Amplify Your Automotive eCommerce Store With a User-Driven Community

Increase Your Sales, Customer Retention, SEO, and Brand Loyalty with On-Site Social Platforming.

Bringing shoppers through the virtual doors of your automotive web store is one thing; turning your traffic into paying, repeat customers is far more than half the battle.

Creating an actively engaged community within and around your web store ensures that you have a steady base of users signing on to browse your products month after month. More importantly, an active digital community holistically optimizes your website for eCommerce by improving your brand authority, customer loyalty, SEO, and social networking outreach.

The Importance of User Engagment 

In the world of eCommerce, increased user engagement translates to increased sales conversions. Essentially, every second that a user spends browsing your website is another opportunity to convert them into a paying customer.

Populate your site with unique content to engage with, integrate some social media features so users can socialize while they browse, then sit back and watch your time-on-site stats climb.

Just as important as the increase in average user on-site time are, the branding benefits you’ll enjoy when you integrate engaging content with social platforming. Quality content makes your site an authority figure on a given automotive niche, while social platforming makes your store the virtual garage in which all your gearhead customers hang out and talk shop.

Establishing a Dialogue with Your Shoppers

Content is meant to be commented on, and social platforming was intended to be a two-way street. 

Take an active role in responding to user comments, questions, and reviews. When users write comments on your blogs and social media posts, jump into the conversation. When they post pictures of their cars and components, comment back and compliment their rides. Doing so personifies your store as an active member of the car enthusiast community, which will do wonders for your branding efforts.

Most importantly, when users post product questions or unsatisfactory reviews, respond professionally with an informative post that addresses all of their concerns. If one user has a product question or negative experience, chances are that other users are concerned with the same issues.

Public comments from your store not only address the specific shopper you’re responding to, they address the unwritten concerns of every shopper who lands on that product page.

How to Build a Community Around Your Automotive Aftermarket Shop

• Comments and Commentary Everywhere 

Bring your product pages to life with prominent sections for user comments, product questions, and reviews. You want to separate yourself from the myriad of aftermarket shops that feature generic car parts with only a spec listing and stock photo.

Your product pages will become authoritative, with written posts addressing the most common product questions and concerns. All of that quality content will be supplemented by an abundance of user-generated content related to the product.

Google will reward your efforts with improved SEO rankings. Shoppers who land on the page will be more likely to stay on-site and convert into sales.

• Create a Blog and Integrate It

A site blog can be the centerpiece of your brand and webstore. It’s a hub where all of the best content you post across the web is aggregated. For your shoppers, it’s the water cooler they gather around whenever they sign on to shop for car parts.

An effective eCommerce blog will have a mix of content. Tech articles related to the automotive niches you serve are a great way to showcase your products while adding to your on-site SEO. Insider updates about your shop are a great way to establish a more personal connection between your brand and customers.

Recurring content series such as a shop project car, real-world automotive event coverage, or a product comparison series are all great ways to keep your shoppers tuning back in.

• Tune Your Shoppers in on YouTube 

YouTube is an especially useful marketing tool when it comes to automotive aftermarket retailers. Whether you’re selling ceramic wax spray or performance exhaust headers, shoppers want to see (and often hear) their aftermarket accessories in action, ideally showcased on the same make and model of vehicle that they drive.

Whether you build a full-blown channel to make your automotive shop famous or you simply use YouTube as a glorified hosting platform, it’s an invaluable tool for creating product videos to showcase on your blog and landing pages. After all, 72% of shoppers prefer learning about products through videos as opposed to written content.

• Use Social Media as a Megaphone 

Cross-post your content to all of your social media channels. A steady stream of posts will significantly increase your social media outreach over time, and every post is essentially free advertising for your store. Additionally, every social media post is an opportunity to interact with your shoppers in the comment threads. Doing so consistently will further improve your brand awareness and authority.

• Engage and Interact 

As mentioned above, meaningful customer engagement and interaction are paramount. From the little questions that shoppers post on low-traffic product pages to the headline content you showcase on your blog and social media pages, be pervasive with your user engagement. Treat every comment or reply that you write like a unique piece of professional content capable of adding to your overall branding and marketing strategy – because it is.

Conclusion

Creating a user-driven community around your website won’t happen over night. You have to integrate the framework into your overall content strategy, then grow your on-site community over time alongside your blog and social media channels.

However, once you do have a vital community integrated around your web store, you’ll have a long-term sustainable platform to amp up your marketing ROI. You’ll also have a reliable customer base clicking through your content (and checkout lanes) every day.

Of course, if you ever need help turbocharging any stage of the automotive eCommerce process, get in touch with InteractOne and let’s talk shop.