Most dealers are now familiar with the idea of the customer journey and each customer’s individual path to purchase. One thing that is abundantly clear is that there is no such thing as a straight path that customers take from awareness to consideration to purchase, despite how much easier that would be for marketers. Along with a major uptick in the use of mobile devices to research purchases, the consideration phase for today’s consumers can narrow and broaden in unpredictable ways. Customer intent is a huge piece of the puzzle, and though it can be hard to lock down, the touchpoints that go into each individual customer’s journey are crucial to consider.
Here are three ways to marry customer intent and effective digital marketing strategy in today’s world, thanks to Think with Google.
- Align your dealership’s marketing efforts with desired business outcomes.
- Today, people expect to be able to find your business everywhere. Consider all the digital touchpoints you can offer to those in search of units like yours – social media platforms, search engine ads, marketing emails, and the list goes on. The more of these places that your dealership is available, the better, but it’s also important to invest in what drives the most results. For example -if your dealership sees a great return on investment with display advertising, it makes sense to place more resources into that strategy. Maybe your business doesn’t see as impressive ROI on social media – don’t abandon the channel altogether but scale back on social ad spending. Place more focus on growing organic relationships through social media instead.
- Stop marketing to the average customer.
- All customers present a different lifetime value. The average customer may only purchase from your dealership once, perhaps when you are having a big end-of-season sale. However, the customers who purchase from you again and again, refer their friends to your dealership, and sing your praises on social media and review sites have incredible lifetime value. These above-average customers want to feel understood on a deeper level, so your dealership needs to go above and beyond to anticipate their wants and needs. One way to do this is to provide valuable, educational marketing material on platforms like your website, social media channels, and emails -rather than only offering promotional material. While this takes a bit more effort and isn’t directly driven by profit, it goes a long way to show customers you care.
- Automate as much of your marketing strategy as possible.
- Through a tool like Marketing Automation, you can send lead-nurturing marketing materials to website visitors who have indicated their interests through actions they have taken on your site. This is a highly effective way to stop marketing generically and start getting targeted and personal. This tool can help you understand and predict customer intent in ways that aren’t possible otherwise. Scoring and nurturing leads through Marketing Automation can also help you identify connections between your dealership’s business goals and the habits of your target audience.
In addition to Marketing Automation, there are other tools that can help your dealership break down barriers and get a closer look at customer intent in a digitally focused world. Strategies like Behavioral Targeting and Geofence Targeting can also help bridge the gap between an online user’s customer journey and the marketing efforts of your dealership. As customer journeys shift and change, we must adapt our digital marketing strategies as well.