This article is all about your “Why”. What drives you? As a leader in your dealership what gets you out of bed every day and motivates you to succeed at the highest level?
It’s easy to get the concept of marketing your “why”… few know how to do it effectively.
This is the sixth installment of my seven-part series of blogs that focuses on finding ways to increase your sales by increasing engagement. I recently published the 5th installment of this seven-article series. In case you missed it, I encourage you to read it because it is one of the easiest direct response tactics you can do to increase engagement – “This Is What You Need to Instantly Boost Engagement“.
(6 of 7) You Need to Know Your Why If You Want to Increase Traffic and Sales
Go beyond the basic advertisements of price, payment, interest rate, etc. Those are common marketing offers, and you know as well as anyone that every dealer will either match or beat your offer. Plus, there is no reason for today’s consumers to pay attention to those offers when they rely on other sources for that type of information.
You have to start including within the copy of your ads what’s in it for them. Your prospect or customer does not care about you, they only care about how your offer will save them time, effort, and money (and for most, in that order).
Tell them “why” they should pay attention to your advertisement over the hundreds of others they see and hear every week from competing dealers.
Communicate how your offer will take them from the typical state they are in when it’s time to get a dealer involved in their car-buying journey. You know what that is:
They are all excited about buying a car, they start looking at all their options and different models all from the comfort of their home or phone. Then, it’s time to find a dealer and potentially start communicating with one and the feelings of anxiety, tension and inconvenience start creeping in. As much as our sales processes have improved, the dealership phase of the journey still ranks the lowest.
“Advertising you have a better customer experience is not enough. What does that even mean to a consumer? You have to educate. You have to advertise “why” your customer experience is better.”
You want to market you’re why, not the features! In fact, you’re why is a more emotional benefit compared to the traditional benefits you sell.
You want to sell where their car buying journey is faster, easier, more fun. When customers deal with you it has to completely change the perception of what a dealer is and the value you provide. You want to do this as they begin their journey so they want to give you their business.
When you educate your customers when you’re more transparent when it becomes easy and fast for customers to get the information they want from you… you’ll see your profits soar. Think about your own buying experiences.
Here’s an excerpt of a copy we recently wrote for a dealer that shows how you can transform your bullet list into a list of “why”:
You want to make sure that every benefit of what you offer is fully explained, but more importantly, you want to clearly articulate “why” it will benefit them and you should explain your “why”… why are you making the offer?
The more believable and credible the more engagement you will receive. As dealers struggle to find a way to differentiate themselves from all the rest you should approach communication with “why” in your market.
“Assume nothing and spell it out for them.”
Why do this?
When I think about why I get up in the morning and why I am motivated to see my dealerships and J&L succeed at high levels, it’s not just because I want to make money and sell cars.
Don’t get me wrong… I like both of those.
But, I get up every morning ready to roll because I want to help people win at a high level. That goes for my employees, my peers, and the clients who buy our cars or J&L’s marketing services.
I know marketing can make the difference between the life and death of your dealership. The problem is that it can be one of the most overwhelming, time-consuming, and least understood facets of running a dealership today.
The Internet is saturated with commoditized inventories.
Has there ever been a more competitive time in the car business?
In these competitive times, the importance of marketing is even greater than before.
Why?
In this unpredictable and changing marketplace, dealerships must find an upper hand or they will not survive – they’ll lose their share of the market to their competitors.
The most common question I ask Dealers and General Managers is, “What’s your biggest challenge in selling more cars today?” The most common answer is “more quality traffic.”
So, now’s the time for you to tune up your marketing – to make sure you’re getting new customers coming in, old customers coming back, and customers purchasing more often and sooner than normal.
Focus on the simple fundamentals of marketing
The obvious marketing techniques that make a lot of money are by far the most powerful.
There has never been a more important time in the automotive industry’s history than now, it’s time to get back to the basics. It’s time to put the marketing of your “why” into place (if it isn’t already). And, if your “why” is in place, it’s time to refine it so that it’s razor-sharp.
It’s my goal that all this content is helping you focus and apply these techniques to better your stores.
I’m going to continue giving you marketing ideas and concepts that you can institute immediately. Hopefully, there’s a handful of dealers and general managers who will read through all these principles, tips, techniques, theories and the case studies I’ve compiled for you. Hopefully, you’ll be able to face this market and your competitors without fear and with more confidence in your approach.
I want to see you implement these tactics in your dealership so you can outmaneuver your competitors and gain market share. I want to show you how to leverage the assets you already have, so you can save time and money and drastically increase your profits.
I want to show you how you can simplify the prospect of dealing with all the marketing options, solutions and tools available today and recognize that it’s not a time for panic and uncertainty. Now is the time to take on a whole new opportunistic outlook on how to market your dealership. It’s time to be innovative, dynamic, and a bit non-traditional in your thinking.
This is my “why”… this is why I get out of bed every day and write these articles and post these videos. This motivates the hell out of me.
I believe every dealer and general manager deserves the right to learn how to increase sales and profits. You’re surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence, and success. The problem is, that a lot of us either intentionally or unintentionally make everything so confusing and overwhelming it can be hard to keep up.
With all of this in mind, I encourage you to audit your marketing and advertising. That includes your website to clean house on any fluff copy that’s not benefit-driven.
