Cutting Your Dealership Marketing Spend Due to the Economy?

Visibility in the
Market is Key

Remember, “out of sight” can quickly lead to “out of mind.” During leaner economic cycles, your potential customers are still planning their next adventures or considering the kinds of lifestyle changes that come with the decision to purchase an RV. By maintaining a consistent marketing presence, you ensure your dealership isn’t deprived of the opportunity to reach these potential new customers, or miss a chance to convince a former customer to make a return visit/purchase.

Remember, Marketing Drives Sales Over Time

The misnomer of a short-term cut to marketing and advertising budgets is that sales aren’t immediately impacted, which inflates a false sense of security that a brand can maintain sales volume without marketing or advertising. But as we know all too well, the customer journey – especially in the RV industry – is not an impulse or immediate purchase decision but one that can transpire over weeks and months.

Those short-term budget cuts may not impact sales right away, but a month or two down the road, perhaps once the crisis is (hopefully) behind you, you’ll find your pipeline of new sales is a lot emptier than usual, or even non-existent. This is why it’s critical to remember that marketing spend is not just about driving immediate sales -- it’s about building brand recognition and loyalty that will pay off when the customer is ready to purchase.

Seize the Opportunity to Grab More Share of Voice

When companies sacrifice marketing spend by cutting back, the advertising landscape becomes less crowded, which gives a well-crafted message a better opportunity to resonate with its intended audience. If your dealer is one of the brands cutting back because of a market dip, you will be missing an easy opportunity to stand out in an otherwise crowded marketplace.

Instead of cutting spend and reducing the frequency of your message, take advantage of the lack of competition for media attention. When there are more advertisers vying for the same audience, ad rates go up. When the demand is less, the rates go down. For this reason, it’s almost a no-brainer to take advantage of the rate difference and allocate resources to boost the frequency of your message. By increasing your advertising efforts, you can capture the attention of a market that’s still active but less targeted by competitors. Think of it as gaining ground while others are retreating.

Digital Presence Will Be More Important Than Ever

In today's digital age, your customers spend more time online researching their next purchase than they do at the dealership perusing inventory in person. Now is the time to optimize your digital marketing strategies and make sure your brand and message are reaching your target audience. This is one of the easiest areas where you can re-allocate marketing resources to engage your audience through a stronger social media presence, by developing a thoughtful and strategic content strategy that hones in on your customer queries and pain points, or by investing in the tools that will help you deliver a superior customer experience through your various digital channels.

Shoring up your digital strategy ensures a greater likelihood that your brand stays top of mind so that when consumer confidence bounces back, so will your sales revenue and profits. Plus, you won’t have the uphill battle of trying to win over an audience that may have moved on to a brand that stayed connected during the market dip.

Refocus Marketing Efforts to Deliver Results

As they say - "Rome wasn’t built in a day" - and neither was your dealership’s brand reputation. Consistent marketing efforts contribute to a stronger brand over time, which is invaluable in attracting and retaining customers. Maintaining consistent marketing without sporadic budget cuts will ensure you have share of voice to build credibility for your brand and nurture future sales.

Additionally, embracing a growth mindset is good antidote for the instinct to cut-back, which could damage your strongest programs. After all, a slow economy calls for smart spending, not no spending.  Work with your agency partner(s) to focus on targeted, cost-effective strategies that offer the strongest returns. This might mean more focus on local SEO vs. paid search, more social media engagement, or leveraging classified listing services. And if your agency partner can’t tell you which programs are delivering the best returns, you've got bigger problems than worrying about cutting your budget. Just sayin.

Consistent Marketing Helps You Stay Connected to Your Community

Your dealership isn’t just a business; it’s a part of the community. By maintaining your marketing efforts, you demonstrate commitment to your customers and the broader RV community. This strengthens relationships, generates goodwill, and elevates your dealership as a resilient and enduring brand that people can (and will) trust and depend on long after the economic crisis is behind you.

Staying involved in the community will also keep your brand and dealership top-of-mind. This is key to remaining relevant with your customer base when the time comes for them to re-engage in the purchase process.