By Mike Rich,Vice President of Marketing,RevolutionParts
With the rise of digital marketing platforms, tools, and strategies, more dealerships are looking for ways to stand out online, and social media is an excellent way to do that.
With the right strategy in place, it’s not as far-fetched as it seems. Social media marketing can help your dealership reach more potential customers, increase brand awareness for your business, and give you insight into buyer behavior.
Here are five effective ways to leverage social media marketing for your parts department.
1. Advertise Promos and Special Offers
It’s no secret that social media advertising is the new number one way to advertise online. With so many social media platforms at our fingertips, consumers are more likely to engage with social media ad campaigns than any other type of advertising. The average click-through rate (CTR) on ads across top social media platforms is around 1.21%.
Social media advertising is one of the most effective forms of advertising for online retailers. So how can your dealership capitalize on social media ads to help boost auto parts sales?
Create ad campaigns on social media to promote your parts inventory. Diversify the types of ads you use for social media and messaging. Set higher spending on ads for specific sales events. Create exciting images and videos to grab your audience’s attention. Once you’ve found the best brand style for your dealership, you’ll have an easier time expanding your following.
Some great ad types on social media include:
● Video ads: Ads that play a short video to promote products/services
● Image ads: Ads with specially-designed images to promote products
● Carousel ads: Ads that combine videos and images to scroll through different slides
● Stories ads: Ads that appear in social media stories on your account
● Message ads: Ads that pop up in messaging sections on certain social media platforms
2. Post Tips and Simple Tutorials
Advertising isn’t the only way to leverage your social media presence online. Using social media to create and share content is an equally effective strategy to market your dealership. Content creation on social media can help you build your dealership’s brand image. It can also help you keep a pulse on the types of messaging and information your customers are most interested in, which can help you better tailor your ads in the future.
The best-performing dealerships create and post content around maintenance and repairs that capture the DIY crowd. Posting tips or quick tutorials on simple parts replacements helps lend credibility and consumer trust to your dealership. Use this kind of content to your advantage and see how your customers engage with it.
3. Use Customer Testimonials
The beauty of social media as a marketing platform is that, unlike traditional marketing mediums, it has a built-in global community at your disposal. You get instant access to a large customer base, which can act as free advertising for your parts department. The best way to do this is to use social media to acquire customer testimonials and reviews.
A testimonial program and even a referral program through social media can be your dealership’s secret weapon. Quality customer testimonials can help build your brand image on social media. It helps foster trust among your potential parts buyers.
The best customer testimonial programs incentivize customers to leave a review. Whether that’s a gift card, a cash prize, or a discount on their next vehicle service, determine how you want to incentivize your customers to build your testimonial or referral programs.
4. Highlight Accomplishments
Celebrating good news at the dealership shouldn’t just be celebrated internally with your employees. When good things happen, share the love with your customers. Awards, special recognition, and even employee of the month announcements can all be shared on social media.
These types of posts are great because they build a sense of community between your dealership and your customers. It promotes positivity, which often encourages your customers to engage more with your content. Create content that highlights how great your dealership is and the successes you achieve along the way.
5. Share Industry News
This tactic might not seem obvious initially, but it can help contribute to your dealership’s brand image. Sharing industry news gives the impression that your dealership is an expert source of information about anything automotive. This can help establish credibility and trust among your consumer base.
When deciding what industry news to share, consider the following topics:
● New vehicle rollouts and types (i.e., electric vehicles)
● New automotive technology
● Automotive events and thought leadership
Unlock Social Media to Scale Your Parts Business
Social media can be a powerful tool to help you effectively grow your parts business. Create compelling ad campaigns, generate original content, and promote customer satisfaction to help build your dealership’s online brand image. When done well, social media marketing can take your parts business to the next level.
Mike Rich is the Vice President of Marketing at RevolutionParts, a software company focused on providing dealerships with solutions that make it easier to sell more parts. Mike has more than 15 years of marketing experience, focused on building teams and driving growth. When he is not devising marketing campaigns, Mike enjoys spending time with his family or hiding in the garage, wrenching on classic cars.