February is all but mediocre in the dealership world.  February means Valentine's Day, President's Day, and the start of tax returns. What are you doing to Improve Your Promotions  this month?

We'll start by taking a look at each promotion opportunity one at a time, and we'll end with a free download opportunity for you and your dealership.  If you need artwork assistance for any of your holidays and sales events, we can create new artwork or customize provided images for your dealership's web banners, pages, emails, social media, showroom flyers/posters, and more.  

Valentine's Day

• Minimum:  Wish your community a Happy Valentine's Day from your Dealership Name.   An email or letter would be way over the top for this not-so-dealership-related holiday, however a banner on your home page, also shared on your social media, with your well-wishes is a small but great, bottom-budget way to improve your dealership's image.
• Rev it up a Notch:  Do a Valentine's giveaway promotion, advertised on your web site and social media, for $100-200 VISA Gift Card (for example) to pay for a night out on the town with your sweetheart or friends.  In lieu of a cash prize, you can partner with a small, local restaurant or retail business to offer a certificate in exchange for the free advertising of their business in your promotions.  Contact us for some quick ideas on how to best make this work!

President's Day
If you're a new car franchise, as you know it's very likely your manufacturer will have a President's Day Sales Event for you to promote, with great offers umbrellaed under a patriotic flair.  Any dealership, however, has opportunities to reach out to customers, prospects, and the general public for this national holiday:

• Minimum:  Again, wish your community  a Happy President's Day from your Dealership Name with a home page banner and social media post for a small contribution towards your brand image.
• Rev it up a Notch:  Promote your dealership's President's Day Sales Event with a banner linking to a web page promoting your event specials, and driving phone leads, form leads, and inventory and credit approval calls-to-action.  Of course, a link to your sales event web page should be included in your dealership's social media and blog posts leading up to the holiday and on the big day.  Don't forget to post flyers or posters in the showroom, customer lounge and service areas.
• Hitting the Gas:  In addition to a banner and web page with social media posts, and on-site flyers/posters 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 web 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 President's 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 your President's Day Extravaganza.  

Tax Returns
February kicks off tax return season.  This is a great opportunity for used car and new car dealerships to help customers apply their tax return dollars into a smart down-payment on a new or used vehicle.  

• Minimum:  As you can probably guess by now, a home page banner and social media posts are the lowest-cost way to create and promote your Tax Return Event to your captive audience.  Need artwork?  We'll create Tax Time Event artwork to use in any of your dealership promotions.  
• Rev it up a Notch:   Promote your dealership's Tax Time Event by linking that home page banner to a web page showcasing all that their tax return dollars can do for them at your dealership — revealing the best current offers, down-payment programs, easy advanced credit approval, and more.  This is especially effective for special finance dealerships and BHPH dealers.  Of course, a link to your Tax Time Event web page should be included in your dealership's social media and blog posts throughout the entire tax return season, as well as a side bar or P.S. note in your dealership's prospect followup email templates.  Don't forget to post flyers or posters in the showroom, customer lounge and service areas.

• Hitting the Gas:  In addition to the home page banner, web page, social media posts, and on-site flyers/posters, to get this in front of your non-captive audience, you will need to do some further promoting.  The most cost-effective option is an e-blast to your customers and prospects, informing them about the tax time opportunities at your dealership, and linking to your web page, which of course should be custom-designed to convert online shoppers into qualified sales leads.
• Full Speed Ahead:  Again, you can use all marketing and advertising solutions that make sense for your budget and advertising mix to promote your dealership's Tax Time Event, including:  Radio, TV, Newspaper, Online Advertising, PPC, Press Release, Emails, Web Pages, Banners, social media posts, etc.

Whether you have an in-house marketing department, a contracted agency, or may need our assistance with some or all of these items, 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, click here to access a free Valentine's Day web banner for your dealership, compliments of Improve Your Drive.  Simply right-click on the graphic to "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.

Improve Your Drive offers professional automotive writing services, from copy writing to  content development, using persuasive verbiage to communicate your message clearly and invoke immediate action, while building your dealership’s brand image in a truly professional manner. Just let us know what you need written… from dealership email campaigns and website content to print projects and other dealership marketing collateral, we can do it all. It’s that simple!

Contact Us to discuss your content needs, and we will provide you with a fast quote and estimated turnaround time for the project.

Tired of committing to lengthy contracts for every marketing and web service?  Improve Your Drive does not require contracts or a specified monthly volume for our services.  Just place a request and we’ll be there to provide you with quality dealership marketing and design services when you need them.  

