The U.S. is the second largest automotive market in the world, according to Statista. Even though the auto parts marketplace is dominated by major players both offline and online, smaller to medium automotive business can still thrive with the right internet marketing strategies.
In this article, we’ve put together ideas on how to effectively compete in the auto parts industry for small to medium size businesses, for practically any marketing budget.
1. Seasonal communication with upcoming seasonal changes.
The mediums have changed. Your customers would rather receive a text message or tweet or Facebook message on their own time.
It’s the new model of customer engagement and whether we like it or not, it’s not slowing down.
For example, to prepare for winter, your ad strategy for the west coast will be very different than the east coast or Midwest states.
The auto parts and accessories you promote will be very different. So think about the context of your ads. Running a generic “Here’s 30% Off Winter Sale” is no longer effective like it used to be.
Your customers are smarter now and their attention span has shorten exponentially. You need to make sure your creative is focused on the person you are talking to and market to their moment.
And so, to attract new customers and keep loyal customers around, the number one thing to do is be where they spend their time.
But don’t ignore other forms of outreach. Things like postcards and mailers can be equally effective.
Whether it’s triggered email, text messages, postcards, or targeted pay per click ads, you have massive opportunity to have customers considering your business.
It’s important for your business to reach them at various touch points before your competitor.
2. Focus on customer excellence on social media pages.
Social media is your biggest platform to engage with your prospects and customers. Specifically, your responsiveness on your social media page goes a long way when it comes to customer satisfaction.
When I think about customer excellence on social media, I think about timeliness.
It’s not just about posting the coolest photos or videos or getting more followers and likes on social media.
Those things are compelling. But customers are turning to social media to find help with their orders, problems, questions, and much more.
We have an automotive client who has hired a dedicated social manager to handle all aspects of their social communication on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter — that’s where 95% of their customers interact with the brand. As a result, the brand is getting a flood of positive reviews about how much they care about their customers.
At the end of the day, what your customers think about you and what they say about your brand adds tremendous credibility to your automotive auto parts business.
Word of mouth is still the most powerful marketing channel — and with social media, that effect has grown exponentially 10X. A positive mention will spread like wildfire, and conversely, a negative feedback can deter a prospect from buying from your business.
3. Reward customers instead of discounting.
The idea of offering coupons and discounts to get more customers is all too common. I think about Macy’s one day weekend sale when talking about discounts and promotions. They’ve been using the same tactic for years — it’ll be practically impossible for them to dig themselves out of that rabbit hole if they ever decide to go full retail.
It’s definitely true that if you want to be seen or heard, you have to put out valuable offers once in a while — but do not use that as the anchor of your business.
Instead, reward your customers with meaningful incentives like cash back.
A company like Stoke.fund and a few other companies are working with leading retail brands to reward it’s customers and creating value for customers.
Rather than offering 20% discounts, send them an instant cash back on a pre-loaded card. The customers who go for the discounts are most likely one-time customers. But if they had credit in their account from your business, there’s a higher likelihood of a second, third, or fourth purchase.
Creating loyalty through rewards is a proven tactic to increase repeat customers for your automotive business.
Additionally, using a service like Stoke gives you insights into your customer’s shopping interest and behaviors. The data gathered helps your business strengthen your connection with your customers through meaningful conversations and service.
4. Same day store pickup.
Let’s picture this scenario. A customer who lives 5 miles from your store places an online order from your website. He calls your store and asks if he can come pick up his order that he just paid for. Your store manager apologizes because your online store ships from a different warehouse which is located in a different city.
That doesn’t sound like a big deal. Right? Think again. We’re living in an era of 1-hour and 2-hour same day delivery from companies like Instacart and Amazon.
And you can pick up your order at a BestBuy store for your online orders.
These behemoths are contributing to consumer impatience and setting a near-impractical benchmark for smaller automotive businesses.
But fortunately, there are buy online, pick up in-store platforms that level the playing field for the smaller guys.
Wrapping it up
There’s so much you can do to increase the reach of your auto parts online business.
Expanding your strategies outside the constraints of “online” as you know it. As a consumer yourself, think about what you want from brands you shop from.
Chances are, the experience you want from brands you buy from are the same experience your customers want from you.
