Digital regional brand - Strategies for the car trade

It is important for car dealers to position their brand locally on the network. The clientele comes almost exclusively from the dealer's immediate environment. They will search for the dealer's vehicles and services on Google by entering the city or region ("Autohaus BMW in Munich"). To be found in this search, the dealer should use Local SEO methods. In addition, local branding helps him in the long term: this is brand building that ensures the recognition of this dealer in the local context. An example of local branding would be this slogan: "In Munich we are the number one BMW car dealership!

How does Local SEO work?

Local search engine optimization basically uses local (regional) references as keywords. There is also a local SEA (local search engine advertising), in which ads are targeted in the search engine so that they are only visible to users in a certain region. This even reduces the click prices and is also useful because the dealer from Munich does not need a prospective customer from Hamburg - unless this prospective customer is travelling in Munich, needs an accessory for his BMW and is searching with his smartphone. Using the smartphone's location recognition feature, he can then find the relevant dealer, Local SEO takes care of this. Search engine operators use various tools to move search results with a local reference - Munich, Bavaria, etc. - to the top for searchers from this region. Certain ranking factors are more important than for non-local SEO. These are mainly the keywords that characterize the region. So if you do Local SEO for your car dealership, you should always link your vehicles, accessories and other services with local terms on your own website, in every landing page and press release. If there is enough activity, this will also ensure that the loyal regular customers recognize exactly this dealer, so that the Local SEO has also promoted brand building for the car dealership and its brand(s).

How does local branding work?

Local SEO is only one part of it if the car dealership wants to operate its brand building in such a way that it ensures recognition by the target group in the region. Local branding is all about giving the dealer in question an outstanding, unique status among the interested parties in his immediate vicinity, according to the motto If I am looking for a BMW in Munich, I go to dealer XY. In order to achieve this, the dealer must know what his direct target group actually wants to see on the net. What attracts the attention of interested parties? How can a fanbase be set up on Facebook, for example? What would be a USP (unique selling proposition) of this dealer whose communication ensures recognition in the local context? Perhaps this dealer always has the latest accessories on offer, always a few weeks ahead of the competition. If he can do that, he should definitely use this fact for his local branding.

Conclusion on brand building with local reference

A car dealer needs the effect of recognition with his special clientele located in his vicinity. When building a brand, he must therefore never ignore the local context. At the same time, he also operates local SEO, which is becoming increasingly important, especially for mobile search.