The aftermarket and parts sector of the automotive industry is extremely fast paced, constantly changing and highly competitive. New competition continues to enter the market at a rapid rate so driving profitable business becomes increasingly difficult.
As a specialist automotive marketing agency with experience working with aftermarket and parts clients for over 20 years, we know the market, inside out. If you’re struggling to drive business in the sector or would simply like to drive more of it then here’s just a few pointers…
Revisit the competition
With new competition entering the aftermarket at a frightening pace, and existing rivals constantly developing and evolving their offering, revisiting your competition at regular intervals is a must. It’s vital to keep abreast of what they are doing well, what they’re maybe not doing so well and where you could potentially get the edge on them. Being fully in touch with your competitive environment is fundamental to your marketing success as it gives you the context and framework to effectively develop your strategy.
Ensure you’re effectively differentiated
Effective brand differentiation directly drives business. Without it your customer’s only way to make buying decisions when comparing your products to those available from your competition, are often features (which can usually be ultimately copied or bettered), or worse – price. This is something you can take steps to avoid. By leveraging your core brand proposition you can create a clear competitive advantage that gives your potential customer’s a reason to buy from that’s not solely based on logic. In fact in some cases brand can be such a strong factor that customers will choose a desirable brand which costs more and is inferior in performance.
Invest in digital marketing
It’s amazing that a small number of businesses we speak to within the aftermarket are still not doing any digital marketing at all and instead relying on traditional marketing tactics such as print advertising, DM and telemarketing. Whilst Covid-19 has proven a wakeup call to these ‘digital luddites’ and forced a rapid transitioning towards a more digitally-minded marketing approach, the (hopefully temporary) demise of other staples such as sponsorship, live events, conferences and trade shows has accelerated the need to double down on digital. We’re currently seeing significant growth of the following digital marketing tactics within the aftermarket sector:
Social Media: With a particular growth across Facebook and Instagram channels for B2C activities and LinkedIn remaining a gold mine for aftermarket B2B marketers – no surprise when you consider there are presently 30 million companies and half a billion professionals generating some 9 billion content impressions in the LinkedIn feed every week.
Paid Marketing: Because organic reach on social media is increasingly limited, paid marketing across Facebook and Instagram in particular is essential, and LinkedIn whilst quite costly is definitely worth considering and testing. In addition, pay per click campaigns on Google AdWords and Microsoft Advertising continue to drive great traffic and conversions for our aftermarket clients.
Content Marketing: Creating regular content that informs and educates your audience will help to further establish your brand as a thought leader within the aftermarket. It doesn’t have to be limited to blog articles either, as content can often be quickly adapted and distributed in multiple formats including video, infographics and podcasts. The great thing about good content is that it’s potentially around forever, and can be working for you even whilst you sleep!
Email Marketing: When used correctly, email marketing can often outperform most other digital marketing tactics. Automation is important for the trade side, to nurture leads into new partners. For B2C, cross-selling, up-selling, special offers and abandoned cart emails are always effective. One thing to remember is to always try to use personalisation and segmentation within your email marketing.
Search Engine Optimisation: An ongoing process that will increase your brand’s visibility within the search engines. The first step is to get your on-site optimisation up to scratch, following detailed keyword research. Once this is done you can focus on creating quality content that people will want to share to attract links and grow your website’s authority.
Right now, digital marketing has never been more important for aftermarket brands, and the potential return on investment has never been higher – but only when it’s done correctly. This means thoroughly understanding each strand of the digital marketing mix, and ensuring you have a solid digital strategy in place which ties all your activities together into one integrated action.
If you’re looking for help in achieving these things, it pays to partner with an agency that knows your market – and your customers – inside out. To prove a great return on your investment, for a limited period we’re offering a 3 month Test Drive of our bespoke digital marketing services, discover more here: https://wda-automotive.com/automotive-marketing-trial/
