Why do you blog? Is it because somewhere somebody told you that blogging is crucial for acquiring higher automotive search engine ranks?
Or maybe they gave you the idea, that by blogging, you’ll be perceived as an automotive industry authority within your local community.
Today, I’m here to give you the cold hard truth on the real reason car dealerships and auto repair shops need to blog. And I’m going to deliver a few awesome short automotive blog ideas that will magnify your blogs engagement.
Are You Ready For The Best Auto Blog Ideas To Attract Customers? Let’s Go!
I’m going to start by saying, that I have only read ONE blog post from a car dealership and it wasn’t about making a purchase. In fact, it wasn’t even about cars in general.
The post I read was about upcoming events in my community. The dealership had assembled a concise list of local events that were going to happen within the month.
I found this blog post as I was searching through Google for things to do in my community and it enticed me enough to go ahead and click.
If I were in the market for a new vehicle when I landed on their site, I may have gotten sidetracked by the all the car listings and deals offered. But at that moment I only wanted to learn about community events.
Till this day, I remember which dealership was responsible for that post. And I can personally say that when I’m in the market to buy, the chance of that being the first dealership I visit, is very good.
I wanted to share that story with you so you might have a better understanding of auto blog ideas you should be posting.
I have a question I’d like you to answer…
When was the last time you read a blog post, from a local business, that you were genuinely interested in?
For me, that dealership article was the ONLY local business blog post that I have ever stumbled across. And it had nothing to do with what the business does.
This is the approach you should have for your auto blog; “To create posts that entertain and engage your readers leaving a memorable experience.”
When you began reading this post, you may have expected a long list of automotive blog topics that you could generate ideas from.
Ideas like, how to keep your car running smoothly or 5 ways to save on your next vehicle purchase.
Here’s the truth…
First, every car dealership or auto repair shop that runs a blog will have similar content. (Where’s your creativity?)
Second, what locals do you know who actually search for that stuff? I haven’t found any yet.
I’m not saying they don’t, I’m just saying if you want to separate your business from your competitors, you’re going to have to be more creative with your content.
If you want to attract customers from your local community, then you need auto repair & car dealership blog ideas that captures the attention of residents. And the ideas may have no direct connection with your business’s services.
People today are becoming less and less interested in businesses trying to sell them, whether it’s a soft or hard sell. They’re out!
What they want is entertainment, excitement, fun. They want to know how your business contributes to the community and if they like it, they’ll like you. And if they like you, they’ll trust you with their business. Cha-ching!
So it’s time to stop blending in, posting the same tired topics all your competitors are, and start delivering what the people want.
4 Short Automotive Blog Ideas That’ll Attract More Sales And Customers!
1) Customer Stories & Experiences –
Reviews are used 80% of the time and have a major impact on a buyers decision to purchase.
This is why I feel the most important blog idea is to tell the positive stories of your past and current customers.
Not only does this show customer appreciation, it also connects you with their personal network of friends and family.
How much further could your post reach on social media if it was an inspirational story about a local resident?
Don’t you think there would be more engagement if you were to”get personal” and show, through one person’s experience, how your services became the solution to their problem?
This is the type of content local residents enjoy reading. They’ll have no issue liking and sharing this with their own social followers.
2) Staff Introductions & Recognition –
Another people oriented post idea is to write articles featuring your staff.
We all know first impressions matter. What better way is there to “break the ice” than to post meet and greet style articles about staff members.
Sit down with key employees who are the face of your business (sales & management in particular) and write a short positive stories showcasing their strengths, interests, hobbies, even family life.
Does your staff volunteer or work with non-profit organizations? You’ll never know until you ask and their extracurricular activities might be a valuable asset for your company.
Writing featured stories about hard working employees who are active in the community or have high influence could get more visibility to your brand.
As people learn more about the employees running your company they might be more comfortable giving that friendly “Joe” or “Karen” a call when services are required.
3) Cover Popular Local Community Events –
I’m sure your town holds popular local events that residents enjoy attending.
A chili cook-off, parade, or county fair might just be the inspiration you need to create content for your automotive blog.
You can write the post as “upcoming events” or you could go the extra mile by attending the event, get interviews from residents, snap some pics and collect stories for your blog.
Posting about annual local events is a powerful way to get traffic, because every year residents tend to go online and search up the event for up to date details.
In the process you can be the beneficiary of lots of free traffic.
Participating in the event only helps increase your I’m age and reputation within the community.
You can then post about the free prizes you gave, the winners who won, the food you ate and all the fun you had.
4) Digital Entertainment & Events Posts –
What if you were to launch simple and fun challenges specifically for posting on your blog?
For example, you decided to run a competition where multiple teams could try to fit as many people possible in a Toyota Corolla.
Think of all the exciting content you could extract from this…
• Pictures of all the teams.
• Interviews with team captains.
• Comments from the winners.
• Videos of residents cramming into a car.
• Interviews with spectators.
I can speak only for myself in saying that this is the type of blog post I would love to read, view and share with others!
A small event that you host for 2 hours could go a long way on social media.
When you have so many people involved in an event like this, it’s bound to go a little viral as participants share your post with their friends.
And this is just one idea of creating a small event to generate high quality auto blog content.
For more ideas to spark your imagination, take a look at this article on automotive social media marketing.
Blogging is a magnificent strategy for attracting new customers to your business. But in order to maximize your returns, your blog needs to offer content that’s unique.
Otherwise each post you create will fail to create social buzz and be destined to sit unread throughout its existence.
