Did you know it’s possible to generate high-quality leads on Facebook?  Whenever I speak at conferences and dealer groups, I ask how many in the room have sold a car from Facebook. Very few if any raise their hands.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: If you do it right, you can attract higher quality leads than any traditional advertising platform. Today, the relationship with your customer begins online. Dealers and other “bricks and mortar” businesses must adapt with well-planned strategies to participate in prospects’ conversations on Social Media. It’s a huge achievement when you can attract, engage and retain prospects and convert them into sales.

You’ll get immediate traction by following these 6 Facebook marketing secrets:

1. Engaging, Relevant Content. Facebook rewards high engagement with more visibility. I can’t stress this enough: quality content is what makes your Facebook marketing perform. Learn everything about what your audience cares about. Your content won’t be effective until you know your audience. You can’t get responses if you don’t ask for them. You can’t get enthusiasm until you stimulate it.  And if you don’t get responses on Facebook you become invisible.  If you’re not good at finding, writing and publishing engaging content, hire a credible Social Media marketing coach who can guide you.

2. Facebook Ads Strategy. An affordable way to reach targeted potential customers is with Facebook ads. The power, depth and precision of the Facebook ad platform is unrivaled and historic. So many dealerships go to ridiculous lengths to avoid spending money on Facebook ads and then when their results don’t produce a return on investment (ROI), they say “Facebook doesn’t work”. Sure, Facebook doesn’t work, if you’re doing it wrong. Reallocate your ad budget for Facebook Ads to increase your visibility and generate leads.

3. Facebook Landing Pages. A landing page is your best chance at converting Facebook users into sales leads. My friend Oli Gardner at Unbounce is someone who lives, breaths and produces some of the best landing pages I’ve ever seen. In his post, “The 7 Elements of a Winning Landing Page”, he advocates including:

• Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
• Benefits and Features
• Hero Shot (a visual representation of your offer)
• Context of Use (photos, videos, testimonials, list of clients who’ve bought from you)
• Request for Data (their contact info)
• Backup Plan (not all will convert so give them another opportunity to connect with you. ie: Follow us on Twitter)
• Call to Action

4. Call to Action. I can’t tell you how many ads and landing pages I see without the ever-so-important Call to Action. This is the statement or copy that instructs your visitor to take a specific action. When a prospect lands on your page or reads your post, you have a nano-second to entice them. Don’t get fancy with the words. You want to be as clear and specific as possible. Visitors should not be confused about what they’re supposed to do next. Be sure your call to action highlights an obvious next step such as, “Schedule Your Test Drive Today”.

5. Valuable Opt-ins. People click on what they want. Give them something they want in exchange for something you want. What do you want? You want things like their contact info, schedule a test-drive, attend your event, or bring their car in for service. What can you give them return? How about a digital e-book on “What You Need to Know Before You Buy Your Next Car” or “12 Pitfalls to Avoid When Taking Your Car in for Service”. Heck, I spent my life in the car business and I’d opt-in for those things!

5. Make it difficult NOT to convert. One important component of capturing Facebook leads is to keep users on Facebook. If they have to leave Facebook and complete a conversion form on your website to become a lead your chances of conversion diminish. Eliminate that middle step altogether and offer conversion opportunities from within Facebook without ever making your fans leave.

6. Someone Listening and Responding. If following up on leads is an issue in your store, it’s going to be in issue with Facebook marketing…only amplified. There’s something about Social Media that seems to shine a klieg light on every misstep you or your employees take. In this case, however, it’s a great chance to address something that’s been holding back your sales. Your designated responder needs to know marketing and also be trained in sales. When your Social Media manager gets a lead coming through Facebook, they must engage the lead just as they would if the conversation was happening on the showroom floor or service drive.

Are you generating all the leads you want from Facebook? Try implementing Facebook marketing secrets and watch your leads (and sales) increase.

Tagged as: automotive, facebook, leads, marketing, sales, social media, training