This year’s Digital Trends Report really piqued my interest, and results didn’t disappoint!
With over 4.2 BILLION Social Media Users around the globe, it’s safe to say social media marketing is a logical step forward for any automotive business. The number of social media users will only grow over time, as new platforms and technologies develop and emerge.
We’ve come a long way from 2008 when only 10% of people used social media because that percentage is now 82%. Can you imagine? If you didn’t already, what are you waiting for to start with automotive social media marketing? This blog post will give you everything you need to know – and when you read it, it’s only up to you to START.
In 2021, there are 405.69 million people in North America who are actively using different platforms to gather information, make decisions, have fun, but also buy on social media.
Do you still think your business doesn’t belong there?
76% of the population in the USA and 85% in Canada are active on social media every day. Meaning if you take the population of your local community and find 76% or 85% of that, this will give you a pretty good idea of how many people in your local area are on social media.
And don’t get me wrong, not all of these people are your target audience. But believe me that your ideal customer is there, and if you aren’t, how many opportunities did you miss out on?
Wouldn’t it be great to grow your automotive business using best practices in Automotive Social Media Marketing? Because I am 100% sure you can!
The Benefits of Automotive Social Media Marketing
There are many benefits of using social media to promote your automotive business and we’ve singled out some of them:
- Use automotive social media marketing to increase brand awareness for your automotive business. This will allow people from your local community to get to know you, how you work, and they will know your business exists.
- Establish YOUR automotive business as a leader in your local community. With the cesspool of other automotive businesses, social media marketing is a great way to make your business stand out. Be active, provide great tips for your target audience, and differentiate yourself from others.
- Boost sales by creating meaningful relationships within your community. Being there for people, providing great customer support, answering their burning questions and offering a solution will get you a long way on social media.
- You will stay on top of industry trends, what your competitors are doing and be able to fill in the gaps they didn’t.
Let’s say you want to start marketing your automotive business on social media. Where would be a great place for you to start?
You can definitely try out various social networks, such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter – but don’t distract yourself with an overwhelming number of options.
Do the research on each platform, assess your capabilities, and see what would work best for your business.
The next step would be to pick a platform and learn as much as you can about it. What are the best practices? You can learn more about Instagram by reading this valuable blog post by Sprout Social.
Remember that social media is all about having fun, connecting, and engaging with people that will allow your personality to shine through the platform!
After your initial research, if you ever feel overwhelmed, Auto Plus Performance can offer you social media monthly subscriptions and even custom packages to skyrocket your growth using Automotive Social Media Marketing!
What’s the next step? Transform theory into practice!
Create a Social Media Game Plan for your Automotive Business
Start implementing what you’ve learned and put it into practice. No beginning is ever perfect, but practice makes it better – it’s important not to give up.
Now you have the idea of what works and what doesn’t, and how your business can benefit from social media. The next step is to create an automotive social media marketing plan that will help you achieve growth goals.
The best way to do so is to create a monthly content calendar. What’s that?
Content calendar prevents daily obstacles to come between your social media marketing goals and growth. Let’s be honest, you won’t have time every day to devote to your social media account. Pick a day or two to create a batch of content and put it into a content calendar so you always know what you’ll post.
Content calendar saves you time and energy you can use to further grow your business in different aspects!
Need ideas? We offer an automotive marketing service with 365+ post ideas for your automotive business, so you always know what to post!
Most Important Message for Automotive Digital Marketing – Bring Value
Every social media platform has its own rules, users, demographics – but one thing is always the same. You must bring value to the demographic of that platform.
Don’t just post cars and call it a day. Your customers don’t want to look at cars every day, but valuable content. So how can you provide value?
You spend days and years talking to your customers, which means you probably know them best! Use information about their burning questions, problems and talk about it on your social media channel.
83% of customers look at your social media channels and reviews when deciding where to bring their car! If you want to get more Google reviews, check out our previous blog How to get more google reviews for your Automotive Business. But how to persuade them you are the right choice using social media? Build trust and authority, and your business will be an obvious choice
Remember, by creating valuable content, you stay on top of customer’s minds when they need services you provide!
Creating Quality Posts – Key to successful Automotive Social Media Marketing
How to create great content for your automotive business?
Depending on how tech-savvy you are, you can use different software to create great content for automotive social media marketing. What is the best software for automotive social media marketing?
Photoshop is software commonly used by designers and photographers that offers a wide range of options to edit and create content. However, you may need some time to learn the program and how to make great posts using it! Affinity is its free alternative, and you can check out both to see what works best for you! Adobe also offers a free trial for Photoshop!
Canva is a great place for non-designers to create stunning visuals that are both beautiful and professional. It has a free and paid version, which is only $12.99 per month! Canva has hundreds of templates, elements, and drag-and-drop feature that make it extremely easy to design attention-worthy posts!
If you want to spice it up try out Venngage to create value-driven infographics! It has both paid and free versions, so it’s a no-brainer for you to test it out and create value through infographics with interesting data for your target audience. With over 10 000 templates, you will surely find what works for your automotive business!
Once you’ve chosen what software suits you best, what kind of posts can you create?
- How to use Carousels to drive value
Focus on one question/problem and divide it into 10 slides carousel post to drive engagement and increase the time people spend on your post. Don’t put too much text in each slide, and don’t forget to include a call to action on the last slide – whether it’s to comment, visit your website, or give you a follow!
