With over 2.5 billion users worldwide social media is a fantastic tool to have two-way communication and to grow your customer base in the motor trade. Whether this is to promote images of new vehicles for sale, to encourage participation in competitions or request reviews of your customers experience with you. When done correctly this can increase your following and engagement leading to better long-term relationships with your customer base.
Social media doesn’t come without its pitfalls. So, we as specialist motor trade insurance providers have put together this handy guide to help you promote your motor trade business effectively.
Not creating a plan
When you see your competitors using social media platforms to promote their business it’s understandable that you’ll consider doing the same to increase your customer outreach. Before you go ahead and setup Facebook and Twitter accounts, you’ll need to create a social media calendar detailing what you’re going to post and how often you’re going to do it. This’ll make your social media accounts more manageable and make planning your general workload easier.
Too many sales messages
One of the best means of social media is to build your brands awareness and to spread the word about your motor trade business. If you’ve a group of new motor vehicles for sale then you could take some photos and add the descriptions on there on a weekly promotional basis. However, if you’re posting sales promotions, adverts and call-to-actions every day, this can lead to your followers becoming disengaged and unfollowing or blocking you. Less is more as the saying goes.
Out of date information
Make sure that your contact details are up to date and that you don’t post articles or blogs that are out of date. To keep your audience engaged, your posts need to be current and accurate, otherwise, this’ll look like you’re posting for the sake of posting. Avoiding this will prove that you’re worth following and will help to build trust with your audience so they’ll know you only post when you have something of genuine interest or value to them.
Not replying to customer feedback
Motor traders and customers alike would love to have a fantastic experience every time they do business. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. Whether there has been a mix up in communication or a delivery hasn’t arrived on time. If a customer isn’t happy with the service they’ve received they can seek out a business online and tell the world. Whether you receive positive or negative feedback it’s important to reply positively to all messages. Doing this can help your reputation online and show customers that you care about delivering good customer service.
Ignoring data
Measuring the success of your social media posts will enable you to identify what your audience is engaging with. On Facebook, you can see if your following is increasing or decreasing, how many likes and comments your posts have. And with Twitter you can again see if your following is going up or down, how many likes and retweets your posts have and how many impressions your posts achieved. Keeping a daily check on this will inform you on what posts are working and what needs to be changed.
How do you engage your customers on your motor trade social media accounts? Share your ideas on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
