Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular as drivers look for ways to save money on fuel and reduce their environmental impact. If you're a car dealer, this presents an opportunity to sell more electric vehicles (EVs) and potentially make them a primary sales focus at your car dealership. However, it's important to keep in mind that selling EVs is different from selling traditional gasoline cars, especially as the public adapts to changing trends.
We’ve put together a few ideas on how to successfully sell more EVs at your dealership in the coming years. Read on for our top training, sales, and marketing tips!
1. Use EV-Specific Marketing Materials
Make sure your dealer website and marketing materials specifically mention that you sell EVs. Use EV-specific images and copy to highlight the benefits of driving an electric car. You can also create separate landing pages on your website dedicated to EVs, making it easier for potential customers to find information about them and browse your EV inventory. If you’re stuck on ideas or need help executing an EV marketing plan, be sure to reach out to the Flex team to talk about your options.
2. Educate Yourself and Your Staff About EVs
If you're going to sell EVs, it's important that you and your staff are knowledgeable about them. Take the time to learn about the different types of EVs on the market, their range, charging times, charging infrastructure, EV trends, electric vehicle batteries, and other important features. This will make it easier for you to answer questions from potential customers and show them that you're an expert on the subject.
3. Offer Test Drives
One of the best ways to sell EVs is to offer test drives. This will allow potential customers to experience the benefits of driving an electric car for themselves. Make sure you have a few EVs available for test drives - even if you can’t sell them yet! Car buyers are eagerly pre-ordering the cars they want, so even having one model on the lot available for test drives can help clinch a sale.
4. Get an SEO Campaign Going
Make sure your dealer website is optimized for search engines, so potential customers can easily find you when searching for EVs. Use relevant keywords in your website copy and blog posts, and create backlinks to your site from other websites when possible. SEO is one of our specialties, so if you need help with your SEO campaigns to start ranking for electric vehicles and their related terms, simply contact us and we’ll get the ball rolling!
5. Get Into Targeted PPC Ads
Another great way to market your EVs is through targeted pay-per-click (PPC) ads. You can create ads that specifically target people who are interested in EVs and show them your website when they search for related terms. This could include Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and Google Vehicle Ads.
6. Create an EV Mailing List
Stay in touch with potential customers by creating an email mailing list specifically for people interested in EVs. You can use this list to send out periodic updates about new EVs, special offers, and events. Email content marketing offers incredibly high ROI, and we recommend that all dealers use email flows to target various lists and segments to keep them in your sales funnel.
7. Build EV Awareness on Social Media
Social media is a great way to build awareness about EVs. Use social media to share news, photos, and videos about EVs. You can also use social media to connect with potential customers and answer their questions about EVs. So what can you post about?
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Answer FAQs about electric vehicles
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Talk about your provincial rebates and incentives for purchasing EVs (this could also be a great addition to your dealer site as a landing page or blog post)
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Show off new EV inventory
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Record a time-lapse video of an EV’s charge time
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Compare the speed of an electric vehicle and gas-powered vehicle in a mini drag race (safely, please!)
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Use your EVs to collect and deliver food, clothing, toys, or other items to your community
8. Provide EV Charging Options
Make it easy for customers to charge their EVs by providing EV charging options at your dealership! You can install EV charging stations, offer EV charging services, or provide EV charging discounts.
9. Make the Buying Process Easy
You and your team should know electric vehicles from top to bottom! Being able to answer questions, offer advice on incentives, take trade-ins, demonstrate key components, have a good sense of the environmental benefits, be able to talk about charging infrastructure, offer freebies (like free charging station home installation), provide EV financing and EV lease options, and generally exude excitement over EVs will make for an easy and fun EV buying experience.
Sell More EVs at Your Dealership!
The tips provided in today’s article will be helpful for dealers in increasing sales of electric vehicles. By following the tips on how to market and sell electric vehicles online and in-house, dealers will be able to reach a larger audience and close more sales.
You can get in touch with FlexDealer if you're looking for a creative marketing agency for car dealers. We contribute original and fresh ideas to your marketing plan. Chat with Whit, one of our associates, for your free consultation to unlock your next digital marketing steps!
