Must read for automobile dealers
If you’re in the car-selling business, you must be aware of the competition that exists between automobile dealerships. With everyone offering the same product at the same price, there is hardly room to upsell anything. To stand out, you must offer outstanding customer service to buyers as well as potential buyers. If not, your customer could purchase the same car from someone else.
Since it’s an online world, customer service begins the moment a person visits your website and not just your dealership. According to a report, buyers that purchased cars 10 years ago visited about 5 dealerships before finalising a purchase. Today, most buyers only visit 2 dealerships. This is because over 62% of automobile buyers prefer to spend time researching online, and only 29% prefer speaking to a sales representative. These figures indicate that the industry is changing, and the best way to connect with millennials is to go online.
Creating a marketing strategy to reach out to potential customers is a great idea. However, your marketing strategy should be such that it makes buying a car, a seamless and easy process for our customers. One of the ways of doing so is by including automobile infographics in your marketing campaign.
Infographics are designs that present complex information in an easy-to-understand and unique manner. Car infographics are also gaining momentum in the automobile industry all over the world. For example, this automobile infographic was created for Mercedes Benz dealership and was approved by the media compliance team of Mercedes during quality check. This car infographic garnered a lot of interest and provided the dealership with a great return on investment.
According to a report by analysts at Kelly Blue Book, the average cost of a car in the United States is $36,000. As an automobile dealer, if you were to invest $500 in creating a set of automobile infographics, you could use those infographics to promote the car on different platforms, provide great customer service and generate a return on investment, even if you sold only one car.
To stand out in the competitive world of automobiles, you must do something different. With the automobile industry still being largely untapped with automobile infographics, the margin to stand out and succeed is quite high. When creating a car infographic, you only need to adhere to the brand guidelines and ensure that the infographic is in sync with your product. Once that is done, you’re good to go.
Currently, there are numerous types of infographics, such as static, animated and gifographics which can help you target different types of customers. All of these types of infographics also come with numerous design formats that can be utilized to highlight segments of a car or statistical figures. In this article, we will try to show you how investing in automobile infographics can help you:
- Generate customer interest
- Offer outstanding customer service
- Beat the competition
- Ensure long-term customer relationship
Generate Customer interest
Automobile infographics are great tools to generate customer interest from the get-go. As a dealership, your potential customer is someone aware of his/her need to buy a car. Your potential customer could also be someone who has been facing issues with his/her current mode of transport. As per a report, 75% of potential buyers start researching online the moment they become aware of their needs.
Although there is a lot of information online related to automobiles, most of it requires watching videos or reading articles, both of which are time-consuming tasks. Automobile infographics, on the other hand, save time and present complex information with panache. One such example of the proper utilization of infographics in the automobile industry is listed below.
Create a car buying guide: Providing important information like ‘steps for buying a car’ can be done via car infographics. Process infographics use a combination of colours and elements to provide stepwise instructions to any audience. A car buying guide should answer questions related to budget, vehicle type, essential features, financing options and more.
Visually-represent benefits: You can make use of a timeline infographic to show the benefits of buying a car or a long-term mode of transport that saves money in the long-run. Different types of automobile infographics can help you attract customers and generate interest in not just the listed car, but also in you as a dealership.
Offer Outstanding Customer Service
As per the same report, 45% of users who look for deals online are inclined towards converting. One way to provide outstanding customer service is to help customers in their buying process. Once a customer has made up his/her mind about buying a car, the process leading up to the actual purchase must be seamless. This can be done by providing the following information to users via different types of infographics:
Variant information via Comparison Infographics: Help your customer make a smart choice by representing variants via infographics. Comparison infographics are mostly split vertically or horizontally to offer clear comparison notes. These automobile infographics use design elements to highlight important features which make taking a decision, easier.
Visual representation of technical specifications of the car: Data visualization makes it easier for consumers to identify key factors that may go unnoticed otherwise. If represented correctly, these factors can drastically change the way customers gain technical information. This could not only be a gamechanger for a dealership but may even drive sales by people apprehensive of buying a car. You could also provide customers with an infographic checklist which helps them in remembering all the provisions that the automobile comes with.
Providing important information in an easy-to-understand format can inform customers that you are a dealership that cares, or invests in educating its customers. This offering could easily build trust with your dealership and may increase the overall footfall.
Beat the Competition
Another way to stand out in the crowd is to provide a shout-out of all the work you have done and intend to do in the automobile industry. Use the power of automobile infographics to visually highlight your achievements, best practices, sales figures and more. You can create one specific infographic, like a statistical infographic which is used to show data. This type of infographic could show faster delivery time, popularity statistics, quick response time, deals and more. Utilizing these types of infographics could drive business to your automobile dealership instead of just any.
Ensure long-term customer relationship
In the automobile industry, an average car runs for 11 years, with around 58% drivers intent on running their cars into the ground. In the competing market of automobile dealers, ensuring long-term customer relationship is a tough task. However, creating car infographics that help customers after they have made a purchase can generate some of the best word-of-mouth marketing on social media and other places. To build a relationship, you must initiate a conversation that lists different ways of keeping your car in its best shape. Infographics that you could create are:
Service station checklist: Post-purchase, you can share with your customers a car infographic that provides information regarding nearby service stations. This could be done via Informational Infographics.
Car hacks: You could make use of all your acquired automobile knowledge to help designers create automobile infographics that offer great car hacks. These hacks could range from car care infographics to how to quickly fix things for when you are stranded somewhere. Your car hacks infographic could also include secret tips to improve performance.
Your chances of standing out and gaining valuable customers that offer word-of-mouth marketing can be astounding for your dealership. No wonder companies like Mercedes Benz and associated dealerships are actively investing in different types of infographics.
Conclusion
To stay ahead of all other dealerships, you must invest in cost-effective methods to increase customer engagement, footfall, and retention. While you do that, you must also face a very competitive environment. To stand out and increase the number of your sales, you should invest your money in getting automobile infographics created. One set of infographics for a car can help you reach out to hundreds of online customers! A lot of infographics that talk about your dealership can be used for more than one car even. This will not only help you attract user attention but will also help you in ensuring long-term customer retention. With different types of infographics to choose from, you can be lost for choices. If you want, we can take you through the process and also help you create different types of infographics. To get in touch with us, please click here.
