The digital marketing revolution is changing the way people purchase cars. In the US, the number of face to face automotive visits is four times lower than a few years ago! But the sales are as good as always! How's this possible? Two words: Digital Marketing.
Digital Marketing and Automotive Companies
McKinsey, one of the world's leading management consulting firms, visited 24 automotive groups and studied 9000 new car buyers. The digital experience is ranked second when it comes to the decision when buying a new car (the test-drive experience was first), following the live experience strategy. 50 percent of customers make a purchasing decision online even if they don't necessarily buy the car using ecommerce (yet). Further proving the need for dealerships to manage the digital channels extremely well.
How people Buy Cars Now
Car buyers go through 5 steps in their buyer's journey:
- Consideration
- Pre-selection
- Purchase
- Service
- Repurchase
Automotive digital marketing is key to all of these steps. Potential buyers obviously search for prices, reviews, opinions and more before buying. They'll also turn to social media when they have issues with the model or to find out what current owners have to say. They'll also go online to review things like maintenance costs, potential replacements for parts and servicing rates when factoring in their car purchase and service.
Many manufacturers have already realized this opportunity and are educating their teams to monitor and pay attention to digital channels.
At Computan, we're experts when it comes to automotive marketing! And we want to help you get started!
