When Selling Used Cars, Social Media Is the Way to Go

The process used for selling cars has changed from a physical one to a digital one in the blink of an eye. It’s more important than ever that the car dealers with used cars for sale turn to social media, digital marketing, and online engagement processes to sell these cars.

Whether your dealership team is new at using social media to sell cars or you’ve noticed your social reach is getting stagnant, it could be time to change your strategies. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways to use the latest technology to sell cars.

Utilize Facebook Tools to Reach Customers

The tools you’ll find on Facebook allow you to target users that indicate an interest in buying a car. Beyond this target, you can narrow the audience to those in your geographic area, vehicle type, gender, and consumer interest. With this type of direct targeting of your Facebook ads, you’ll receive more leads generated from the connection made with these customers. Using this research is proved to have twice the click-through rate of ads that don’t target their audience.

Instagram Allows You to Take a Less is More Approach

“A picture is worth 1,000 words” is something we’ve all heard many times regarding art and photos. Allow this to be true when you have a collection of used cars for sale. Using Instagram, you’ll reach your target audience through the images you share on this platform. No need for a lengthy caption or story about the car; share your photos and videos and get your vehicles noticed on a platform used by many customers in your local area.

Twitter Remains One of the Most Popular Platforms

For the past decade, Twitter has been one of the most popular options for auto customers looking for a vehicle on social media. Every day, more than 327,000 auto-related tweets are sent out by users on this platform. More than 75% of these Tweets are directly related to owning a vehicle. Your dealership team can use keyword targeting to reach the right shoppers who can respond with direct messages to your team.

YouTube is the Place to Be for Used Car Sales

While all vehicles can be sold using videos on YouTube, this is a great place to showcase your used cars for sale. Offer a video test drive, walk-around tours, and showcase the features of the vehicles you offer. Of course, your YouTube videos can take on various themes and forms. These videos add a great deal of support to your written posts on your blog or other social media networks. This is a great way to allow all of your networks to link together, offering greater reach from your website.

Start With a Compelling Story

If you want to keep viewers on your posts and increase the engagement level of your audience, you must tell a story. Even though Facebook Marketplace offers a great place for you to post all of your vehicles with the details of each one, you still need to support each listing with a story that tells your audience why they want to buy the vehicle you offer. Find the story and allow your audience to connect with you and get to know the many used cars you’ve got for sale.

Engagement is Paramount to Social Media Success

It’s important to keep in mind that social media marketing isn’t anything like older advertising methods. The days of the used car salesman yelling at you through the television are gone. That one-way conversation is a thing of the past, and now you need to engage and respond to prospective customers. Once you post your content, there’s a chance you’ll receive feedback and comments from potential shoppers. Your engagement level creates a personalized experience for them, which more shoppers require during any car buying experience.

Share the Excitement of Your Events

The events and promotions happening at your dealership help to bring people to your location. This could be the first step in the car buying process for some of these new customers. You can offer some platform-specific contests on social media, share your various fundraising or sales events at the dealership, and entice new shoppers to check out the used cars for sale through your posts. These events create more excitement and entice customers to take advantage of the discounts and promotions offered.

Drive Your Reputation Through Social Reviews

Before many shoppers ever consider visiting your dealership, they check out your ratings on Google. Encourage your satisfied shoppers to share their thoughts on social media and ask them to also post a review on Google. These two locations help improve your reputation and allow potential customers to see that their friends, family, and neighbors trust your dealership and could come to your location for the next vehicle. Don’t forget to share some positive videos and remarks on your social networks as well.

Do at Least Five Social Media Actions Every Day

You’re trying to get the used cars for sale more visibility and encourage your potential customers to buy them from you. Your sales team has a lot of downtime between sales. Encourage each of them to do five things from the following list every day.

• Like a post
• Share something newsworthy
• Comment on a post with value
• Wish Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary to your connections
• Publish a relevant story or image
• Follow and influencer and comment on their posts
• Google yourself to find areas to improve the results
• Write an article on the blog that can be shared on Facebook or LinkedIn
• Request a review from a customer

Be 100% Committed to Your Social Media Marketing Plan

Now that you have an idea of what you need to do to improve your social media presence when selling cars, you need to also be committed. This means ensuring your posts are ready to go on time, and when you tell your audience they will be posted. If you create a series of videos, make sure they post at the same time each week.
Let your social media plan help you sell more of the used cars for sale at your dealership.