There was a time when it made sense to separate out the “internet customers” from the regular customers. In the car business around the turn of the millennium, “internet customers” were considered cheap, filled with too much (often incorrect) knowledge, and disloyal to any particular dealership.
This wasn’t far from the truth, really. Those early adopters of online automotive research often came in with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove. Dealers, for their part, were often still in denial about the information that was out there and didn’t embrace the concept of working from invoice up rather than MSRP down.
Back then, it made sense to have different automotive advertising for different types of shoppers. A dealership’s digital advertising could be completely different from their traditional advertising. Today, it makes no sense to separate them out. There are no longer “internet customers”. They’re all on the internet. As a result, there shouldn’t be a differentiation between internet advertising and traditional advertising.
Let’s just call it “advertising”.
Whether they’re going online to do weeks of exhaustive research about the various vehicles, reviews, pricing, incentives, and specials, or they’re simply going online to get your phone number, they’re all internet customers. People are influenced by what they see online and it can be just as powerful for them to see a good review about a dealership on an online review site as to see a commercial on television advertising the big sale this weekend. Sometimes, it’s more powerful.
Rather than distinguishing between the two types of customers, it’s better to assume that they’ve all gone online to do their research. From there, it’s much easier to make a decision about how to handle your advertising.
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