Learn More About Automotive Marketing Software
What is Automotive Marketing Software?
Automotive marketing software provides car dealerships the tools they need to market their inventory and services and grow their customer base. These solutions help dealerships build and deploy an omnichannel strategy that delivers personalized experiences to potential customers and increases sales. Users can list inventory (new cars, used cars, or car parts) on their sites, create and distribute marketing materials, automate certain marketing and sales workflows, and track ROI for each campaign.
By properly utilizing automotive marketing software, dealerships can target the right prospect at the right time, offer competitive pricing, and ultimately grow their sales pipeline. While dealerships can also use non-verticalized marketing solutions, specialized automotive marketing products offer industry integrations with other automotive software solutions and can connect data from multiple dealership tools into a centralized system for optimal marketing success.
What are the Common Features of Automotive Marketing Software?
The following are some core features within automotive marketing software that can help users execute lead generation and marketing campaigns:
Lead management and nurturing automation: With lead management and nurturing automation, sales teams can automate the process of acquiring and qualifying leads based on which are most likely to convert. This is particularly useful for sales teams, as users can set parameters for what constitutes a qualified lead. This may be when prospective customers visit a product page three times or when they only come once. Users get to decide when the automation tool triggers a sales notification that will alert sales reps to reach out to qualified leads and close a sale. This tool saves sales reps time by focusing on only the most qualified leads.
Website listings: Automotive marketing products should offer some degree of dealer website listing support, allowing users to post vehicles and parts inventory online. These listings can also be shared via other channels. With pricing automation, dealerships can automatically drop or raise prices in real time based on interest or repeated product page visits.
SMS marketing: Text messaging allows salespeople to reach customers on their mobile devices and often leads to quicker response times. Reminders and notifications can be automatically sent out, integrating with calendars to lock in event invites. Automotive marketing platforms can also handle bulk messaging, allowing for targeted customer engagement based on selected criteria.
Email marketing: Similar to SMS marketing capabilities, automotive marketing software allows dynamic email marketing campaigns to be designed and executed. For example, once a customer signs up for an auto dealer’s mailing list, marketing automation takes over and can start sending out email marketing campaigns based on events, online activities, and lead scores.
Social media marketing: Digital marketing strategies are crucial to success in today’s sales environment. Automotive marketing platforms can reach prospects via multiple social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Leads can be captured and fed into the system, with personalized content and ads being pushed out at the right time.
Reputation management: Once a sale has been made, dealerships can send out surveys and requests for reviews to customers via their preferred channel. Automatic prompts can be generated to direct customers to leave a review on any designated site and can help nurture customer relationships to drive repeat business.
Workflow automation: Marketing and sales workflows can be automated to remove a lot of tedious work throughout the customer journey, allowing reminders, special offers, and follow-up messages to be automatically sent out to prospects and customers. For customers leasing cars, renewal reminders can also be set up to trigger at specific times. If integrated with a CRM, automotive marketing software can also assist with scheduling phone calls for added outreach.
Marketing analytics: Conversational and campaign analytics help sales and marketing teams assess the effectiveness of their outreach. This can help determine which channels are most effective with specific demographics, how marketing efforts impact car sales, and how salespeople perform against quotas.
What are the Benefits of Automotive Marketing Software?
Maximize engagement: By utilizing omnichannel marketing tools and having access to various lead signals, dealership salespeople can nurture prospects throughout the pipeline and ensure no engagement opportunities are missed. Automation tools free up sales and marketers to focus on actions that drive higher engagement and promote sales optimization.
Improve sales: Campaign analytics and personalization tools enable dealerships to target prospects and customers at the right time to close deals or secure repeat business. Resources can be allocated based on which campaigns are performing better, and sales teams have access to quality data that supports conversations.
Who Uses Automotive Marketing Software?
Sales teams: Automotive marketing software helps sales teams leverage marketing data to identify qualified leads, analyze customer sentiment, and establish better communication with customers. When sales teams understand what leads have expressed a major interest in the product, they can reach out to customers based on actual data and turn cold calls into warm calls. With marketing automation data, sales teams can also be notified when the best time is to reach out to their leads. If leads are on a pricing page, this can trigger an alert to a sales rep to reach out to that lead and talk them through the product offering.
