Ultimate Guide to Car Dealership Marketing

The landscape for car dealership marketing has distinctly evolved over the last twenty years. With the transformation of consumer buying preferences, a growing number of dealers are moving away from physical, on-lot dealership marketing strategies to solely web-based marketing for a car dealership. While online marketing is important, the key is and will always be the in-person experience.

Let's say you have a robust SEO strategy, garner several first-place page rankings, and even manage to have appointments scheduled with all of your sales representatives. If you fail to create an engaging and exciting experience with physical marketing strategies when the customer arrives, all of the hard work and money that you have invested in digital marketing will go to waste. Instead, it's best to pair the right physical car dealership marketing strategies with digital dealership marketing ideas to create an end-to-end world-class experience.

To help you do just that, the car dealership marketing experts at Balloon Innovations have outlined a few traffic-stopping marketing ideas for small car dealerships and large dealerships that you can implement today. Read on to learn the top marketing ideas for small car dealerships and large dealerships designed to generate foot traffic and help convert them into buyers.

car dealership before and after

Click here to get your dealership serviced!

Create an Exciting and Welcoming Environment with Balloons

By now, we all know the value of balloons at your dealership. Simply put, the colorful sight of brilliant balloons outlining your lot from the road will make drivers much more aware that something awesome is occurring at your dealership. In the face of potentially declining sales and vehicle shortages, it's more important than ever for dealerships to find ways to save money. Oftentimes, this may mean cutting certain car dealership marketing initiatives that may not appear to be delivering value.

And with the rising cost of helium, ditching single-use, helium balloons may be the perfect way to pad your car dealership marketing budget. However, this doesn't mean you should ditch balloons altogether. Instead, switching to reusable balloons that are helium free can be the perfect compromise. These balloons can be paired with a wide variety of mounting options to place them just about anywhere indoor and outdoor.

With the ability to resist wind, weathering, and other elements, reusable balloons will not need to constantly be replaced. Instead, you make a single investment today and continue reaping the rewards for several years to come. As one of the top car dealership marketing strategies, using reusable balloons to draw attention to different areas at your dealership is a neater and more exciting way to catch the eye of potential customers. You can choose from a full range of reusable, permanent types of balloons including:

  • Cluster Pole Kits Bouquet Kits
  • Ground Pole Kits
  • Bracket Kits
  • Suction Cup Kits
  • Light Pole Kits
  • And more!

Communicate Value with Light Pole Decorations

When it comes to car dealership marketing strategies, it's all about using every square inch of real estate to differentiate your facility and stand out from the crowd. And to do so effectively, creativity and thinking outside of the box are required. One of the often-overlooked car dealership marketing strategies involves the light pole. While every dealership has several light poles throughout the floor plan, many choose to leave the poles bare and allow this prime real estate to go unused. Instead, there are a number of ways you can utilize the space in a cost-efficient manner.

Leverage Light Pole Banner Flags

One of the top car dealership marketing ideas is to use flags and banners on your light poles. Light pole banners and flags are typically double-sided and are built to last for several years. In most cases, you can customize them with your most compelling message to ensure passersby will immediately understand the value your dealership provides.

Amplify Your Message with Light Pole Balloon Kits

If you are looking to bring even more attention to your lot as well as the message that you are promoting, consider amplifying your space with a variety of light pole balloon kits. From single balloons to a group of four, these kits are the perfect way to catch the eye of passersby from blocks away! These kits are durable in all weather conditions, meaning you never have to worry about a storm ruining the festive look of your lot.

Dealership Marketing Ideas with Sign Balloons

While light pole decorations are one way to communicate your car dealership marketing message, it's not the only way. Savvy dealerships use sign balloon car dealership marketing ideas to captivate eyes and deliver the message. In fact, using sign balloons is one of the cornerstone marketing ideas for small car dealerships.

With Balloon Innovation's comprehensive suite of customized sign balloons, you can choose from different sign colors and types of signs, then infuse the perfect custom message. Some sign balloon kits will even allow you to add special designs and artwork for the ultimate cohesive marketing experience. Using sign balloons is the perfect way to generate interest for an upcoming event in a colorful and festive manner.

Highlight Vehicles with Reusable Car Window Balloons

Easy to install and designed to fit every type of vehicle, car window balloons are specifically designed for car dealerships. Unlike traditional helium balloons on strings, car window balloons are built to withstand the wind and other rigors of outdoor environments. This means, you can strategically place the car window balloon in the most ideal location and never have to worry about it flying around and causing distractions or taking off on the first strong breeze. Best of all, you can easily assemble car window balloons without the use of helium.

