How to Use Instagram Hashtags for Your Dealership

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Wondering which hashtags your dealership should be using on Instagram?

In this article, I will help you discover how to use hashtags correctly and efficiently to get the results you need and want on the world’s 3rd biggest social site.

Understand the Ingredients in an Efficient Instagram Hashtag Recipe

Finding the right hashtags takes time, effort and research. There are countless hashtags you can use to define your dealership and connect with your audience and, with a well-crafted strategy, you can target the right audiences, drive real conversions and start closing deals originating from your social media efforts.

Instagram lets you include anywhere between one and thirty hashtags per post, and a simple search of any of these tags will show you how many posts are associated with it.

To ensure your strategy is effective, you will need to make up your hashtags from four categories. The right combination will maximise your post performance and help you reach the right audience. With the following formula, you can identify the 14-22 perfect hashtags for each of your posts.

The Perfect Formula:

Choose 1-3 branded hashtags

These are the hashtags you use specifically for brand association. They may be brand-specific and campaign-related.

Pick 3-5 hashtags for your niche

These will be the most effective hashtags for you to use to gain engagement from your target audience. These will be less saturated and hyper-targeted.

Identify 5-7 moderately popular hashtags

Moderately popular hashtags likely have between 10,000-100,000 posts associated with them.

Select 5-7 extremely popular hashtags

Extremely popular hashtags are those that have anywhere between 100,000-500,000 posts associated with them. Don’t use too many of these as it could invite bot activity and users completely un-related to your audience.

The reason for using this formula is due to the way that the platform’s algorithm ranks your post. Instagram reviews each piece of content by looking at the engagement it generates from both followers and non-followers.

When you use popular hashtags, your content will appear in searches for seconds, generating an immediate burst of activity. On the other hand, when you use niche hashtags, your content will stay active in searches for hours, and Instagram’s algorithm will recognise that the content has a long lifespan.

By gaining high levels of engagement, your content will appear in the ‘Top Posts’ section of the hashtags, driving more traffic to your profile and inciting more activity.

If you have set-up and structured your profile well enough that newcomers will want to follow you after stumbling across it, then your followers will rise. But, that’s a conversation for another blog.

Use Hashtags on Every Post

Now that you understand the right hashtag recipe for your posts, you need to figure which ones will benefit your dealership specifically. All of the hashtags you use on each post should directly relate to the content, your brand and your industry. Otherwise it will be irrelevant and will gain an irrelevant audience.

  • Content hashtagsshould directly relate to the items in the post itself.
  • Industry hashtagsmay not be directly related to what’s in the post but are specific to the industry and clients you serve.
  • Niche hashtagsare specific to your target audience.
  • Branded hashtagsare hashtags that you and your customers use to showcase and tag your content on Instagram.

Content hashtags typically vary depending on the items or locations included in the post itself. Your industry hashtags, niche hashtags, and branded hashtags should be relatively consistent for all your content. Industry hashtags will be more broadly focused on the automotive world as a whole, whereas your niche hashtags dig deep into the very targeted cars and products you offer.

If you’re struggling to find hashtags that work well on Instagram for your brand, look at the suggested and related hashtags in the Instagram search results. When you search for any specific hashtag, a sub-list recommends others that are related. You can also seek inspiration from competitors and others in your industry that are receiving admirable levels of engagement from their target audience.

To talk with Ronnie about the social media services Click Dealer offers its dealership clients and how we can help improve your engagement, reach, brand recognition and social leads, get in touch today via[email protected] , 01782 478220 or via our contact page.

Click Dealer Hopeful Ahead of Car Dealer Power Awards!

Car Dealer Power Awards
Tonight, the winners of the Car Dealer Power Awards will be announced at Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower.

Our fingers are crossed at Click Dealer HQ as we anxiously wait to hear if we will be able to add a Car Dealer Power award accolades to our collection.

The best thing about these awards is that the winners are chosen by you, the car dealer community! Car Dealer Power gives dealers an opportunity to express their views about the suppliers and manufacturers that they work with, with absolute anonymity. If you took part in the Car Dealer Power survey, the marks you gave and your votes will all count towards the end result.

