Every new car show, sponsorship, billboard and brand marketing approach you participate in should include a way to capture the traffic and further the relationship – even if your prospects don’t convert right away.
You want to give yourself the opportunity to convert institutional advertising into a direct response so you can engage, enroll and compel them to your dealership.
Remember driving traffic is easy! What you do afterward is where the real marketing begins. Consider driving people to a landing page that requires them to give their email in order to get the content that they came for.
You can create a retargeting strategy for all the traffic that leaves your landing page or website without completing the intended result.
Then, retarget them on Facebook – driving those consumers to an offer of high perceived value where they must give you their email address. Then you can market to them where they are – in their inbox and news feed.
If you’re going to put in the time, effort and money into brand advertising, whether it be posters, billboards, or banners, you have to make it worthwhile.
It doesn’t matter how good your offer and copy are if your call to action isn’t clearly defined. You have to tell the person who took the time to pay attention to your ad what to do next in order to find out more or receive something of value.
(3 of 7) Create Calls to Action that Compel
Don’t be passive! There is nothing wrong with asking someone to do something – even with brand advertising. Making it easy and enjoyable for people to get the transportation they want and need is why we exist.
We can’t do that if we never communicate with them.
You want to use actionable words and phrases to compel the reader to do what you want.
Tell them what you want them to do and make sure you focus on what’s in it for them – that’s all they care about.
“Schedule your service online to get an amazing 10% off – visit ___________.”
Keep it simple. People need to know how to complete the next step at a quick glance. Urgency is always a great motivator and can help you create an offer they can’t refuse.
“Visit us at (your website/landing page) NOW and the first 100 people will receive a ______ discount!”
Answer their questions and fears by giving them more information on what happens in the next step.
In-market car shoppers who want this information will provide their contact info upfront in high numbers…
Brand advertising, like most sponsorships, TV ads, and display ads, is high funnel advertising – where there is rarely a compelling call to action.
High funnel is cold traffic. They usually have no relationship with your dealership and rarely know anything about you. More importantly, cold traffic doesn’t trust car dealers.
To give you a weak analogy, how do you like it when someone you do not know reaches out to you to connect on LinkedIn…then, within minutes of connecting they send you some lame message requesting a meeting with you?
You want to avoid the same approach with leads that come from high funnel advertising!
There are marketing leads and there are sales leads – high funnel marketing leads need more info (content they want) before they start trusting you and enroll in your call to action.
The good news is, as they repeatedly see you in their news feed from retargeting and get content from you in their inbox, they’ll begin to warm up. The warmer the lead, the closer they get to buying.
It can take up to seven touches (emails, texts, calls, etc.) before they are ready to buy from you. Sometimes it takes more.
If you don’t capture the traffic the first time it will take you a lot longer – or even worse – you’ll never get to the seventh touchpoint and the sale.
The auto industry is brutally competitive and starts with very limited trust from consumers – especially potential conquest buyers. You only have two ways to win deals in today’s market.
- You have to make an incredible value offer and then live up to your promise.
- You have to create an incredible experience through professional follow-up. You have to be willing to give superior value in advance.
Was the prospect’s experience with you enjoyable, quick, easy, frictionless – even fun?
You have to build tremendous trust.
