Your financial products as drivers of new customer acquisition

Published in Autojournal in May 2018

Most dealerships spend huge amounts of money on advertising of all kinds (internet, newspapers, billboards, television, radio, etc.). If we take the time to look at the message strategy of each dealership, the result is totally disappointing. We see vehicles advertised at promotional prices, repeated ads, savings, giveaways, raffles, etc. All of these advertisements are focused on a specific objective, which is to sell the maximum number of vehicles to the maximum number of people.

Although the objective is respectable, it is reproachable that so few variations are used to achieve it. We keep repeating the same recipe. It can be argued that it works. This is true because if we do not try to change the current course, we must be satisfied with the results we have. If you try to treat a flu with herbal tea, you usually get over it. If you don't try anything else, you'll never know.

In many of the articles I've written previously, I always send a message to dealership owners and managers: differentiate yourself in your messaging strategy, the whole world knows you sell vehicles. What else do you have to offer and how does that differentiate you. I'd like to take this opportunity, while the topic of the month is the financial industry, to bring you some fresh ideas for your content development.

Conduct a review of your financial product portfolio

Being sold a vehicle is simple and even as a consumer, we begin to know the process by heart. We choose the model, colors, options, we sign the contract and we are transferred directly to the financial director who lists the complete panoply of guarantees, protections, insurances, etc. available. I am one of those who say no to all these offers, but I am sure I am in the minority. As a manager, you have to put on your "marketer" hat and take the time to analyze each product. Review the offer, the positioning, the communication that revolves around each product.

Perform an audit of the data generated by the sales

We don't do it often enough! A lot of useful planning data is generated every day by sales and operations. If we take the financial products segment alone, sales generates a lot of data on which vehicles are sold with or without financial products or which vehicles are always sold with a specific financial product. There is also another level of data that relates to financial product sales, demographics. Who is buying what products? If we analyze the data correctly, we can build models such as the following: millennials who buy cars never buy financial products. People over the age of 65 always buy replacement value when they take ownership of their Toyota, pickup buyers who take a lease always take the no-hassle return warranty and people who lease a Jeep always take the extended warranty because they don't have full confidence in the durability of the product.

Taking action on this data

Data is worthless if it is not used to make a decision that will impact our profitability. As a manager, building models like the ones presented above can open up new opportunities for our marketing campaigns.

The execution

The first step, once your models are in place, is to make your offers well. Create cross offers between your main products (cars) and your financial products.

The second step is to produce creative (visuals and video) that showcase your offering while keeping a portion to talk about your dealership. As mentioned in many of my previous articles, we must never forget to talk about our company and not just the brand(s) we represent. In the case of a video, your offer must introduce and your company's purpose must conclude.

The third step is to broadcast it to the right audience! And to do this, the web is the place of choice for both broadcasting and measuring results. It is possible to broadcast an advertisement either via Google or Facebook to very specific audiences. It is also possible to measure everything quickly and optimize to find the right formula.

In conclusion, the purpose of this article is to make people realize that marketing programs and advertising messages in the automotive dealership industry are often done with a siloed view. It is important to include all business divisions in the development of our marketing plan. That's one of the business phrases we hear more and more these days; we're sitting on a mountain of data gold and we're just not doing anything with it. 

Good sales.