Why content marketing for auto dealers?

Key points:

95% of automotive buyers use digital as a source of information in the car buying process.
Prospective buyers will spend 13 hours researching a new car and 14 hours researching a used car.
SEO is very important for other automotive profit centers as nearly 25% of all automotive searches are parts, services, and maintenance related.
69% of people who used YouTube while buying a car were influenced by it – more than television, newspapers, or magazines.
Blogging is responsible for 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links
Those websites that do blog regularly appear in a much greater number of search results

There are many reasons why auto dealerships should do content marketing. Some of the reasons include more leads, sales, and better results in search engines

Prior to COVID-19, the automotive buying process was already in the process of transitioning online. Since COVID-19, the speed of the transition has only increased. As a result, the importance of digital marketing has also increased. This begs the question, why content marketing for auto dealers?

Many car dealers already have a digital marketing strategy incorporating a website, the posting of inventory to regional websites, search engine optimization, paid search, and social media marketing. Many dealers as a whole also have staff and work with digital marketing teams that are constantly looking for new marketing strategies, marketing plans, and marketing ideas.

How has buying a car changed since COVID-19?

Prior to COVID-19, the automotive buying process at a dealership hasn’t really changed that much over the past several decades. Most shoppers went to car dealers, found they care they wanted, took a test drive, and negotiated the price before being handed off to the finance manager for final paperwork.

Before COVID-19, buyers had already started transitioning the buying process online.

More of the car buying process has moved online

Almost 95% of prospective automotive buyers use the Internet to research their next automotive purchase. As a result, car dealers should be creating content for prospective buyers earlier in the car buying process. The best way to do this is with content.

What does the automotive buying process look like?

Prior to COVID, prospective auto buyers spent a great deal of time researching their next automotive purchase. Many of these habits are still intact. In 2021, prospective consumers will:

Spend thirteen hours online researching a new car and fourteen hours researching a used car to purchase. (Google)
Over six hours will be spent researching third-party automotive websites. (COX)

Less than 90 minutes will be spent on automotive manufacturer / OEM websites
There is a 56% chance that they will find the information they are looking for on an automotive manufacturer’s website.
They will spend even less time on auto dealer websites than manufacturer / OEM websites. (Deloitte)
There is a 53% chance that they will find the information they are looking for on car dealership websites (Deloitte)
When they are close to making a final selection, there is a two in three chance that they will visit one to two auto dealerships before making a purchase.
There is a significant chance that they will view automotive videos that will influence their buying decision.

In 2021, car dealerships are increasing their digital ad spend, reaching car buyers towards the end of their purchasing cycle. The automotive industry digital ad spend will reach $13.29 billion in 2021, a 21.4% increase in ad spend over 2020.

How effective is search engine optimization for a car dealership?

Search is the number #1 source for car shoppers to start the researching their next car, beating out social media posts, paid search, and regional dealer sites. This is not just for the automotive industry, but for rather all industries. For example, consider that 1,000%+ more traffic is driven by SEO than organic social media.

Has Local SEO increased in importance for a car dealership?

Local SEO is the process of increasing the placement of your content in search results around your place of business. Local SEO goes hand-in-hand with mobile, further increasing its importance to car dealers. Consider:

“Where to buy” and “near me” mobile queries have grown by over 200% in the past two years. (Google)
46% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using the search results such as “click to call” option. (Google)

Is the importance of mobile increasing in the auto buying process?

A couple of years ago, most online automotive research was accessed using desktop computers. In 2019, 52% of prospective customers use multiple devices to research and purchase their next car, including desktop/laptop computers, smartphones, and tablets.

Mobile devices and video are also crucial for car dealerships in the search process. Nearly 25% of all automotive searches being related to parts, service, and maintenance. Additionally, more than 40% of shoppers that watched a video about cars or trucks visited a dealership.

There are a couple of critical points for automotive dealerships. First, websites are essential for auto dealers who do digital marketing. Second, search engine optimization, videos, and content marketing are effective marketing channels for dealers, and lastly, mobile devices are increasingly important content delivery platforms.

How important is a dealer website to an auto dealership?

Of the websites that prospective customers visit, third party websites are the most influential for both new car and used car buyers, with 74 and 82%, respectively. Dealer websites are the second most prominent with 47% and 46%, respectively for both new car and used car buyers.

Filling out the list were OEM websites followed by Google Search. This is not so much third-party content available through Google Search Results but rather automotive content within Google.

Third-party websites and dealer websites are used more than OEM websites, which could be partially attributed to third-party sites as being perceived as more objective than dealer or OEM websites. Additionally, dealer websites are where actual inventory is likely to be displayed, which is essential at the end of the search process.

What useful content does a prospective customer search for online?

There are several reasons why prospective customers would use online platforms when shopping for a vehicle. The top reason include:

To search for a vehicle
Get information about a trade-in
Get information about current incentives
Negotiate
Review/sign documents.

Is social media playing a more significant role in the auto buying process?

Social media is playing an increasing role in the auto buying process, with 22% of prospective customers using it as a main source of information, up from 16% in 2015.

The most popular sites used by auto shoppers are Youtube (13%), DealerRater (7%), and Facebook (5%). While increasingly used, social media is not yet that influential. Only 13% of respondents said social media influenced their purchasing decision, with 2% indicating that it influenced their purchasing decision.

Is video increasing in importance?

Most of the growth and influence of social media in the auto buying process is attributed to video. Of prospective car buyers who accessed video in the automotive buying process, 69% were influenced by the video content they viewed– more than TV, newspaper, or magazines.

The type of video content that prospective customers accessed were test-drives, features and options, and walkthroughs.

