Lead-generation Strategies for Your High-demand Seasons

Demand for your business’s goods and services can ebb and flow throughout the year. Make the most of your high-demand seasons with a lead-generation strategy that capitalizes on the increased interest in your inventory and services to maximize sales.

Digital Advertising

The buying journey for a major purchase can be months long, so focus your advertising budget on users with demonstrated in-market intent who are ready to buy.

Branded Campaigns

In the months leading up to your high-demand season, get your dealership in front of high-funnel users with small investments in branded campaigns for paid search and display advertising.

Taking Your High-demand Season Advertising to the Next Level

Match the increase in seasonal interest with increased paid search spending one to two months before the high-demand season begins. Once your high-demand season is in full swing, take a more aggressive approach and expand into display and social media ads with sales and incentive language.

SEO

Take advantage of the slower months to build up your search engine optimization (SEO) and optimize your website for conversions. Testing and quality assurance are critical steps when making adjustments to a website, and reduced traffic decreases the risk that an error could have on your conversions.

Keyword Research

While you may have already conducted keyword research for your regular digital strategy, take the time to research the right keywords to target during your high-demand season. Focus your research on the vehicles that are most in demand and the seasonal terms that your customers are most likely to associate with your dealership.

Seasonal Content

Once you have completed your seasonal keyword research, you can plan your seasonal content strategy. Divide your content plan into three segments — the ramp-up period to the high-demand season, during the high-demand season, and the period after when demand cools down. 

Create assets for your landing pages, ads, or social media to catch the attention of in-market users. Give users a visual indicator that something outside of the normal is happening while remaining aligned with the rest of your branding. Remember that when it comes to SEO, creating content early pays dividends during the peak season when you plan slightly ahead.

Adjusting for Out-of-stock Vehicles

Having too much success is a great problem to have. Capitalize on traffic for out-of-stock vehicles by directing shoppers to similar inventory and using forms and CTAs to collect contact information for when it is back in stock. 

Make sure that out-of-stock inventory isn’t creating 404 errors, and communicate if something is out of stock while offering a comparable alternative or showing when the vehicle will return. Remove all internal links on your site that lead to an out-of-stock vehicle listing page. If the vehicle becomes available, retarget shoppers who visited the page through display and social media remarketing campaigns. 

If the vehicle is permanently removed from your inventory, redirect traffic to a similar vehicle. Transferring valuable link equity to the new page will help with its ranking and the ability for referral traffic to find an available vehicle that meets their needs.

Reputation Management

Typically it takes an exceptionally great or poor experience to motivate a customer to write a review for your business. Leverage the great experiences of your customers to showcase your business’s exceptional customer service with a proactive reputation management strategy. Automate review requests with a management service like Podium to capture reviews from customers with positive experiences who might not initially think of reviewing.

Next Steps

Reach out to learn how seasonal digital marketing adjustments can help your business make the most of shifts in seasonal demand. We’ll start with a free digital analysis to assess your competitive landscape and share custom insights to set your business up for success.