Lead Generation for Car Dealerships: 17 Ideas to Boost Your Sales Opportunities

If you’re trying to understand how to get more automotive leads and more car sales, here are 17 simple yet effective automotive lead generation ideas for car dealers to get more quality leads in your area.

Operating a car dealership means understanding that, without lead generation, your business will get left behind by the competition and eventually die out. These days, it is important to be aware of the latest methods of generating leads. Because it is by far one of the most important parts of creating a thriving automotive business, you need to learn the different methods of getting warm sales leads and helping your car salesmen close deals.

This article will set you up for success by detailing the different lead generation strategies and sales lead tips you can use when looking to generate more car sales. Car dealerships run tight ships with monthly quotas where salespeople must sell a minimum amount of cars or close a certain number of deals.

For this reason, getting plenty of new, easy-to-convert automotive leads can be crucial for a dealership’s growth and success. There are several platforms you can work with, and all offer different high-quality features you can use to generate leads and sell cars.

One effective platform for growing your automotive business is Podium. The platform offers several strategies for automotive lead generation for car dealerships, having helped thousands of automotive sales professionals effectively grow their businesses. As a tool for marketing, car sales, and customer communication, Podium has helped businesses in the automotive industry improve their conversion rate by improving their search engine optimization as well as other marketing methods.

Moreover, Podium enables high-quality customer service as well as many automation features that increase agent productivity and help you grow your auto leads–and, ultimately, car sales.

Speed to lead is critical in today’s fast-paced market, and Podium offers an unparalleled advantage to car dealers by ensuring businesses engage with high-value auto leads within a couple of minutes—guaranteed.

Podium’s conversational AI is outcome-driven – it doesn’t just respond to inbound automotive 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.

Keep reading to get a better idea of the latest methods of lead generation for car dealers and how to put it to work and increase car sales in your business.

How to Generate Car Sales Leads: 17 Ideas

When it comes to how to generate car sales leads, there are lead generation companies that provide tools for connecting your dealership to potential automotive leads who are looking for a new car. Other dealerships leave this process in the hands of their sales teams. For this reason, it is a good idea to do some research so you don’t fall behind in selling your cars. The following lead generation strategies offer a solid starting point to help you (and your car salesmen) attract more auto leads and close deals.

1. Capture High-Quality Photos

People shop with their eyes, and when it comes to buying a new car, providing high-quality photos of the vehicle is key to compelling car buyers to schedule a test drive. Follow these tips to ensure your car dealership catches the eye of ideal buyers and helps increase car sales.

• Be mindful of the angles you use when taking photos: Different vehicles will look the most appealing from different perspectives (directly from the front versus a 3/4 angle, for example). When taking those initial cover photos, take a few test shots to see which angle looks best. That way, your images can catch the eye of car buyers and drive automotive lead generation.
• Take photos in an appealing environment: No matter how amazing the car looks, a subpar backdrop can hinder your ability to generate leads. Take the car to an attractive location, and be mindful of the type of car you’re trying to sell. For example, an SUV designed for rugged outdoor enthusiasts benefits from photos taken on rough terrain or natural environments.

• Include lighting and color balance techniques: Without proper lighting and color balancing, the details that make a new car stand out will get lost — thus, your auto leads suffer. Poor lighting can even cause mistrust because people may think you’re trying to hide something. Make sure the lighting is bright (and at a proper angle) and the colors in your photograph are vibrant and accurate.

2. Track Real-Time Analytics

When you want to increase automotive leads generation (and car sales), you need to define metrics you can use to measure past conversion rates against new rates—based on your new lead generation strategies. Effective lead generation isn’t a guessing game, nor is it passive. You need to regularly track KPIs like:

• The number of visitors to your site and each car (product) you’re trying to sell.
• The average handling time (AHT) and response times of your customer service representatives when responding to automotive leads.
• Where site and page visitors are coming from, so you know which marketing channels are most effective at attracting qualified leads.
• How often auto leads interact with your live chats (and the abandonment rates—to see if there are common issues in the customer experience that you can correct).
• The volume of test drives scheduled with one of your salespeople, versus those who actually show up at your dealership.

• Actual sales lead generation metrics and reports to see the direct correlation between your automotive lead generation efforts and your car sales.

3. Leverage SEO

People buying a car do tons of online research into car dealers–or anyone (private or otherwise) who may sell cars they’re looking for. This starts with keyphrases used in Google search bars, which lead to SEO-optimized blogs that lead to dealership sites. To increase car sales, you want to be part of this chain of events to get more sales leads.