Car Dealer Power Awards

Click Dealer have been shortlisted in three separate categories. We are hoping to earn the titles of ‘Independent Website Provider of the Year’ and ‘DMS Provider of the Year’, as well as claiming ‘The Product Innovation Award’ for our revolutionary online retailing platform, ClickEngage™.

ClickEngage™ already gained us the Sentinel Business Innovation Award back in March, along with nominations for the Motor Trader Industry Awards and Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce Business Awards, which will be hosted in July. We are hopeful that our product will come through for us!

It will certainly be interesting to see what the car dealer community has to say and we are very much looking forward to the evening.

We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to all of Click Dealer’s wonderful customers who took the time to vote for us. We really appreciate your support!

For more information about Click Web, Click DMS or ClickEngage™, get in touch today on [email protected], 01782 478220 or via our contact page.

Click Dealer Named a Sentinel Hot 100 Business!

Sentinel Hot 100 Businesses
Yesterday, Click Dealer appeared in The Sentinel Newspaper’s prestigious Hot 100 Businesses List for Staffordshire and South Cheshire!

Listed next to household names, such as, Alton Towers, bet365, Bentley Motors, JCB, Michelin, Seddon and Vodaphone. This is a strong indicator of the tremendous and rapid progress that Click Dealer is making.

According to The Sentinel, the 100 hottest businesses in Staffordshire and South Cheshire have been recognised for a variety of reasons, including, current performance, innovation, and contribution to the local community.

The Sentinel wrote: “Click Dealer is on track to almost double in size by the end of 2018. Since the beginning of last year, the company has grown its team of staff to around 70 – with more than 20 jobs currently up for grabs.

It is currently undergoing a major expansion project to extend its offices in Shelton by a further 4,000 square-feet to create the space for an in-house training academy for upcoming young talent who want to work in the technology industry”.

Director and Head of Customer Care, Pippa Rawlinson, said “I could not be prouder of this achievement. It is a real testament to how far we’ve come and we could not have developed this company so much without our loyal dealers and their belief in our products, services and Clickers to help their own businesses thrive”.

This is a great accomplishment for Directors, Gerry, Ollie and Pippa, and the whole Click Dealer clan. With a growing list of awards, nominations and much industry recognition, Click Dealer has never been more reassured of its mission. Our commitment to creating innovative ways to help our dealers is stronger than ever.

Talk to Click Dealer to find out how Click DMS, Click Web, Click SEM and ClickEngage™ can help your dealership. Email [email protected], call 01782 478220 or leave a message on our contact page.

Do People Actually Want to Buy Used Cars Online?

There is a lot of talk in the industry at the moment about giving used car buyers the ability to complete their purchase online, but is this really what they want?

Recently, finance solutions provider, iVendi, has released a report about online motor retailing. According to their data, while 79 per cent of consumers say they would be confident buying a car online, 87 per cent still think visiting a showroom is important.

Buying Online vs Buying from a Physical Dealership

79 is the highest percentage of consumers to express such willingness to purchase vehicles digitally since the question has been asked, which means that, as many expected, consumers are warming to the idea more and more.

Although, an even higher percentage want to physically go to a dealership during the purchase process. Clearly, there is some overlap here, so are consumers just confused about what they want?

The Best of Both Worlds

Consumers are not confused; in fact, they know exactly what they want. They want to be able to explore their options, find a used car and have a deal created as conveniently as possible but they also want to be able to touch and test the vehicle before signing on the dotted line.

Who’s to say they have to choose between buying online and buying from an actual dealership when it is entirely possible, and perhaps simpler to merge the two?

Giving the Customer What They Want

A lot of used car dealers may have seen the statistics released by iVendi and thought that the fact that a higher percentage of people want to visit a showroom before purchasing meant that they would be safe continuing doing things the way they always have. But it isn’t about being safe, it’s about going further to deliver what customers want.

People may still want to visit showrooms before making the final purchase, but the statistics indicate that consumers want to do more online and we can make this happen. Other than being able to physically touch and try out a vehicle, with ClickEngage™, consumers can do everything online. They can even arrange an appointment with you to see the vehicle so that you can complete the deal.

A Collaborative Approach

The objective is not to exchange the role of the dealer for an online retailing platform, but rather to combine the two to enhance the customer experience, which will have numerous benefits for your dealership.

