2020 might now be in the history books, but the effects of COVID-19 are still going to be with us for a while. This creates a unique opportunity for dealerships with up-to-date blogs to keep their customers informed about their own safety practices and offer advice on how to stay well day to day behind the wheel. For marketers, the opportunity to share information and tips for better safety procedures could be a very welcome form of content if you provide unique information or frame the information in a unique, well-branded way.
While many dealerships claim that they are “following CDC guidelines” that doesn’t mean much. That phrase has become more of a catchphrase than a comfort. If you think your dealership is doing an above-average job of keeping ahead of COVID, blogging about some of the things I’m about to suggest will help fortify trust in your brand and help people feel more comfortable visiting your showroom.
So, without further delay, here is a list of brain-joggers that I hope will get the creative juices flowing. If you don’t think you have the time or expertise to go it alone, I have some valuable advice about that at the end.
If you are an auto dealer or are running a B2B blog for auto dealers, you have a number of options for delivering great content while the pandemic rages. The goal in all of your content should be emphasizing the importance of good safety practices and due diligence. It should also provide detailed instructions and descriptions of the things you recommend in areas of COVID safety. Here are a few ideas to explore:
Showroom Safety
I recommend splitting this topic up into single topics and keeping the blog length around 500–750 words. You can tackle topics like:
• Sanitizing Your Office or Cubicle
• Creative Interactive Safety Measures
• Creating a “Safe Space” for Potential Buyers
• Should Your Dealership Still Be Serving Snacks?
• Enforcing Masking Rules Among Your Staff
• Communicating Your Safety Guidelines to Customers
All of the above should promote principles like empathy, safety, teamwork, and good public relations. How does your dealership manage masking among the staff? How do you deal with anti-maskers who want to buy a car but don’t want to follow safety procedures? What can you do on-site and in marketing content to communicate that your dealership is safe? What old procedures need to go until the curve is flat?
Keep these questions in mind as you write, and answer as many of them as you can. Remember to write from the perspective of dealers helping dealers and to keep the customer experience perspective focused on dealer efforts and initiatives. Don’t carbon-copy consumer content and spin it for a B2B audience. Dealer concerns are different than consumer concerns, especially from a legal and public relations standpoint.
Safety Procedures for Sales Staff
While not an industry-specific problem, managing good safety habits among staff can be a real challenge. As frontline representatives of the dealership, public perception of the sales staff is very important. Blogs that cover some or all of these topics can be a great education tool for sales staff:
• Spot-Cleaning on the Fly
• Delegating Cleaning and Sanitizing Duties to Sales Personnel
• Social Distancing and Customer Relations
• Do’s and Don’ts of Customer Interactions
When people can visibly see what your dealership is doing to keep them safe, it creates an atmosphere of comfort, especially when it’s your sales staff taking the initiative to keep things clean and sanitized. It is also important to teach new protocols for building customer relations. Handshakes and close contact aren’t options during a pandemic. Zero in on these concepts as they apply to the above topics. There are plenty of ways to incorporate them into all of the above.
Safety Procedures for Service Staff
In far too many cases, safety procedures go largely out the window in parts of the business that aren’t customer-facing. As a B2B blogger, try tackling topics that explain why safety procedures are important at every step of the process of servicing and repairing vehicles. Emphasize that customers will be back in those vehicles shortly and that they’re as responsible as frontline staff to adhere to safety guidelines.
You can use any safety procedure as a basis for a blog post and take the time to explain why doing things in a responsible way is important. Here are a few talking points:
• Is It Important to Wear a Mask While Working on a Car?
• How to Maintain Social Distancing in Your Service Area and Garage
• Developing a Safe Handwashing and Sanitizing Regimen
Consumer Education
Educating consumers from the perspective of the dealership is also a powerful way to develop good relations. Show them how they can maintain a clean and safe atmosphere inside their vehicles even after they drive off the lot.
• “Hot Spots” for Daily Sanitizing
• Step-By-Step How-To’s for Deep Sanitizing
• Masking and Driving
• Showroom Safety Tips
Show people the key areas to sanitize to stay safe day to day. People who drive for a living or carpool with other people in the car may need to mask up while behind the wheel. How can they make that more comfortable? What about when they visit your showroom? What should they expect in terms of cleaning procedures and their own responsibilities (masking, social distancing, etc.)?
As a final note, this kind of automotive blog content is very much in-demand right now, but much of the information out there is very repetitive. While it might not be feasible to say that your information will always be novel, it must have a unique, branded, and authoritative voice.
At BeezContent, we can help you develop and project that unique voice. Contact us to learn how we can help you achieve that balance of authority and engagement. We work with a very talented team of both in-house and freelance copywriting professionals who understand the ins and outs of the automotive industry and the marketing strategies for written content that get results. We look forward to hearing from you and making your next blogging project a success.
