If the car audio industry pooled its resources and ran a consumer awareness campaign today, it could spend the entire amount the 12 volt industry produces and there would still be no benefit from it, said Chris Cook, responding to a question at the Town Hall Meeting at Spring KnowledgeFest earlier this month.
Forget a “Got Milk” style campaign, he said. “The market you need is not national, it’s local.” What’s needed is local visibility on the Internet and in the community.
He’s not alone in his suggestion. Adweek recently ran a guest column that said, “Imagine..rather than opening your doors and welcoming customers with a friendly smile, your staff removes store signage, blocks the doors, ignores customers, clutters the aisles, hides products and leaves the cash registers unguarded.”
That’s what many stores do by failing to have a mobile Internet presence, it concluded. But many car audio dealers don’t even have a presence on the desktop Internet. In fact, only 5 percent of 12 volt dealers have an up-to-date web site, said Internet Fellas last year.
And so the industry is virtually invisible, especially to Millennials (people born approximately between 1982 and 2004). For many Millennials, if it’s not on the Internet, it doesn’t exist.
And Millennials are still the core demographic for car audio products, Cook told the audience.
Millennials typically buy a 5 year old car and then want the latest in electronics. “You are what they want and they can’t find you. It’s like you took your store sign and hid it behind the building,” said Cook. “They want the new technology but how do they find you? That’s the generation that expects to be connected all the time seamlessly. We need to be visible enough in the categories we sell.”
Cook also suggested getting involved in local organizations, local Cars and Coffee shows, and continuing to reach out to car dealers.
“You have to get to people that may not know you are there. Get involved in your local business community,” he said.
For building a presence on the Internet, some services that cater to the 12 volt market include Internet Fellas, Modern Media Geeks, 1Sixty8 Media and the Mobile Electronics Association. Two additional providers for car audio retailers are smsconnected.com and .
Here are some standard tips on building up your web presence:
Be prepared to spend about $1,500 to $2,000 for a new, up-to-date web site. Start as soon as possible as it can take Google four months to fully acknowledge your site, said Internet Fellas.
From there, you need proper registration with search engines and local search so you are not invisible, especially on Google Maps. If you put an amplifier model number in a search bar, even before the results are posted, Google shows you the local retailers carrying the product. This is free advertising that shouldn’t be missed. Especially if your competition is registered for it and you are not.
Two years ago, CEoutlook challenged 6 retailers to participate in a program to improve their web presence through Modern Media Geeks. You can read about some of them here:
A 12 Volt Dealer’s Success Story
Successful 12V Dealers Need Help Too
If you offer web services for 12 volt retailers, we can add your name to this article. Contact [email protected].
Great article on marketing local. While a national campaign would be great, it’s just not feasible for this industry. There are lots of tools for retailers to use for digital marketing that are very cost effective. Partner with someone that can educate you on the different products available and more importantly, show you the results that they can deliver.