Before you know it, the holiday season will be here in full force, bringing both unique challenges and rare opportunities for independent used car dealerships.
It can be a hectic time of the year, for certain. Your dealership may experience abnormal volumes of foot traffic. You may feel pressured to deal with existing inventory before the new year begins. And of course, the holidays themselves can disrupt your normal hours of operation.
One way to ensure you succeed, even in this busy time of the year, is to adequately prepare your dealer website. The time to make those preparations is now, before all that busyness really sets in. Here are a few recommendations from the Get My Auto team.
Post Your Holiday Hours
Is your dealership going to be closed on Thanksgiving Day? Open early on Black Friday? Shut down a few hours early on Christmas Eve? If you anticipate any disruption to your normal hours of operation, make a note to post those hours to your website well in advance. Also make sure you update your holiday hours on Google My Business, ensuring customers don’t show up on your lot when nobody’s there to greet them.
Build Some Buzz
Are you going to be running any special promotions over the holiday season… end-of-the-year deals, Cyber Monday specials, Christmas flash sales, etc.? If so, now’s the time to start spreading the word and generating enthusiasm. Use your dealership blog to let people know what they can expect. We’d also recommend alerting the subscribers on your email list.
Post Seasonal Advice on Your Blog
Another way you can get into the holiday spirit is to adopt some seasonal topics for your dealership blog. Some examples include Reasons to Buy a Car Before the End of the Year, cold weather car maintenance tips, etc.
Check Your Speed
You may experience higher-than-normal volumes of website traffic during the holiday season. Get ready for it by running some speed tests, making sure your site loads quickly across a full spectrum of devices and browser types. If it takes the site longer than three or four seconds to load, you may have some back-end issues to address.
Is Your Dealership Ready for the Holiday Rush?
The bottom line for independent auto dealerships: The holidays are going to be here faster than you think. There are a number of ways to get ready, but there’s no time to delay!
We’ve highlighted some website-specific issues, but we’ll also note that the holidays can be ideal for posting inventory to Craigslist, running targeted advertising campaigns on Facebook, and embracing a robust Instagram strategy.
Contact Get My Auto Today
We’d love to talk with you about any and all of the above, and also to show how our website design software can make things easy on your dealership. To learn more about effective holiday marketing for your used car dealership, just reach out. Connect with Get My Auto at your next convenience.