Our very unconventional approach to market your car dealership on TikTok

The only caption for a C8 in an article about TikTok? Corvette, Corvette. Photo by Jack Feltgen

Marketing your car dealership on TikTok is an extensive world that I learned quickly largely consisted of two things: 

• Showcases of new and used inventory clips (walkarounds with a current TikTok “sound” overlaid upon it, typically music)

• Polling salespeople and other staff with regards to what their first car was, or what their car payment is. Something along those lines. 

A step up from that may be using, again, a popular sound from a viral clip, TV show, movie, etc. featuring their social media manager. But what would really make a difference? What would not only get traction on the platform, but also build brand awareness and drive viewers to your dealership?

When I started making TikToks for dealerships, it is an understatement to say the sales staff seemed less than willing to help. I was constantly provided excuses that they were busy, didn’t look good that day, and needed more of a heads up. How was I going to make videos on my own? This is where I dug into my past, into my hobbies of the automotive industry, racing video games & movies, and current consumption of car TikToks & social media. At that point, I was a big part of “cartok” in my personal life, and often viewed viral TikToks of car enthusiasts around the world, but rarely saw successful videos from dealerships, even after I started working for one. 

To have a successful presence, your dealer needs to provide value to viewers, and coming across a dealer from “Anywhere, USA” on your For You Page, showcasing their pre-owned Buick Enclave and its power seats or salespeople they have no personal connection to, would probably elicit a quick scroll past.

Instead of making dealership content with the sales staff, I would focus on making car content that pertains to the car enthusiast community first. 

While that might sound confusing, we would make content that resonates with car enthusiasts first and tie that content to the dealership. There will be a bigger potential audience for your brand as a whole i.e. Ford, rather than Rodgers Ford of Round Lake. With that in mind, how can we build a content strategy meant for car enthusiasts that will also build brand recognition for the store? What things did car enthusiasts want to watch about? I dug into what I enjoyed watching the most and boiled it down to two different topics I could carry in to making content:

1. Obscure / unique history and facts (things only those very interested in cars would care about)

2. Recent news (upcoming vehicle releases, industry news, etc.)

Credit: Voodoo Garage

Now, how would we relate these two topics to our dealership? I will use Ford as our hypothetical dealership to provide some video topic examples: 

1. Bullnose, Dentside, OBS - All of the Ford Truck Generation nicknames

2. Cool Cars that come into our service department - 1999 Ford Lightning 

Any interesting vehicles out of the ordinary that visit your dealership, discuss their history or review them. 

 3. How did the Fox Body Mustang come to be?

Could be done with any generation of well-known vehicles with big enthusiast support.

 4. History lessons about SVT, Shelby, or similar racing or performance vehicle aspects of Ford.

Tie this to any current specialty inventory on your lot if possible. 

 5. Inventory features of performance or unique vehicles currently in-stock. 

I have found success with 10 second features involving 2-3 cuts between interior, exterior, and under the hood or exclusive feature.

With all of these, I typically overlay a trending or popular music track, reducing the sound level to accompany the voiceover or other audio. I typically use hashtags that reflect the make and model, but also car enthusiast-based ones, like #cartok or #carreview.

Credit by Voodoo Garage

With all of these videos, you (your sales manager) may ask what the point of these videos is, and that it's not immediately driving traffic to your dealership. Think long run! The value I mentioned earlier that we would be producing for our viewers would be in the form of education (while you could claim entertainment as well, isn’t that the point anyway?) We would be educating viewers on all of the intricacies and oddities of Ford vehicles, and of Ford as a brand, striving to make our dealership’s account the place for all things Ford. Your goal should be to make a name for yourselves among car enthusiasts on TikTok. These videos will likely align with those enthusiasts rather than making typical dealership content in hopes that it resonates with locals who are also interested in buying a car from you. 

Once you start to make videos on a consistent basis, followers will think of your dealership differently compared to others on the platform. They will see you as more knowledgeable, and relatable, showcasing a vast array of knowledge that expands beyond the current model lineup and its features. Because of this, when they need a new vehicle, you will become memorable in their mind, because of your consistent, interesting content. 

With that in mind, I hope you are able to use some of what I’ve presented to elevate your dealership’s TikTok presence and discover a new audience for your store. Good luck and swipe on!