’s financial burden, but your audiences’ News Feeds are begging for more meaningful content than a mere slashed out price.

Instead, the most popular types of content during the holidays are resources like gift-buying guides, seasonal tips, and holiday how-to’s.

Here’s an idea: Create a gift guide titled “Top 9 Best Christmas Gifts For Her,” and showcase 1 service special and 1 sales special that link to key pages on your site. Then add 7 other awesome gift ideas that aren’t sold by your dealership to help diversify your messaging.

Think about what content will be in-line with what your audience wants to see this season rather than what you may want to sell. Simply sharing your favorite holiday recipes on social media might help your customers create a new holiday memory and tradition with your dealership in mind.

Plus, whether it’s hosted on or off your site, this kind of relevant and meaningful content will help you dominate SEO and rank higher on Google. The search engines realize that when people are sharing and linking to your content, you’re creating content that is beneficial to your users (which is what Google’s mission is!)

Want to learn more about SEO at your dealership? 5 Things You’re Wrong About When It Comes To Auto Dealer SEO

3. Be Where You Need To Be

Everyone needs more time, more money, and a stress-free experience right now.

If someone is looking for a new vehicle, make it easy for them to find you. Think with Google found that there are 5 key moments within the car buying journey:

  1. Which-car-is-best-for-me Moments
  2. Is-it-right-for-me Moments
  3. Can-I-afford-it Moments
  4. Where-should-I-buy-it Moments
  5. Am-I-getting-a-deal Moments

Ensure your dealership is there and useful in each of these stages. This means ensuring key phrases are ranking via Paid Search, providing helpful tools like Live Chat and Trade Tools on your site, and offering great content that help confirm their buying decision, even when they’re on your showroom floor.

Creating the right content to build your SEO rankings and building the right onsite and offsite strategies is an art form. Want to get the help of a few content artists to help your dealership craft the perfect plan? Click here to schedule your strategy call.

4. Don’t Get Bogged Down By A Blog

Sure, blogs are one of the best ways to improve SEO performance. But they also require a lot of management, planning, and time (trust me).

It’s important to remember that blogs are only one piece of the content puzzle. Content comes in all forms, and an article isn’t the only way to boost your SEO.

Contests, videos, guides, polls, and even your trade tool can also be awesome forms of content. Anything that is 1) is useful to the user, 2) interests them in your dealership, or 3) furthers their path in the buyer journey will do the job!

Here’s a list of a bunch of content types repurposed from HubSpot to ignite some ideas:

Furthermore, you don’t need to be a digital marketer to distribute great content to your audiences.

If you come across something you think will interest your followers, share the link via your social accounts along with a few lines in your own brand’s voice.

Or, if you have more time, repurpose the content and post it as your own using your Facebook Page’s Notes or LinkedIn Articles (just be sure to give credit where it’s due!).

For the best results, any content you create or find meaningful for your customers should be shared via both email marketing and social media (organic and paid)!

Lastly, to get the most traction on the content you create, don’t underestimate the power of a title. Use words that trigger emotion and curiosity, or powerful and uncommonly used words to stand out. Plus, be sure to include the keyword that you want to rank for in your title.

TIP: We love using this Headline Analyzer tool from CoSchedule to help us optimize our own headlines, subject lines, and resources.

Blog Author - Brooke Jensen

Written By Brooke Jensen
Brooke handles all of Dealers United’s digital marketing. In addition to her love for design and copy, Brooke also adores her two dog-like kittens, playing the electric violin, and walking barefoot around the office.


Who is Dealers United?

Dealers United is a game-changing automotive company dedicated to helping auto dealers improve their dealerships. We have helped over 6,500 dealers nationwide cut costs, save time, and sell more cars.

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