As walk-in visits to dealerships decline, digital and social media play an increasingly important role in the customer’s journey to purchasing a car.

During the "consideration and evaluation" phase of buying a car, prospective customers are utilising social media more often to make informed decisions.

Savvy car dealerships have started taking advantage of this growing trend, by distributing their content through the right channels to reach the right audience at the right time via social media. It has also proven an effective tool in helping to create lasting customer loyalty.

Similarly, Facebook and Twitter platforms assist car dealerships in customer searches. Facebook content ranks high in search engine result pages (SERP) rankings.

Customers can help you to get more customers

Customers sharing testimonials of great experiences with dealerships may also help to nudge other prospective customers along in the purchasing journey. Sadly, the reverse is also true.

It is becoming more and more important for dealers to understand their customer’s digital or social media journey and to try to create compelling, relevant content that meets the needs of both prospective and existing customers via Facebook and Twitter.

Successful dealers mostly use visual content, such as photos of happy customers collecting their vehicles and have capitalised on the opportunity to use positive feedback from customers as a marketing tool.

On Facebook this content is largely promotional, but people interact with the posts to improve the overall performance of the page and experience good engagement, especially with the sharing function.

There is an obvious lack of bespoke content from dealerships: this could be a result of resource or budget constraints or it could be due to a lack of understanding of the overall concept of social media.

Fresh and entertaining content needed

Dealers must take cognisance of the fact that when they create a group/community – it is reliant on fresh and entertaining content to keep the participation and interest going. The feeling of wanting to belong should also be instilled in customers.

Other than posting your cars on a website and doing nothing further than updating, Facebook and Twitter need constant upkeep and refreshing.

Customers can interact with your dealership

Facebook and Twitter, other than a website, allows you to visit your prospective and existing customers and allows them to get to know or further increase their interaction with your dealership.

Even if customers are not in the market to buy immediately, interacting with them on social media will ensure you are top of mind when they do.


Sales and trends within the IDA environment for March 2016

Top 5 passenger vehicle sales per manufacturer

VOLKSWAGEN
FORD
TOYOTA
BMW
NISSAN

Top 3 commercial vehicle sales per manufacturer

RANGER 2.2 TDCI XL P/U D/C
NP200 1.6 P/U S/C
UTILITY 1.4 A/C P/U S/C

Top 10 derivatives sales
FIGO 1.4 AMBIENTE
POLO 1.4 COMFORTLINE 5DR
RANGER 2.2TDCI XL P/U D/C
NP200 1.6 P/U S/C
POLO VIVO 1.4 TRENDLINE 5Dr
UTILITY 1.4 A/C P/U S/C
POLO GP 1.2 TSI COMFORTLINE (66KW)
POLO VIVO GP 1.4 TRENDLINE 5DR
POLO VIVO GP 1.4 TRENDLINE
POLO VIVO 1.4 TRENDLINE 5DR

The average age of vehicles sold in March was 3.49 years.