Since its humble beginning, advertising in the automotive industry has largely focused on pushing, rather than pulling.

For example:

Radio – Pushes ads out to consumers while they drive to work

Television – Pushes ads out to consumers while they watch their favorite shows

Newspaper – Pushes ads out to consumers while they read up on current events

The reality is, only a very small percentage of people who hear your radio ad or flip past your newspaper ad are actually interested in purchasing a vehicle. Most dealers know this, yet many continue to invest the lion’s share of their marketing budget in traditional channels. But, why is this?

Lack of education? Fear of change? Denial of the modern world?

With more and more people relying on the Internet for information and entertainment, the effectiveness of these ‘push style’ avenues are decreasing year-over-year.

As a member of Generation Y and a fan of technology, I rarely am subjected to traditional advertising.

Radio – I don’t listen to the radio; I stream music via Bluetooth from my cell phone while I drive.

Television – I don’t watch TV commercials as everything I watch is recorded, allowing me to skip right past them.

Newspaper – Are newspapers still around? My parents (and grandparents, for that matter) canceled their newspaper subscriptions many years ago.

While not everyone skips commercials and has kicked newspapers to the curb, it’s undeniable that these mediums are less effective than they were in years past.

So if push advertising is out, how do you pull people in? Focus on giving people what they want: An intuitive, relevant and engaging online experience.

Enter: Inbound Marketing

The core building blocks of an effective Inbound Marketing strategy are as follows:

Search Engine Optimization – High-quality content on your website will improve your rankings on search engines, in addition to providing users with a much better experience.

Paid Search (or Pay Per Click) – Similar to SEO, paid search allows you to pull someone in with relevant content. Avoid driving visitors to the index page of your website; that doesn’t lead to a good experience.

Display Advertising – Display advertising is the modern billboard. With display, marketers can serve Web users contextual and aesthetically pleasing ads based on their search/browsing history.

Blogging – Blogging can be a great tool, and requires less knowledge of search engines than the areas listed above. Blogs index very well with search engines, and can generate results quickly.

Social – Once you’ve got your bases covered with your website, SEO, paid search, display and blogging, the next step is to look at social media. An effectively executed social strategy can further bolster the online presence for a proactive dealership.

What do all of these things have in common? They are all centered on providing value and relevancy to perspective customers.

Three years ago, most dealerships were spending more of their marketing budget on traditional advertising rather than digital. Today, many dealerships have completely abandoned traditional advertising, and have never looked back. In many cases, these same dealers have found that they were able to reduce their overall budget when making the switch to digital, while generating much better return on their investment at the same time.

Radio and print are declining, and the companies are scrambling to retain whatever business they can. Remember, receiving a 50 percent discount on something that doesn’t work really isn’t a deal at all. If you’re inclined to throw your money away, I’ve got some beautiful ocean-front property in Winnipeg I would be interested in selling to you at a major discount. (Disclaimer: Like radio and print – there will be no performance guarantees or refunds on this transaction.)

The days of marketing to the many with the hope of persuading a few have passed.

This is inbound marketing. This is the future of your dealership.

Kevin Gordon is an international speaker and thought leader in the automotive industry, regularly speaking at conferences across North America. Kevin co-founded Convertus, a digital marketing solutions provider for dealers. Learn more at Convertus.com.