Make Your Showroom a Show Stopper

Now that your car dealership marketing strategies have worked and have generated valuable foot traffic in the showroom, it's time to pull out all of the stops. It's imperative you create a fun, welcoming, and engaging environment at every turn. The best car dealership marketing is focused on turning the showroom into a festive, sales-event-like environment. However, creating the perfect showroom display can be challenging and extremely time-consuming. Fortunately, this is another area where Ballon Innovations can help.

Make Your Showroom Automatically Awesome

We offer an Automated Showroom Display program that removes all of the hassle associated with beautifying your showroom. Our Automated Showroom Display program runs year-round and will save you and your staff valuable time as well as money. As experts in car dealership marketing strategies, we know what it takes to create an environment conducive to sales. We offer the expertise and tools to ensure every inch of your showroom is perfectly aligned with your brand, current sales, and seasonal promotions.

Showroom Balloons for Your Ceiling

Balloon Innovations offers a full range of indoor car dealership marketing strategies that can be tailored to your unique needs. One popular option is our FestiBall Displays. These giant immersive printed balloons are designed to stretch up to four feet in diameter, are completely reusable, and helium free. The FestiBall Displays are guaranteed to immediately transform your showroom from drab to fab.

Our PermaShine Balloons are another dynamic way to decorate your showroom ceiling. As the name suggests, the PermaShine Balloons are permanently shiny, will never deflate, and can transform your showroom into the envy of the industry. With all this and more, you can be sure that your dealership looks its best, no matter the occasion.

Create a Tower of Excitement with Balloon Towers

If you want to enhance your FestiBall or PermaShine Showroom Displays, our premium printed balloon towers are proven to do just that. The printed balloon tower is one of the best car dealership marketing ideas for entryways, indoor entrances, alongside reception desks, or to fill any event space with professional, high-quality advertising. You can choose from a host of holiday or seasonal themes for your balloon towers. Or the Balloon Innovations team can work with you to customize your own! And all printed balloon towers are perfectly topped with a large 30-inch vinyl balloon that will never deflate and is guaranteed to shine every time.

Air Dancer Car Dealership Marketing Strategies

We get it — a significant number of car shoppers begin their journey online. In many instances, once the buyer finds a vehicle of interest, they visit the dealership to physically touch and see the vehicle. For better or worse, a lot can happen between the time a customer finds a vehicle online and makes it to the dealership. And this is where the best car dealership marketing ideas come into play.

Using large, noticeable air dancers is a must for on-lot marketing for a car dealership. By creating an obvious focal point for a potential car buyer, you can spike the interest of a shopper enough that they may detour your dealership as they are on the way to a different one.

Air dancers can be purchased from a variety of retailers and are often fully customizable, eye-catching, show stoppers. Impossible to not see, air dancers are the sure-fire way to make people notice your dealership. In fact, it's one of the top marketing ideas for small car dealerships. You can typically choose from different hair colors, body colors, heights, and add a special message to hammer home the point. For the highest level of air dancer customization, consider adding your dealership logo. Capturing up to 20 feet of prime vertical real estate, your air dancer can tower over your nearest competitors to stop traffic and capture visitors.

Once you have them on your lot, it’s important to have an environment that makes potential customers excited about the experience. This is where custom balloons can help.

Contact Balloon Innovations for the Best Car Dealership Marketing

As the landscape for automotive dealerships and car dealership marketing continues to evolve, it's imperative to leverage the latest and most innovative practices to drive success. The team at Balloon Innovations can help! We are proud to be the leader among advertising balloon manufacturers, helping inspire you and your team with innovative car dealership marketing ideas that are designed to generate foot traffic into your dealership. With us, you can create a welcoming environment conducive to buying. To do so, we offer a wealth of different solutionsninservice.com/contact-us, including:

  • Permanent balloons
  • Ceiling magnets
  • Signs and print solutions
  • Hardware
  • And more!

We also offer a comprehensive, automated car dealership marketing service designed to remove the hassle of decorating your dealership. When you choose to sign up for our Automated Showroom Display service, our expert team of dealership marketing strategists will take care of the setup, maintenance, replacements, and seasonal color changes needed to make your showroom wow potential buyers.

With this holistic service, the experts at Balloon Innovations Service Team will take care of everything your dealership needs in terms of dealership marketing balloons. It's the premier way to manage costs while elevating marketing for a car dealership to the next level. Contact us today for more information or to get started boosting your dealership’s sales.