Leveraging the Power of Social Media to Your Dealer's Advantage

As a dealer, one of the best ways to get ahead in the Powersports, Marine, and RV arena is to utilize the awesome power of social media.

Whether you sell boats, motorcycles, or RVs, if done right, social media will help bring more prospects through your doors. Be as active as you can on a variety of different social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Here are some ways to use social media to your advantage and help grow your dealership business.

Post Frequently

Using social media is an easy way to improve your SEO ranking. The more frequently you post, the better. Aim to post on each social media platform once a day. This will help you pop up on customers’ newsfeeds and allow them to interact more with your dealership. On the posts, provide links to your website or blog to encourage customers to further explore what you have to offer.

Constantly posting images of your new customers is of little or no value to your other customers or your prospects.

Make sure NOT to make all posts about the same subject matter. Think thoroughly about what would bring your audience the most value. It's okay to post content that isn't hosted on your website or other social network profiles you own (as long as they are non-competing, of course). The key is to give value, as much of it as you possibly can. Constantly posting images of your new customers is of little or no value to your other customers or your prospects.

Share New Products

Social media creates a simple advertising platform for your products. Gone are the days where you need to run an ad in the newspaper or rent out as many expensive billboards as you can to promote your inventory. With social media, you can post new products daily that can be seen by most of your followers. For example, when you get a new unit in stock, post a picture with a catchy caption letting customers know about it. Be sure to provide your audience with a link to the unit on your dealer's website. This allows them to further explore the unit's specifications and price. They'll likely veer off and end up browsing through more of your inventory, further getting them familiarized with your brand.

Dealers putting their inventory on Facebook Marketplace are seeing an average of over 14,000 inventory views and over 35 leads a month from this practice alone!

Be sure your pictures are visually pleasing. The better the picture, the more compelled prospects will become to come to the store to look at the unit and subsequently buy it. Putting your used units on Facebook Marketplace is another awesome and fairly unknown practice of giving your inventory huge exposure! Dealers putting their inventory on Facebook Marketplace are seeing an average of over 14,000 inventory views and over 35 leads a month from this practice alone! Get more information on how to sync your inventory seamlessly to Facebook Marketplace.

Run Contests

Running a social media contest will cause customers to interact more with your page. You could post a picture of a new item from your Parts & Accessories catalog and add a caption stating to “Comment below if you are interested in 15% off this product.” At the end of the day, randomly select a winner. Another type of contest has customers post pictures with their new product and tag your dealership in the picture. This is an amazing way to leverage your customers' network in order to expand your dealership's reach.

This is much more powerful than photos of your new customers with their units published from your dealers' Facebook or Instagram.

This practice is referred to as User-Generated Content. The way you go about it is to ask customers to post pictures with their new RV, Motorcycle, ATV, Side-by-Side, or Personal Watercraft, and to tag your dealership for a chance to win a gift card or be featured on your social media page. This is much more powerful than photos of your new customers with their units published from your dealers' Facebook page or Instagram profile. People are smart – they trust content published by the end-user more than the dealer because they know a dealer's innate goal is to sell more products. Contests also get customers excited about products while also encouraging them to interact with your page which helps your visibility in the social media universe.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags are very important to your dealership’s social media accounts. Think about the keywords you use on your website and blog, and use those as hashtags on social media posts. As an example, every time you post, add #powersportsdealer to the caption. This causes your post to show up on the feeds of those who follow that hashtag. Using hashtags is an excellent way to increase your social media presence. You can also be creative with your hashtags. Try out fun hashtags such as #RVLife, #wanderlust, #throttlethursday, or #wheeliewednesday to catch the eyes of potential buyers.

Social media is an important aspect of any Powersports, Marine, and RV dealership. It should be at the forefront of your Digital Marketing campaigns. Share what makes your dealership special through frequent posts on a variety of social media platforms. Contact Beyond Creative today for help with strategizing and executing social media marketing campaigns. Reach out directly to Joe Iribarren for questions or further clarification on the topics included in this article.