Headline. Body. Traffic Leaf Your Institute Old Marketing 2 Behind The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey

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2 Headline Body Traffic Leaf Your Institute Old Marketing 2 Behind The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Fall Off The Price Bandwagon Dare To Be Different Stop Stuffing Your Lot _ Selection Doesn t Matter Stop Ignoring The Miracle Of The Car Business Spice Up Your Offers Don t Let Your Marketing Budget Get Blown Away Conclusion The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey 3

4 The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey With more than 20 years of experience in the automotive marketing industry, you better believe that we ve heard it all. Look, the hard truth is that most automotive marketing tactics are not going to help you sell more cars or make more money. Why? Because these methods were created by agencies and vendors who are more concerned with keeping you on the hook and meeting their targets than helping you meet yours. But we know that if you really want to drive more traffic, sell more cars and be hugely successful, that you need to quit these stale marketing practices and start making moves that actually generate results. So we ve put together this list of six marketing tactics you should stop immediately. Not next week, not tomorrow, but today. So let s get started! Traffic Institute 4

5 Fall Off The Price Bandwagon Take a look at a mailer from one of your competitors. What do you see? We bet there s a lot of pictures of cars with prices in bright, bold fonts. How d we know? Because most automotive marketing all looks the same. And this is a big problem. Why? Well, first and foremost, this form of marketing is reliant on you having the lowest prices. But it s almost impossible to always have the lowest price, and even if you could, is that a competition you really want to win? If you win that race, how will you keep the business afloat? How will you buy more vehicles? Or pay your employees? Or support your family? You won t. At least not for long. And the thing is, you don t have to compete on price. But to escape that race to the bottom you must create a reason other than price for customers to choose you over any other dealership. $ The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey 5

6 You see, buying a car is an emotional experience. This is the biggest purchase some people will make in their lives. It has a huge impact on our perception of ourselves. And it has the power to change our life. But by making it all about the car and the price and the features, today s automotive marketing has taken all of the emotion out of the purchase. And on top of it all, we ve trained the public to use price as the differentiator. Now, that s what they think they should base their decision on. But it s not. People will make a decision based on price because they don t know what else to ask about or compare. And since price is what you re advertising, it s the easiest thing for them to latch onto. So stop advertising prices and payments and start creating a real buying preference. Become an expert your customers can count on for valuable information. Help them make the right decision about buying a car, and customers will flock to you because you re more than just a vending machine for cars. Traffic Institute 6

7 Dare To Be Different There s another problem with having your advertising revolve around cars and prices like every other dealership your ads are going to be ignored. How do we know? SCIENCE. Neuroscience actually. Now hold on, stay with us. Because this could have a huge impact on the results you get from your marketing. You see, the only way you re going to attract more customers is if you can get their attention. And if you want to get their attention, you have to understand how their brains work. So let s explore that a little bit. The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey 7

8 The human brain has this incredible ability to run through patterns and routines without us even noticing. That s what makes a habit. It s the reason why you can drive to work and not remember the ride when you get there. It s why you can back out of a garage without stopping to think through all of the steps it s going to take to actually do it. Convenient, huh? But this same ability actually makes us numb. It means that we block out all the stuff that we see over and over again it s just noise, so why waste brain-power on it. So that means if you want people to notice your ads, you need to make them look different than all of the other automotive ads. You need to create something that will stand out and shout, Hey! Wake up! Yep, in order to sell more, you have to stand out. You have to do something different and get noticed. So quit using the same old, lame old advertising and start thinking differently about how you market your dealership. Traffic Institute 8

9 Stop Stuffing Your Lot Selection Doesn t Matter One of the problems we hear most from dealers is that they can t stock the cars they think people want to drive. I can t find the right cars Or worse I can t afford the right cars But what we know is that thoughts like this demonstrate that you re focusing on the wrong thing. Having the right number of Hondas or Toyotas or sedans or minivans isn t what will make or break you. Why? Because the cars you stock on your lot aren t what make your store special. Not unless you can offer it at the lowest possible price, well below your margin of profitability. And that s a race to the bottom and what every other dealership does now. The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey 9

10 Instead of chasing your tail, constantly focusing on getting the exact cars vauto says you should have stocked right now, find a new way to attract customers. But I m a car salesman We can hear you saying already. Yes, but when you help someone find a vehicle, you are actually doing something far more important and valuable than merely providing a commodity. You are, in fact, providing a solution, an honorable service to someone in your community. Traffic Institute 10

