Digital Marketing and Advertising Automotive Online Trends and Social Media

Digital Marketing and Advertising Automotive Online Trends and Social Media

David Andrew, aka "The Professor"

Following recent automotive online trends is really important for overall business success online.  What's surprising is how many automotive dealership sites are having success with video and social media.  Car dealers are learning how effective viral videos are for their success and how important brand recognition can be with video.  Additionally, social media pages such as Facebook can add some credibility and value to your dealership and service and don't take much effort to get started.  Viral video marketing is attempted by many car dealerships  and while only few get massive attention, they can add a face and atmosphere to your business for interested customers.
Dealers shown in a recent study by the Kelsey group said as many as 33% of car dealerships that were surveyed have some form of online video and over 59% of them plan to add video to their website within the year!  Fewer dealers are advertising with traditional media, in fact 46% said they're done with the traditional advertising route and they're ready to advertise their site online.  Dealers every day are joining Facebook as a business for the presence it provides.  The study also said that 62% of the surveyed dealers will increase their budget for online media and social media to accommodate the massively growing industry.

So what are these online videos that car dealers are adding to the mix of their websites?  Some are just informative videos about their dealership, showing their friendly nature.  Some of the car dealerships show off their best deals right now and how they have some of the greatest deals in town.  But the overall successful trend for this social media is to add a professional feel and introduce yourself as a dealer and as a business.  You want to show off a clean and tidy dealership service with website video.  This integration of social media will give you value to your service and potential clients will feel more trusting of your service!

Dealers that are with the times need to utilize track-able conversions from online marketing efforts.  Consider call tracking, overlays that are track-able and online video players.  The most common online video player would be youtube, but you can embed these videos directly into your dealership website and even your Facebook page.  Talk about a sweet deal for you.  Make sure you add discussion options to your videos, such as a way to request more information about your service.  Call tracking is where you add your number into your video, similar to a television advertisement.  Lots of clients would rather call ahead first.  Overlays that are track-able will determine whether your video is a mess or if there is a clear message.  Dealers can add messages on their videos with text that is overlay on the video, and when a potential client clicks this overlay they are sent to that section of your website.  This adds more information and more service options shown through your video.
These are just a few of the important factors for social media success and creating viral videos in this ever changing digital environment.  Keep researching and staying on top of information and changes to automotive trends and you can succeed with clients referred from your website, social media and videos.