Are you ready for the impact of the pandemic on your Q3 new car showroom event?

You might ask how can we be so sure the consumer has shifted away from traditional or even partial online events? The kind of event where a letter is sent that relies on the customer to call, wait ‘on hold’ to speak to someone who can help them during their busy working lives? Simple, because as a full-service agency for the automotive sector we run all types of events and measure all the results. The data provided shows the growing shift to self-serve digital events providing the easiest route through for customers, with even more now showing up for appointments than pre-pandemic levels.

Post-pandemic there has been a significant shift in consumer behaviour around showroom event response. Pre-pandemic, our data showed that self-appointed bookings were around 67% but this has now increased to 84%. Only 11% of all appointments were made by the customer ringing the dealership. Interestingly, 64% of all appointments happen when your dealership is closed. This data shouldn’t be a surprise to any of us, as many pre- pandemic shopping experiences like grocery shopping to doctor appointments have now moved to self-serve online ones. Covid has accelerated the departure from old methods to newer, easier to use online systems.

Aligned with the digital shift is the growth in engagement from a mobile device; a 22% increases in appointments in the last 18 months. So, what does this data tell us? Firstly, it tells us that any digital journey should cater principally for mobile experience and not just iPhone users, building a website that works just as well on all every type of mobile devices is absolutely key, as they contribute to 34% of traffic . Secondly, it tells us that mobile friction (where the site doesn’t work intuitively) will have a costly effect on your result and investment.

We now have a much clearer picture of which part of your marketing works best and can guide you accordingly to achieve the very best return on investment. Direct mail invites are still very effective, but only as part of a channel mix and when led with electronic invitations. We can tell you exactly how your database responds to each invitation type, valuable information that you can use to revise your data selection next time around, minimising costs and optimising response.

Do you know the best day and time to send your SMS invitations? Don’t worry, we do. The power of having the response data from over 300,000 new car customers booking appointments using our solution is that we can see exactly which days of the week and what times of the day work best, then apply those insights to your event. Selecting the correct day of week for emails increases response by 34% and the correct 30-minute segment of time can improve response by 18%. These aren’t small marginal gains; they are huge gains, and these trends are changing constantly.

Car showroom events are a huge commitment in terms of resource and financial investment, so why take the chance of not fully optimising your event potential by choosing a solution that isn’t driven by the data? Continuing with pre-covid marketing approaches or alternative software is unlikely to give you the response you need to hit your targets in this digitally accelerated world.

Partner with us and let’s out-perform the competition together

We’d love to show you exactly how we can help you be more successful in Quarter 3. Contact us today to arrange a full demonstration of V3 and we guarantee you will be at least impressed and at best amazed by how smart and simple it is to use.

To find out more about V3, please call the office on 0114 244 6060 or visit our showroom events page here.