Who has time to do marketing? With all the other tasks you have to handle at the parts counter, it’s no surprise that you’re too busy to promote a parts web store with marketing.
Except as more dealerships launch a parts website, the ability to stand out among competitors becomes more and more important. You NEED a marketing strategy if you want a successful parts website.
In this article, discover some of the best set and forget marketing strategies for your parts website. Just spend the time on it once (or very infrequently), and you’ll continue to get benefit out of it!
A fair warning about Set and Forget Marketing, though…
Set and forget marketing will rarely be as effective as some of the other things you could be doing. What you save in time and effort will cost you in quality!
It’s better than nothing. However, the most successful parts websites will either hire a marketing agency or put more time and effort into their marketing plans.
In short: Set and forget tactics are not the best marketing techniques available, but having something is MUCH better than having nothing at all.
1. Hire a Marketing Agency
The BEST set and forget marketing strategy is to simply hire someone to do the work for you.
Marketing experts know how to make the most out of your budget and will almost always give you a positive return on investment.
If you don’t get a positive return on investment, then something is wrong with the agency you hired! Partner with a group that has experience in marketing parts and accessories for best results.
RELATED: 11 Questions to Ask a Marketing Agency before you Hire Them
2. Add Website Content
Adding content (whether it’s text, links, images, or videos), is a fantastic way to improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).
The better your SEO, the higher your parts website will appear in search results when a customer searches on Google, Bing, or any other search engine.
READ MORE: How to Boost the Google Ranking of your Parts Website in 6 Easy Steps
Once you add these pieces of content, your website will continue to benefit from it!
Content type: Videos and Images
Some manufacturers offer free images and videos to dealerships, and there’s no reason not to take advantage of it. Consider adding a tab to your website along the lines of, “Why buy Ford?” On that page, add a manufacturer video and type up a paragraph or two about why car owners should buy genuine Ford parts for their vehicles.
If you’re feeling ambitious, creating a few How-To videos or guides is absolutely fantastic and can draw in lots of potential customers.
Content Type: Unique Pages
The “About Us” page is an often overlooked place to add content. In addition to a few paragraphs of why your parts website is the best place to buy, you can include images of your dealership, your parts counter, your parts team, your parts manager, and so on.
Not only will this boost your SEO, but it will also introduce shoppers to the real people behind the website. Having a human face to connect with will improve customer trust and make them more willing to shop with you!
In addition, make sure to update your Shipping & Return policies so they fit your unique service. Usually, your site will come pre-loaded with default policies, so make them unique!
Content Type: Parts Descriptions
Adding dynamic SEO pages is a fantastic organic traffic boost that dealers often ignore. Basically, all you have to do is write a paragraph or two about some of your top selling parts.
For example, if you wanted to write one for brake pads, you might explain:
- What brake pads do
- Why they’re important for driver safety
- How to know when it’s time to replace them.
Then simply upload your content to your website, and you’re done.
With thousands of items in your inventory, it doesn’t make sense to write each and every part and accessory. Focus on your top-selling parts for maximum efficiency.
Since writing these paragraphs can be time-consuming, we recommend working with a marketing agency or freelance writers to do it for you! A marketing agency that has experience in marketing auto parts and accessories can give your dynamic SEO pages a huge advantage.
Content Type: Links
When other websites link to your parts eCommerce store, your store’s SEO improves. Since another website is “referring” you, essentially, Google sees that as a sign that your website is reliable and has high-quality content or services.
Surprisingly few dealerships are taking advantage of the best and easiest link available to them: their dealership website. Adding a link from the dealership website to the parts website is a fantastic way to improve SEO and give your website more traffic.
3. Create Printable Promotions
Once you design a coupon card, a flyer, or an advertisement, you only have to print it out to use it as a set and forget marketing material. It’s a one-time investment that you can just keep reprinting to get more value out of it!
Promo Type: Flyers or Banners
When customers visit the dealership to have their car serviced, they often become a captive environment while they wait for the service team to finish up.
It’s a perfect chance to introduce them to your parts eCommerce website and see if they’re interested in buying parts or accessories online.
