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- Automotive Marketing Software: Must-Have Tools for Dealerships
Marketing tools and solutions every dealership needs!
Optimize your dealership's success with automotive marketing software for better insights and engagement. Boost sales and visibility with our expert recommendations!
Selling cars might not be rocket science, but if you want to do it with as much success as possible in this digital age, it is wise to invest in automotive marketing software and automotive SEO tools.
Marketing tools and solutions are important for car dealerships to reach and engage customers, and streamline the sales process.
Working with these tools can help car dealerships market their inventory, engage with customers, and ultimately drive sales growth.
Analytic tools for dealership websites
Analytic tools are software solutions that collect, process, and analyze data such as website traffic, customer interactions, and sales performance.
For dealership websites, they offer insight into how visitors interact with the site, which marketing campaigns are effective, and what areas need improvement.
Implementing analytic tools for dealership websites is important for gaining a competitive edge in the automotive market. This way your dealership can make data-driven decisions and optimize digital strategies.
Source: Semrush
Google Search Console
To optimize your search engine performance, you need to understand how Google views your website.
Google Search Console is a free tool that provides insights into how Google crawls, indexes, and ranks your website.
It also identifies issues that may affect your site's visibility, and offers suggestions to improve its performance in search results.
If you use it wisely, you can make a series of adjustments that will make sure potential buyers click precisely on your dealership’s page.
Google Analytics
Google’s web analytics service offers useful data on demographics, interests, and device types - it tracks and reports traffic and user behavior on your website.
In this way, you can make informed decisions about what content to put on your dealership website and how to optimize that content so that customers engage more with it.
A good starting point is having a modern, information-rich website, which will boost your brand's online presence and attract buyers.
Invaluable tools for improving a dealership’s SEO
By using SEO on-page optimization tailored to the car industry, dealerships can get seen more online, attract more interested buyers, and sell more cars.
Getting positive SEO results requires patience as it's a gradual process. Relevant keywords, mobile-friendliness, engaging content, clear navigation, and optimal backlinks can all help to improve your visibility in search engine results.
Source: Ahrefs
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a popular, easy-to-use tool that provides information that helps websites attract more visitors.
It shows you which websites link to yours, helps find the best keywords, and checks your site for technical problems that could hurt your search engine rankings. It also lets you see what your competitors are doing, helping you stay ahead.
Semrush
Semrush helps users analyze what their competition is doing, find the best keywords, and discover backlink opportunities.
Much like Ahrefs, it can detect technical issues on your website, which makes it easier for you to know exactly what parts you need to update and work on to attract more buyers.
KWFinder
The secret is in the name. KWFinder helps you find the best keywords for your dealership’s SEO campaigns. Keywords with low competition and high search volumes make it a lot easier to rank higher on search engines.
According to 2021 Ahrefs data, 94.74% of all keywords have 10 or fewer monthly searches, so we’re talking about a huge chunk of traffic here.
ScreamingFrog
Again, the secret might just be in the name. This tool inspects your website and then screams at you when it comes across a problem. This is a joke, obviously.
But the ScreamingFrog tool is very useful. It audits websites by crawling them, identifying broken links, duplicate content, and other issues that could impact search engine rankings.
Source: Acquisio
AnswerThePublic
With this one, you don’t need to wonder what people search for online. AnswerThePublic will provide you with more targeted traffic as you will know exactly how to align your dealership website content with popular search queries.
It helps enhance engagement and conversions by providing informative content that answers users’ questions, which will certainly help in your sales process.
SEOQuake
With SEOQuake, you can quickly analyze key SEO metrics such as organic search visibility, keyword rankings, backlink profiles, and domain authority. As an added benefit, it offers real-time data, which makes it convenient for easy website analysis.
It integrates perfectly into browsing sessions and it will ultimately help with your dealership’s online visibility.
Digital marketing and advertising tools
Like any business, your car dealership's success depends on how well you promote it. Since 95% of people look up information about their intended used car purchase online, the majority of your used car marketing efforts need to happen online.
For used car dealerships, using digital marketing and advertising tools is important to attract and convert potential buyers. Tools like Google Ads enable targeted advertising based on location and user intent, ensuring ads reach potential buyers actively searching for vehicles.
MailChimp
This popular email marketing platform is designed to help businesses manage and automate their email campaigns. This can include promoting special offers on vehicles, announcing new arrivals, or highlighting promotions.
Beyond email marketing, Mailchimp offers tools for audience management, allowing you to gather insights into subscriber behavior and preferences.
Source: Hootsuite
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform that helps businesses schedule, manage, and analyze their social media content across multiple platforms from a single dashboard.