Our goal is to make it so easy to work with us that you wouldn't want to go anywhere else for your dealership marketing and design services, however you are always free to do so since we don't lock you in with contracts. 

Looking for a volume discount?  Still no contract.  Just give us a call at 407-900-5790 to discuss your needs and we'll take it from there.

Improve Your Drive's niche is in providing vast knowledge in automotive marketing, design and website development with an "in-house" feel, advising on the ever-growing range of marketing decisions facing business owners, Dealers, GSMs, Sales Managers, Service & Parts Managers, F&I Managers, Internet Managers, and employees today.

We work hard to please clients of all shapes and sizes. From small independent used car dealers and BHPH dealers to large new car multi-franchise industry leaders, Improve Your Drive will handle every project with exceptional care and excellence.  With nearly 20 years professional design and marketing experience, automotive-specific since 2003, our specialties include:  Website Management & Development, Web Page Design, Banner Ad Design, Email Campaigns and eNewsletters, Prospect/Customer Scheduled Followup Email Templates, Digital Signage, Print Design, Project Management, Copy Writing, Campaign Strategy and Development, and Dealership Training and Consulting.

As founder and CEO of IYD, Theresa M. Du Bois enjoys strategizing unique automotive marketing and creative solutions for dealerships of all shapes and sizes across the U.S. and Canada.

"It is a pleasure learning the unique goals and situations of every dealership, and helping to achieve those goals through effective automotive marketing and design techniques that translate into monthly sales, increased customer loyalty, and owner satisfaction."

Located within the U.S., we are available for communication in any U.S. time zone, Monday - Friday and also on a limited basis over the weekend.  We make it easy to place orders, easy to work with, easy to communicate with, and ultimately -- we make it easy to improve your brand image and results.

Shop Here to view pricing and details for our dealership marketing and design services.  Click to Contact us if you have a custom project or any questions for IYD.  We're looking forward to working with you!  :)

Background:
Prior to joining the automotive industry, Du Bois began her marketing career in 1995, performing project management and design services for large corporate international clients for over 8 years, including Hewlett-Packard and Intel. Although the majority of our services are geared directly towards automotive dealership clients, we continue to serve other corporate leaders with a wide range of marketing services.  One example includes an intranet redevelopment project for Harris Corporation - RF Division, where we partnered with their in-house communications and technical teams to completely redesign their intranet site into MS SharePoint, bringing together a single access point for all divisions and geographical locations, delivering targeted news and messaging for a global employee base. This corporate experience brings an added professionalism and big picture thinking to IYD's strategic marketing services for dealerships across North America.

We at Improve Your Drive have a passion for dealership marketing and creative services for automotive companies across the U.S. and Canada, with elite, effective, and responsive-driven ad designs and campaigns.

Our dealership marketing and design order process is as simple as you want it to be.  We can handle the design only, write content, and/or development, or manage the entire project including the print or web production for you.  Simply provide us with your project goals and any information you require to be included, and we will take care of the rest. 

Whether you are looking for dealership web pages or automotive print design, programming, writing, consulting, training, or someone to lead your next dealership marketing or web project, we will work closely with you to understand your goals, and then seamlessly bring them to life through our creative and technical services.

You can expect:

• Automotive specific marketing knowledge, including:
  • In-house dealership background
  • Experience with many automotive CRMs to input and setup your campaigns if needed
  • Extensive background in marketing and design for Sales, Service and Parts
• High-Quality, Responsive Designs
• Effective Web Programming
• Custom Lead Forms that route and parse directly into your CRM
• Persuasive, Professional Writing for copy and content
• Strategic, Streamlined Project Management
• Experienced, Honest Automotive Marketing Consulting

Just need someone to get it done?  Our clients have grown to expect us to fill in the gaps where needed in automotive marketing, design, content development, web projects, and more.  Most of our dealership clients are so busy they barely have time to email us the request, let alone hold hands throughout the process.  We can take it and run with it, including campaign brainstorming, copy writing, design, and mockup delivered to you with little to no interaction.  Our consulting is seamless as we make suggestions and build in recommendations at the design stage, so you can benefit from our experience with dealers across the nation.

At IYD, it is plain to see we love what we do, we are highly competent at it, and are always aiming to make your job easier.  And with almost 20 years experience in marketing and design, including top international corporations and dealerships alike, we would love to bring our experience to your team to help improve your marketing results and brand image.

Click here to view our services, or contact us for a custom quote on your next project.