Using the right language in all your advertising efforts will give buyers a positive first impression of your automotive dealership. You don’t usually get a second chance to make a great first impression.
Advertising that comes off as pushy or cheesy is a big turnoff to potential buyers. In this post, we’ll discuss some great copywriting tips on how to write persuasive copy that won’t annoy potential customers. Below are some things this post covers:
- Write better content for your dealership’s website and blog.
- Become a better copywriter and meet Google’s content guidelines to increase your online ranking in search engine results pages (SERP).
- Write more dynamic social media posts and hone your writing style for email marketing that converts.
- Write more streamlined emails for improved conversion rates.
Five Copywriting Tips for Your Website and Blog
When your website and blog content rank higher in SERP, you can reach more potential customers. Use the following five copywriting tips to expand your reach online:
1. Content Length is Important
The right content length is an integral factor in satisfying the guidelines of the Google algorithm. Write content that is 1500-2000 words since Google places a higher page quality rating on content-rich sites.
Longer content is not going to automatically catapult your website and blog content to page one of SERP. However, content-rich sites tend to provide more value to the reader and have a better chance of getting quality backlinks. Both of which earn you higher page quality ratings with Google.
2. Focus on Keywords
To rank higher in search engines and reach more customers for your dealership, write content-rich in keywords. There are various keyword tools you can use, such as Keyword Tool and LSI Keywords. Using latent semantic indexing (LSI) gives search engines an overall idea of the main topic for your blog article or website content.
Place the keywords in the title, headers, meta description, and at least in the first paragraph. Make sure you don’t over-saturate the copy, or Google can penalize it with a lower page quality rating.
3. Add Value to the Reader
Focusing on the technical aspects of SEO is important, but don’t forget about the simpler goal of adding value to the reader. Be creative. Write content about vehicles, comparison pages, and other educational content in your unique voice.
Use headers, subheaders, bullet points, numbered lists, and shorter paragraphs for better user experience (UX). Creating a better reader experience will keep them on the site longer. That decreases your bounce rate, which is beneficial to your online ranking.
4. Write Mobile-Friendly Content
Approximately 43 percent of consumers shop online on their smartphones, and 18 percent on their tablets. Your website content and blog posts must be mobile-friendly to provide the best user experience. Providing mobile-friendly content is another factor in ensuring that your online content meets Google’s content quality guidelines.
5. Write Localized Content
More consumers are completing “near me” searches than ever before. If you are not taking advantage of creating localized content for your dealership, you are losing potential customers.
Since “near me” searches use the geolocation of the searcher to bring up local car dealerships, it is important for your Google My Business listing to have accurate information. You can create a free business profile and provide current information about your dealership.
Copywriting Tips to Help Meet Google’s Content Guidelines
Google contracts global “raters” to rate the value of search results to see if they meet content quality guidelines as they pertain to the quality evaluators in the PDF guide.
Make sure your copywriting efforts are meeting these guidelines:
- Conversational Tone. Share technical details with your readers about the latest model vehicles, but remember that the new trend in copywriting is to write in a conversational tone. Improve conversion rate optimization (CRO) by providing reader-friendly content with less jargon.
- PQ Rating. You can improve your page quality rating by writing content that is error-free and educational. Make sure that it accurately resonates with the purpose of your dealership’s site or wherever you’re posting your article.
- Trustworthy Content. All copy must meet Google’s guidelines for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EAT). For example, Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) pages that affect people’s lives – like sites giving advice or selling something – must provide trustworthy content.
- Expert Quality. Make sure your copywriters are writing educational content for your website and blog. They should include statistics and commentary from experts in the automotive industry to improve your page quality rating.
