Facebook For Your Automotive Dealership: The Basics

27
January
2021

Facebook For Your Automotive Dealership: The Basics

When you’re talking about car dealership digital marketing, the social media platform that should immediately come to mind is Facebook . In today’s blog, we’ll cover how to set up a Facebook profile, how to build a business page along with your Facebook business manager, and what kind of content you should be creating in order to attract more leads. This is part one of a four-part series so stay tuned in the upcoming weeks to find out how Facebook can help your car dealership marketing strategy.

Setting Up Your Facebook Profile
In order to create your dealership’s business page, you’ll want to start by creating a personal Facebook profile first. This is the simplest first step and it only takes a few minutes to set up before you’re creating ads for your dealership. You’ll want to start by filling out all of the required information such as your name, profile picture, and we recommend using your dealership email as your primary email address, if possible. After you’ve filled out the basics, you’ll be able to add that you have connections to a dealership so people will be more likely to reach out to you for questions, should they come across your profile. Finally, now that your profile is complete, make it more personalized by posting regular content about your dealership or your life in general. This will make potential leads feel more comfortable reaching out to you because they know you are a real person and not just a bot. People are drawn to real human relationships, especially in today’s word of AI, so make sure your profile feels genuine and welcoming.

Setting Up Your Business Page
1. Go to www.facebook.com/pages/create, you’ll click the Get Started button in the box on the left side for “Business or Brand” and then log in with your newly created profile. Setting up the page is fairly straightforward, you just need to put your dealership’s name, your category, and a small description of what your dealership is like. For your category, there are various ones to choose from such as Car Dealership, Automotive Body Shop, etc. so choose all the ones that apply to your dealership. For your profile and cover photos, you should be using pictures that best represent your dealership. Whether this is using a logo, a nice picture of your staff together, or a photo of your lot, just make sure it’s visually appealing and will heighten your brand and strengthen your dealer marketing. Once you’ve finished filling out the skeleton of your page, go in and add your dealership’s contact information, location, hours of operation, and links to any other social media accounts you may have. Now you’re ready to publish your page for the public to see!

How Do I Set Up Facebook Business Manager?
Facebook’s Business Manager platform gives you the ability to mange your advertising accounts and any additional pages your dealership may be using. Additionally, you’re able to add and take off employees and agencies from an account, connect your other social media accounts, and share data sources across all of your accounts. Start off by going to www.business.facebook.com in order to set up your advertising account. You do have to have a personal Facebook account in order to set this up but you won’t necessarily be using it for the account. Once you’re there, you’re going to need to specify if your business manager account is going to be used as a promotional campaign for the goods and/or services you’re providing or if it’s to provide services to other businesses/dealerships. Finally, within business settings, you’re able to choose to cocus on people, pages, and your ad accounts. Now’s your time to get creative and start exploring Business Manager and see what it can do for your dealership.

What Kind of Content Should My Dealership Be Posting?
By being in the automotive industry, you are in a space that likely has more questions on a daily basis than almost any other industry. Not only are people asking about what kind of car is best for their lifestyle, the newest car trends, etc. but they are also asking maintenance and financing questions as well. Some people still may not know how to change their flat tire or how to work with a dealership in order to figure out a loan for the vehicle they want to purchase. That’s where your dealership comes in. Creating “how to” posts and video tutorials are a great start to building goodwill with your new followers and potential customers. You want to post content that you know will attract your target audience and keep them coming back for more. Whether you’re showing the features of the newest inventory on your lot or going into your service department and having a technician show how to check a car’s oil, informative content like this is always a must. Additionally, you also want to make sure you’re optimizing your title and keywords so when people are searching for a certain post on your Facebook page, they are able to find it easily. There’s nothing worse than having to scroll through dozens of posts just to find the one you’re looking for. Furthermore, it would be great if your dealership posted news and statistics about the automotive industry. Keeping your audience informed and providing them with unique content that your competitors aren’t producing will make them more likely to go to your dealership at the end of the day. Finally, don’t be afraid to branch out on your content, it doesn’t just have to be informative and educational, you can have fun with it too! Show off the members of your staff in a virtual meet-and-greet sort of way. Or walk around your dealership and talk about your favorite parts of working there or why your dealership is so loved by your customers.

Marketing your dealership really isn’t too hard once you have the basics down and some attainable goals you want your dealership to achieve. Facebook is one of the simplest and best ways to get started with your dealership digital marketing because it’s so easy to use and they offer so many tools. Another thing that will make your process even easier, is by reaching out to our team here at AutoJini to help you create your Facebook Ads and list your dealership’s inventory on Facebook Marketplace. We’re eager to help you get started and you even get a risk free trial to start. If you would like to learn more you can send us a message or call us at 515-232-2024.