12 Tips to increase your car dealership’s customer base with TikTok

You may think TikTok is just for kids, but the reality is it can increase your car dealership outreach with just seven tips. So let’s find out what they are.

In this day and age, no one can deny social media’s power over our lives in this day and age. Not only as a means of speedy communication, but various people are also using social media to purchase products. 

Busy schedules and hectic daily life have turned teenagers and adults towards various social media platforms. They are unable to find time to visit markets and prefer to buy all things from one platform. 

Companies worldwide know very well about this aspect. They are taking advantage of this fact by including social media marketing strategies in their business goals to target a broader range of audiences. You will need all the paperwork signed and given to you by the auto transport company when they pick your car up, including the Bill of Lading.

Like all other social media platforms, TikTok is one of the biggest and most widely used social apps. According to September 2021 statistics, TikTok reported one billion active users worldwide. So what does this mean for your car dealership? 

TikTok tips to increase your customer base

One of the great things about social media marketing for your car dealership is that you wouldn’t need special training, equipment, or a huge budget. With a few tips and tricks, you’ll be able to garner the attention of a large audience. 

The majority of TikTok users are under 24, uploading short videos between 30 to 60 seconds, which mostly are either humorous or instructional. You can get an idea from these videos about setting up your own car dealership channel. 

Besides, the platform uses hashtags and algorithms to share videos so you can share yours too on other social media channels. Now let’s come to the question of how to grow your customer base by using TikTok?

Identify your potential customers

It’s easier to find potential customers when you know who your target audience is. You need to identify the UVP (unique value proposition) you will provide to the audience. Only this value can give you an edge over your competition. To determine this, you should look at your existing car buyers. Figure out their online buying behaviors, motivations, and preferences. 

Try to pinpoint what led these existing customers to buy from you. This information will come in handy when you want to convert your potential customers into leads. You can also segment your target audience depending on their age and demographics. It will help you understand who could be your best customers. 

Make mini-clips on TikTok about information regarding car issues and their solution, which most probably your target audience will find helpful. Offer them solutions that your competitors are not providing and see if they respond well. If your content is engaging, your target audience will likely turn into your potential customers.

Use of hashtags

Hashtags in TikTok are the most vital aspect of marketing strategy, and by using them in your car dealership videos, you are bound to make a splash in the top trends. These tags can increase your outreach, and more people will be able to find your dealership. You can even increase local customer following by using your city or geographic region tags in your videos. 

Research for high-performing TikTok hashtags will help you identify what your target audience likes. You can combine your car dealership-specific hashtags with popular and generic hashtags to determine what content will add value to your business.

In addition, you can also participate in hashtag challenges. Find challenges that are relevant to your car dealership business. Look for what your target audience is participating in and interact with them. This will help you understand what will engage your potential customers. So, you could create your own car dealership-related hashtag challenges to engage new customers.

Entice customers with an engaging bio

Your TikTok profile will be the face of your car dealership. Make an enticing profile that will add value to your business and showcase it as the best to your intended audience. Your profile, logo, name, and username should clearly identify your business’s purpose. Moreover, write a catchy bio and clickable links to lead the users to the landing page of your car dealership website. This will help you in boosting user engagement.

Take a realistic approach

The most successful ads on TikTok are the ones that can succeed in bringing out emotional responses in users. Be natural and candid in your videos, and don’t take a commercially focused approach. Most TikTok users are youngsters, and they don’t want to watch individual or group promotions. A realistic approach with a mix of little silliness will help you win their hearts more effectively. 

Consistency in videos and campaign

Consistency in video posting matters a lot. You won’t want your followers to wait for videos as they’ll lose interest if you post content only now and then. It’s up to you how many videos you want to post, but two or three times a week will be reasonable. 

As a car dealership owner, you have an advantage over every other business operating on TikTok. You have a lot full of vehicles that customers might be interested in, and your sales staff are already natural communicators. So, you won’t face any difficulties in the communication and customer engagement department.

Video ideas that you can create:

• The newest and most popular car models.
• DIY car repairing videos.
• Car buying advice.

TikTok is a great place to build relationships with potential customers, so your videos should be interesting and relevant enough to engage them. However, don’t feel devastated if your initial videos don’t go viral. You’ll need to test different campaigns before getting the hang of what will work for you.

TikTok profiles that stick to a consistent video style and niche have a high engagement rate. Lack of consistency can create confusion. So find a style that best suits your car dealership business. 

You can use social media scheduling tools to assist you in executing TikTok campaigns. This will ensure that your campaign is consistent and won’t stray from track.

