As we usher in the new year, it is always the perfect time for all of us, especially auto dealerships, to set ambitious resolutions to enhance our digital marketing strategies in 2024. In an increasingly competitive landscape that is constantly changing, staying ahead of the curve is essential for success. Here are some Big Time New Year's resolutions for auto dealers that we believe can help elevate your digital marketing game in 2024 and beyond.

1. Embrace Video Marketing: In 2024, video will continue to dominate the digital landscape. Make it a resolution to invest in high-quality video content, showcasing your vehicles, dealership facilities, and customer testimonials. Video marketing can engage your audience more effectively than any other medium. Big Time Advertising has all the tools you need to help our dealers upgrade their video marketing in 2024.
2. Prioritize Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Annually it is important to ensure that your dealership's website is updated and optimized for search engines. Invest in keyword research and on-page optimization to improve your website's visibility on search engine result pages. A higher ranking means more organic traffic and potential customers. Not to mention it helps your Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaigns perform more efficiently with your Big Time Advertising campaigns. Reach out to us for any help needed when it comes to helping your SEO.
3. Enhance User Experience (UX): We have been preaching constantly in 2023 at all the conventions across the country that thinking about how your customer views your dealership and what they need is critical for bottom line success. Resolve your dealership team to provide a seamless and user-friendly experience on your website and mobile app that also translates to all your dealership’s social media pages and remarketing interactions. A well-designed website not only attracts more visitors but also keeps them engaged longer. This can lead to increased conversions and sales. Big Time Advertising has some iron clad website partnerships and/or alliances that we would be more than happy to share with your dealer’s team.
4. Invest in Paid Digital Advertising: While organic traffic is crucial, paid advertising campaigns absolutely give your dealership an extra boost. Commit to allocating a proper portion of your budget to targeted pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns on platforms like Google Ads, Bing Ads, social media ads, remarketing, retargeting ads, and so much more. Big Time Advertising consistently excels and leads the industry when it comes to digital advertising. Make sure your budget matches the industry standard to be competitive in your market’s advertising while gaining market share. Inflation is here to stay, do not let your digital advertising investment suffer from stagflation which will lead to market erosion.
5. Leverage Social Media: Strengthen your social media presence by posting regularly, engaging with your audience, and running targeted ad campaigns. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok can help you reach a wider audience and build brand loyalty. If you are not already leveraging the power of AIA ads within the Meta Platform, then you are missing out. Meta and TikTok have evolved so should your thinking about how to integrate them into your marketing strategies. Unleash your sales team and let them benefit from the most powerful social media tools available. Big Time Advertising can help, just ask.
6. Implement Marketing Automation with AI: Streamline your marketing efforts by adopting marketing automation tools. And trust us there are so many available it can be exhausting. Change your mindset, make it fun, and LEARN. Get involved now and before you know it you will be crushing your competition. This can help you send personalized emails, schedule social media posts, and track customer interactions more efficiently. Allow our team to help guide you and if not us, then find a way.
7. Data-Driven Decision Making: Make data your ally but not the be all end all. Resolve to analyze customer data, website analytics, and campaign performance regularly. Data-driven insights can guide your marketing efforts and help you make informed decisions. However, remember there are a lot of bad actors out there who are not agnostic and are selling an agenda. All the vanity metrics matter, but they DO NOT tell the whole picture, ever. Data can be fun and a big dark black hole. Get simplified data that will help you gauge what really matters total volume sold and total gross per month YOY. Big Time Advertising helps dealers understand which marketing efforts are bottom of funnel driven and which ones are top of funnel, without proper decision making these can get very confusing and end up costing dealers’ tons of wasted energy and dollars.
8. Content is King: Commit to producing high-quality, relevant, and valuable content for your local audience. This could be blog posts, buying guides, or informative videos. Consistent content creation establishes your dealership as an authority in the industry. Plus, it gets your team learning and practicing for when the real sales process happens. Push your team in 2024 to up the content production and create fun contests for winners that get the most likes, shares, and/or comments.
9. Customer-Centric Approach: Make customer satisfaction your top priority, ALWAYS. Focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences both online and offline. Happy customers can become your biggest brand advocates. Have discussions with your sales team and service teams to think about how your customers interact with your dealership online and in person. Discuss the 5 E’s and listen to suggestions from your team. Many of them know how to help, want to help, but do not feel like they have a voice or channel to deliver. We all think about the first impression, but what does the last impression look or feel like for your customers? Big Time Advertising specializes in so many areas, but this is another one. Lean into our team to help you solve anything you need when it comes to better customer satisfaction in 2024.
10. Stay Updated with Trends: The digital marketing landscape is ever-evolving, trust us. We probably just received another update from Google or Meta just now. Resolve to stay updated with the latest trends and technologies in the automotive industry and digital marketing. Attend webinars, conferences, workshops, and especially BHPH United Summit to keep your knowledge fresh. Join a 20 group if you have not already. Staying current is hard for those who resist change. If this speaks to you, then surround yourself with change agents who respect fundamentals and know how to continue your dealership’s success far beyond 2024.
11. Collaborate and Network: Forge partnerships with local businesses, influencers, and industry leaders. Collaborations can expand your reach and bring in new customers. Networking is single-handedly one of the most important skills any person or entity can master. Like all skills when first learning, it can feel awkward or worthless for some time, but with consistency and practice it is often quickly accelerated and becomes a coveted talent. Big Time Advertising offers many learning opportunities for your sales team to cultivate these skills and more. But as a dealership as a whole think about how powerful social media could become if you thought about the power of collaboration and network with local charities and more.
12. Measure and Adjust: Regularly review your digital marketing strategies, assess their effectiveness, and be ready to adjust your approach when needed. Flexibility is key to staying competitive. We preach those buyers wants and needs change often and quickly. Listening to what they are saying, paying attention to how they are behaving, and understanding why they are not pulling the trigger on an automotive purchase is what it takes to properly measure and adjust your marketing messaging. Big Time Advertising believes in pivoting quickly as the automotive industry is ultimately 30 or 31 day sprints and then we do it all over again month after month. Failure to adjust will not lead to desirable results in 2024. 

By setting a few of these New Year's resolutions and committing to them, auto dealerships can enhance their digital marketing game in 2024. Remember that success in digital marketing is an ongoing journey, and staying proactive and adaptive is crucial to achieving your goals in the ever-changing automotive industry. Here's to a successful and prosperous year ahead!

-by Terry MacCauley, Founder & CEO