Using keywords to promote car dealerships and their websites is one of the most effective ways to increase test drives and car sales. You need to create relevant, useful content around the right keywords to draw the right potential audience to your business. Creating content that naturally flows around these topics and ideas will attract automotive leads to your site and keep them there. This will convert to leads in the long run.

Here are some automotive lead generation techniques you can use to optimize your car dealership blog:

• Get your city name into the copy, preferably the headline.
• Utilize ‘how-to’ and advice articles.
• Make sure to have a ‘call-to-action’ at the end of each article.
• Place important keywords at the beginning of the article, headline, and throughout the article.

Finally, you should consider looking up frequently asked questions for cars that you sell. These may include:

• What do I need to qualify for a new car loan?

• What financing options and promotions are available?

• Are there Ford Explorers for sale near me?

• Fuel-efficient car near me

Creating content around answering these questions can help sell cars, because the content will naturally show up in SERPs when potential automotive leads search these questions and lead clients to your dealership’s website. The more visitors you get, the more potential leads you have.

4. Rank Higher for Local Searches

To start getting more auto leads, car dealerships need to rank highly on search engine results pages (SERPs). This means creating optimized web pages and other types of content that provide value to potential customers and that Google will deem relevant and useful. You can get more potential customers from the traffic that your site sees. These are considered ‘high-quality’ sales leads and usually get you more car sales. When all else fails, your car dealership should consider working with a professional lead generation company involved with internet car sales and marketing.

Getting a professional content writer and search engine optimization (SEO) specialist for your dealership will help your website and blog increase sales lead generation. These professionals understand the key aspects of car sales SEO and how to create website copy and content around the best keywords to get the top spots on SERPs and effectively draw traffic in.

Keep in mind, though, that optimizing a car dealers’ website, and getting to the top of SERPs, is more of a long-term project. As such, it may take a while for auto dealers to see the results you want (better sales lead generation and car sales).

5. Stay Active on Social Media

To effectively grow your car sales leads, you will need to run an active social media marketing campaign. This means creating accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms to reach your target audience. If you want to draw in a younger crowd, you should also consider having a profile on Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok.

Not only do you need to have these accounts up and running, but you also need to engage potential customers through interesting posts and comments. Create your post content around short, relevant pieces of information your potential clients and clients can use. Make sure to attach pictures, videos, and other media to help keep your potential client’s attention. You can even showcase the newest car models or the latest promos available at your dealership.

6. Create Interesting and Attractive Videos

Content is key to developing more auto leads and therefore more car sales and revenue. Content comes in a range of forms, such as how-to guides, blog posts, memes, videos, and more. You have to remember that when car buyers are interested in a vehicle, they want to know all the details about it. This is a prime opportunity for one of your car salesmen to create a video that walks them through the car’s features.

You can have one of your salespeople do the video; just make sure they are charismatic and eloquent enough to get the information across. Your video should include the following features to build trust and excitement with auto leads:

• Overview: A general overview of the vehicle, what it offers, the year it was made, and what features it has.

• Exterior: A 360-degree look at the exterior of the vehicle. Make sure to point out any unique features or state-of-the-art technology used.
• Interior: Take the time to record the car’s interior to give your clients an idea of the level of comfort they can expect from the car. You can also highlight advanced comfort features like seat warmers or a high-tech climate control system.

• Performance: Mention information on the car’s engine, along with any special capabilities such as towing.

• Safety: Notes about safety features, such as advanced braking systems, are important to add.

• Call-to-action (CTA): Close the video with a call-to-action such as “Set up your test drive today!” This can help convince leads to take action after watching your video. You could even have a CTA that invites car buyers to learn more about promotions and financing options.

7. Craft a Referral Program

A cost-effective way of generating excellent leads is to create a thriving referral program with past car buyers. Keep your customers happy from the start, and they will want to tell everyone about you. Give them incentives to let other auto leads know about your car dealership, and how you helped them get into the car of their dreams. This will help encourage them to let their family members, business associates, and friends know about you, what you offer, and the excellent customer service provided by your salespeople.

You can offer rewards such as:

• Aftermarket vehicle accessories
• Gift cards

• Dealership store credit
• Discounts on services

All these are excellent lead generation strategies for getting happy clients to bring more customers in, and do some of your sales lead generation for you.

8. Try Pay-per-Click and Google Ads

Pay-per-click advertising and Google Ads are excellent ways of getting qualified leads to notice the cars you’re trying to sell. These are ads you can tailor to your specific, ideal car buyers, and you only pay for the times that people actually see the advertisement. As such, it’s a very budget-friendly method of generating leads.

