Three Ways to Utilize Dealership Data to Get Ahead of Savvy Car Buyers

August 9, 2019

Three Ways to Utilize Dealership Data to Get Ahead of Savvy Car Buyers

In a competitive, technology driven automotive market, winning return business means finding streamlined ways to effectively reach and retain customers. As customers’ car buying habits have changed drastically, auto dealerships are finding themselves challenged on how to step out of their traditional comfort zones.

In this blog post, automotiveMastermind:

Identifies ways to bridge the gap between data available to auto dealerships and how it can be used to sell more cars every month
Explains how a data-driven dealership marketing strategy can help you gain a better understanding of customers
Demonstrates three approaches to lead you to targeted, profitable dealership marketing and increased sales

Understand the New Social Car Buyer Journey

Knowing the influences that led a shopper to contact the auto dealership, whether in-person or otherwise, is a first step to finding where you can fit in the new car buyer journey. Early-stage customer research introduces multiple influences, from social media that provides recommendations from friends, family and experts, to print, radio, and TV ads which can lead customers back to social media to learn about brands and automotive dealers. At this point, a lot of decision-making power rests with the customer, but you can begin to learn more about customers and why they’re interested in possibly making a purchase.

Make no assumptions in attributing influencing sources or reasons for researching. Accenture recommends gathering, enriching, interpreting and putting existing and new data sources to use to stay relevant to consumers. At an early stage in the buyer journey such as initial online research, invest in a dealership sales platform’s technology. That investment allows you to gather and analyze customer social media data, gaining insight into life events that led to online window shopping. Investing in predictive marketing technology allows you to gather and analyze customer data to gain actionable insights.

Leverage Data to Increase Car Sales

Half of car buyers¹ do not contact the dealership prior to their first visit, though this behavior is anticipated to shift as auto dealers continue adopting digital retailing tools. Still, auto dealers must adapt to make the most of initial contacts and walk-in traffic. Deloitte suggests applying statistical models to a mass of historical data from a range of sources to support a more precise and effective approach to marketing efforts, like targeted one-to-one offers driven by predictive analytics.

Tracking potential buyers over time uniquely allows analysis of how their actions in a single week impact subsequent actions and brand preferences². Now, you can start putting data you’ve gathered to work for you through predictive analytics marketing. As a tool, predictive analytics can effectively forecast customer behavior, helping you form actionable customer segments and personalized offers or incentives³. Using analytics to create dealership customer acquisition and retention strategies can be what sets you apart from competition.

Engage Dealership Customers with Targeted Campaigns that Work

Without accurate data, knowing who to market to can be complete guesswork. So, ensure your data provides insights that help you develop smart, personalized and targeted marketing campaigns that place you above your competition. automotiveMastermind® provides actionable automotive marketing data that connects you to new prospects when they’re in the market for a new vehicle. Our precise targeting capabilities leverage thousands of data points and proprietary algorithms to accurately motivate people who are identified as most likely to buy new cars, placing your best customer opportunities first and resulting in incremental sales and revenue.

Being data driven not only improves car sales and the customer experience, but also improves dealer operations.⁴ Customer retention also benefits from data and personalized communications, as

data enables dealers to better understand what drives customers away and how to intervene.⁵

Data-driven customer insights will absolutely increase customer loyalty and automotive dealership customer retention through relationships instead of merely just helping to close deals. Combining insights with actionable data and intelligent predictive marketing will effectively guide prospects along in their buying journey. Interested in how your dealership can improve its marketing strategy and grow revenue with a comprehensive sales platform? Contact us today for a free consultation.