With dealership marketing, there’s a debate raging among experts over which strategy is best to grow your business.
Would SEO or social media marketing be the better option?
Often, dealerships will hire an SEO expert or agency to increase their visibility in search engines without even thinking about social media and the traffic that it can bring to their dealership
Similarly, there are those who focus their attention entirely on building a social media following without spending any time on SEO.
Let’s compare both strategies to see which option is best.
Targeting an Audience
To bring in relevant traffic and sales, it’s important to be able to target a specific audience. It is definitely easier to target an appropriate audience on social media platforms.
Most social media platforms allow you to create ads that specifically target people within a certain demographic who will be interested in your niche.
SEO is not quite as targeted. Although you can certainly target those interested in your niche, you generally cannot target a specific demographic.
How Much Effort Is Involved?
To ensure a return on investment, you’ll want to consider how much effort is required to promote your content via social media and SEO.
With social media, you’ll have to plan and post regular content on various platforms. While there are tools available that can make this process easier, you still have to do this on a consistent basis.
Social media marketing is not something that you can rely on to work without your own efforts. Each post you make will only have a short shelf life, so you’ll need to make an effort each day.
SEO, on the other hand, will require work, but once you start to rank your web pages, there will be less ongoing work involved.
Which Content Should You Use?
Whether you are performing SEO or social media marketing, you’ll need to create content. The type of content you create will make a big impact on your traffic and whether your audience engages with it or not.
When writing content for your website or blog, usually long-form content will work best. This means that you may need to create articles of a few thousand words, rather than a couple of hundred.
For social media, images and videos will work best and will be shared across the community if they resonate with the audience. When this occurs and your content starts to be shared, you’ll also see an increase in traffic to your website.
So, Which is Better – SEO or Social Media Marketing?
You’ll see the most benefits from incorporating both SEO and social media marketing into your online marketing efforts.
Write long articles and embed images and videos into your content. Doing this will increase engagement and time spent on your website, therefore showing the search engines that your content is good and can be trusted. Plus, people will share content on social media that they find to be interesting and valuable.
Search engines nowadays use social media as a ranking factor, so it’s worth building your social media presence as it will help with your SEO. Building traffic via SEO to your website will also help people to engage on social media too.
So, while SEO and social media marketing are different, they each help the other and the end goal of both is the same – to help increase traffic to your website, products, or services.
The answer is easy: do both!
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With over 20 years of experience in the car business, I’ve navigated the evolution of the industry from traditional sales to the dynamic digital age. My journey through various roles in both sales and management has endowed me with a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in automotive sales today.
As the founder of Shawn Ryder Digital, I combine my extensive background in technology with my deep understanding of the automotive industry. This synergy allows me to craft digital marketing strategies that are not just effective but tailored to the specific needs of each dealership. My commitment is to drive your sales, enhance your brand awareness, and ensure your dealership thrives in the digital landscape.
Here at Shawn Ryder Digital, we’re not just about providing services; we’re about building partnerships. As I often say, “In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, staying ahead isn’t just an option; it’s a necessity.”
Together, let’s embrace the challenges of the digital age and turn them into opportunities for growth and success. Join me in redefining the future of automotive digital marketing. Let’s accelerate your dealership’s journey to the top.