It can help your dealership to monitor mentions of your brand, competitors, and relevant keywords in real time. This means you get to stay updated on customer feedback, industry trends, and potential leads looking for vehicles.
Canva
Dealerships can use this graphic design tool to create visually appealing content for social media posts, promo materials, and ads. This includes showcasing vehicle features, announcing sales events, and highlighting customer testimonials.
It offers a free version with basic features and paid options for more advanced tools and resources. This makes it a cost-effective solution for small to medium-sized dealerships without a huge design budget.
Unbounce
This tool is especially useful if you’re just starting your new dealership or if you’re in the process of optimizing your landing pages.
You don’t need a lot of technical knowledge because Unbounce ensures that your pages look and perform well on all devices, including smartphones and tablets. This is crucial for reaching customers who browse and shop on mobile devices.
Facebook, Google, and Instagram Ads
Each of these platforms offers unique benefits for your dealership to reach and engage potential buyers.
Facebook Ads allow your dealership to target specific audiences based on location, demographics, and interests. You can showcase vehicles through engaging image or video ads, encouraging potential buyers to schedule test drives or browse through your inventory.
Google Ads help your website appear at the top of search results when customers search for terms like "buy used cars" or "local car dealerships". You can target local customers with location-based ads and use remarketing to re-engage visitors who have shown interest in specific cars.
Instagram Ads use visual content to showcase cars through photos and videos. Your dealership can attract attention with great visuals (check out our article on how to take perfect photos of your inventory) and use call-to-action buttons like "Shop Now" or "Learn More" to drive traffic to your website.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tools
Relationships with your customers are crucial for your business. CRM tools help dealerships deliver personalized experiences, improve car sales, and in the end - grow their business successfully.
They automate communication with customers through personalized emails, messages, and reminders, and store all customer data (contact details, preferences, and purchase history) in one place.
Source: Hubspot
Hubspot
HubSpot provides visibility into the sales pipeline, allowing your dealership to track deals, forecast revenue, and prioritize sales activities.
It helps tailor your marketing efforts based on individual customer preferences, increasing your chances of closing a sale.
Salesforce
Salesforce automates repetitive (and let’s be honest, boring) sales tasks, such as lead management, opportunity tracking, and quote generation. You don’t need to do these things manually.
It provides advanced analytics to track key metrics such as sales performance and customer satisfaction. It also integrates seamlessly with other business apps and third-party tools, improving workflow efficiency.
Zendesk
Zendesk is customer service software and support ticketing system that can help your dealerships efficiently manage customer interactions and support requests.
It allows you to keep track, prioritize, and resolve customer issues promptly through articles, FAQs, and self-service resources. It will be worth your while when good reviews start coming in.
Other tools that help your dealership run smoothly
A successful dealership uses car dealer software solutions and tools for its operations, from inventory management to improving relationships with customers.
Dedicated automotive inventory management software can prove to be incredibly useful when you need to track your inventory in real-time, analyze data, optimize pricing based on market trends and vehicle condition, and improve customer experience.
Most of the tools can be seamlessly integrated with CRM and sales systems, which will help you connect the information flow between inventory management and customer management.
Dealership management software (DMS) can help dealerships manage vehicle inventory by tracking details such as make, model, VIN, pricing, and availability. These systems manage service appointments, technician scheduling, parts inventory, and repair orders, all in one place.
Choose software that matches your digital marketing strategy!
Centralized platforms are incredibly useful in today’s world. If you can manage all aspects of a dealership from inventory and sales to service and finance in one place, you will have more time to focus on growing your business and improving sales.
You’re probably wondering how many of these tools you really need and which ones to choose.
Our advice would be to think about what your weak spots are and where you might need help the most in order to lift your automotive web marketing to a higher level.
That’s probably the hardest step, but once you’re aware of what you need to work on, you can try out some of the free options to see which tool performs the best for your needs.
Once you have everything figured out (and tested), there’s plenty of time to upgrade to paid options.
Explore possibilities of international car sourcing with eCarsTrade!
Car auction platforms are a perfect way to expand your sourcing and grow your inventory.
With eCarsTrade, you can import ex-rental cars or vans and bid on pre-owned cars from, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Our eCarsTrade Delivery Service will help you organize the delivery of your newly bought cars to EU countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, and many more.
When you work with eCarsTrade, our support team will make sure you’re fully informed on everything you need to know about bidding, logistics, and importing cars from EU countries. That way, you can focus on choosing the perfect vehicle for your inventory!
eCarsTrade offers online auto auctions of ex-lease vehicles from France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany, with a complete maintenance history. We guarantee high quality of our vehicles, and a fast, simple and transparent purchasing process with fixed commission costs. We work with both European and international used car dealers and traders. Your dedicated Account manager is your personal support for any questions or issues!
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