11 WHEN YOU HELP NORMAL, EVERYDAY PEOPLE UPGRADE THEIR VEHICLE, YOU ARE HELPING THEM IMPROVE THEIR LIVES. A BETTER CAR CAN MEAN A MORE RELIABLE RIDE TO WORK, A SAFER RIDE FOR THEIR FAMILY, OR JUST A BOOST FOR THEIR EGO. And we all know that helping customers make the leap to a better car and a better life comes with it s own set of challenges. You have to help them take stock of where they re at in life; find a vehicle that fits their budget; escape an old ride they may still be making payments on, but are sick of driving; assess financing options and sometimes seek approval with some past credit mishaps. And you re doing all of these things every day, which makes you so much more than a car salesman. It makes you a solutions provider. And the sooner you embrace it and start marketing and selling solutions instead of cars, the faster your inventory worries will become a thing of the past. Of course, you still need to stock an appropriate amount of inventory for your goals (which is a whole different topic we ll get to next time), but you ll discover that finding that inventory is much easier than finding the right inventory. The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey 11

12 Stop Ignoring The Miracle Of The Car Business A lot of purchases we make in life are event driven. Take your garage door opener. You probably haven t thought twice about it in years, unless it broke. If it broke, you probably started looking for a replacement the same day. Suddenly you re in the market for a garage door opener. The same is true for your refrigerator, your washing machine, probably even your computer. You aren t even thinking about getting a new one, until the one you have doesn t work anymore. But the same thing isn t true about cars. The miracle of the car business is that everyone would like to drive a Nicer, Newer car than they re driving right now. Everyone. Why? Because your car is a status symbol. It announces to the world who you are and what you have achieved. Not to mention that Americans spend, on average, 293 hours in their cars every year. If you ve gotta spend that much time in one place, wouldn t you like it to be just a little bit nicer? Of course you would! But then why is it so hard to capture more market share and drive more traffic? Well, that s because even though everyone would like to drive a nicer car than the one they have right now, only a small part of the population is actually shopping, about two percent. Traffic Institute 12

13 And the typical automotive advertising the pictures of cars and prices, the online listing services is all aimed at attracting this two percent of the population. But if you want to open the floodgates and get a ton of additional traffic, you need to focus on attracting all of the people who want a better car, but aren t actively shopping. By embracing the miracle of the car business and aiming your marketing to these non-active shoppers, you can motivate these Sleeping Buyers to start shopping now and tap into a much larger pool of customers, instantly growing your market share at an exponential rate. On top of it all, these people are less price sensitive and less focused on a specific vehicle. The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey 13

14 Spice Up Your Offers So far we ve told you what not to put in your ads. No more prices, no more payments, no more cars. By this point you re probably wondering what you should be putting in your ads, and we ve got the answer. Instead of focusing on prices and cars, you should start advertising the solutions that your dealership solves. But as we just discussed, most people would like to drive a nicer car, a newer car, but there s something that s standing in their way. The most common problems that keep people driving a car that no longer fits their situation are: Real or imagined credit issues Still making payments Locked into a lease Upside down in current car Afraid of the process/dealership No down payment These are problems that you solve every day in your dealership. So start talking about it! Traffic Institute 14

15 Suddenly, instead of selling a product, a car, you re selling help. You re selling solutions. These are powerful benefits that will help people fulfill their dreams and change their lives. And believe us, that will wake them up! The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey 15

16 Don t Let Your Marketing Budget Get Blown Away Now you ve got an ad strategy that s going to deliver more traffic and more profit than traditional automotive marketing, but where are you going to run these ads? Traffic Institute 16

17 Most dealerships spread their marketing budget across multiple media options. They put a little in digital, a little in radio, a little in TV and a little in online web listing services. Throw in a tent sale or direct mail piece for fun, and you ve got all your bases covered, right? WRONG! If you re doing a little bit of everything, you aren t making an impact anywhere. In order to make an impact in any media, you need to reach a certain frequency. If you aren t reaching that frequency, you might as well not be present at all. Instead of creating small piles of ad spend in multiple media options, rake it all into one big pile and dominate a single media first. Why do it this way? It may seem contrary to how you ve traditionally established your advertising budget over the years, but the thing is that marketing effectiveness builds with impressions. What we mean by this is that each time someone hears your ad, it makes a bigger and bigger impact on them. In fact, the impact of your ad builds exponentially because as you increase frequency, you increase recognition. And when you increase recognition, you increase the impact your ad will have, making each additional commercial more and more effective than the first. The 6 Automotive Marketing Tactics You Need To Quit Cold Turkey 17

18 MORE INFO If you re interested in more information about how you can stop relying on these ineffective marketing tactics and start seeing real results from your advertising, call a Traffic Institute Advisor at (407) Travis Miller The Big Idea Guy Jimmy Vee The Five Foot Marketing Guy Jimmy Vee & Travis Miller are experts on attracting customers, authors of Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers and founders of The Traffic Institute. Traffic Institute 18