Conquest Automotive Advertising

It’s funny to hear people discuss “conquest” in our industry. It has become one of the more popular buzz words right now. I think a lot of people misuse it for what it really is.

My definition of “conquest” is a new customer who has not purchased from you before and does not live in a directly adjacent area or within the same proximity (example – less than 3-5 miles away from your dealership).

The mystery in advertising for me is not figuring out which form or forms of advertising work – they will all produce results when they are done correctly – but sourcing where your customers are coming from and what made them choose you.

There are three types of traffic:

1. Natural Traffic – someone who naturally has to drive by your dealership on a daily basis or lives in an exact area.
2. Owner Body Traffic – your previous customers are going to buy something from you again unless you have totally done a terrible job with them. Somewhere between 20-40 percent of dealer’s monthly business in sales should come from repeat business.
3. Created Traffic – basically anything not listed above. This is conquest.

As you set your marketing plans and budgets for 2015 these three types need to be analyzed for where your money should be allocated and which sources you are going to use to create true conquest traffic. All sources are fair game – Internet, TV, radio, mail, SEM, SEO and print. You have to decide through taking the steps to peel back the layers and see what has worked the best as to how you are going to form a truly effective plan to create conquest traffic.

Everybody loves to get traffic and sell cars but too few people really want to trace back through their business to source and see where that traffic originated.