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Hiring an automotive marketing manager is a smart move, but you need to find the right candidate for the job. Here is a checklist to go by.
Every smart car dealership owner knows to adapt to their customer’s needs and wants. As technology continues to change how consumers interact with brands and buy products, car dealers must change how they market themselves, too. Automotive internet marketing should be on the “high priority” list for any dealership with sales growth and sustainability in mind.
If you take internet marketing seriously, it’s time to consider hiring an automotive Marketing Manager; one person (or a small team) that knows how to connect with your technology-friendly customer base. As a business owner, you don’t have enough time to learn these skills. Nor does your sales manager, your administrative staff, or even the tech guy who fixes your computers on a freelance basis. It’s a valuable skill set that takes time to master and calls for a hired professional.
In this post, we’ve outlined a simple guide for hiring the right person as your automotive Marketing Manager who will lead your automotive internet marketing efforts. Before they step foot in your dealership, you should know what characteristics to look for and how to recognize a strong candidate. Keep reading for an exclusive list of the top six traits your automotive Marketing Manager should have.
The top six traits of a valuable automotive Marketing Manager
- Offers perspective and willingness to learn
Dealership managers tend to assume that the best candidate will have a strong background in the automotive industry. Although familiarity can be useful, it shouldn’t be at the top of your list. What matters most is that your automotive Marketing Manager understands how to adapt his or her skill set for your specific business.
If they demonstrate a willingness to learn how sales and buying behaviors work within your target audience, that’s plenty enough. Plus, coming from a different background, they see things from a new perspective. A source of creative ideas is invaluable to your automotive internet marketing success.
- Understands the value of CRM systems
Every smart marketer knows that streamlining the buying process benefits everyone–customers and sales reps. To make internet marketing tools accessible and easy to use for employees, a CRM system is installed throughout a dealership’s computer network. Features like email newsletter templates, lead organization, customer up sheets, and data measurement are all useful information to your internet marketing efforts. CRM’s are useful for organizing all this data into easy, digestible measurements.
- Up to date on the latest trends and practices
Your automotive Marketing Manager should possess the ability to surprise you. You don’t need anyone telling you what you already know. Having a strong affinity for technology is a must, but having a passion for it is even better.
Keep an eye out for those who already demonstrate full use of all internet platforms (blogging, social media, personal website, etc.) If they easily point out improvements to be made with your current marketing efforts, that’s a huge green light. Creativity in how they approach the emotional buying points of your customers is important, too.
- Demonstrates copywriting abilities
This trait is the most difficult to come by, which makes it that much more valuable. You don’t want to end up with a specialist who places all their eggs in the “tech basket”. They understand the technology–how to set it up and train your staff to use it–but when it comes to writing an email newsletter or promotion, they can’t sell with their words.
This happens all the time. You end up with a freelance copywriter working on projects alongside your automotive Marketing Manager or having to outsource to professional (and very expensive) ad agencies. If you can find an automotive internet marketing candidate with a creative touch to their writing, you have a winner.
- Can perform both frontend and back-end management
Let’s first explain what we mean by “front-end” and “back-end”. The front-end is all the marketing efforts that customers and website visitors interact with (emails, blog content, social media, etc.) The back-end is all the hard data that can be measured and analyzed, plus specific information regarding current customers (up sheets). The ability to manage both of these areas is essential, but more important is the ability to inform marketing decisions from the information available.
- Willingness to train your staff
You want someone who is open to interacting with the rest of your dealership. When a new feature is added to the website, a mobile app is created, or a new social media campaign is launched, your automotive Marketing Manager should involve everyone. This includes training sales and administrative teams to utilize these new marketing efforts and better understand where the focus points are.
Seek a well-rounded candidate and not a specialist in one area
The bottom line for choosing the right automotive Marketing Manager is simple: look for the well-rounded, knowledgeable, passionate, and sharp-minded candidate. As we touched on earlier, you don’t want someone who is amazing in one area, but heavily lacks in another (writing, for instance). Take the time to compile a group of people who match your qualifications, and then watch for these specific qualities to pop up. There are only so many people who truly study and apply internet marketing skills, so initially separating the good from the bad won’t be too difficult.
Are you looking for a tool that can bring your internet marketing efforts together? AutoRaptor is the comprehensive CRM tool for you. Download a free copy of our CRM Guide or give us a call today!
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