Dealership Blogs – Why, What, and When

Blogs continue to be a popular topic in the Automotive world. Why is having a blog on your website important? What should you write about? When is the optimal time to post? Below is some great insight to these questions.

Why?

• Blog articles influence purchases, hands down. Consumers use blogs to both discover and decide on products and services. Companies that blog generate 88% more leads* and 55% more website visitors.**
• In addition, blogs are also used heavily to get support and answers to products. This gives your dealership a great opportunity to increase CSI.

Let’s not forget the impact that these posts can have on SEO. A good keyword focused post will produce results in the search engines.

What?

• Do you sponsor a little league team? A local 5K for charity? Advertise your community involvement on your page.
• Let the consumer know of any promotions you have going on – tent sales, monthly or weekend specials, etc.
• What better way to communicate OEM announcements such as a new model release or a recall?
• Are there general topics that consumers might be interested in? Something like “4 Reasons to Buy from a Car Dealership vs an Independent Shop” would be interesting to a consumer and could help drive traffic to your dealership.

When?

• Post at least once a week. Once you create that following, the last thing you want to do is go stale.
• Post early. 79% of readers do so in the morning, with reading peaking around 10:00 am.***

The key to blog posting is to make your posts interesting and informative. You want your customers to come back.

* Hubspot, State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report 2010
** Hubspot, 2010
*** Hubspot, The Science of Blogging 2010