Three Copywriting Tips to Improve Your Reach on Social Media
According to Wharton Business School, 38 percent of millennials turn to social media when they’re considering which car to purchase. If your dealership is not making a dynamic impact on social media, you’re missing out on a large group of potential car buyers. Consider the following copywriting tips to improve your reach on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram:
1. Get Readers Interested in Your Dealership
Your potential customers are inundated with information all day long. They get hundreds of emails, social media posts, and notifications, and see online ads every day. The social media posts from your dealership can easily remain unseen by the people you want to convince to check out the latest model vehicle on your lot.
Host a contest or giveaway that has an increased chance of getting retweeted on Twitter or liked on Facebook. Create an engaging tweet and ask people to RT and post a photo of them with their current vehicle and comment on why they deserve to win your giveaway. This can generate buzz and get your tweet going viral.
2. Solve a Problem with Your Copywriting
Focus on one segment of your customer base. Write posts for Facebook targeting millennials and the first-time car buyer. Target their “pain points” such as not having good credit or having no credit and feeling like they’re never going to be able to buy a vehicle.
Have your writers create a blog post showcasing how your dealership works with buyers who don’t have good credit. Highlight the benefits of your no credit/bad credit program. Write an engaging blurb about the article and post it on your social media platforms. By solving a problem with your copywriting, you are branding your dealership as a viable option for this customer group.
3. Follow the 80/20 Rule for Maximum Engagement
When you’re writing copy for social media, make sure you follow the 80/20 Rule to increase the probability of engagement with followers and potential customers for your dealership. Promote the dealership only 20 percent of the time. Write engaging social media content with the other 80 percent.
Selling to people all the time will not draw them to your website or bring them to your dealership to purchase a vehicle. Write copy that engages people and cultivates an interest in your brand.
Use the simple social media copywriting formula of writing questions to engage your followers. For example, if you wrote a blog post about the Top Ten Economic Cars, you can promote the link with a question.
- Smart Car Buying Tips: Have you been looking for a quality car that fits your budget?
- Check out this Top Ten List for Economic Cars.
Copywriting Tips for Email Marketing
The main factor in improving reader engagement in email marketing is readability. Use these copywriting tips to ensure that emails from your dealership don’t get deleted without being read by the recipients.
Impact readers with a writing style that quickly draws them in so they follow your call to action (CTA). That’s the primary goal of sending emails to leads and customers.
1. Make Content Readable
Your leads and customers are bombarded with a steady stream of information in their email inboxes each day. They don’t need to read a white paper describing specialized research on the mechanics of today’s top vehicles. They need a reason to open the email and read it to the end.
Dave Chaffey is the author of Total Email Marketing. He created the CRABS technique to improve content readability. Focus on the CRABS technique:
- Chunking
- Relevance
- Accuracy
- Brevity
- Scannability
Streamline the email content by writing short two-to-four sentence paragraphs. Don’t add filler content. Quickly get your message across to the reader without overselling or overpromising.
2. Personalized Emails Convert
Research completed by the Direct Marketing Association showed that personalized emails brought increased revenue for marketers involved in this study by up to 58 percent.
Make sure emails from your dealership stand out in the inboxes of leads and customers. Modify your writing style for optimized reader impact with a personalized subject line and in the email content.
3. Write in the Second Person
Speak directly to the reader by writing content in the second person with “you, your, and yours” pronouns for a more personal effect.
Neil Patel is an SEO and copywriting entrepreneur who has perfected the art of writing emails that fully engage readers and increase conversion rates. One of the emails he sent to his subscriber list used the word “you” 317 times.
You might think that’s an overuse of the word. However, your readers will relate to your content and feel valued. Make sure all your email templates – first touchpoint, sales follow-up, service reminders, trade-in offers, and happy birthday messages – focus on the customer. Personalized copywriting will enhance customer loyalty and increase their customer life-cycle with your dealership.
Start Using These Copywriting Tips Today
Get increased conversion rates by improving the way you write content for your website, blog, social media, emails, and online advertising. Let the J&L Marketing team help you integrate these copywriting tips into the marketing strategy for your dealership.
