The effects of Covid-19
The global market of used cars ranked at $828.24 billion in the year 2019 and is forecasted to be valued at $1,355.15 billion by the year 2027. This results in a compound annual growth rate(CAGR) of 8.3% from the year 2020 to 2027. In regards to the vehicle model that was in demand, the SUV ranked as the highest revenue contributor in 2019, with the amount of $338.61 billion. According to the forecast of the market and where the vehicle model has ranked, it is projected to reach the amount of $533.39 billion by 2027, hence registering a CAGR of 7.80%. This is the information that will help us develop a digital marketing strategy.
The pandemic had an immense effect on all the automotive industries around the world. There are many other industries that have undergone the impact of Covid-19 however, the automotive industry was severely affected and as a result, started to see a decline in the demand for new cars. This declined was influenced by the lockdown that occurred on a global scale as the driving restrictions.
In the midst of the effect of the pandemic on the automotive industry, the used car market reflected an exponential increase in awareness and sales. The awareness and sales that the used car market had received were dependent on what the consumers were able to afford and the demand for private cars to adhere to the social distancing regulations. Even with the unfortunate decline towards the new care industry, the used car industry was able to grow from the awareness it received.
This is where we spotted the gap in the market to create our online second car dealership that allows buyers and sellers to come together online. The buyer has the hassle of advertising their vehicle online and reaching potential buyers is made easier. We provide the service for a small fee when the buyer has sold their vehicle. All digital marketing aspects will be provided by us and all the seller needs to do is provide high-quality images of their vehicle and their contact details in order for us to create their vehicle’s profile.
This is the digital marketing strategy of Auto Campus and how we are planning on implementing it and how we are going to be measuring our goals in order to be successful.
Why are digital marketing strategies vital for Auto Campus
At Auto Campus, we believe that our digital marketing strategy helps us better understand our market share.
Unfortunately, when a thorough and well-thought-out strategy is not put in place, it is easy to underestimate the growing demand for the digital services that we offer as a business. We would also lack the understanding of the dynamics of the online marketplace, such as the customer’s behaviors, competitors, and customers.
Most importantly, a strategy enables direction. Businesses without a digital marketing strategy lack clear strategic goals. It makes it hard to assign the sufficient amount of resources to individual marketing activities and even harder to measure, through analytics, whether the business is achieving its goals or not.
Key Performance Indicators.
Now that we have established the importance of a digital marketing strategy, the first step is to set goals. At Auto Campus, it is essential for us to be very specific with the goals that we want to achieve. This helps us create a strategy to take actionable steps towards our goals. For instance, our goals at (Auto Campus) is to raise our brand awareness and increasing our organic traffic.
Now we have to establish the steps we will take to achieve these goals. We use well-established platforms such as Facebook and youtube, and grow the followers and the subscribers we already have to the number we have forecasted to reach once our goals are achieved.
To increase our brand awareness:
- Increase Facebook followers to 20k
- Increase Facebook ads to reach 800k
- Increase youtube subscribers from 12k to 16k
- Increase youtube views by 10k
- Getting brand mentions from high traffic websites
To increase our organic brand awareness:
- Keywords are used to get higher searching results – “Used cars” and “Pre-owned cars”
- Use these keywords in the content that is published
- E-mail marketing to reach the target audience
- Create engaging content
If the business goal at (Auto Campus) is to increase their sales to $70K per month, then we will have to look at how much we are making with the current number of visits. For instance, if we are making $1K for every 5K visits that (Auto Campus) receives from Google search, for the business to get to $70K sales per month it has to reach 350K visits from google.
In this case, if ( Auto Campus’s) current traffic from google is 160K , the digital marketing strategy must include the relevant steps to take to reach the goal of 350K google searches.
A step that can be taken is to publish a blog post three times a week, that clarifies the keywords that the blog will elaborate on and the expectations in terms of increased traffic that (Auto Campus) has.
Identify your Target Audience.
Our target audiences are both buyers and sellers, especially sellers who don’t have the expertise or skills, and time to advertise their vehicles online.
Our platform will cater to mobile web users who are on the go and need the relevant information at their fingertips.
We are targeting audiences that are looking for easy-to-navigate websites that contain the relevant information and that are tired of confusing jargon that is used in the automotive industry.
Our target audience ages will be from first-time buyers to anyone that is looking for great deals and services.
We will make use of social media platforms to help drive traffic to our website.
Auto Campus digital Marketing strategy will be as follows:
Instagram and Facebook:
We can invite more users to window shop.
With Instagram and Facebook, you can provide a window-shopping experience for your followers, giving them the essence of our products and services. Share relevant and valuable information in the caption, like location details, sales, and something else to get the interest of your followers. Ensure you explain all relevant product information, in case Our followers wish to purchase the vehicle from the buyer.
We can promote our brand and website.
Integrating Instagram and Facebook into our social media marketing campaign can be a great tool to promote our business while being imaginative at the same time.
We can attract followers and boost sales.
Instagram and Facebook have an amazing way to draw in more followers to your to our website by promoting Instagram and Facebook only discounts. By Creating exclusivity and favored status for particular audiences is a proven technique for driving more engagement.
Ways Auto Campus will incorporate Instagram and Facebook in Digital Marketing strategy:
- Engaging with our customers.
- Creating quality content.
- Always using hashtags in our posts.
- Connect to other forms of social media such Linkedin, Twitter, and Youtube.
- Making use of sponsored ads and posts.
- Post according to a schedule that allows us to keep track of posts.
- Set goals for Instagram and Facebook and how we want the channels to grow.
Linkedin:
We will create a professional-looking page with a header and profile picture that will have all our details on and explain how to contact us.
Making Use of keywords in our description text so that we appear in searches our customers are likely to make.
By sharing relevant content that will engage our followers.
We will share various content such as images, videos, links, and posts relevant to our company.
In Conclusion.
By using these Social media platforms, we will make use of their analytic tools to keep track and to measure our reach and audience to see how successful our content is towards our audiences and if we are reaching the desired audiences.
We will be able to measure our sales and the success of our digital marketing strategies and what we need to do to cater to our audiences and expand our reach.
All social media platforms will have a Call to action to our website which will help navigate straight to our website with the minimum of fuss and with the utmost ease of use.
Our aim is to make the process as simple as possible for clients who are going to be making use of our website.
A major factor to assist with driving potential buyers to our website is by using SEO and Google AdWords. By ranking our website as trusted, we will be on the first page of search results.
We believe as Auto Campus, we will succeed in implementing this digital strategy that will provide results for not only us but also our clients who will make use of our website in order to sell their second-hand vehicles. By being engaging and creating quality content, the growth will be substantial and allow all that is involved to be successful.
About the Authors:
Hi, I’m Nolan Maurice van Eyssen from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, an intern at the International Institute of Digital Marketing. I have a passion for sports particularly Football whom I support Liverpool. I like to keep update to date with the latest technological trends. As a new father, I enjoy spending my free time with my son. Follow me on Linkedin for more content.
I’m Kuhle Payi is an intern at the Institute of digital marketing. I aspire to be a brand strategist, after I complete my degree. I have a channel on youtube that expresses my lifestyle and love for Jesus. Besides my passion for video production, I enjoy writing, listening to music, learning new cultures and photography.
