Today, we’re living in a world where social media is one of the most, if not, most powerful marketing tools. With this, we’re seeing a growing trend where influencers are using their platform to promote products/services for businesses who are willing to pay them. This is known as influencer marketing and it’s already being used by many Canadian car dealerships. In this blog, we’ll talk about how you can use influencer marketing to help your dealership.
Influencer marketing is using someone with good social standing and a large following to promote your dealership. Typically, anyone with over 10,000 followers and a good reputation could be used as an influencer to promote your business. Influencer marketing is a great way to grow awareness, gain trust and close more deals because you’re having someone reputable vouch for you.
The proof is in the pudding, CBT News reported that consumers are 71% more likely to purchase something if it was recommended by an influencer. If you can find a few influencers with different audiences, the investment could pay off 10-fold if marketed correctly. It’s also important to not only target the biggest influencers. Not only will these big influencers cost a lot of money, but if you’ve never done influencer marketing before, you may learn valuable lessons the hard way. It’s ok to start with smaller influencers who are often more affordable and work your way up. It also means if you make a mistake or miss the mark with a campaign, at least it was with a less expensive influencer. The last benefit to working with smaller influencers is that they’re more likely to form a connection with the customers watching your ads. If you have a massive influencer do a campaign for your local dealership, customers may feel like it’s not authentic, creating a disconnect. Many people are more likely to trust an influencer they’re familiar with than a generic dealership ad.
The first step to influencer marketing is identifying the influencers in your area who you’d be interested in working with. Perhaps you consider some of the athletes in your city/town, popular artists or just well-known people wherever you live. Once you have a list of potential influencers it’s important to ensure that they have a good reputation, just because they have thousands of followers doesn’t necessarily mean they have a good reputation. Once you’ve confirmed they have a good reputation, reach out to them via social media and see if they have an interest in working together.
If you want to have success working with influencers, you need to ensure that you have great communication. Explain to them the goals you’re trying to achieve as a dealership so they have insight as to why you’re asking certain things of them. If something is or isn’t working with their messaging, be sure to let them know so they can adjust their messaging accordingly. The more you interact with your influencers without being overbearing, the more success you’ll have. Lastly, don’t feel like you need to be over the top with the videos/photos to stand out, the most powerful messages can be simple and authentic.
One of the biggest mistakes we see with influencer marketing and social media use in general, is people trying to make their pages extravagant. While it’s great to mix up your social posts and keep things fresh, you don’t need to try and one-up your last post every time. Stick with a few different designs and formats so you’re subconsciously creating brand recognition with your customers. If you keep things simple with the influencers you’re working with, it will seem more authentic to your audience and in turn, be more effective.
If you want to make the most of influencer marketing, you should aim to use multiple influencers with different audiences. In a perfect world, you have 3-4 different influencers who all have different audiences so you can have the biggest reach with your marketing. If you used three professional hockey players in your city, for example, you’d probably be hitting similar audiences with each of their posts, limiting your reach.
