If you own a car dealership regardless of whether it sells used or new vehicles you no doubt have a long list of responsibilities in front of you that you must deal with each day. Most of your time is probably spent making decisions in one of the following three categories, inventory, operations, and staffing. While each of these categories is important, you also must be prepared to deal with one more category that is often neglected since it does not immediately impact your businesses ability to run: marketing.

Just because marketing is not something that will impair your ability to open the dealerships door does not mean that it is something you can avoid. In fact, marketing may be the only key factor that will keep your business doors open long term since the effectiveness of your marketing campaign will determine how many customers you are able to attract and how many you will be able to retain. In fact, your marketing can be the difference between a dealership that rises to the top and one that fails. This is why it is important to know three main marketing basics that you can utilize when it comes to your dealership: analysis, planning, and tactics.

First off you need to make sure that you take full advantage of a complete knowledge of the three C’s of market analysis: customers, competitors, and company. When it comes to customers if you hope to keep them you have to pay attention to your current customers so that you can predict what future customers will want. You also need to look at competitors and how they attract customers, what works and what does not work can help you form a guideline off of which to test your future marketing ideas before you employ them.

Second, you need to be willing to devise a plan that clearly targets your customer base. In order to do this you need to devise a plan that is centered on your target demographic and sit down to brainstorm what you want from your marketing campaign before it gets started. When you have a clear view of what you want from your marketing plan you will be able to sit down and form a campaign that will bring new and old customers into your dealership on a regular basis.

Third, but not least, you need to focus on the tactics that you can choose to use to reach your goals and complete your plan. In order to do this you will need to look over your inventory and their current prices along with any promotions that you have running to accurately judge what you may be able to do in the future. By looking at how you can change your current marketing campaigns you can formulate your tactics so that your marketing campaign is effective at keeping your business ratios high.