Finding new and effective ways to generate more marketing leads can be both challenging and frustrating. 

To help, this article highlights 5 lead generation tricks that can help dealerships treat themselves to more marketing leads. We’ll also offer solutions, recommendations and relevant resources along the way. Let’s get started. 

1. Advertise Used Inventory on Facebook Marketplace

Social media advertising continues to be one of the most cost-effective digital marketing solutions for driving high-quality leads in the automotive industry. More than half of all customers have purchased something from an automotive marketing ad they saw on social media.

In addition, online chat options like Facebook Messenger (Facebook’s instant messaging platform) via Facebook Marketplace are increasingly used and accepted forms of communication. 

Because Facebook Marketplace uses Messenger, dealers can communicate directly with marketing leads and build a personal connection with them. This can’t be achieved through other lead gen marketing methods like filling out a lead form on a website. 

According to a recent consumer study, 30 percent of people say they’ve contacted a business using Messenger.

That same study also found that 43 percent of people would be willing to use Facebook Marketplace to purchase from a dealership. 

Additionally, 74 percent of people said they would book appointments through an online chat feature. 

These numbers illustrate the importance and viability of Facebook Marketplace as an automotive marketing lead gen tool. 

More than half of all customers have purchased something from an automotive marketing ad they saw on social media.

In terms of sales and marketing results, one Dealer Teamwork dealer saw 68 percent more Facebook Marketplace leads and 73 percent more initial messages when compared to the previous period.  

For dealers looking for a solution to advertise their used vehicle inventory on Facebook Marketplace, visit our Facebook Marketplace product page for details. 

Check out our Resource Library for additional social media marketing resources.

2. Drive Traffic to Vehicle Landing Pages Not Vehicle Detail Pages

Dealers often ask us, “Do vehicle landing pages (VLPs) or vehicle detail pages (VDPs) generate more traffic, marketing leads and other conversions from paid ads and organic search?”

The answer is simple: VLPs are more effective than VDPs.

VLPs are permanent pages on your website that display vehicle content/information with the goal of converting page visitors. VDPs are temporary online listings of specific vehicles in dealers’ inventory. 

Unlike VDPs, VLPs typically show vehicle information in a more user-friendly way to help drive higher conversions and marketing leads.

Let’s compare the two.

Here’s a VLP example.

This VLP example provides the vehicle shopper with easy-to-read information about the Ford F-150. Information is presented in conversational, interesting-to-read paragraphs, question and answer format and video. 

VLPs also allow dealers to track more on-page events like how well videos performed in analytics tools like Google Analytics and Google Ads. 

Another major benefit of driving traffic to VLPs rather than VDPs is that VLPs are more customizable and can feature a wider variety of different shopping content. 

For example, dealers can include trim comparison content like videos. Dealers can also add additional offers on similar vehicles. This allows shoppers to see all options that interest them rather than just one specific vehicle.

Now let’s look at a VDP example.

This VDP example displays relevant content similar to a VLP, but it suffers from only being able to show content for one specific vehicle. In this case a F-150 truck. 

VDPs can often be overwhelming for shoppers who want to learn more information about a specific make/model/trim, but aren’t yet ready to narrow their search down to a specific vehicle in a dealer’s inventory. 

This leads into the next advantage of VLPs: the ability to land targeted traffic on different places within a dealer’s website. 

For example, if a dealer is running a model-specific campaign on Jeep Gladiator special offers, they can drive traffic to a specific VLP on their website’s homepage like the one below. 

Dealers can do this for different campaign types (e.g. branded, model-specific, geo-targeted or dealer keyword-focused campaigns). This allows dealers to test which campaigns and website destinations perform best.

VLPs also have a significant advantage over VDPs because they’re optimized for long-term organic success. 

Two automotive SEO features that contribute to this include:

1. Permanent page structure.
2. More relevant and dynamic page content.

“Dynamic page content” means that current vehicle and service offer information automatically refreshes on the page in real-time when offers are updated by the dealership.

These two automotive SEO elements help create long-term automotive SEO value for dealers’ websites because VLPs rank over time in the search engine result pages (SERPs). This creates more opportunities for customers to find these pages when searching online. 

VLPs have a significant advantage over VDPs because they’re optimized for long-term, organic success.

In contrast, VDPs usually don’t have a chance to rank as high in SERPs because of their short lifespan. For example, a VDP is only live while a vehicle is in a dealer’s inventory.

After that, the URL is never used again. Any SEO value that may have built up in that time is lost when the page goes away. This reduces VDPs’ long-term automotive SEO value.

It’s important to note that VLPs don’t replace VDPs. But, VLPs are better places to land paid search traffic, especially for make/model/trim and service focused campaigns.

In short, dealers can increase their opportunities for more marketing leads and conversions by sending organic and paid traffic to VLPs on their websites rather than to VDPs. 

At Dealer Teamwork, we have a special type of VLP called a Dynamic Landing Page. Dynamic Landing Pages differ slightly from VLPs because current vehicle and service offers are automatically updated on dealers’ websites.

This is done via our patented digital marketing automation platform, the MPOP®. 