In 2020, video has become the most commonly used format in content marketing, overtaking blogs and infographics. As a result, dealers should expect that it should continue to increase in importance.

Where does content marketing fit into an auto dealer’s marketing strategy?

Now that we have discussed SEO, local SEO, mobile, social media, and video, we can discuss content, and specifically why you need to be doing content marketing. Your content is the fuel that drives all of your marketing strategies. It is what prospective consumers search for in search engines, and what search engines rank. Content is what you post as part of your marketing strategies, whether it be paid advertising, social media, or video. It is also what sets you apart from the competition.

Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content online to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, driving them to action. Dealership content should be the foundation of a dealer’s marketing plan.

Why auto dealers should be blogging?

Most dealership advertising dollars are focused on end-of-funnel activities directed at influencing the transaction, as they should be. However, there are opportunities for car dealers to focus on the beginning-of-funnel experience when prospective customers first starts researching their next automotive purchase. Content marketing through a blog and video are a great way to do this. However, there is yet another more compelling reason to engage in content marketing, compound returns.

Much like compound interest, blogs compound traffic

Albert Einstein once described compound interest as the “eighth wonder of the world.” Compound interest is when the interest one earns on their principal balance is reinvested and generates additional interest. The same can be said about a certain type of blogging and content marketing.

Content that is ranked in search engines drives traffic as long as it remains relevant, ranks, and people search for it. This can be for years after the content was created. Adding quality content that ranks only adds to effect, increasing the keywords ranked for, and the traffic driven to your website.

The concept of “compounding traffic” only applies to a certain type of content and content marketing. It does not extend to other channels such as paid search, social media, and email marketing.

For this reason, content marketing should be a part of the marketing plan for every auto dealership.

What are the benefits of “evergreen” content?

In my opinion, all content online can be broken down into types; news and evergreen content. News content is just that, news. It has a very limited useful life whereby it attracts a great deal of attention upon its release and then fails to provide value. An example would be a press release about a new car release.

In contrast, evergreen content is search optimized content that is continually relevant and provides value for the reader. Examples of evergreen content from an automotive perspective include reviews and educational content such as “how-to” guides.

Compounding traffic referenced above only works with evergreen content. Over time, rather quickly in fact, news drops to zero value. As a result, searchers no longer look for it.

Blogging regularly works for two main reasons; search engine optimization and conversions. From an SEO standpoint, blogging increases the number of keywords that a website ranks for, as well as the rankings for the site as a whole compared to websites that don’t blog. One study found that blogging is responsible for 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links in Google search results. For many dealerships, this could be the difference showing up on page one of Google and page 10, for a given keyword. Additionally, those websites that do blog regularly appear in a much greater number of search results in Google, compared to those dealerships that don’t blog regularly.

There are additional benefits to blogging other than SEO, leads, and sales. Additional benefits to blogging, include:

You establish yourself and your auto dealer as a trusted authority
Possibly, increase your search engine ranking
Generate leads and sales
Brand building
Increase brand awareness

Now that we have established why your dealership needs to be blogging, what type of content should you create?

What type of content should auto dealerships be creating?

Prospective auto buyers are looking for the following information:

Researching car prices – 71%
Finding actual cars listed for sale – 68%
Comparing different models – 64%
Finding out what a current vehicle to sell is worth – 63%
Locating a dealer and getting dealer information – 46%

Auto dealerships should be creating the content that prospective customers are looking for. That is information about car prices, comparisons between different models, resale prices, and information about their dealership. Vehicle-specific information could be by specific vehicle, by brand, by type of vehicle, or geographic in nature, talking about the differences in prices between Colorado and California. Quite frankly, any questions that your sales team receives from prospective consumers is what you should be writing about. For every question your dealership is asked, there are many more being asked, online.

What are the benefits of content marketing to auto dealerships?

Consider the following:

Content marketing produces 3x the amount of leads as traditional marketing
Companies that implement content marketing strategies see 6x higher conversion rates than those who don’t
Companies that put their primary focus on content marketing generate more than 5x more conversions (Kapost)

I don’t expect you to take my word for it. The largest and most successful auto dealers all have blogs and post regularly.

Examples of successful auto dealerships who blog

Many of the largest and most successful auto dealerships have blogs. Examples include:

Longo Lexus, the largest Lexus dealership in the Western United States

Weber Chevrolet – A large auto dealership in Saint Louis, MO

With Longo Lexus and Weber Chevrolet both educates prospective customers with information to help prospective customers on their buying journey.

Conclusion

Despite the prevalence and popularity of the Internet in the automotive buying process, car dealerships play a vital role in the automotive buying process, and are likely to do so for many more years.

When it comes to advertising, the automotive industry doesn’t hold back. In 2021, the digital ad spend in the United States is expected to be $13.29 billion. This applies to not only manufacturers and dealers but also automotive parts and accessories manufacturers and resellers.

Also of note is that most of the digital ad spend by automotive manufacturers are targeted at customers, early in the buying cycle. In contrast, the digital marketing campaigns of dealers are targeted at generating leads of prospective customers ready to buy their next car or sell their current one. The auto dealership ad spend directed towards search engine marketing or pay-per-click advertising is evidence of this.

As a dealer, creating articles and campaigns directed at prospective customers early in the buying cycle doesn’t compete with search engine marketing; rather, it complements it.

If you are ready to get started with content marketing for your car dealer, Contact us as we are experienced digital marketers and content marketers who also love cars. In fact, we have written well over 1,500 blog posts about cars. You can find some of them at www.carfanblog.com.

Hopefully, with this post, I have answered why content marketing for auto dealers?