What You Need to Know About Co-Op Advertising

Have you ever wondered if co-op advertising could work for your dealership? Not sure of the process? We’ll break it down and show you how to maximize your advertising dollars.

What is Co-Op advertising exactly?

Co-op advertising is essentially a partnership between a manufacturer and a dealership to share the cost of local advertising. While a manufacturer may advertise their products nationally, that doesn’t give them the ability to tell the consumer where to buy their product locally. To help facilitate local advertising, the manufacturer relies on local dealers, just like you, to determine the best way to spend advertising dollars on their targeted consumer.

It is important to note that co-op reimbursement is for new inventory, and you have the ability to accrue funds during a predetermined period based on the vehicles purchased from the manufacturer -but there is a limited time period in which to spend these funds. Unused funds don’t carry over to the next advertising cycle so many funds are unfortunately wasted.

So, why wouldn’t you use all of your co-op funds?

Co-op is complicated and can take a lot of time out of your already busy schedule. We asked some dealer directly why they don’t use their co-op funds and the most popular responses were:

“Co-op is more trouble than it’s worth,” “I don’t know how much co-op funding I have,” “It takes too long to get reimbursed,” “I don’t have someone to manage the program,” “I don’t have someone to create the graphics,” “My claims often get rejected,” and more.

How can Cycle Trader help?

Lucky for you, we offer solutions to make co-op quick, easy, and turnkey. And - as a bonus, we’ve been helping dealers like you manage the co-op process for years and have the staff to assist with all stages of the co-op claim - so you can spend more time running your dealership and less time doing extra paperwork.

Although we can’t determine how many funds you have accrued, we can help guide you to the sites where that information can be found. All manufacturers have co-op resource centers that can give you the details you need to know about their specific co-op funds.

The co-op process is easier than you might think, considering our experts can assist and manage the program for you. We get pre-approval of every graphic, we compile the metrics of each campaign, we make the required screen grab of every banner, and when permitted we submit the claim directly to the manufacturer. For manufacturers that require you to submit your own claims, we will provide all of the paperwork and send them directly to you with instructions on how they are to be submitted.

To top it off, you don’t have to worry about creating graphics. We have a graphics team that utilizes the artwork available from each manufacturer to create banners that follow all of the co-op guidelines. Because we use manufacturer supplied graphics, we can guarantee that any claim that utilizes our graphics will not be rejected due to incorrect content. We’re so confident of our process that we include a guarantee with all of our signed agreements.

Interested in our co-op offerings or have additional questions? Give us a call today and let us help you advertise for less (757-448-4555).

Using Video for Your Business

With the rise of the digital age, consumers have undoubtedly changed over the years - so as businesses, the way we market to those consumers has had to evolve as well. With all of the changes happening in the marketing world, it’s more important than ever to keep up with the latest consumer fads & trends, and trust us - we’ve seen them all. But one trend we know is going to stick around for years and years to come is video marketing.

Consumers love video content - and we have the stats prove it. According to WordStream, one-third of all online activity is spent watching video, and it’s projected that by 2019, Internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer Internet traffic. This means, while having a video strategy might not have been an important part of your business in the past - it will be in the future as more and more buyers rely on video as a crucial part of their search, and we expect this to increase as our world becomes more digital. 

Consumers don’t like wasting time and they want to see exactly what they are considering buying even before walking into a dealership, both on your website and in your listing - this includes video. So with all that said, what do consumers expect from your video presence? We asked them.

If you decide to put videos in your listings, 80% of Cycle Trader consumers are hoping to see a detailed walk around and an in-depth review of the unit. While photos are great and should be included in your listing, videos have the ability to show consumers the true look and feel of the bike in a more personal way. The video should highlight the unit in its entirety and you should also take some time to talk about its perks and any features unique to that specific model. Videos are also a great way to showcase yourself and your employees as industry experts - reputation is everything in the business world.

If you’re looking for a way to host these videos so you can include them in your listings or elsewhere, YouTube is a great platform you should be taking advantage of. By uploading a variety of videos to your page, potential buyers have the opportunity to engage with your dealership even before visiting. YouTube makes it easy to upload your videos, then you have access to share them on your website and various social media platforms. When creating these videos, consider this:

• 40% of people said they’d like to see product reviews and testimonials videos 
• 19% would like to see how-to videos 
• 14% want to see a behind the scenes look at your dealership 

If you consistently provide unique video content, consumers are bound to come back for more. In fact, 54% of Cycle Trader consumers said they would watch more than one video, and 61% they are more likely to view your website after viewing your videos.

If you haven’t explored the world of video marketing, what are you waiting for?