With an incredible amount of competition in advertising, it’s important as ever to cut through the clutter with marketing communications. Car dealerships have long sent campaigns to a wide audience with one idea: the more, the better. We know less isn’t always more, but a car dealership marketing plan should have a strategy. One that aligns with dealership goals and, most importantly, the customer journey.

Here’s a quick go-to guide on how to build a dealership marketing plan that simplifies customer communication while enhancing effectiveness.

Set Your Dealership Up for Long-Term Success with a Strategic Marketing Plan

Gather a List of Key Events and Initiatives

A dealership marketing plan shouldn’t be difficult—it should start by following events and goals you already have set for the year. Or, at least by the month or quarter. Once you know what those events and goals are, you can plan campaigns that align with them. For example, if you’re looking to promote a Fourth of July Sales Event or other summer-themed promotion, you can plan your campaigns accordingly.

Take a Targeted, Omni-Channel Approach

When you know which types of campaigns you want to send, pinpoint the customers most likely to engage with your communications. For example, a service campaign target list might include customers who have not been in for service in the last 12 months. Narrowing your lists in such a way helps avoid over-communication and boosts the chances of a customer taking action.

It’s also critical to take an omni-channel approach to increase visibility and engagement. Our experts recommend email, mail, SMS, voice, ringless voicemail, and social formats to maximize your store’s potential. Your customers and prospects are already using all these formats—so why not meet them where they are to keep your store top-of-mind.

Decide Your Offers Ahead of Time

The offers in your dealership marketing plan should align with your decisions on campaigns to send and audiences to engage. Timely, relevant offers that align with those in various points in the automotive customer journey greatly enhance the experience and guide them back for sales or service. As such, a sales campaign should include sales offers and a service campaign should include service offers. But these offers can help you meet your store’s specific goals, too. If you know you want to drive more tire sales in August, ensure you have a tire service campaign planned, with an enticing tire offer, targeting customers who are due for new tires based on current mileage.

Add Automation to Your Dealership Marketing Plan

A car dealership marketing plan should include monthly topics/campaigns, along with coinciding target lists and offers. To capture customers in every stage of the customer journey, however, adding automated communications can help you drive consistent sales and service traffic all year long. The proper software solution makes implementing a marketing automation strategy simple for your store.

Partner with Experts

Affinitiv offers a user-friendly platform and team of strategists who know exactly how to build a dealership marketing plan proven to drive best results. From helping pinpoint the best campaigns to launch, audiences to engage, and offers to send, we’re more than a software vendor—we’re your partner. Contact us to get started today.