Customers these days look for information when choosing a car, and the internet the ideal place to find the facts and figures that will inform their purchasing decision. So most customers are pretty well informed, even before they step foot in a car supermarket or dealership.
The internet empowers customers by giving them information at their fingertips. That empowerment therefore plays a key role in automotive marketing. The best thing about the internet is that it saves a person a lot of research time.
Car buying can be a very tedious job, yet it is an important one, due to the large investment involved. So it has to be done carefully. Customers tend to surf websites to see images of their favorite models, compare prices, detailed features, insurance etc. Here are a few more ways in which the internet has become central to car purchasing.
Giving and taking websites
Consumers today are more informed about online advertising methods than ever before. Many businesses, including car supermarkets and private dealers, use Google Ads and other internet services to generate traffic for their ads. Internet advertising offers the valuable opportunity to target potential users, right down to a very specific geographic or demographic profile.
Very few consumers are actually aware of the actual mechanism of how advertising works on the internet. There are giving websites and taking websites. Taking websites concentrate on taking your information, e.g. you input your email address to get a quote, or are encouraged to call a number etc. Whereas, giving websites provide answers to people’s questions, such as what the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) of the car is, or what the warranty covers etc. Many of giving websites also provide give information on government fuel economy ratings, hourly updates, broad range price comparisons etc.
Because of their highly useful content, they generate unique visitors in their millions.
Customers expect more and more information from websites. They therefore prefer ‘’giving’’ websites because they can get answers to many of their queries straight away. Websites that take customer expectations into consideration will build trust and prove more popular with users.
The social media game
Social media can grab a user’s attention straight away. All businesses have realised the potential of effective social media’s, and work hard to form and maintain relationships with customers on Twitter and Facebook – both now considered as powerful as real-life interactions in marketing and advertising terms.
Private dealers can establish good relationships on Twitter and Facebook, so when a friend of a friend is think of buying a vehicle; they can easily get in touch via the various contact networks.
Automotive dealerships still need to develop a better, more pro-active social media strategy. It’s not merely about creating an account on social media. It has to be updated regularly. Successful automotive dealerships try to have updates from across the whole automotive industry, for example, not just ads but also latest news and developments in the automotive field. These updates are not just to offer information, but to help create relationships and encourage interaction between the business and its users.
