In a digital-first world, automotive dealerships need a strong online presence. They need to leverage social media to engage customers and increase sales. However, growing that online identity takes resources.
Someone has to write blogs, post images, and make videos. Responding to online queries or emails promptly is crucial to retain customer loyalty. Rather than looking to outside resources, dealerships should encourage their teams to help maintain their online presence by creating an online strategy, sharing relevant content, and using internal expertise for blogs, videos, or images.
Creating an Online Strategy
Building a collaborative environment allows sales, marketing, and customer service teams to develop a cohesive strategy. They can draw from sales and service experiences and marketing trends to develop a consistent identity across all platforms. Messaging must be authentic and reflect a dealership's unique voice.
Dealerships want customers to recognize their brand. In the rapid-fire world of social media, consistency is vital for brand recognition. Building collaborative teams ensures that all touchpoints receive the same messaging.
Sharing Internal Expertise
Salespeople know cars. The service department has tips for optimizing car performance. Internal expertise exists in every dealership. Leveraging that knowledge in videos, blogs, or images builds informative content that engages customers.
Ask a technician to help create a video on how to determine oil levels when on a road trip and the check-oil light comes on. Have sales post pictures of the latest models on the lot to Instagram. Let marketing work with service to develop content on how to care for tires. Tapping internal resources is a great way to engage customers and employees.
Extending Online Reach
Any online strategy should identify the social media channels to use. Not all channels may be appropriate, or dealers may lack the resources to maintain every channel. If dealerships lack resources, they should encourage employees to share content links or videos with their networks.
When a new car hits the showroom, take pictures that employees can forward to their friends and followers. Send employees links to informative content such as how to winterize your car. They can easily forward the information to people within their network.
Monitoring Social Media
As dealerships extend their online reach, they need to allocate resources to monitoring social media. No matter the platform, dealerships should be aware of how their brand is being received. Employees can help. Encourage them to identify where comments appear so they can be addressed promptly.
Investing in Employees
Dealerships that want to leverage their employee expertise to strengthen their online presence need to invest in those employees. Informed employees can create better content that encompasses all aspects of car ownership. For example, implementing a finance and insurance (F&I) training program ensures that online contributors are current on lending products and practices.
With a robust training program, online contributors will continue to learn about lending products. They will stay informed on compliance changes and understand evolving lending practices. At Vanguard Dealer Services, dealership F&I training programs can demonstrate employee value through ongoing investments in their development.
As dealers look to their teams to strengthen their online presence, they should provide tools and training that allow them to build on their current expertise. Reach out to Vanguard Dealer Services today to learn more about growing your dealership’s online capabilities.
