Consider the following statements:

• It’s never been easier for dealerships to contact potential customers and get their inventory in front of in-market shoppers.
• It’s never been more challenging to cut through the marketing noise that the average consumer has learned — for the sake of their sanity — to ignore.

While both statements are true, dealerships that are serious about their marketing efforts will see this apparent dichotomy as an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

By finding ways to influence the behavior of customers, these companies will be rewarded not only with sales for today but also with repeat business that provides a foundation for future growth.

Thanks to the explosion of digital media, the modern consumer is inundated with marketing from the moment they open their eyes in the morning to the time they close them at night.

Each ad is vying for attention, wanting the consumer to take action, to spend money or to notice a product, service or idea. And, with each irrelevant message, the consumer grows more cynical toward marketing in general.

Throwing out just another advertisement for the consumer to ignore is a waste of both the dealership’s marketing budget and the consumer’s valuable time and attention. To rise above the noise, you’ve got to give them something almost no one else is offering: a reason to stop and engage.

Here are four tips to gain — and keep — the customer’s attention and influence their behavior, for both today and tomorrow.

1. Drive More Leads Down the Sales Funnel with Consumer Intelligence

One of the reasons that digital advertising has exploded is that it allows us to know more about consumers than ever before. Online shopping has allowed marketers not only to track consumer behavior, but when using technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive modeling, savvy retailers can calculate what the consumer’s next action will be.

This information can include their equity position in their current vehicle, the age of the vehicle, changing family patterns, shopping behavior, search history, online and offline transactions and more. Using this data, predictive modeling can create a profile of an individual consumer and better provide a personalized customer experience.

By offering valuable, relevant information that reflects their position in the sales funnel, the dealership can then move that customer down the funnel, all the while keeping itself at the forefront of their mind.

Coupled with an automated marketing platform to make the most of the consumer profiles that predictive modeling creates, a dealership can present an integrated, customized engagement strategy.

Awareness — At the very beginning of the sales process, your dealership can spark interest and allow the customer to become aware of what you offer and why you’re different from the competition. This is the brand recognition stage, and the right message here can move them to consider your dealership when the time comes to shop for a vehicle.

Consideration — The customer is now searching for a vehicle. They might not know exactly what type of vehicle or package they are looking for, but they are conducting research. By providing them with relevant information targeted to their specific needs, further personalized as their engagement with your communications ramp up, you can build the value of your dealership by giving them the customer experience they’ve come to expect from industry giants like Amazon and Netflix.

Intent — This is the active shopping phase, where the customer intends to purchase a vehicle. If you’ve utilized predictive modeling to make the most of the consumer intelligence you have, you’ve shown the customer that your dealership values them as an individual, has listened to their desires and has presented them with a choice of vehicles that suits their needs.

Decision — Through your marketing and sales efforts, you’ve built your dealership’s value in the eyes of the customer, answered their questions and provided a detailed, personalized experience. Price is no longer the primary selling point; your dealership now has a perceived value and has earned the customer’s trust — leading from intent to purchase to the actual sale with your dealership over the competition.

Retention — After purchase, predictive modeling continues to play a role in keeping your new customers engaged even when they are not in market. Service reminders and tailored messaging with important information about recalls and changing driving and maintenance conditions throughout the year keep their attention focused on your dealership for their current and upcoming needs.

2. Utilize Buyer Detection to Engage In-Market Shoppers Before Competitors

Consumers most often begin the car shopping process to solve some pain point in their life.

• Their current vehicle might be aging and in constant need of repair.
• Their family needs might have changed, and they need a different type of vehicle.
• They might have a new driver in the family.
• They might have a new job or financial situation and can afford to own a better vehicle.

Today’s consumers are also better educated than ever before. For the vast majority of shoppers, purchasing a vehicle isn’t an impulse decision but the end of an exhaustive research effort. Tying your marketing into each customer’s unique reasons for wanting to purchase an automobile — and doing so in a timely manner when they come back into market — gives your dealership a significant advantage over the competition.

By taking predictive modeling further into buyer detection, you can alert your sales team when a customer is back in market and better anticipate that customer’s needs as they begin the search for their next vehicle. With predictive modeling, you already know this consumer and what they are likely interested in purchasing. Buyer detection is the next step in getting in front of them with the right content at the optimal time.

