What should be on your dealership’s content marketing calendar?

Your content marketing calendar helps you plan, manage and execute your advertising and social media marketing strategy to fit your customer’s needs. There may be unplanned events or promotions that come up, but for the most part, this calendar shows your staff what the dealership’s content marketing will look like each week, month, and quarter. It also helps plan staffing for quick responses to inquiries and sales that result from your planning and strategy.

The role of content marketing

But first, what does your buyer need? What questions do they have, and what needs do they want to be met? Once the focus is taken off profit and placed on your car buyers’ needs, you’ll be able to provide social media content that can lead to increased sales.

Car shoppers are more educated about your product and may even know more than you. With any search on the internet, they can control their journey to you. Often, you’ll never even know they were in-market.

But, since they’re searching, you have the opportunity to produce content and capture their attention. And in the process, you’ll build their trust as your share information. The plan is to provide content that turns them into a customer instead of a lead.

What’s your content?

The importance of social media and blog posts isn’t just to entertain, although that’s a component. Your money also needs to be spent on turning user likes and follows into vehicle, parts, or service purchases. Although there are many ways to go about populating your content marketing calendar, here are a few to get your thoughts moving in the right direction.

Blog posts

Your first step in setting up your calendar should be blog posts, and they should be multiple weekly posts. You must know your market enough to provide posts of interest to your customer, which are not necessarily things of interest to you.

It’s good to have the content developed and on your site for current customers to read, but it’s also crucial for future customer searches. Pay attention to what your search traffic looks like and find some relevant search terms. By including them in your posts, Google will begin to search those posts, and in a few months, you’ll start ranking for those terms.

Car buying insider secrets

Although you can write these tips yourself, it would be an excellent opportunity to write what a third party may say about it.

Find a source online that provides good information, even if you think it’s giving too much of the inside workings of a dealership. This transparency will go a long way to showing how much you care about your customer’s experience and your desire to not take advantage of them.

Testimonials

Studies show that around 95% of future customers will read reviews about you and your models before purchasing. If you aren’t already doing it, this is an excellent time to collect feedback from your customers through one-to-one conversations and online questionnaires. When you have the information you like, take some pics or videos and get their permission to post them on your site.

Show what You sell

You should know the cars that are selling well in your competitive area. Sometimes they’re new, and sometimes they’re from the pre-owned lot, but they should be models in high demand. Although you can post a quick photo and basic info, it’s best to follow up with:

• Quality photos of the interior and exterior. iPhone or Android pics work well.
• Details including mileage, year, and features.
• A link to your YouTube walk-through video with audio explaining the benefits and features of the car, if possible.
• A link to the model listing, VIN, pricing, and financing on your site.

The more information you provide, the better. And don’t forget to include a direct contact for the buyer.

How To’s

When people buy their car, few read the owner’s manual. By providing “How To’s” on everything from checking the oil to operating the latest technology, you can save yourself a lot of trouble and time. Writing a blog on getting an oil change or doing a quick video on how to operate wireless Android Auto provides content for your site, it can also increase search traffic from Google.

Live video

Although live video of something happening at your dealership isn’t on the same interest level as free tickets to Disneyland, you could get someone in the process of searching for a car. At worst, you have content and a place for people to ask questions, and at best, you give someone an incentive to come to your event.

Content related to your inventory

If you primarily sell SUVs to families, share content about local family-friendly day trips. Or work with a local business to provide discounts for your customers. It’s important to share information related to your inventory, but it can be how the cars are used and be helpful to your audience.

Consistency brings success

By planning out your calendar, you’ll provide content that shows you as a trusted advisor. It helps you present your information on a month-to-month basis and consistently keeps you top of mind as the product expert with your current and future customers.