For more information or to book a free demo of ClickEngage™, get in touch with Click Dealer today via [email protected]  or  01782 454354. Alternatively, you can send us a message through our contact page.

 

Mid-Year Overview of Used Car Market Demand

With the first half of 2018 nearing its end, it is time to start reviewing your dealership’s performance and looking at improvements to be made in the next half. Generally, it has been a very positive six months for the used car market and auctioneers are seeing high levels of demand, particularly for ready-to-retail stock.

The wholesale market is performing well at the moment and there has been a significant rise in the used car mid-market price bracket.

Rise in Vehicle Sales

Data from various automotive auction companies shows a clear growth in vehicles bought:

Manheim – Rise in the volume of vehicle sales in May and a 25.6% year-on-year increase in models priced between £10,000 and £40,000.

Dealer Auction – Increase of 13% in the volume of vehicle sales year on year and a significant growth in the average sale price from £510 to £4,440.

NextGear Capital – Increase of 7% in average cost per unit.

Key Trends and Preparation for the Second Half of the Year

There has also been a rise in interest in ready-to-retail vehicles, with dealers willing to wait for stock which is not in need of conditioning. This has resulted in cars that do require work, selling for less than their expected price. Used car dealers prepared to put a bit of extra work into their acquisitions could pick up some good deals here.

While mid-value vehicles have increased in popularity, the volume of those in the £0 to £5,000 bracket has declined by 9.5% year on year. Manufacturer scrappage schemes may be a contributing factor.

Philip Nothard, Head of External Relations for Cox Automotive, has seen clear signs that dealers are taking measures to protect themselves against the negativity surrounding diesel vehicles. He said, “In addition to adjusting stock volumes to decrease reliance on diesels, we have also noticed many dealers are offering better price points on diesel vehicles to ignite demand.”

The diesel market is becoming a very competitive environment, and dealers who have not had to do so already should be prepared to take action in order to remain a valid option for consumers interested in this fuel type.

Staying Vigilant

Foreseeing potential issues and opportunities is key for a successful business. As of yet, enough time has not passed to accurately assess the implications of the recent VED increases. The introduction of WLTP may also put certain pressures on some dealers. It is important to remain vigilant and flexible so that you are ready and able to adapt to the dynamic market.

For more information on how Click Dealer can enhance performance, stock-turn and profitability for your dealership, get in touch today via [email protected], 01782 478220 or through our contact page.

Why Your Dealership Needs to Utilise Video on Social Media

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As social media continues to dominate the focus of many marketing strategies, now is the perfect time to review what type of content works best for each platform.

Modern day marketing is a battle of attaining attention. Therefore, brands need to focus their efforts where the majority of audiences are today and will likely be in the next 12 months.

Video’s Dominance in Social Media

If you use social media, you may have already realised how important video is due to the amount of it you see on the platforms. Here are the latest statistics that show the dominance that this content holds in the social media world:

  • Facebook – Around 500 million people watch videos on Facebook every day.
  • Twitter – 82% of Twitter’s user base watches video content.
  • YouTube – Over 5 billion video views a day.
  • Snapchat – Generates 10 billion video views a day.
YouTube

More video is consumed on YouTube than any other social media platform. A staggering 1 billion hours of video is watched daily on YouTube in 88 countries in 76 languages! YouTube is also the world’s second largest search engine, after Google, of course. Another great statistic backing the platform is that out of the 87% of marketers who have published video content on the platform, a whopping 90% found it to be effective.

Facebook

As you may know, from Facebook itself or our other social media blogs, the platform has made a lot of changes to its algorithms recently. These changes include the shift in importance of video compared to other content and the organic reach this content provides. This has caused marketers to produce more video and, ultimately, more users to watch it, with around 100 million hours of clips watched daily on the platform. Here’s what you need to know to increase your presence on Facebook:

  • To attract high engagement, use humorous or informative videos.
  • Utilise Live videos. When doing this, ensure you go live at a time when the majority of your followers are going to be active on the platform. Put extra effort into the first 5 seconds of the clip to capture the interest of the viewer.
  • Keep videos around 1-3 minutes long to keep the viewer’s attention.
  • Writing compelling copy for the captions to encourage more people to click and watch.
  • Use subtitles! 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound.
Instagram

Instagram boasts an incredible base of 500 million users that are active on the platform daily. Many brands are actively using Instagram after noticing the power of the platform after its acquisition by Facebook. On Instagram, your video length is limited to just 60 seconds, so you have to ensure that you grab the user’s attention and retain them for a whole minute.

