5 Star Reputation – Digital Experts for Independent Dealers

Five Ways for Used Car Dealers to Be Successful in the Remaining Half of 2018

We are a little over halfway through 2018 now and it has certainly flown by for us! Hopefully, you’ve had chance to review the first half of the year for your car dealership and are feeling positive for the next half.

Nearly 70% of used car retailers confirmed that they were feeling optimistic about the rest of the year in a recent RAC Dealer Network survey with the majority saying their business performance was as expected or better than expected.

However, your dealership has performed in the first two quarters, now is a good time to take a step back and form a plan for the remaining two. Here are five things to consider.

1. Be Tactical with Stock Acquisition

A lot of dealers are saying that obtaining high-quality stock at decent prices has been their biggest issue of 2018 so far. With so much competition in the used car market at the moment, this is not likely to change, so choose what you buy carefully.

If you are with Click Dealer for DMS, we offer a function which allows you to automatically generate a report telling you how many of each make and model you have sold, how much they were sold for and how many days they spent in stock. Using this or your own method, identify your top and quickest sellers, so you can make an educated choice about which vehicles to buy.

2. Try New Things

If your dealership has not had the best start to the year, it might be time to try different lead generation tactics. If 2018 has been profitable for you so far, you may now have more financial resources to invest and see whether you can boost profits even further! You could try SEO, PPC, social media marketing, blogging or online retailing.

3. Track Your Leads

Lead source tracking can be very useful and if you aren’t currently doing it, I’d recommend it. Click Dealer’s lead source tracking tool will show you how many enquiries you have received from each advertising portal so far this year.

You can also use Google Analytics to find out how much traffic you are getting to your website and how much of that gets converted. The reason why this is important is that it will help you figure out the most sensible way to allocate your budget and whether it is worth the cost of advertising on certain sites.

4. Get Festive

The adverts haven’t started quite yet but it’s never too early to start preparing for Christmas! This can be a tough period for car dealers and can create a super competitive environment, so be prepared and have a strategy in place.

5. Social Media

Speaking of Christmas, this holiday can spark lots of ideas for social media content. If you are having a Winter sale, shout about it, post pictures of your staff and dealership in the Christmas spirit, tell classic cracker jokes! This will let people see your dealership’s personal side, and most people would rather buy a car from a business with a friendly face than a soulless corporate entity.

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To find out more about Click DMS, Click Web, Click SEM or ClickEngage™ and how they can help your dealership make the rest of 2018 successful, get in touch via marketing@clickdealer.co.uk or 01782 454354. Alternatively, you can send us a message through our contact page.



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