For information on Dealer Teamwork’s Dynamic Landing Pages , check out this page here: Dynamic Landing Pages. 

Or visit our MPOP® Product Page to learn how the MPOP® improves dealers’ digital campaign quality and performance

3. Send Targeted & Personalized Email Campaigns

No one likes receiving marketing emails that aren’t relevant or personalized for them. Dealers receive far less engagement from customers when they send emails that aren’t personalized for a specific target audience.

In fact, segmented email marketing campaigns across all industries perform significantly better than non-segmented email marketing campaigns, according to Mailchimp. 

Despite email remaining popular, many dealers continue to overlook email marketing as a key part of their lead generation strategies and marketing efforts. 

In fact,  Statista, estimates that the total number of email users will grow from 3.9 billion in 2019 to 4.3 billion by 2024. 

Of those users, at least 90 percent of people aged 15-65+ say they still use email. Not only is email still popular, but email is actively used by a wide range of age groups.

More importantly, effective email marketing continues to influence shoppers’ purchase decisions. A SalesCycle study found that 59 percent of respondents said marketing emails help shape their purchase decisions.

Ultimately, dealers will want to find and utilize scalable email marketing solutions that help them target specific audiences with personalized email content. This will prepare dealers for long-term success by allowing them to better engage shoppers and generate more marketing leads. 

At Dealer Teamwork, we have an email marketing tool called the MPOP® Email Campaign Builder. It’s designed to help dealers engage and follow up with marketing leads with highly-relevant messaging. Dealers can use the tool to send highly targeted email marketing campaigns to their customers. 

The MPOP® Email Campaign Builder works by allowing dealers to create email campaign content in real-time with the ability to easily pull current vehicle offers into the email campaign. Current offers include key buying information like lease and finance payments to help vehicle and service shoppers decide on a purchase. 

Dealers need scalable email marketing solutions to target specific audiences with personalized email content.

Additionally, because Dealer Teamwork campaigns are driven by MPOP® offers, call-to-actions direct shoppers to dynamic landing pages with UTM tracking links built in. This helps dealers measure campaign effectiveness better. 

This email builder is available at no added cost for existing Dealer Teamwork customers.

To learn more about this email marketing tool visit our Email Marketing product page on our website. 

Learn how to use the email builder by checking out this helpful article here: How to Use the MPOP® Email Campaign Builder.

4. Optimize Your Google My Business Listing

*Note: Google My Business (GMB) was rebranded as Google Business Profile (GBP) in late 2021. On February 6, 2023 Google made changes to Google Business Profile (GBP – formerly GMB for Google My Business) insights and the Business Performance API. This blog was written prior to that time; however, information remains relevant!

Dealers may have heard this recommendation before, but it can’t be stressed enough. Dealerships that optimize their Google My Business listings have more opportunities to connect with ready-to-buy local customers than those that don’t. 

That’s because Google My Business provides more ways for customers to engage with dealers. This includes Google Posts, customer reviews, inventory and services and more.

Though initially optimizing and managing Google My Business listings can be tedious and time consuming, it’s highly important for car dealers. 

In-market shoppers are actively using dealers’ Google My Business listings to research and reach out to a dealer when they’re ready to buy.

For example, a 2019 study by BrightLocal sampling 45,000 local business listings found that car dealers receive the most calls and website visits from Google My Business across all industries. 

Currently, dealers are seeing three core actions being taken on their Google My Business listings that represent a genuine interest in their dealer and its offerings. Those actions include:

1. Phone calls
2. Website clicks
3. Directions requests

Dealerships see a monthly average of 167 phone calls, 576 website clicks and 145 direction requests from their Google My Business listing. 

These statistics are significant because it means in-market shoppers are actively using dealers’ Google My Business listings to research and reach out to a dealer when they’re ready to buy.

Because of this, dealers should fully optimize their Google My Business listing to:

• Make it as easy as possible for customers to connect and interact with their store online. 
• Track Google My Business click-to-call and other key conversions in Google Analytics.

For help with optimizing Google My Business listings, visit our blog: Top 10 Ways Dealerships Can Optimize Google My Business Profiles To Drive Website Traffic.

Dealers can learn how to get even more value out of their Google My Business listings by downloading a complimentary copy of Dealer Teamwork’s Ultimate Google My Business Ebook.

5. Optimize Your Bing Places Listing

A well-optimized Bing Places listing is another crucial factor for increasing phone call leads from local shoppers and driving more local traffic to dealers’ websites. 

Search Engine Journal lists claiming and verifying your Bing Places listing as #4 in its top 25 local search ranking factors.

Dealers can add deals, discounts and photos to their listing, respond to customer reviews and more.

Similar to Google My Business, an optimized Bing Places listing enables shoppers to easily connect with dealers. It also helps improve dealers’ overall local SEO presence. 

Together, these interactions can help produce more marketing leads by allowing customers to visit a dealer’s website or call them directly from their Bing Places listing. 

For more information on how to optimize your profile, visit our blog: 7 Quick Tips for Optimizing Your Bing Places Listing

If you haven’t claimed or verified your Bing Places listing, check out this article: How to Claim, Set-Up & Verify Dealership Bing Places listings