Car salesmen always seem to get a bad rap, although this is largely based on half-truths, misconceptions and often deliberate parodies.
In fact, this much-maligned demographic continue to play a pivotal role in the UK’s automotive industry, which generates around £82 billion in turnover and £20.2 billion in added value every single year.
This market is also extremely competitive too, and in this respect both dealerships and salesmen are required to work hard if they’re to successfully identify, engage and convert customers.
Working smart also works too, and this is where out-of-home (OOH) advertising comes into play. This medium is ideal when targeting local customers within close proximity to your dealership, for example, while studies have shown that more than 50% of customers would have been more likely to buy a car if they had been engaged through OOH ads in the first place.
So why not read on to enjoy our guide to OOH advertising for local car garages and understand how this medium can be leveraged successfully
What are the Main Benefits of OOH Advertising for Local Car Dealers?
As we’ve already said, local car garages are forced to operate in a competitive and challenging marketplace and one in which customers are increasingly aware of value, brand identity and corporate social responsibility.
There are two main takeaways for garages and dealerships here. Firstly, marketers must identify marketing channels that enable their brand to stand out from the crowd, while simultaneously finding the ideal medium through which to share a strong value proposition.
OOH advertising can help with the accomplishment of both of these objectives, and here’s a sneak peak of its main benefits for car garages.
OOH Helps to Inform Considered and Big-ticket Purchasing Decisions
Buying a car represents a big-ticket purchase and one that consumers usually give a great deal of consideration to before they hand over their hard-earned cash.
This creates an extended customer journey that includes numerous brand interactions across several different channels, and OOH media can play an influential role in driving a higher rate of conversions.
More specifically, OOH is renowned as a key builder of brand awareness, while recent studies have also highlighted its potential as a driver of assisted conversions. This term refers to any brand interaction that takes place prior to a final click or purchase, with each one being afforded a unique value as part of an integrated marketing campaign.
But why are OOH adverts so effective at driving assisted conversions? At the heart of this is the medium’s ability to trigger a higher rate of mobile and online searches, with customers thought to be 17% more likely to engage with a brand through their smartphone after viewing an outdoor advert.
Nielsen’s study from May 2017 also revealed that OOH has recently established itself as the most effective offline medium for triggering online and social media activations.
So by advertising your local garage through OOH media, you can optimise the impact of assisted conversions and empower consumers to enjoy a deeper level of interaction with your brand.
OOH Helps you to Target the Most Relevant Audience
When creating a viable and integrated marketing campaign, the products or services that you sell will have a critical bearing on the channels that you utilise.
Local garages and car dealerships offer no exception to this rule, and in this instance, there’s little doubt that OOH advertising represents the ideal marketing channel.
On a fundamental level, local garages are required to target qualified drivers, while the vast majority of this audience will be looking to upgrade their vehicle or exchange an existing car.
We should also note that more than 70% of people continue to commute to work in cars and vans in city locations, with these daily journeys indicative of reliable and consistent customer behaviour.
By recognising this and erecting large-scale billboards at prominent roadside locations, local garages can target an almost captive audience while building brand awareness through repeated, daily interactions.
In this respect, OOH media offers an extremely balanced and effective marketing channel, and one that helps local garages to both optimize their reach and target the most relevant audience imaginable.
OOH Adverts can be Strategically Placed Throughout the Local Area
While large-scale, roadside billboard advertisements can prove invaluable to local car garages, it’s fair to say that there’s far more to OOH advertising than initially meets the eye.
More specifically, billboards and other forms of outdoor adverts can be procured in various shapes and sizes, while they can also be placed strategically in a number of diverse locations within the local area.
This should be music to the ears of local car garage or dealership owners, who can create a detailed OOH media campaign that continually targets drivers as they go about their daily business.
For example, you may want to install smaller posters and billboard adverts at petrol stations, where motorists in the UK are thought to spend an average of six to seven minutes refilling their tank. During this time, it’s possible to really capture and hold the attention of potential customers, while engaging them in a completely natural and nonintrusive manner.
At the same time, similarly, sized ads can also be placed at bus and train stations, enabling local garages to target another demographic of commuters as they head to and from work.
Remember, there’s a growing number of drivers who choose to commute to work by train or bus, particularly in busy metropolises such as London. There were also a staggering 4.43 billion local bus passenger journeys completed in 2017 alone, and there’s no doubt that this offers access to potentially large and motivated audience.
How can you successfully Leverage OOH Advertising for your Local Garage?
By now, you should have a clear insight into how OOH advertising can help your local car garage to stand apart from its rivals and effectively target a relevant audience.
But how exactly can you leverage this medium to achieve your businesses marketing objectives?
Here are a few strategic ideas to help you on your way:
Create Concise Ads that Drive Specific Responses
If we accept that OOH media plays a pivotal role in driving assisted conversions, your task is to identify the purpose of using billboards or posters as part of an integrated campaign.
The reason for this is simple; as having a clear understanding of the precise role that OOH media will play in your campaign enables you to create concise adverts that drive specific responses from customers.
For example, let’s say that you want to raise awareness of your brand within your local area. This will require you to create an ad with prominent and consistent branding, while you should also feature your website and contact details so that customers can interact further and find out more.
Such ads should also be placed in prominent roadside locations so that customers are exposed to your brand on a daily basis as they go about their business.
In contrast, if you want to leverage OOH advertising to market a specific discount or limited-time promotion, you’ll need to make this the focal point of your message and direct customers directly to businesses physical location.
Use Large-scale Roadside Ads as the Fulcrum of your Campaign
When looking to erect roadside billboards and advertisements, there’s a basic rule which suggests that bigger is often better.
You’ll also need to target specific roads and carriageways according to an underlying marketing strategy, as you look to prioritise popular commuter routes and those that see high volumes of traffic.
With regards to the size of your adverts, you should aim to erect large-scale 48 or 96-sheet billboards that can easily capture the attention of motorists.
This means that your material can enjoy optimal exposure even when it’s placed at great heights, while it also enables you to deploy bold imagery, eye-catching branding and a font-size that’s easy for customers to review from a distance.
Leverage Traditional Billboards Rather than digital Alternatives
The OOH advertising market has enjoyed pronounced growth in recent times, with digital billboards having played a significant role in this phenomenon.
Despite this, traditional billboards offer a more cost-effective advertising solution that arguably delivers a superior return on your marketing investment. This is true across all markets, but it has particular relevance for local car garages.
To begin with, traditional billboards do not require you to share advertising space with other brands, unlike digital alternatives which rotate up to six adverts during every 60 seconds. This guarantees maximum exposure, providing better value for money in the process.
Secondly, investing in traditional billboards ensures that you can spread your marketing spend further, which is crucial if you’re to extend your campaign beyond roadsides. This enables you to target a wide audience through OOH media, without requiring you spend outside of your means.
The Last Word
Hopefully, this brief guide will help you to realise the full potential of OOH advertising and promote your local car garage throughout the local area.
Just remember to use this medium as part of an integrated marketing campaign, and one that has been created with your brand, products and core target markets in mind.