Tell customers how they can find you online and remind them about your local pick-up options.
Promo Type: Saving Lost Sales
If a customer refuses service at the service lane, stating that they’d rather buy the part online and do the task themselves, then it’s the perfect opportunity to give them a flyer or business card for your website.
The customer already knows they can find a better price online than at your parts counter. If you can convince them to buy from your parts website instead of a competitor, there’s a chance to save the sale!
The more a customer buys from you, whether it’s online or at the dealership, the more likely they will be to think of your dealership first for all their automotive needs.
Promo Type: Shipping Inserts with Coupons
When a customer buys online, most parts teams will ship out the order and forget all that customer. Likewise, the customer will forget about the parts website.
But if you can encourage them to come back, you’ll continue to build up their customer loyalty until you’re the only place where they buy auto parts online.
How? By adding a coupon code to their shipment. (Although there are plenty of other creative shipping tricks you can implement to really make an impression!)
Simply open Microsoft Word or a Google Doc and write something along the lines of:
Thank you for choosing [Parts Website]!
Get 10% off your next order on [Your Parts Website Link] with this promo code:
[CODEHERE]
We hope to see you again soon!
Print it out, add it in the box of every order, and voila! This is called a Shipping Insert. Feel free to use this example as a template, if you’d like!
Depending on your parts website goals, you might also ask the customer to leave a testimonial on your website or connect with you on social media.
Add your parts website logo for best results!
RELATED: 5 Types of Coupon that will Drive Sales to your Parts Website
4. Create templates and automated emails
Email marketing is a great way to reach customers, especially when you usually don’t need to spend anything to do it. Set up an abandoned cart email to that will send out automatically, or set up promotional email templates ahead of time so you only need to change the promo code and click send.
Email Type: Abandoned Cart Recovery Emails
Many customers visit your website, fill their virtual cart with parts, then leave without completing their purchase. Chances are, they DO want to buy. But something made them rethink buying in that moment.
Abandoned Cart Recovery emails will automatically send to these people who left without finishing their purchase.
Sometimes the email will include a coupon code to entice the customer back, and sometimes it will include dealership contact information so the customer can ask questions if they were unsure about fitment. It’s up to you what to include!
In the RevolutionParts platform, dealers only need to turn on drift marketing to send out these emails. You can customize the emails based on your dealership goals.
Read more:
- How to Write an Abandoned Cart Recovery Email in 4 Simple Steps
- 3 Perfect Examples of Abandoned Cart Recovery Emails
Promotional Email template
Use a promotional email to tell customers about your seasonal sales and draw in repeat buyers. If they enjoyed buying from you the first time, getting them to come back should be much easier.
We have a step-by-step guide for building an email template in MailChimp. Once you’ve created the template, sending out emails is simple. Just change out the promo code for each promotion and send it out to your list.
5. Set up Social Media Accounts
Some dealerships use Facebook and Twitter to promote their parts website. If you ask customers to follow you on social media, you can start building up a loyal base that stays up-to-date with your sales.
Post status updates on a fairly regular basis. Use a free program like Buffer.com to schedule posts in advance so you don’t have to pay attention to it as often.
Even if you rarely share posts and pictures on social media, a platform like Facebook is another way for customers to interact with you. You can add contact information and store hours to the page, along with linking back to your web store and/or eBay store.
READ MORE: 6 Best Practices for Parts Managers to Boost Sales with Facebook
Conclusion
Some parts managers launch a parts website and never lift a finger to let shoppers know it exists. We can’t stress enough how important marketing is to the success of your parts website! The internet is simply too large for customers to consistently stumble on your site by chance.
More involved forms of marketing, like Google shopping and Google search campaigns, are more effective, but they also take a bit more time and know-how. And for content marketing like parts descriptions, not all content has the same effectiveness! However, having some kind of easy set and forget marketing strategies in place is better than nothing at all.
That’s why we suggest working with a marketing agency if you or your dealership don’t intend to take the DIY marketing route. Agencies know the best way to write content, with all the necessary links and keywords to be highly successful.
As long as you set a large enough marketing budget for the agency to properly advertise and optimize, marketing agencies WILL pay off!
