Top 10 Auto Business Marketing Trends for 2024

Discovering the best ways to market your local auto business is crucial for gaining and retaining customers, especially in today’s digital market where things are constantly changing. Here at Podium, we have created a guide to the top ten marketing trends in the auto industry to help you stay ahead of the game. Let’s dive in.

1. Leverage SMS Communication

Establishing a direct line of communication with your customers has never been more important. SMS communication is a fast, efficient, and personal way to keep customers informed and engaged. By sending text messages about appointments, special promotions, and offers, you can capture their attention and improve the overall customer experience.

Podium’s Text Marketing is a great tool for streamlining your SMS customer communications, making your business more accessible and responsive to customer needs.

2. Focus on Online Reviews

Just like word of mouth holds a lot of sway in the auto industry, online reviews hold similar power in the digital world. It’s important for local businesses like yours to actively monitor, respond to, and encourage online reviews, even after a sale, to keep a strong online reputation.

This practice increases your visibility, credibility, and consumer trust. It’s not only about getting good reviews but also how you respond to them that counts. Customers appreciate knowing their feedback is being heard and valued.

3. Optimize with SEO

Having an effective SEO strategy plays a vital role in bringing organic traffic to your website. This includes keyword optimization and creating quality content that adds value for potential customers. Local SEO specifically is crucial for auto businesses, helping you rank higher in localized searches.

Making sure your information is accurate in places like Google Business Profile also boosts your local SEO efforts so your business pops up when local customers are searching for auto services.

4. Embrace Video Content

Video content is a powerful tool for establishing your online presence—it gets more engagement on social media and boosts conversion on websites. Showcasing auto-repair processes, restoration work, or vehicle features through videos can substantially grow customer interest.

Sharing live video sessions on social media platforms can boost engagement, foster trust, and provide real-time responses to customer questions.

5. Invest in Chatbots

Today’s customers appreciate immediate responses. Chatbots can provide 24/7 customer service, respond quickly to questions, and even guide customers through basic troubleshooting. Continuous engagement improves customer satisfaction and keeps them coming back for future business.

Speed to lead is critical in today’s fast-paced market, and Podium offers an unparalleled advantage by ensuring businesses engage with leads within a couple of minutes—guaranteed. Podium’s conversational AI is outcome-driven – it doesn’t just respond to inbound leads it guides conversations toward a specific goal, such as a sale or booking. Unlike other AI systems that focus on providing correct responses, Podium aims to drive specific customer actions to grow your business.

Train your chatbot with the right information about your business like car models you sell or services you provide to effectively assist customers.

6. Use Data Analytics

Data-driven decisions are crucial for understanding market trends and predicting customer behavior. Monitoring data like website visits, search queries, online reviews, and social media engagement can provide valuable insights into what customers are looking for and their response to your marketing tactics.

These metrics can inform your strategy, helping you focus on areas that need improvement and maximizing your marketing ROI.

7. Personalize Experiences

Customers appreciate a personalized experience that caters to their specific needs. By leveraging customer data, you can tailor your marketing efforts to target specific customer groups. For instance, sending personalized service reminders, car accessory suggestions based on their auto model, or personalized discounts can leave a good impression on your customers.

Relevancy is key to gaining and retaining loyal customers. Think about how you can leverage data to create tailored solutions for the people you serve.

8. Get Involved in the Community

Local auto businesses thrive on strong community relations. Hosting or sponsoring local events and contributing to local causes can enhance your business image. Participating actively in the community strengthens trust, builds brand image, and usually results in favorable word-of-mouth.

This recommendation isn’t necessarily as tech-centric as the rest, but its power in building brand loyalty is significant.

9. Tap Into Influencer Collaborations

Collaborating with influencers, especially those local to your area and who are auto enthusiasts, can result in significant business growth. An influencer’s endorsement can encourage their audience to consider your products and services.

This strategy can be particularly effective when influencers share their experience with your business, authentically demonstrating the value of what you have to offer.

10. Automate Marketing

Automating different aspects of your marketing campaigns can save you and your team a considerable amount of time and effort. From scheduling status updates on social media channels to sending out automated email newsletters, marketing automation tools can eliminate redundant work and streamline processes.

Podium’s AI Employee guarantees your business engages with leads within a couple of minutes; during peak hours, off hours, and every hour in between.

By automating regular tasks, you can dedicate your team resources to other strategic tasks for growing your business.

Get Started

All of the strategies highlighted above can help your local auto business to thrive in today’s market and better serve today’s customers. With Podium‘s suite of tools, you can streamline your efforts and make it even easier to win more business. Get started with us today.

Don’t let your competition beat you to new leads. Try Podium’s AI Employee today.