With all the talk of online automotive marketing these days, it’s easy to get the impression that when you communicate with your customers online, you’re doing so in a vacuum. Online customers become a crowd full of strangers without faces or names or personalities. They don’t seem like the same real live human beings that come into your dealership and buy vehicles.

Consistency is arguably the most important aspect of branding, and that doesn’t just apply to your website. Yes, you want every page on your site to give the same impression. But you also want to give the same impression on the website as you do in the dealership, in your emails, and in any offline media advertising you purchase. Here are some things to think about.

Does your website scream “cheap”? if a customer comes to your website, is the first thing they see a huge flashing banner telling them about a sale or a discount? There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but is that the same impression they’ll get when they come into the dealership? If they go to the website and see huge yellow flashing discount signs and show up at the dealership and find somber salespeople in suits, you’re not giving a consistent message and you’re bound to make people uncomfortable.

On the other hand, is your site too serious? If you run a dealership that focuses on great pricing and your website gives no such impression, you could be leaving money on the table by turning off your ideal customers when they show up at your website.

Do your emails give the same impression as your website and your dealership? Emails are a great way to communicate your brand. Give your outbound emails an audit. Do your signatures promote the same values that your site promotes? Would somebody receiving your email be surprised when they walk in the door?

One of the best ways to get answers to these questions is to find someone impartial and objective to give your impressions about your different media types. Ask them what they think — you might just be surprised by their answers.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Brand Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.