Marketing teams: Marketing teams use automotive marketing software to automate tedious tasks, organize workflows, and collect customer data. By automating marketing tasks like email marketing, lead generation, and digital advertising, marketing teams save time and can focus more on analyzing their data. Spending more time with this data results in a more effective marketing strategy.
What are the Alternatives to Automotive Marketing Software?
While automotive marketing software has the added benefit of specific integrations for dealerships, horizontal alternatives to automotive marketing software can replace this type of software, either partially or completely:
SMS marketing software: SMS marketing point solutions can be deployed alongside automotive marketing software if a certain platform does not provide the necessary features. This software supports text campaigns and can deploy personalized texts at the right time to the right people.
Email marketing software: Some automotive marketing software products specialize in SMS marketing and may not offer comprehensive email marketing tools. Dealerships may choose to use a separate solution specifically for email marketing if they need more functionality.
Sales engagement software: Sales engagement software provides a central hub for all communications sales teams send to prospective customers and can provide scripts and templates for different outreach activities. Dealerships may use these tools along with automotive marketing software if greater sales automation and lead nurturing are needed.
Software Related to Automotive Marketing Software
Related solutions that can be used together with automotive marketing software include:
Car dealer software: Car dealer software, also known as dealer management systems (DMS), provide all-in-one business management support for auto dealers. Automotive marketing software integrates with these solutions to drive sales and supplement additional customer data stored in a DMS.
CRM software: For auto dealerships not using a DMS or related automotive industry tool, a standard CRM may be used alongside automotive marketing software to support lead management and customer relationship management efforts.
Automotive digital retailing software: Automotive digital retailing software allows dealerships to digitize their inventory and allow customers to complete a deal online, from start to finish. While automotive marketing software may integrate with websites and provide general listing features, not all products offer enough functionality to operationalize a dealership’s e-commerce strategy. Automotive marketing should be used alongside this type of platform.
How to Buy Automotive Marketing Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Automotive Marketing Software
Whether a company is just starting to explore automotive marketing software or is looking for a more appropriate solution for their needs, G2.com can help inform buyers of the market and assist them in selecting the best software product for their business.
Dealerships looking to purchase automotive marketing software, whether for the first time or to replace an existing solution, should first determine that they can use the platform. If they don’t have a dedicated marketing team, for example, or their sales team uses other solutions already, trying to implement an automotive marketing platform may not be successful. Advanced engagement tools and automation may be wasted if the target customer does not make use of certain channels, too.
Compare Automotive Marketing Software Products
Create a long list
The first step to finding the perfect software solution is to create a preliminary list of products that fit the buyer’s general needs. The next step is to narrow down the list by selecting specific features that are must-haves or requirements for the buyer. G2.com provides information about the best automotive marketing software, allowing buyers to filter options and user reviews to help narrow the product list to a more relevant selection.
Create a short list
Creating a short list of software products is an important step in the buying process. While it may be daunting to filter through various products, users can get help by utilizing G2’s compare feature. This feature will take products of choice and display them side by side so the buyer can easily determine which software ticks the important boxes on the list.
Conduct demos
Once the buyer has narrowed down the product list, the next step is to conduct a demo. Demos allow buyers to see a product and its features in more detail. To ensure a buyer gets the most out of a demo, it’s important to go in prepared. Buyers should be prepared to thoroughly test each product from a user and customer standpoint. Determine what goes into creating different types of marketing campaigns via each product. Additionally, buyers should inquire about cost, integrations, vendor support, and any concerns they have about the product. Adequate preparation will make it easier for a buyer to compare products after completing the demos.
Selection of Automotive Marketing Software
Choose a selection team
The selection team will likely include dealership sales and marketing staff, such as account managers and marketing managers. They will represent the interests of their respective teams and understand what features are necessary to support their day-to-day functions.
Negotiation
Once the selection team has narrowed down their software picks, it’s time to discuss customization options, pricing, and the type of support needed from the vendor. It’s always important to address pricing options, even when they are listed on a vendor’s website. Many software vendors will provide discounts and custom pricing options based on what the buyer is looking to purchase.
Final decision
Once a buyer has made the final decision on a product and is ready to move forward with a purchase, it is recommended to conduct a final demo, inquire about a trial run, and determine the next steps if the product doesn’t ultimately fit their needs. These steps can give a buyer an additional sense of security and confidence when making a final decision.