Instagram Stories

Instagram stories are great for documenting your brand and promoting a product or service within a 10 second photo or video. Stories last for 24 hours and then they reside to your ‘stories archive’ where you can highlight them within the bio of your Instagram profile page. If your account has over 10,000 followers, stories can be a great tool to drive traffic to a landing page through the ‘swipe up’ feature you receive after passing this milestone.

Twitter Videos

Twitter is a real-time news based social media platform, therefore it’s a great platform to share video content. Organic Twitter videos gain an average of 2.5x more replies, 1.9x more favourites and 2.8x more retweets than third-party videos shared on the social network.

Twitter’s feed has the fastest scroll, so it is essential that brands focus on eye-catching content to gain the user’s attention. When using Twitter for videos, it’s important to remember the following:

  • Ideal length of the video should be 30-60 seconds.
  • Ideal aspect ratio should be 2.39:1.
  • Ensure a mobile-first approach is taken as 90% of videos are watched on smartphones.
  • Focus on branding.
Conclusion

It has become clear that in 2018 video marketing is the best way to create engagement on social media, although, 87% of marketers say that they plan to use video in their marketing strategies this year. Therefore, you have to ensure you win the battle for attention over other brands. Integrate your own strategies, try various tools and keep experimenting. But overall, keep posting video!

To talk with Ronnie about the social media services Click Dealer offers its dealership clients and how we can help improve your engagement, reach, brand recognition and social leads, get in touch today via [email protected] , 01782 478220 or via our contact page.

Revhead Ramblings: The Most Iconic Movie Cars

For petrol heads, seeing their favourite movie cars can be a nightmare. Perhaps it’s a lesser known model you hoped would stay out of the limelight until you’d saved up enough cash to purchase your dream ride at an uninflated rate. It may also be to do with the agony of hearing your beloved have its vocals manipulated and butchered to satisfy a producer with no respect for your baby.

Either way, movies have taken some magnificent cars and catapulted them to new heights. If a movie takes off, then more often than not the car that features does too; and there are some incredible movie cars that have taken off in the past. Take the Ford Mustang GT 390 from Bullitt. Steve McQueen has a knack for turning anything he touches into gold, not that the Mustang needed much help. The movie did however create a platform for Ford to release not one, but two special edition models of the Mustang in question; easy money for Ford.

1970 Dodge Charger

When it comes to annoying petrol heads, Fast and Furious is often one of the main culprits. From endless upshifting to questionable physics, the producers often face a lot of backlash to their decisions.

One area they nailed however, is the protagonist’s choice of wheels. Dom Toretto is more often than not seen in a highly tuned 1970’s Dodge Charger, while I’m not a particular fan of American Muscle, I can respect it. Although crashing one into Jason Statham’s Maserati was very much uncalled for.

DeLorean DMC-12

While the DeLorean may be an instantly recognisable classic, it is a truly awful car. Beyond the gullwing doors, there is nothing positive you can say about this car, it’s slow, awkward looking and terribly built.

You can’t deny its iconic status however and the story behind it is definitely one worth looking into when you have a spare minute. It’s a shame they didn’t use a rotary engine in this like they’d originally planned, it would have suited the car perfectly…

Aston Martin DB5

Bond films always have the same recipe, 007 saving the world, a gorgeous lady and an equally gorgeous Aston Martin. However, before my time, Mr Bond was often spied in some more interesting vehicles.

‘From Russia With Love’ featured a spectacular 1935 Bentley Mark IV Drophead, ‘Diamonds are Forever’ had one of the most action-packed car chases from any Bond Movie, it was only right then that they used an equally exciting car; the Ford Mustang Mach 1, it certainly didn’t underwhelm on screen.

Without doubt though, the most iconic car from any Bond movie has got to be the Aston Martin DB5. The car is seen or featured in seven Bond films, and every time it is, petrol heads rejoice as it really is one of the most loved cars ever made.