Create content for mobile users

TikTok broke the Facebook record in 2018 as the fourth-most downloaded app, establishing that it is a mobile-first platform. So, most users are likely to use their mobiles to watch your content. 

If you create content that will gear toward mobile users, you will likely experience more user engagement. We suggest making your videos in portrait as most people use their mobile phones in portrait while watching landscape videos. 

User-friendly website

When you are using the TikTok app to gain traction, users will likely want to visit your website from a mobile platform. If your website is not user-friendly, it will increase the bounce rate as users will leave it as soon as they visit it. 

Google’s algorithm ranks a website according to its bounce rate. Therefore, if your rate is high, your car dealership business will lose rank in Google search engine rankings. The global marketing statistics show that over 80% of the top-ranked websites are mobile-friendly. So, optimizing your car dealership website will assist you in gaining rank and selling your vehicles as users would want to stay on your website.

Post videos about offers

Most internet users are compelled to watch how to do videos for learning purposes as they tell them exactly how to do something. It could be a great marketing approach for your car dealership to use these videos to grab attention. See if the company offers services like door-to-door pick-up and drop, amongst other services that set them apart. 

Nowadays, users would like to learn something rather than just seeing plain old simple advertising. You can post videos such as how to change a tire, paint your car, or get a better offer by trading in their old vehicles. Informative videos on TikTok like these will help you increase your follower base.

Investing in TikTok ads

The majority of car dealerships use Facebook or Instagram ads rather than TikTok. So, by using TikTok, you would already have a competitive advantage over your rivals. But we recommend that you build at least 1000 followers of your car dealership before investing in TikTok ads. 

Like all other social media platforms, TikTok also favors paid ad campaigns. You can leverage this fact in your favor by creating paid-per-click ads that showcase your car dealership’s value. You can also find trends among car buyers. This will help you create advertising content that will convince them to join your community. 

Hashtag challenges also work with paid TikTok ad campaigns. A tip to create ads that will engage your audience seven times more is to use portrait ads instead of landscape ads. You will have to take a few factors into account and take the help of an auto transport company to help you get a quote for the trip or to know the cost to ship a car

The best strategy is not to create ads to make sales but to generate leads from customers looking to sell their cars. Creating sales ads will not benefit you because most users might not be looking to buy a car. But you’ll find several ones who would be interested in selling their old vehicles. 

Virtual test drive

Tiktok is a great way to engage the audience, so you can use videos to show the features of your vehicles and give a complete tour of the inside and outside of your cars. Moreover, you can take your users on a virtual test drive. You should also include your staff in the videos, with them advising users who wish to buy their first car or want an upgrade. It will increase user engagement as they will feel comfortable enough to communicate with your staff.

BTS Videos

Who doesn’t love behind-the-scenes videos? Everyone wants to see what goes on behind a service, and businesses use this approach to make the product or service more humanized and help the audience ultimately connect with the brand. You can also use this TikTok strategy to gain traction. 

Connect with your audience by taking them on an insightful tour of your garage and your work. It will allow them to be a part of your project and your team. You can give them a tour of your team tuning up vehicles or registering them. It will add value to your car dealership service. 

After all, your main goal is to sell cars, and the more followers there will be, the more your car dealership will thrive.

Leverage micro-influencers

TikTok is unlike other social media platforms. It’s not only about the number of followers, but users with small followers can also reach millions of active audiences. This could be an excellent step for your car dealership to leverage micro-influencers that could reach a significant number of people. They will help you in generating a high response for your car dealership. 

There is no doubt that influencer marketing can generate growth for your business. From 2016 to 2021, the influencer market soared from $1.7 billion to a whopping $13.8 billion, and it continues to grow.

You can find influencers who are already talking about cars by using hashtags, or you can check car accounts that are popular among users. Once you’ve found some influencers, you can invite them to your car dealership and ask them to create videos. Many would be happy to do it for free because they’ll be getting behind-the-scenes content for their followers.

Summing Up

Many people will tell you that TikTok is a waste of time and is not a professional way to gain a customer base. But this social media platform is not only about just posting lip-sync videos. If businesses use it to promote their products and services, it means something to them. 

Social media marketing is a fact, and the user content that it generates can help increase your car dealership’s credibility and attract more followers to your brand. If you can identify your target audience and engage them with your content, you could easily turn them into your buying customers. 

Find by yourself why it is the right channel for you. If you are putting in all your effort and it still doesn’t work, feel free to leave it anytime. But if you are having fun and at the same time growing your customer base without wasting a dime, then it’s a win-win situation for you, no matter what anyone says.

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