- What to publish in single-image posts
Use single-image posts to build curiosity and accompany it with medium or long captions where you’ll talk about things that matter to your audience.
- Using Social Media to improve your customer service and take it to the next level
Answer queries, engage with people, and upgrade your customer service by being there for your customers when they need you!
Video plays an important role on social media! Keep reading for bonus tips about implementing Video Marketing in your Automotive Social Media Marketing Strategy.
Be consistent
You’ve probably already asked yourself “but how often should I post”? Various social media experts agree the more the merrier. But don’t forget to have both consistent posts, and consistent quality.
It would be great if you could post valuable content every day. However, that’s often not possible with the daily tasks you have to do. The best advice I can give you is to create a realistic plan and follow through with it. If you have time for 3 posts per week – great, but don’t forget to stick with it long-term!
Consistency is the key to winning social media game and get results! Make it a habit to post on your social media account and provide real value in your posts. The next tip will greatly help you with it!
How to Pre-Schedule Your Content on Social Media
What if I told you that your social media accounts can grow while you are doing something else?
Various pre-scheduling tools offer you exactly that!
Batch create your content, pre-schedule it using these tools, and focus on other aspects of your growing automotive business!
We’ve researched some of the best scheduling tools for automotive social media marketing, so you don’t have to!
Loomly
Offers a 15-day free trial. They offer a wizard where you answer questions to determine which of their plans suit your business best! This is a great way to see where you stand when it comes to spending money on social media scheduling tools. From our experience in automotive marketing, Base plan from Loomly offers you everything you’d need for $35 per month.
Sprout Social
While it offers 30-day free trial, Sprout Social is more expensive than Loomly. To use it, you’ll have to spend $99 per month on standard subscriptions However, it offers more advanced features compared to Loomly which justifies its price. My advice is to check it out and see which features benefit your business most, and if it’s worth it for you!
Meta (Facebook) Business Suite
A completely free scheduling tool by Meta. It offers you to schedule, edit, and post on both your Facebook and Instagram accounts. You can also run ads directly from Business Suite! If you are using Instagram and Facebook, it’s definitely worth checking out!
Buffer
The good news is that it has a completely free plan! It’s best suited for businesses that are just starting their social media journey. Their essentials subscription offers you analytics, publishing and engagement tools for only $5 a month, so it’s a steal! And you can test it out for free, with their 14-day free trial!
Later
A scheduling tool specifically made for Instagram. However, you can also use Later for all major social networks. Price ranges from $0-40 a month and they offer various features and a free trial for each plan. Later is highly visual, so you will always know what your posts will look like, which is a significant benefit!
Choose what works best for your automotive business based on your social media game plan, goals, and needs! I am 100% positive you’ll love at least one of these solutions!
Video Marketing on Social Media for Automotive Businesses
Shooting professional videos for your business just a couple of years ago would be an expensive endeavor. You’d need professional equipment, lighting, videographer, expensive cameras, etc. But now it’s a whole another story.
Video marketing has tremendously grown in popularity in the last two years. Why?
It’s a great way to show the personality of your automotive business and build credibility, authority and trust among your local community.
People believe it when they see it. And showing the way you work; your face and expertise will get you a long way on social media. So how can you create great video marketing materials to win automotive social media marketing game?
Tips for great video marketing on social media for automotive businesses:
Put subtitles in your videos!
Most people watch videos, but without a sound. You want them to hear what you have to say, so always add subtitles. Happy Scribe can help you a great deal with that because it generates subtitles automatically! How great is that?
Show your expertise.
Talking about the most common problems and solutions for your target audience. Talk to them as you’d talk to a friend and they’ll immediately gain trust in your business!
Quality is important.
People don’t want to watch videos full of pixels and noise. Use a good camera, which doesn’t have to be expensive because most phones, especially iPhones, will suffice!
Light plays an important role in shooting videos.
If you don’t have professional equipment, don’t worry! The best advice we can give you is to record your videos in natural light, or by using ring-light, which is very affordable!
Now that we’ve covered the most important tips for shooting a video, let’s see where you’ll post it!
In 2021, Instagram has decided to shift its strategy from photo-app to app that favors videos. Besides normal video, you have two types of video posts there:
- IGTV
- Reels
You can use IGTV as long-form video content to explain some topics in-depth. It can last up to an hour, but you can always post videos as a series if you want it to be longer. However, keep in mind that for people to spend an hour on your content, you need to provide serious value!
Reels are entertaining, educational, and fun short-form videos you can use to gain high organic reach and attention. This is very important at the beginning of your automotive social media marketing journey! Use trending sounds, choose your reel style, experiment and see what works best for you! There are various apps that let you edit your reels video, and it can last up to 60 seconds. You can also edit reels directly from your Instagram app, add filters, text, and cool transitions! Have fun!
Conclusion
If you are reading up to this point, you’ve realized that automotive social media marketing can greatly benefit your automotive business. The best advice I can give you is that it may seem hard at the beginning, but the key is not to give up! If you apply these tips, you’ll soon get to see traction and the results of your effort!
Be consistent, post valuable content with attractive design, don’t be afraid to show your face on video and you are good to go! With the right plan and content calendar, nothing can stop your automotive business from growing on social media.
And if you ever feel overwhelmed and need guidance, check our social media packages and affordable ideas for automotive social media marketing!
