You can bring millennial shoppers to your dealership.
It’s not about buying YOUR car, it’s about buying A car.
Another successful Kain Automotive Clients and Friends Workshop has wrapped up and we were honored to once again join David Kain and his team of leaders. This show, as always, focused on quality over quantity.
Of the many presenters, I was particularly interested in Hubspot’s Lindsey Kirchoff. She presented on “Why Millennials aren’t Buying Cars – And What You Can Do To Fix It”.
Just when the dealers in the room thought they had a good grasp on the auto marketing lessons that had been tossed their way in the previous days, Kirchoff, threw them a brand new challenge: Selling to a millennial. On the last day, Kirchoff’s presentation about selling to millennials left a room full of cramped hands and spinning heads. A millennial/generation Y herself, Kirchoff described a world unfamiliar to her audience. A world where cars don’t leave driveways, leases are short, trades are by location and vehicle ownership is shared, like college houses. Her message was one that dealers need not work on convincing millennials to buy their car, they must focus on getting them to buy a car.
To gain the audience’s attention, we were all slammed with the statistic that 46% of 18-24 year old drivers would choose Internet access over owning a car. More stats followed, showing us that teenagers are obtaining licenses later, and buying a car isn’t topping the list of priorities like it did just a few years ago. So, how do you sell to a millennial? Not easily. While you’re unlikely to begin offering group ownership, there are other actions you can immediately take.
Show Me How!
You have a blog, right?! Write a blog about how to buy a car. Why not be the go-to source for helping them with this huge purchase with a step by step guide Even better, make a video about how to buy a car. Even, even better, make that video 45 seconds long. We’re talking about a person who will close a page if it doesn’t load in a fraction of a second, make it 30 seconds and part of a series:)
Social Stalker Anyone?
You cringe, but Kirchoff says that she’d tweet with anyone, even car dealerships. Start building the relationship with the young buyer now. Then, when they graduate and have all that graduation money for a down payment, you’re first in mind!
Near A College?
Pizza equals foot traffic. You remember being in college, right? Free food can never be over rated. Host a (non salesy, non pressuring) college friendly event (meet up, tweet up, hack a thon, anything) at your dealership and offer free food in exchange for their Twitter handle. Or, bring the pizza to campus since it’s unlikely they’re driving to your dealership.
Mobile, Mobile, Mobile!
If you’re going to be where they are, they’re not on their desktops looking for that electric car. Make sure your mobile presence is strong, welcoming and easy to navigate — and don’t forget the mobile friendly service coupons. If you can reach the millennial who has a car and they choose you for their service center (and next upgrade), it’s going to be because they got that cheap oil change.
Jessica Ruth is the Brand Manager @DealerFire, an automotive marketing baller and can always be found @whatjruthsaid.
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