It can be argued that every challenge has a solution, and behind that solution is a message that illustrates value by painting a picture of past success. When you are the one delivering that solution, you need to draw a correlation between those past successes and the audience you’re targeting. The client needs to see/identify itself in that example. In essence, you become a storyteller.
The $100,000 question of the day is how does a dealer properly tailor its marketing message to the target audience? Fortunately, we have a strong panel of marketing pros from our State of the Industry report on marketing, and they have a few ideas about what an effective message sounds and feels like.
We start with noted industry guru Keven Ellison, the vice president of marketing for Advanced Imaging Solutions (AIS) of Las Vegas. He offers a laundry list of best practices that can enable fellow dealers to more effectively engage their intended target.
“It starts with knowing your audience,” Ellison said. “By understanding their unique needs, pain points and desires, we craft messages that resonate and inspire action. Testing is critical—it’s the backbone of any successful marketing program.”
Here is AIS’ formula for effective messaging:
- Use clear, concise language.
- Highlight the benefits of your products or services.
- Leverage storytelling to create emotional connections.
- Incorporate engaging visuals, graphics and videos.
- Test and gather feedback to refine your approach.
- Be transparent about pricing—prospects should hear it from you rather than the competition.
It helps to make your audience see a pathway to solving their challenges. “Ultimately, tailored messaging isn’t just about speaking to the audience,” Ellison added. “It’s about speaking with them.”
Client Insights
There’s a bit of deep diving into customer personas that can get a dealer moving in the right direction. L.K. Hoopingarner, vice president, managed marketing services for Impact Networking of Lake Forest, Illinois, believes it’s critical to understand the client, their pain points and triggers.
“What’s the key insight, the key truth that gets to what they’re really looking for?” Hoopingarner poses. “And then making sure that’s unique in the marketplace from what the competition is saying. [Ensuring] it’s own-able to the business, so that when consumers get that message from the marketing, they’ll have that actual experience when they do work with you.”
It’s helpful to use third-party tools to benchmark and measure the success of a dealer’s marketing plan of attack. For its digital marketing strategy, Levifi of Charleston, South Carolina, relies on the Semrush platform for elements including SEO, competitor research and social media marketing. When it comes to effective storytelling, CEO Thomas Fimian sees Donald Miller’s “Building a Story Brand” as an excellent resource tool.
“You can use the power of storytelling to create a winning narrative [regarding] how your brand can be the guide to give your customer a winning plan to resolve their problems,” he said.
Good Intent-ions
Some dealers, including GoodSuite of Woodland Hills, California, embrace the audience-of-one philosophy of one-to-one marketing. CEO Dan Strull sees the value in leveraging intent data—those digital trails users create when they do keyword searches or visit websites.
“My philosophy in marketing is one size fits one,” he said. “We try to be as specific as possible. Instead of sending 50,000 emails, we’re doing intent data and nurture marketing specific to a given vertical.”
