Improve Your | May Marketing

Can you believe it is May already??  Dealership traffic should be in full swing as the sun shines, the weather warms, and shoppers delight in buying a new car for the travel season!  What are you doing to Improve your marketing this month?  Here are a few ideas to get a jump-start on your May:


Mother's Day

• Minimum:  Wish your community a Happy Mother's Day from your dealership with a custom home page banner, which can also be re-purposed on your social media outlets.  It's a small, but good, bottom-budget way to work towards improving your dealership's customer- and community-focused image.
• Rev it up a Notch:  Do a Mother's Day giveaway for a spa package, restaurant gift card, etc. advertised on your web site and social media.  In lieu of a cash prize, you can partner with a small, local restaurant or salon and spa to receive a gift certificate in exchange for including their logo and link to their site from your giveaway promotions, which equals free advertising for them and a free customer appreciation giveaway for your dealership!  
  
  Note: If you simply promote the giveaway on your web site and social media, you will have a more highly targeted group of prospects and customers already interested in your dealership, and who are more likely to be considering a purchase right now or in the near future.  If you choose to also include in your newspaper, radio and/or TV advertising, you will achieve a larger reach and response, but realize the traffic will be much less qualified, and so this would be more of a public exposure benefit for gaining community interaction and building top-of-mind awareness for your dealership. 
  
  Either way, the entry form squeeze page for the giveaway promotion should of course include a check box "Yes! Contact me with other promotions and offers!" to help build your legal, opt-in contact list. 
  
  Contact us for some quick ideas on how to best make this work!

Memorial Day

New car franchises are likely to have manufacturer Memorial Day Sales Event artwork to promote. Any dealership, however, can recognize their customers, prospects, and the community to show appreciation for our armed forces.

• Minimum:  Again, wish your community a Happy Memorial Day from your dealership with a home page banner and social media posts to recognize our home town warriors.
• Rev it up a Notch:  Promote your dealership's Memorial Day Sales Event with a home page banner linking to a web page promoting your event specials, and driving phone leads, form leads, and inventory and credit approval calls-to-action.  Don't forget to include a link to your sales event web page on all of your social media outlets leading up to the holiday and on the big day.  You can also post flyers in the showroom, customer lounge, and service areas, as well as any digital signage displays.
• Hitting the Gas:  In addition to a banner and web page with social media posts, and on-site flyers/posters/digital signage at your dealership, send an e-blast to your customers and prospects highlighting some of your best deals, thus driving traffic to your dealership's sales event lead-driving landing page.  Contact Us for our Sales Event Promotion Package discounted pricing, or for free ideas on how to grow your dealership's email contact list.
• Full Speed Ahead:   You can use all marketing and advertising solutions that make sense for your budget and advertising mix to promote your dealership's Memorial Day Sales Event, including: Radio, TV, Newspaper, Online Advertising, PPC, Test Drive Giveaways, Local Event Sponsorship, etc. in addition to the above promotion ideas to get your community's auto shoppers at your store for the big Memorial Day Sales Event.  You can also print sales event cards for your sales people to hand out to outside contacts and unsold showroom traffic leading up to the event.

Service & Parts

It's travel season!  
Don't forget your Service & Parts Departments as the travel season kicks off across America.  "Get Your Car Ready for Summer" Service promotions, "Spring Detail" specials from the body shop, and Accessory specials for items like roof racks, GPS installs, and window tinting may be just some of the offers of interest to your customers and community-at-large.  You can easily promote these through emailed coupons, home page banners, social media posts, and on-site digital signage for a minimal cost, as well as any of your other regular service and parts advertising methods.

These are just a few ideas to get the creative juices flowing for planning your May.  Whether you have an in-house marketing department, a contracted agency, or may need our assistance with some or all of these items, you may take these ideas and customize to whatever makes sense for your dealership, your target audience, and your budget.  Click to Contact Us any time for some complimentary advice on what may work best for your dealership's unique situation, or call now at 407-900-5790.


Free Download Opportunity

As a way of saying "Thank you!" just for reading our post, you can download a free Memorial Day web banner for your dealership, compliments of Improve Your Drive.  Simply right-click on the link here and "Save As", then open it in any image editing software to add your dealership's name, resize to fit your home page banner dimensions, and upload.  Please Contact us if you need assistance.