You will not see sustained long-term growth in car purchases if you are depending only on walk-ins, large advertising banners, or television commercials. The battle for your customers will not be won with grand gestures, but with customer micro-moments and touchpoints.

A slam dunk one-size-fits-all single method for turning leads into buyers does not exist. According to Google, on average,

customers engage in over 900 digital interactions with a dealership before they make a purchase.

So, what does this information tell us? Your dealership marketing strategy needs to include multiple digital marketing touchpoints to reach your audience throughout their customer journey.

Mapping the typical car buyer’s customer journey. A recent Google study highlighted the various touchpoints that typically happen during the average car-buying journey.

Here are a few critical touchpoints and customer micro-moments:

1. Awareness:

   Searched on Google

   Asked family, friends, and coworkers Influenced by online ad
2. Interest:

   Browsed newspaper ads

   Watched video on YouTube Searched on mobile Read professional review Located a dealer from mobile Visited dealer website Requested a quote online
3. Decision:

   Filled out a form

   Visited dealership
4. Action:

   Test drove a vehicle

This report also outlines three critical concepts:

• Out of the 24 touchpoints mentioned in the original study, 19 are digital.

• An in-person touchpoint is the result of multiple — as much as ten — digital customer micro-moments.

• Ultimately, your dealership marketing strategy needs to include a variety of digital tools that can facilitate several online interactions.

• Aligning your dealership marketing to each part of the customer journey

All touchpoints and dealership marketing tactics are not created equal. Each part of the buyer journey corresponds to specific interactions. For example, paid ads, Google searches, and a test-drive YouTube video

work better in the awareness stage since these dealership marketing tactics will likely be among the first marketing channels buyers encounter.

On the other hand, actions that require effort on the customer’s part — like following the dealership on social media, or reading a product review — shows developing interest.

That’s why these initiatives should be positionedin a way that carries customers from the ‘awareness’ stage on to ‘interest.’

Each marketing tactic has a purpose, and your goal is to figure out what it is and how this impacts your audience at each stage in the customer journey.