The primary topic we’ve been discussing lately is how online marketing compares to other types of marketing commonly chosen by auto dealerships. We’ve addressed television advertising, as well as outdoor advertising, so this week I want to talk about another mainstay of car dealership advertising, which is print marketing. Many dealerships across the country rely heavily on print ads and coupons in their local and regional newspapers. This method of marketing has worked for decades and will certainly be around for many more years, since it does provide some additional traffic for practically every business out there.
While print can be a great choice for many auto dealerships, the medium is in a challenging position at the moment. With more and more customers favoring the internet for their news, print publications are facing a bleak future. In order to make up for the loss of subscribers and advertising revenue, many publications have had to increase the cost of their ads dramatically. With the limited marketing budget of a dealership, it might not be wise to allocate your dollars towards a print campaign.
Online advertising is better for auto dealership marketing.
At Stratosphere Studio, we’ve spent countless hours studying what the best marketing strategies are and we believe in online marketing over every other form. So, if you’re currently contemplating how to spend your marketing budget, here are the main advantages of choosing online marketing over print advertising:
· Online marketing will bring you more leads. Because any marketing you do online can guide visitors directly to your website, you have the opportunity to quickly and easily capture lead information with the right calls to action. With print, unfortunately, you have to hope that people call you or remember to visit your website after seeing your ad.
· Online marketing is more targeted. When you run a print ad, you can only hope that the right people will turn to the page your ad is on and actually give it a second thought. Online marketing, however, can be directed at only the people you think would be interested in your auto dealership’s services.
· Online advertising can be tracked. With print advertising, you can only track your success if customers mention that they heard about you in the paper. With online marketing, however, you can easily track how many people clicked on your ads or visited your website.
· Online marketing is more cost-effective. With a print ad, you spend a chunk of money to run in the paper only one time. With online marketing, you have many options for what you can do with your budget, so it’s not a direct comparison. If you spend money on Google ads, for instance, you can run a lot more ads for the same price as one print ad.
Are you ready to try online marketing for your auto dealership?
If you’re looking for a digital marketing agency to help you bring more business to your dealership, then give Stratosphere Studio a call. We specialize in online marketing for the automotive industry and have an excellent track record for bringing our clients more business. Our clients span the U.S. and are some of the most successful businesses in their respective cities. We would love to help you next!