The Bluesmobile

The 1974 Dodge Monaco used to transport Jake and Elwood across Chicago definitely deserves a place on this list, it’s on a mission from God after all… The old cop car defies the odds on more than one occasion, it jumps an open draw bridge, completes a backflip in mid-air over the pursuing convoy and even drives a Nazi party into a river; is there nothing this car can’t do?

For a car in a movie, to become one of the infamous movie cars, it must eclipse the main actor in the film. There are many memorable movie cars, but to be a true great they must influence a generation and be poster material for every child’s bedroom.

What are your favourite movie cars? Leave a comment below with any you think I’ve missed off my list!

Click Dealer Launches New Social Media Management Service

Facebook algorithm
At the beginning of March, Click Dealer introduced a new Social Media Management service to enhance our Search Engine Marketing offering and after its initial success and popularity, we are making it available to all of our dealers.
Why Has Click Dealer Released this Product?

Today, social media consumes our lives. Currently, there are more than 44 million active social media users in the UK alone, which is a huge target audience. At Click Dealer, we have recognised the potential of social media and we want our dealers to reap the rewards this new form of marketing offers.

We can rave about how great social media is and advise you to dedicate as much time to mastering it as possible, but we understand that dealers are very busy people. This is why we have created a qualified in-house team who are constantly working to develop the most effective social media marketing strategies and to understand the ever-changing algorithms of these platforms so that you don’t have to.

What Is Click Dealer’s Social Media Management Service?

Click Dealer’s Social Media Management Service aims to help your dealership gain the benefits of the most popular networking site in the UK, Facebook, without adding to your workload. The service includes the following:

  • Creation of unique and varied content
  • Regular organic posts
  • Implementation of bespoke advertising campaigns
  • Boosted engagement
  • Response to comments
  • Tracking of impressions, engagement, clicks and audience growth
  • Regular reports of your post, campaign and overall performance
How Can It Benefit My Dealership?

When you sign up for our Social Media Management Service, one of the first things that we’ll do is help you establish a set of objectives that you want to achieve through Facebook. We will then create a tailored strategy to help you achieve these goals. Your aims could include the following:

  • Increased reach
  • Increased impressions
  • Increased engagements

One of our clients has seen a 138.4% increase in audience growth, a 603.8% increase in impressions and a 50.3% increase in engagements since signing up for the service. These goals can contribute significantly to your dealership’s wider aims.

Increasing Brand Awareness

Facebook is a social network, which makes it an incredibly effective tool for increasing brand awareness. When you publish content, your followers and people who like your page will see it, and if they interact with this content, their followers will see it, and if those users interact, their followersOur social media experts will use tactics to maximise your reach and will create varied content to keep users interested and drive engagement, which will lead to increased brand awareness.
will continue to have a snowballing effect. This means that a lot of people would see your dealership’s name and logo who hadn’t previously.

Directing Traffic to Your Website

Our social media team will incorporate content designed to capture user interest. These posts will include backlinks, and each new link is a new point of entry to your website. If a high number of people visit your site, it will start to rank higher on Google, and this will drive even more traffic to your website. Increased traffic leads to increased conversion.

Building a Relationship with Your Target Audience

Social media is a convenient way for customers to interact with you, and for you to respond to them. This gives you the opportunity to find out what they think about your products and services so that you may improve them. Our posts aim to incite engagement, and if you would like us to reply to comments on your behalf, we will do so in a professional manner that matches your company tone of voice.

Improving Customer Retention

To expand on the previous point, building relationships with your followers and showing them that they matter by taking their constructive feedback on board, will improve customer loyalty. Additionally, posting regularly will help your brand stay in people’s minds even after they have bought from you, which is also likely to improve your retention rate.

Where Do I Sign Up?

Hopefully you are now convinced of the value of social media, but this doesn’t change the fact that getting to grips with Facebook’s marketing tools, keeping up to date with its changing algorithms and thinking of fresh, engaging content will take up a lot of your time. Our Social Media Management experts are here for those who want the reward without the extra work.

To find out more about Click Dealer’s Social Media Management Service, get in touch by emailing [email protected], calling 01782 478 220 or dropping us a message on our contact page.