Every year, dealers across the country try to keep pace with the current marketing trends for the fear of falling behind and losing out to the competition. Not only do you need an excellent retention marketing strategy to ensure customers come back to you, but your dealership also has to find a way to attract potential buyers. Not to mention there are thousands of to-do items that you have to check off every day to keep your store running properly. With so much going on, how do you find time to put together a conquest strategy that works without breaking the bank? Today you’ll learn how to keep your summer momentum going by energizing your conquest strategy.
Start with Data
Every good marketing strategy starts with data. Often times for conquest programs, this data comes in the form of a purchased list simply because it is not readily available at our fingertips. When venturing out to acquire a purchased list, be sure the consumers have opted-in to receive information about vehicles and are currently in market. Without these two elements identified in the consumer profile of your purchased list, you may end up wasting money. Once you’ve acquired your conquest list, scrub out any customers who have had recent sales and service transactions at your dealership. Ensuring you have a clean list of ready-to-buy prospects who are not in your current database will result in a higher return for your conquest marketing efforts.
Determine Delivery
The number one reason most companies do not execute conquest marketing is the cost. Acquiring a list and then paying for the delivery of their message can be a huge expense, not to mention the rate of return on conquest marketing is low compared to customer retention marketing. For this reason, you’ll want to select a method of delivery that is low cost. Most companies choose direct mail as their method of delivery, and although it is a great option and will be seen by every recipient, it can be pretty costly. Another option is to go with is email. Although it’s very cost effective, your message may not be seen by every recipient. Either option is a great choice and you really can’t go wrong, so it will depend on your specific budget and needs which choice is best.
Leverage Multiple Channels
If every single one of your customers was standing on your lot, chances are you wouldn’t want to deliver the same message to each individual the same way. This is also true when putting together a conquest strategy. Not every person on your purchased list is the same, has the same needs, or wants to consume their content in the same manner. That’s why it’s important to leverage a multi-channel approach. With so many choices of media, you’ll want to make sure your delivery methods are complementary and the imagery and messaging you use are similar. When done properly, a multi-channel marketing attack is more effective than a single channel delivery. It provides your dealership better brand awareness, multiple touch points for consumers, and increases the reach of your campaign.
Retarget, Retarget, Retarget
If you have the opportunity to utilize your purchased list for retargeting purposes on social media, you should absolutely do so. Nowadays everyone is taking part in the social media phenomenon and like any good marketer, you have to be where your customers are. Think about taking your conquest strategy one step further and advertising on popular social media networks. A lot of these networks have an advertising platform with the ability to retarget data sets. Others allow you to use consumer demographics to target your ads. Regardless you should use complementary creative and social media advertisements to extend the reach of your conquest strategy.
Promote Online Brand
Even if you have the best data, deliver a stellar multi-channel piece, and retarget specific owners through social media, your conquest strategy may fail. The truth is consumers today always go online before they enter a brick and mortar business. While online, these consumers are looking to see how you handle your customers by reading reviews and searching your dealership locally to find its exact location. If at any time these potential buyers can’t find your dealership or see that your dealership has a poor reputation, then chances are you will lose their business.
Measure Results
Most marketers have an extremely hard time measuring the success of their conquest efforts, especially if their sales are not completed online. Through Google Analytics and other website measurables, you can determine how many leads were driven to your website through various channels, but how do you know if they actually made a purchase? By leveraging the conquest strategy laid out in this post and completing a match-back report, you can determine true ROI. Simply take the initial purchased list and match up recent sales since the launch of your conquest campaign to see how many targeted customers came back to you for their vehicle needs.
We can spit out numbers that tell you the effectiveness of this conquest marketing strategy, but you won’t really understand its power until you try it. But don’t wait, keep your summer momentum going by finding in-market buyers, influencing them to visit your dealership, and measuring the effectiveness of your conquest campaign.