Social Media and the Automotive Aftermarket

Nov. 6, 2009 - PRLog -- Social Media and the Automotive Aftermarket are perfect for each other, but most of the trainers and speakers failed to connect the dots with many at the show. Here is why Social Media should be a priority for your automotive business.

Your Customers Are Online: Social Media Sites such as Facebook, MySpace, HubGarage.com are extensions of real communities, on Facebook alone there are thousands of pages for real car clubs. A Facebook page search for "Mustang Club" yields over 41 pages, some with as many as 10,000 fans, and just because your company specializes in a less common car does not mean there is not a virtual community for you. A Facebook search for "Fiat Club" turned up over 20 pages. I will have another post coming up on how you can link your Facebook to Twitter so that both update at the same time, saving you time and getting more posts in front of more people.

Brand Identity and Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Many trainers will throw a lot of abbreviated buzz words at the audience hoping to dazzle or confuse them into signing up for blanket packages. Social Media and E-Mail marketing are some of the most cost effective ways to build your brand awareness. Developing a comprehensive action plan that will tie all of your media together should be your main focus. Make sure it is easy to join your e-mail contact list, be sure that your website has links to your social media pages and that they all link back to your main web page. Organic SEO comes from inbound links to your page from other websites, if you have a complete Social Media Marketing plan your already working on SEO.

Message Boards and Forums: If you have been reading my blog at all you know I am a big fan of Message Boards and Forums. If you are in the automotive aftermarket you need to identify the main community forums for your target market and be on them. You can pay to have banner ads and I am all for that. But being involved in the conversation direct with the consumer will earn the respect and increase your reputation. Consumers love the idea of direct interaction with manufactures, installers, suppliers, remember that while you may think your just a small business owner trying to make a buck, but you just designed a car or product that someone somewhere loves. This is why people line up to meet Chip Foose at SEMA, believe it or not you have fans that will tell everyone they know that "John Doe, from XYZ performance answered my tech question on that header install."

Email Marketing: This has become the new post card and mass mailer, however, while many companies have signed up with one of the many services such as IContact, or Constant Contact they are not maximizing the mailing list. The average open rate on a email marketing campaign is only between 9-12%. However, making a few small changes can increase that to around 30-40%. Again there is no secret magic to this, just taking the time to create thoughtful titles that not only identify who the e-mail is from, but also why they should open it. I will be covering e-mail marketing in depth over the next month.

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Satterfield Group Int. is a multifaceted collection of companies that includes SGI Consulting, Morgan’s and Phillip’s, RBR, PreOwnedPerformance.com, findaprojectcar.com, and several other automotive related media, sales and service businesses.