Top Equipment Dealership Marketing Tips for 2024

As we move into 2024, the most important metrics that heavy equipment dealers need to focus on are customer retention and purchase frequency. The economy is continuing to tighten, which means you have to hold on to your existing customers and encourage them to purchase more from you. In order to accomplish that, there are three primary equipment dealership marketing strategies that we recommend you start implementing right away:

• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Email marketing
• Website SEO

Equipment dealership marketing strategy #1: Customer satisfaction surveys

A key part of any distributor marketing plan must be to understand what your customers need and how well your business is fulfilling those needs. Customer satisfaction surveys are the best way to find out that key information. At Winsby, we conduct surveys for our clients over the phone which helps increase their customer retention by 20% - 30%.

The reason they are so effective at increasing retention and improving your marketing is that they give you insights into what is most important to your customers and where your processes may be failing. For example, we had a client who was losing customers, and they didn’t know why. We suggested they conduct customer satisfaction surveys and ask about invoices. Through the survey we uncovered several processes in accounting that were not user friendly that no one at the company had known about. After solving that problem, their customer loss rate decreased significantly.

Our surveys are a crucial part of distributor marketing, because they boost retention. That’s important for construction equipment dealers, because the revenue that each customer generates skyrockets when they move from year two to year three of working with you. We normally see dealer customers purchasing 2.9X more equipment, 9.1X more rentals, 4.1X more service, and 5.6X more parts in the third year, compared to the second year.

Equipment dealership marketing strategy #2: Sending emails

In addition to boosting retention with customer satisfaction surveys, another key strategy for 2024 is sending out effective emails. One of the primary benefits of email is that they remind customers what products and services you offer and how you can help them solve their challenges. The result is that they will purchase more and more often from you.

At Winsby, we’ve found that customers on our clients’ email distribution lists buy two to three times more often than customers who are not on the list. In fact, the clients we send out emails for see a typical return on investment of around 4,300%.

In addition to increasing purchase frequency, one of the other benefits of emails is that frequent messages will help keep your customers away from your competition. The more they are reminded what you offer, the more they will buy from you, and the less they will be tempted to look elsewhere for what they need.

Equipment dealership marketing strategy #3: Website SEO

With a slowing economy, you need to take advantage of every possible customer. That means that website search engine optimization (SEO) needs to be a central part of every equipment dealership marketing strategy. How does your current website rank in searches for relevant keywords? Is your site acting as a lead generating and conversion tool, or is just existing on the internet?

A dealership website needs to effectively highlight what you offer, how well you offer it, and make it easy for visitors to find and purchase what they are looking for. If your website doesn’t move prospects and customers through your sales funnel, then something is wrong.

At Winsby, our team develops websites that produce results and continually adds content to them based on relevant keywords to boost your position in search results. That way, you won’t be leaving any potential business on the table.

If you want to implement a distributor marketing strategy that improves customer retention, increases purchase frequency, and captures more leads in 2024, then contact our team today.