There is so much automotive advertising out there. I watched the 10 p.m. newscast last night, and of the 11 1/2 minutes of total commercial time, 5 1/2 minutes was from auto manufacturers or car dealerships. The weather segment was sponsored by Hyundai. The sports desk was sponsored by Buick GMC.
TV, radio, outdoor, Facebook, Google, streaming platforms, websites, display banners, third-party lead providers, Snapchat, TikTok — there’s seemingly a new place to advertise every day. As a dealer, you want to be present everywhere your customers are, because if you aren’t there, your competition will be.
Throw on co-op restrictions, creative requirements, somebody in the next town slinging the same metal, everybody having access to the same marketing images and asset libraries.
Bottom Line
It’s hard for a dealer to keep up, stand out and outperform. That’s why having an agency partner who understands all of the platforms is so important. SI Auto built its business on the TraDigital™ omnichannel marketing strategy. We also built our business on automotive. We know your challenges, your opportunities and how to win.
What is a TraDigital™ omnichannel marketing plan? It’s consistency across all mediums. It’s unifying the customer journey. It’s keeping a professional and up-to-date presence anywhere your customers can find you. It’s reaching them when they need to be reached with the message they need to hear on the platform they happen to be using.
Changing Shopping Habits
Google says for the average automotive customer, there are 24 touchpoints (including 19 digital ones) throughout the path to purchase. That’s a lot of ad space you have to buy. How can you be as efficient as possible? Consistency.
Simply put, consistency increases frequency. Consistency increases ad recall. A display ad on a smartphone that matches your TV commercial and your billboard and your post on Instagram Stories has a much higher impact than four disjointed pieces of creative with different incentives on them.
But it doesn’t stop there. When your website matches your message, your bounce rates will decrease. When your PR campaigns fit into and match your message, people will recognize it and they’ll feel good about your brand. When the background music on your YouTube walkarounds matches the music on your Spotify ad and pre-roll spot, customers will think back to when they heard it before.
Consistency is Key
Consistency increases frequency, and when done right and across all forms of communication, you’ll be able to compress those 24 touchpoints and be more efficient with your ad spend.
SI Auto’s TraDigital™ omnichannel marketing strategy even carries over to your showroom signs, business cards, email marketing and financing folders. Don’t waste a single opportunity when you’re in front of your customer, because as soon as they drive off the lot, the process begins again for your service department.
TraDigital™ is the right marketing approach in an extremely cluttered automotive advertising environment. At SI Auto, we’ve been refining the TraDigital™ approach for a decade, and we’re ready to put it to work for your dealership.