A great dealership UGC strategy can make a huge impact on your local customer base. Here are some great ways to put UGC to work.
User Generated Content (UGC) is some of the most impactful, authentic, and accessible content you can present to your audience. When customers buy vehicles from you, they are typically very happy and willing to give your dealership photos and videos regarding the event. Whether it’s the day they take delivery of the new ride, the first road trip, or trading in the old hooptie for a brand-new model, capturing your customers’ reactions and experiences can become a goldmine of excellent content for your marketing team.
Your dealership UGC strategy builds trust
User generated content in the automotive world builds trust with your team. If friends and family are willing to produce customer testimonial videos and share their experiences with a dealership, they must have had a great experience. Stop waiting for reviews to trickle in. Learn how automotive dealers build a UGC pipeline from delivery photos, first-week reactions, and trade-in moments to create authentic trust signals that actually convert buyers.
Social media is the starting point
Today, more than ever before, customers begin their shopping experience online and generally through social media. Making your automotive content social proof can be a key to ensuring future customers see what current shoppers are saying about your location. Engage with your audience and provide links to positive testimonials, happy trade-in customer reactions, and dealer delivery photos of shoppers taking their new vehicles for a ride. If you want to increase your car buying trust signals, UGC is the way to go.
As for customer feedback to boost your dealership UGC strategy
How often do you give a positive review for a business? If you don’t typically do this, but sometimes post negative reviews, you’re not alone. If you want the positive feedback from happy customers to support your UGC strategy, you have to ask for it. This means offering forms to help shoppers fill out a review, asking for a review while they are at the dealership, and sending reminders for reviews once they leave. Positive reviews improve your credibility and serve as social proof content that attracts future buyers to your dealership.
Ask influencers to help build UGC content
You’re probably working with local influencers to boost your dealership’s presence on social media, but you can do more than simply post their content. Influencers have a large audience, and if you have a local influencer working with your team, that partnership can become a goldmine of content. An influencer can ask customers to create content featuring their vehicle, experience, or say a few good things about the dealership. Your local influencer can have a much greater reach and impact than simply posting their content and connecting with your dealership’s social media pages; they can help you build UGC content as well.
Make your customers video stars
Many of your customers either have social media accounts where they post videos regularly or don’t mind being in a video to talk about the positive experience at your dealership. Even a short video of them taking the keys and driving away can be impactful and a great way to boost your dealership UGC content library. Encourage customers to share videos on their social media pages and tag your dealership account in the content. You could host a video contest or challenge, offering users a discount on services for posting or sending your video content related to their vehicle or experience at your dealership.
Community engagement can improve your dealership UGC strategy
In addition to the traditional content surrounding the various community engagement events hosted at your dealership, consider allowing users to share their experiences online with specific hashtags or tags to link back to your dealership. This provides the social media audience with authentic content directly from visitors to your dealership, giving you the boost desired. This positions your dealership as an active, engaged community partner, which is only going to work in your favor when shoppers are ready to buy their next vehicles.
What is your dealership UGC strategy? If you expect customers to simply send you reviews and think that’s enough, you’re missing out on a golden opportunity to connect with your local audience. Take these tips and put them to work to create a much stronger library of user generated content that works great for your dealership.
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