9. Partner With Local Organizations and Influencers

Keeping up with trends takes a great deal of effort today. Make sure your brand is keeping up with the times by partnering with popular influencers. You can also collaborate with local organizations who may have access to qualified leads you have a high chance of converting into your sales lead generation funnel.

Also be sure to cross-promote other businesses that complement yours, like car wash companies, gas stations, or auto detailing shops. Keeping your business visible in your local community can help generate leads and build success. Actively participate in community events and festivals to build a positive image in your area.

10. Ensure Your Site is Mobile-Friendly

Keeping your site in the Dark Ages will hurt your business no matter what industry you are in. Make sure to keep your website mobile-friendly so it’s always accessible to potential sales leads and existing customers.

Some key aspects of setting up a mobile-friendly website are using short, concise copy, avoiding pop-up windows, and optimizing site speed. The easier and more user-friendly your site is to use, the longer prospects will stay there. And the longer prospects stay on your site, the higher the chance you have to generate leads.

11. Start a Blog and Create Interesting Content

New car sales often start with potential customers going to the computer to do some research. From used car deals, to financing options, and introducing your phenomenal salespeople, this can be your site’s moment to shine. When you develop a blog rich in useful content, you see a steady flow of natural site traffic. Keeping this site updated with details on current cars will help you make that potential automotive sale.

12. Follow-Up With Lost Prospects

One of the best ways to increase your sales leads in the automotive industry is by following up with lost prospects. Every sale means there are a dozen automotive leads who were potential sales that didn’t close. Re-engaging with these potential car buyers is an excellent way of getting warm leads and converting them into sales.

This can be done with emails sent through automation as well as calling potential customers. Another option is to build a quality LinkedIn profile and network within the automotive industry there as well.

Podium’s AI BDC helps dealers transform potential interest into concrete actions like booking test drives and scheduling service appointments.

13. Trade Quality Content for Contact Information

You, and your salespeople, can get contact information from automotive leads in the form of phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses to further market to your customers and generate more leads. Utilize the freemium thought process of offering free and valuable content in exchange for contact details. Keep your content high-quality, useful, and well-written and you will have tons of lead information coming in.

Examples of these forms of lead magnets are ‘how-to’ eBooks. These could be in-depth guides about topics like the following:

• Setting your Van Up for a Camping Trip

• Aftermarket Parts for Your Truck
• Getting Winter Tires for Your Vehicle

14. Improve Customer Communications With CRM

Using an excellent CRM tool will help you to track automotive leads, and follow up with potential clients. You can also use a sales funnel to manage client-sales associate interactions and track leads throughout the sales journey. There are interfaces designed to help salespeople connect, assign, and follow up with leads. The result is that dealerships get better conversion rates at a lowered marketing price.

If you aren’t sure which service to utilize, Podium offers a CRM built for small businesses that has many features that can help you get more automotive leads and follow up with them in an organized fashion regarding financing options, referrals, or even used cars they might be interested in.

15. Design Email and SMS Marketing Campaigns

Building a solid SMS marketing campaign or email campaign doesn’t have to be a mystery any longer. For instance, Podium can help car dealers leverage SMS marketing to send one text that drives thousands in revenue and use 500 ready-to-use texting templates to save time and effort when collecting automotive leads.

You can also set up automated emails to keep automotive leads engaged and nurture customer relationships even after the deal has been closed.

16. Get Customer Reviews

Getting customer reviews is an excellent way to get more leads, and therefore more sales. Cultivating more reviews means more business for your brand, so make sure you make it easy for customers to leave reviews of your car dealership. You can use tools like Podium’s Free Google Review Link Generator to include Google Review links in text or email messages.

17. Optimize Your Website

Creating useful content is not enough; you also have to optimize it with the right keywords so it can reach the right automotive leads. There are several free tools that will help you do the research to find the best keywords and keyphrases for your local car dealership (in your area). Once you identify the right search terms, you can start building content around it. You can also make your website a conversation starter by adding technology like chatbots to popular pages. See Webchat in action on your site.

Engage With Your Automotive Leads With Podium’s AI

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Podium offers an all-in-one solution that is effective in lead generation and helping your auto dealer business generate high-value automotive leads, and experience the growth it needs.

Customers have attributed their increase in leads and customers and a boost in net profit to their use of the platform. Since Podium is an all-in-one solution, the platform helps you not only get an increase in leads but also keep existing customers happy.

Speed to lead is critical in today’s fast-paced market, and Podium’s AI BDC offers an unparalleled advantage by ensuring dealerships and their car salesmen engage with automotive leads within a couple of minutes—guaranteed.