As digital marketing and social media marketing quickly increase, it can be tricky to always be up-to-date on the latest trends. As a car dealer, it can seem almost impossible to compete with other dealers around your area. 

Luckily, there are things you can do to rise above the rest and increase your customer engagement, such as posting interactive content.

People remember content that keeps them entertained and keeps their mind working. One of the best ways to get potential customers to remember your car dealership after seeing something online is with interactive content.

What is Interactive Content?

Interactive content is a form of marketing that encourages participation from the viewer. This type of content can be anything from simply watching a video to taking part in a quiz or a poll to even playing a game. 

The goal of interactive content is to keep the viewer engaged with what they are seeing. This will help them remember you over other dealers when they are looking to purchase a car. The potential customers will remember your content that they saw that really kept them engaged.

One study conducted shows that interactive content shows at least a 70% conversion rate. This might be because interactive content gains fifty percent more engagement than other types of content.

Types of Interactive Content 

Before you can start using interactive content in your social media, it is important to learn about what types of interactive content there is and which type will most suit your car dealership.

Quiz and Poll

One of the most popular types of interactive content is a quiz or a poll. People love to test their knowledge on a topic or be asked their opinion about something. This not only helps build engagement, but it can give your dealership some valuable insight.

For example, you could conduct a poll to see what kind of content your customer base wants to see from you. When you create that content, it shows them that you are listening to what they are saying and you care about hearing what they have to say. 

You could also build a quiz and let your customer base test their knowledge about regular car maintenance. This could include questions about how often a car needs an oil change or how often new tires should be purchased.

When you implement a quiz or poll on your social media, you not only gain their opinion, but you can also learn about them. Some information collected in polls and quizzes include:

• Feedback. Customer feedback is a huge piece of information. You can learn what you’re doing well, what can be improved on, and how efficiently your social media strategy is working.
• Customer insights. You might be able to collect things like their name, email, phone number, location, and more depending on what you are looking for.
• Purchasing preferences. Some customers prefer to shop for a car in person while others prefer to shop online. You can learn what your customer base prefers and how you can help meet their needs.

Infographics

While infographics are really popular and are used by competition, they are still a great way to gain attention from your customers and potential customers. Infographics can hold really important information in a simple, nice to look at graphic.

Creating these infographics takes time and effort, but they will pay off. People love to see infographics because they know they are likely to learn something they didn’t know before. Making infographics is a great way to engage your customer base.

Some information you can put on an infographic includes important information about car maintenance, stats about certain cars, stats about the best time to purchase a car, and anything else you can think of that relates to your dealership.

Calculator

People also really enjoy being able to see things laid out. When it comes to buying a car, they want to know how much their down payment will be, how much their monthly payment will be, etc. This is a great thing for a car dealership to use as interactive content. 

Build a calculator that potential customers can use to see how much car they can actually afford. Give a spot for down payment percentage, how much they want to pay monthly, and give an output for the total car cost they can afford to buy.

You can then link this calculator on your website and your social media for current customers and potential customers to use. This will help customers get a feel of the money they can spend and give you an idea of which cars to show them when they visit the dealership.

Contests

Contests and giveaways are extremely likely to drive engagement in your customer base. Your dealership can run a contest in the form of a sweepstakes or a game. Customers will be more than willing to take part in a contest from a car dealership. 

Choose a prize that makes sense financially for your dealership and that customers will love to participate for. Do some research about running a contest in your state to make sure you follow all of the proper guidelines.

The best part about running a contest is that you’ll be able to take customer emails down to add to your email marketing list. For example, you can make it a requirement to participate in the contest that the customers sign up for your email marketing list. You can then send future promotions to them and increase the likelihood of them purchasing a car from you!

Live Streaming

People are more likely to spend their time watching a live video than they are a pre-recorded video. This is because the viewers and the host of the video can interact in real time. They can comment a question and get an answer immediately. 

Live videos are a great way to build engagement because it is one of the easiest ways to connect in real time without being on the phone or in person. No one really likes talking on the phone anymore, so being able to comment a question in a live video is preferable for them.

During a live stream, you can also give away prizes for customer participation. As you can see who is interacting with your video as it is happening, you can give out small prizes for the most comments, most shares, and the most reactions to the video. This will entice customers to keep watching until the end.

Benefits of Interactive Content

If you are wondering whether interactive content is right for you and your business, the answer is yes. People are more likely to engage with content that is interesting, entertaining, and keeps their minds working. There are many benefits to using interactive content as a car dealer.

Higher Rates of Engagement

It is important to be competitive as a car dealer, and using social media is a great way to be competitive. Posting interactive content increases the amount of people that are willing to interact with your page, increasing the engagement rate. 

When you have a higher engagement rate, you are more likely to have higher sales. The more you can increase your engagement, the more you will be able to sell and the more money you will make.

Collect Data

Using interactive content on your social media can also help you collect data about your customer base. You can learn what type of customers are more likely to interact with your content and how likely they are to purchase a car from your dealership. 

You can easily analyze the data you get from posting interactive content to learn how to better market your content to the people who are most likely to interact. When you can market directly, you are more likely to gain sales.

Build Brand Loyalty

You can build your brand loyalty with interactive content by establishing expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.

• Expertise. When you share your knowledge, your customers will look up to you as an expert in the car industry and quickly tell their friends and family about you.
• Authority. Share your authority on the subject. What makes you the experts? What training or certifications do you and your team have?
• Trustworthiness. Only share information that you know for a fact is true and can be checked. This will build trust between you and your customers.

The more you learn about your customers, the better you will be able to build your brand loyalty. You can learn what they connect with most, turn it into interactive content, and share it on your social media. 

Your customers will quickly learn about your car dealership and come to you with any of their car buying needs.