Holiday Marketing Part II: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, & Cyber Monday

Fall is in the air, and many of us have been working on our holiday marketing plans since spring. If your dealership hasn’t, it’s not too late. While Thanksgiving may be about nurturing your customer base by showing gratitude and family values, Black Friday is entirely about getting a good deal. The second the clock strikes midnight (or to be honest, more like 6 pm), your dealership needs to be ready to make that shift. Here are three holiday marketing tips that are as easy as pie:

Gobble up Mobile

Do any of these Thanksgiving scenarios sound familiar?

•  Your kids/grandkids convince you to start your morning watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade so they can see the “big kitty balloon”. All 3 hours of it.
• You get cornered by your weird uncle and have to listen about his one-man-band for an hour.
• You stuff yourself with mashed potatoes and wind up sinking into the couch for the entire afternoon.

What do these moments have in common? You’re probably on your phone during all of them.

For most of us, Thanksgiving is a lazy holiday. You barely have the energy to loosen your belt a few notches, let alone drive yourself to the store when you don’t have to. Families gather in one place and leave their desktops at home. This is why Thanksgiving is the biggest day for mobile shopping for the entire year. Even for the automotive industry, 49% of orders for parts, accessories, and services occurred on mobile in 2018.¹

Create an amazing mobile experience for shoppers by running responsive ad campaigns, creating a mobile-friendly website, and optimizing search results for local users.

Giving Thanks, Increasing Ranks

Just like your secret turkey recipe, your dealership has a tender side. There is no better time to show it than the holidays. By giving back to your community, you can create local buzz that can improve your online reputation, improve SEO through backlinks, and build your following on social media. Here are some of our favorite ideas:

•  Raffle Giveaways– In these events, raffle tickets are sold off for opportunities to win fabulous prizes. Often times, the grand prize is a new car or maintenance packages donated by the local dealership. It’s a great way to get your dealership’s name in front of thousands of locals and raise money that will go back into the community.
• Donate your expertise– Volunteering in any form is commendable, but instead of having your master technicians spend hours washing dishes at a soup kitchen, find a way for them to use their professional skills to give back in a way that only they can. Maybe that is doing winter maintenance for low-income neighborhoods or teaching a basic repair class at the community center.
• Collect Donations– Whether it be food items, winter clothing, or toys for families who can’t afford gifts for the holidays- collecting donations is an excellent way to get people into your dealership. Consider creating an incentive to get them there, like discounted oil changes with any donation.

Pass the Digital Ads, Please

The divide between Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday have blurred into what many businesses call “Cyber Week”. During this time, buyers are more easily influenced to make purchasing decisions. And as shopping moves more online every year, digital ads are more aggressive than ever. It’s vital to increase your ad spend during this time to give your message a fighting chance.

• A 2017 report by cars.com found that 74% of people actively shopping for a car on Black Friday were looking for big savings of up to $5000 off a new vehicle.² For these shoppers, you will want to focus your ads on the specials you running for the weekend.
• Some shoppers are open to the idea of buying a car but don’t want to go through the work of going into the dealership quite yet. Consider running ads that encourage shoppers to schedule a test drive for later.
• Consumers like to sprinkle in some responsible purchases to justify their cyber week spending. Don’t forget your service department – a winter maintenance package might just do the trick.

However you decide to market for the holidays, we hope it’s a success! Share your Cyber Week marketing with us on Facebook.

Sources:

1. Big Commerce
2. cars.com