Digital Marketing Strategy for Cars

The marketing world is ever-changing and evolving with the newest technologies. This can help small businesses to grow a following and create a client base via an online platform at an affordable rate.

This is due to the fact that social media and various digital marketing platforms are free and easy to access to anyone.

When selling a second hand, or new, vehicle, it can be difficult to find consumers the more traditional way. As everyone spends most of their time online these days, it is much easier to find a consumer.

1. Set SMART Goals

What are SMART goals? A SMART goal is a goal you want to achieve at a certain point in time. Managers should carefully outline these goals in order to design the blueprint for success for their employees. SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measureable 
• Attainable
• Relevant 
• Time Bound 

The short-term objectives of the firm will be as follows:

• To sell at least 5 cars per month within the first year of operation.
• To grow the client base and gain good word of mouth.
• To establish a stable system of buying and selling second hand cars.

2. SWOT Analysis

What is a SWOT Analysis? A SWOT Analysis outlines the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of the firm. This helps to understand areas in which you can grow and profit off of and where you need to improve on. 

The SWOT Analysis for the firm:

Strengths:

• Cars which are light on fuel will be in demand due to the increased petrol prices, which will be our main product.
• Second hand cars sell easier, due to their low price.
• Due to the high prices of maintaining cars, people will be more open to selling their cars.

Weaknesses

• Setting up a network in the beginning will be difficult, due to the firm not having a reputation yet. 
• It will be difficult to gain the trust of consumers as cars are a big commitment to make, and thus consumers will be hesitant to enter into business with a new firm.

Opportunities

• High fuel prices mean consumers will sell their cars for a low price. 
• There is a bigger market for second hand cars compared to new cars, as they are cheaper. 
• Cars will be easily accessible as people are unable to factor in the cost of maintaining them into their lives. 

Threats

• Competing car salespeople and companies.
• It will be difficult to maintain a large amount of cars at once, especially ones which cannot be sold.

Create a website

A website will be a vital tool for new businesses, as this will be the hub whereby consumers will be able to view products on offer.

For cars, this website will showcase the actual visuals of the cars on offer for consumers to view, as well as make bookings to view them in person and go for test drives. 

Set Up an SEO Network 

A website is of no use without an SEO strategy. Key phrases and words like “car” “second hand car” and “car dealership” need to constantly be utilized and put on your website in order to gain higher rankings on search engines like Google.

The SEO strategy needs to be reworked and checked every few months in order to keep the business out there. Google Analytics can also be set up in order to regularly track the progress of the website and traffic.

Google Ads is also a good way to gain visits to your website. Ad spaces can be bought on Google for the website and will be shown at the top of the web search of potential clients. 

Social Media

Social media is also a good way of moving traffic to your website. As individuals are always browsing and scrolling on social media, this helps to drive traffic to your website and grow your name.

For this business, Facebook and Instagram are the best viable social medias. This is because ads can be created and paid to run for a certain time on both networks, and pictures of vehicles can be posted onto both websites in order to let consumers know what is on offer.

Facebook also has the Marketplace tab whereby cars can be advertised for consumers to see and message the dealership directly.