Emotion and logic both play a part in the final purchase decision. By aiming your marketing and sales efforts at the reasons — both stated and unspoken — that a customer needs a new vehicle, your dealership can satisfy each element. You can display how a vehicle in your inventory will solve their problems, thereby making them feel good and secure about the decision.

Instead of leaving with a potential case of buyer’s remorse, they’ll have confidence in both their new vehicle and in the service you provided.

Even customers who were in-market at one point — but for some reason left without buying — can still be in play once you have the right marketing program in place. By keeping constant track of the activity of consumers who might have paused their search, your dealership can reactivate these “dead” unsold leads by noticing when they begin their search for a vehicle again. Being the first to “greet” them at this point puts your dealership at the top of their list.

3. Follow Up with In-Market Shoppers through the Right Channel with the Right Content at the Right Time

It’s important that your dealership speaks in one voice across different channels, while still personalizing each message to each consumer. Once, television, radio and newspapers were the automotive marketer’s only tools; now, there are many more options to choose from, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Also, take into account that consumers have individual preferences about how they wish to be communicated with and which method is more effective for them.

Intelligent marketing systems allow dealers to maintain a consistent message no matter which channel — email, direct mail, mobile, chat, social media or other — is being used. Also, different shoppers will respond better to various channels depending on where they are in the sales funnel.

High-funnel shoppers might respond better to social media notices than direct mail, for instance, whereas low-funnel shoppers might prefer the personal touch of being texted. A marketing automation platform powered by artificial intelligence and utilizing predictive modeling can keep track of these preferences and make recommendations on what to say and how best to say it, then automatically deploy that communication for you.

Another advantage of using AI-driven tools to follow up with consumers effectively is having the ability to create private offers. Dynamically including personalized test-drive offers or sales and service incentives in your dealership’s marketing campaigns gives the consumer a better reason to engage.

AI-driven tools can also populate specific VINs into your email and social ad campaigns that in-market shoppers are most likely to be interested in. Part of the job of the modern dealership isn’t to present the consumer with choices but to give them the means to narrow their choices down to a manageable few.

4. Refine Customer Lifecycle Management After the Purchase

Maintain the Relationship — You’ve worked hard to build a rapport with the customer, and maintaining it requires consistent communication. Make sure your dealership stays in contact by providing useful information on a regular basis. Service reminders are important, but don’t make every message to your customer a sales message.

Make the Customer Feel Like Family — Because of the data you’ve collected and the relationship you’ve built, you know your customer better than almost any other retail company ever can. Use this familiarity to tailor your marketing across all your channels and communicate with them in the way they wish to be reached.

Offer exclusive deals and private offers based on their position in the ownership lifecycle. Use a loyalty program to reward them for doing business with your dealership. Give them reasons to come in and, when they do, make them feel good about their decision to buy and service with you.

Word of Mouth Works — When someone buys a new vehicle, it’s a natural conversation starter with their friends and family. If your dealership made the process easy, treated them as an individual and allowed them to leave your lot feeling good about their decision, they will tell their circle.

They’ll also tell their circle if none of these things occurred.

Word of mouth is one of the best marketing tools a business has and is something your dealership can control by giving your customer something to brag about. It also reinforces the customer’s own decision; if they tell their friends and family they had a great customer experience, they’ll believe it themselves on a deeper level.

Your Dealership. Your Customers — Modern consumers are looking for reasons to ignore advertising and marketing to protect their own attention span. While some businesses see this as a challenge to overcome, your dealership can use this as an opportunity to cut through the noise.

With the right AI-powered marketing platform to make sense of the consumer data available, you can position your dealership as your customer’s partner, ready to listen to their desires and put them in the perfect vehicle for their needs.

Other dealerships are simply offering commodities to your customers. Thanks to your knowledge of them as individuals, you can become your customers’ partner and trusted advisor.

When your marketing and loyalty strategies are integrated, automated and taking full advantage of AI technology, customers won’t fall through the cracks while your staff is pursuing new leads. Your messages will be appreciated rather than ignored, and your recommendations will carry more weight because the customer recognizes that you understand their individual needs.

Whitepaper created for Outsell