How Dealerships Can Increase Automotive Sales This Festive Season

With the winter months comes the opportunity for many holiday-themed campaigns. Considering your strategies for Black Friday, Boxing Day and January Sales means a lot of work from all your elves, and with the chance to boost your end of year numbers, as well as get a head-start on next year, these promotions can prove to be vital.

We are here to do our part to ensure that your festive campaigns are brighter than your competitors this holiday season, which is why we have made a guide on what you can do to boost your sales and bring more visibility to your dealership this holiday season.

The benefits of advertising for car dealerships at Christmas

Investing a bit more time and energy into your festive marketing has a number of benefits. Firstly, Christmas is the perfect time for boosting your end of year sales. Take the opportunity to post frequently with festive messaging to create as much brand awareness as you can.
Also, creating a buzz around your brand at Christmas could mean you will be at the forefront of a potential customers mind when it comes to shopping around for a January deal. Let’s not forget that Christmas is many people’s favourite holiday, and there is no reason why the automotive industry can’t contribute to the magic. A great Christmas campaign could set you apart from your competition far past the January sales and could ensure customer loyalty.

Do people still buy cars as Christmas presents?

While the cost-of-living crisis is still prominent in the UK, people are always in need of cars and there will still be many instances where people consider buying them as presents.
Winter is always an excellent time to boost your automotive marketing efforts to increase your sales. As so many promotion opportunities fall into the winter months, you will want to plan effectively, be original with your ideas and set yourself apart from your competition.

Planning your dealership’s festive marketing campaigns

1. Set your specific seasonal goals
   Be clear with yourselves and your team as to what you want to achieve this season, and what steps you will take to get there. Do you want to sell more cars to people in your local area? Or will you be driving awareness of your brand? Is there a specific brand you want more eyes on in your showroom? Whatever you are hoping to achieve this festive season, set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely) goals for business, be clear with your team as to what your goal is and how you plan to achieve this and be open to any ideas they come up with!

 

2. Make your social media pages merry and bright
   Use festive imagery and wording in your content to spread the holiday cheer and get your audience excited about your promotions. Use holiday-themed emojis to break up your social copy into fun, bite-sized chunks. Keep your activity up on your pages and be sure to answer any messages or comments from potential customers in a timely manner to show how excellent your customer service is.

   Encourage your team to share posts from your pages to boost your visibility and engagement. You can also use paid marketing to target specific audiences and boost engagement. You can read more about Organic vs Paid Marketing here.

 

3. Prepare your campaign
   How exactly will you achieve your SMART goals this winter? Create a step-by-step plan of everything you will prepare for your campaigns, how often you will post on social media, what the desired action your audience will take will be and what the ideal outcome is. Utilise all your channels. Reach out to your existing customers by email or text, have banners and flyers in your showroom and have your holiday campaign in a prominent place on your website. We’ve created a guide on Planning Your Seasonal Marketing Campaign which includes timelines of when to prepare your marketing materials and tips on planning and executing your festive campaigns.

 

4. Launch your promotions
   Don’t just talk about your fantastic deals when they are live, tease them on your social media pages and website a week or so before the go-live date. Create eye catching assets for your pages, if you don’t have an in-house designer, you can have a go at making imagery for your social media and website using free tools such as Canva. Draw focus to the great savings and promotions your customers will have access to, this will get them excited and help them have plenty of time to research what they are after.

   Talk about your promotions as often as you can to gain as much organic engagement and impressions as possible, post on your pages and stories, create a space on your website to showcase what you have to offer and learn how to use organic keywords to increase traffic to your website.

 

Christmas marketing ideas for your car dealership

Outside of offering deals and promotions on your stock, there are plenty of ideas you can use to spread the joy this Christmas. From festive snacks and music to get your customers and staff in the holiday spirit, to running a Christmas giveaway. You want your winter promotions to set you apart from your competition, take a look at our ideas on how you can make it a December to remember.

1. Deck the halls of your showroom
   Bring in fairy lights, tinsel and a Christmas tree and let your team go wild transforming your showroom into a winter wonderland that is sure to get everyone into the holiday spirit, and don’t forget to play Christmas music. Why not also arrange your stock to have festive colours such as red and white in a more prominent location? Take a team photo once your decorations are complete to brag about how amazing your space looks and show off your friendly, festive elves!

 

2. Greet customers with gifts
   Isn’t giving better than receiving? Handing out treats such as mince pies and hot chocolate to your customers for them to enjoy whilst they browse will make them feel valued, and let’s not forget that a nice hot beverage will keep them warm whilst browsing any outside stock. You could also hand out free Christmas themed packs to bring a smile to your customers faces and increase word-of-mouth recommendations to their friends and families.

 

3. Run Christmas giveaways
   Consider running a social media campaign where your followers need to answer a festive riddle to be entered into the contest or entering them into a giveaway when enquiring about or purchasing a vehicle. Remember to utilise all your platforms to promote this, send emails and text messages out to your customer base, and have a space on your website promoting the giveaway. You could also go big with a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway and give away one prize per day in the lead up to Christmas. The possibilities are endless, but whatever you choose to do, make sure you have fun with it!

 

4. Partner with a charity
   Get into the giving spirit by partnering with a local charity this Christmas, you and your team could take part in the local animal shelter’s shoebox appeal or a toy drive for a children’s charity. Set up a drop off point in the showroom and be sure to encourage the community to take part, this is a great opportunity for people to visit your location to take part and possibly find their next car and give something back to the local community.

Ideas for Christmas car sales slogans

Christmas is the time to be merry! So put some festive cheer into your marketing campaigns with this list of automotive Christmas phrases for your slogans. Consider using them in your communications with your customers this season to promote any offers on vehicles, accessories or car care happening at your dealership.

• Make it a December to remember!
• Driving home for Christmas?
• Make every mile merry!
• The gift that keeps on driving!
• Drive in style this Christmas!
• It’s the most wonderful time for…
• Drive smarter this Christmas
• Dreaming of the perfect drive this Christmas?
• Let every drive be jolly!
• Make your car merry and bright!

Preparing for Christmas festivities both in and out of the workplace is uplifting and something many look forward to, so make sure that whatever it is you’re planning, have fun preparing and executing your ideas with your team.
At LOCALiQ MOTORS, all we want for Christmas is to boost your dealership’s success, which is why this winter you can test drive our AI technology to see how it can drive more leads into your business, enhance your processes and eliminate budget waste by providing your customers with a personalised experience.

With our AI technology on your side and working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week this winter your campaigns will never be better. From eliminating budget waste, streamlining your processes, and predicting audience trends and patterns. Whether you want to drive awareness and leads, see more traffic coming to your website and footfall in your showroom, or see the best possible results for your investment, we have the perfect AI solution for you to finish the year on a high. Contact us today to find out more.