Does Your Dealership Have a Good Incentive Based Marketing Program?

By

Jason Parman

Incentive based marketing can in large be defined as the use of motivational devices such as competitions, games, premiums, and special pricing to promote the sale of a particular good or service. The question is, “Is your dealership taking advantage of this marketing tool?” There have been recent studies carried out by reputable companies like KN Dimestore and Social Vibe that shows incentive-driven marketing can significantly boost brand awareness and sales online. These studies which were carries out from June to July of last year and surveying more than 30,000 consumers highlighted that incentive-driven marketing had a fantastic effect on brand-customer relationships, creating interaction between the two, causing instant rapport and producing imminent results.  An excellent way of drawing attention to your dealership, incentive-based marketing rewards the customer for taking notice and makes them much more perceptible to your overall brand message.

In the early days of marketing automobiles on dealer websites it was extremely easy to differentiate yourself from your competitors because if you had a great set of photos, a good call to action, and a good vehicle description the consumer was more likely to visit your dealership. This later became a problem when dealers finally realized that marketing on the internet was a powerful tool and everyone started doing a significantly better job at representing their dealership by using the simple process of creating a better ad on their vehicle listing pages. This is why using an incentive based marketing program to create an incentive that allows your customer to interact with your dealership is so important, because incentive based marketing is a incredible way to make a lasting impression with your customers. The study even dives further by showing that customers who had been involved in a positive incentive-based experience being much more likely to consider that brand when making a purchase, proving once again that incentive based marketing is a great way to promote your dealership online.

If your dealership uses social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, incentives are a great way to drive traffic to your main website. With a growing amount of businesses using social media websites to advertise exclusive offers to their customers, for example, $25 gift card for Facebook fans that refer a customer to your dealership, offering incentives has never been easier. With the study reporting that “Consumers exposed to an incentivized engagement were 161% more likely to visit the dealer’s website,” offering your customers an incentive, no matter how small, helps to increase site visits. Increasing site traffic not only boosts your search engine rankings, it drives traffic to your dealership and increases sales.

Incorporating incentive-driven advertising into your dealerships internet marketing strategies is a fantastic way of creating strong relationships with your current and future customers. Incentive Based Marketing allows your website to have a clear call to action by promoting a $25 gift card to simply come down and take a test drive. It's amazing how much more traffic your dealership will be able to generate and at the same time allowing you to build a lasting relationship with your current and future customers.