Where are you right now? Are you sitting in an empty dealership, tapping your pencil on the desk, sipping your third cup of coffee, wishing more “ups” would walk onto the lot?
The days of “lookie-loos” wandering into your dealership to browse inventory as they decide what to buy are likely behind us. Today all that happens on a phone, tablet, or laptop as customers snuggle on their couch under a fluffy blanket. Guess what? You need to be there on the couch with them.
No, we’re not talking about making house calls. Digital marketing is the trick to generating leads.
You need customers to see your inventory before they ever set foot on your lot. That’s how you get interested buyers to schedule those web appointments, and you need to do it at the right time.
How Digital Marketing Leads to In-Person Dealership Visits?
The number of “ups” may be down, but people are still buying!
Despite low inventories, cars are selling in record numbers. In fact, 2021 saw nearly 15 million light vehicles (cars and trucks) sold in the U.S., and the uptick is expected to continue.
Experts believe that in this environment, dealers that invest in digital marketing will drive more customers to their dealerships.
Cox Automotive’s annual car buyer study also found that the more focused a dealership was on digital marketing, the less they were affected by the inventory shortage.
These dealerships also saw higher levels of customer satisfaction overall.
Why digital marketing, specifically? It’s relatively inexpensive and can reach most of your audience. This equates to a winning solution for building leads and driving sales. But when you deliver those messages can be just as critical as how and where you deliver them.
The Critical Path-to-Purchase Car Shopping Phase: ZMOT
You may not realize how long customers actually shop for a vehicle before they actually buy.
Let’s step into the customer journey for a refresher.
The pre-market phase is when customers are exposed to marketing messages before they even begin to research a purchase. This phase can last for years. You should absolutely be marketing to those that aren’t necessarily looking to buy today.
During the pre-market phase, it’s critical to expose car shoppers to brand marketing so they know who you are. This is the very tip-top of the purchase funnel – awareness.
Next, something stimulates the decision to begin considering a purchase. Maybe their needs have changed: A couple finds out they’re expecting their third child and they need to size up to fit a family of five. Or someone’s quote for costly repairs motivates them to start looking into new cars.
Google’s Car Shopping Journey Research Findings
In 2011, Google performed a large automotive research study to evaluate the shopper journey in the new age of digital marketing. (While the study is more than10 years old, it’s still considered very relevant).
What they found was that the automotive industry has an extra step in the customer journey that other industries do not. They call it the “zero moment of truth” (ZMOT).
The ZMOT comes between stimulus (when shoppers get that idea to purchase a new vehicle) and the “first moment of truth” when they visit a dealership and begin to engage directly.
The zero moment of truth is critical for marketers because it’s when consumers get smart about alternatives, read reviews, look for promotions and specials, and comparison-shop, all before going to a dealership. This research phase can last for months (an average of 90 days). And with inventories as low as they are now, you can expect this consideration and research phase to last even longer.
Over these months, the ZMOT phase can include hundreds of interactions. Most of the steps in this phase include online activity – customers hit search engines, review dealer inventories, browse manufacturers’ websites, compare models, etc.
What’s the key to ZMOT? It’s all done online.
Customers report this online research is more important in their decision-making than traditional marketing tactics of radio, TV, and newspapers.
What “ZMOT” Means for Dealers
Your goal is to get in front of customers as many times as you can during this ZMOT phase. And, because audiences are distinct, you should be putting your inventory in multiple channels to reach even more car shoppers.
For example, if you’re running ads on only Facebook, you’re missing out on Gen-Z and Millennial shoppers who tend to spend more time on Instagram. Meanwhile, customers shopping on Craigslist might not use OfferUp or Facebook Marketplace.
Your best bet is to put your message everywhere shoppers are searching, so the customers in this ZMOT consideration phase actually see your inventory. Sure, targeting ads yields results, but they’re more expensive.
At AutoSweet, we believe it’s more effective to market broadly and inexpensively. The more chips you put down, the higher your likelihood of winning.
To summarize:
- Get in front of customers early and often during their consideration (ZMOT) phase and meet them where they are: online
- Be broad in your marketing tactics, placing messages in various channels for greater effectiveness
- Consider an email branding campaign to raise awareness during the pre-market phase
To find out more about how to build a cost-effective digital inventory marketing strategy into your 2022 sales plan, fill out the form below for a free 5-minute strategy session.
