Your Complete Guide to Marketing Complex Products in the Automotive Space

Conduct Market Research 

Research is one of the most fundamental tactics needed in order to bring your complex product offering to market effectively. Best guesses and assumptions based on previous tactics will only get you so far. Research enables you to understand the landscape you’re stepping into, evaluate the various audiences and their pain points, and establish a benchmark based on efforts from leading competitors. 

The information you gather during research is paramount to building an effective marketing strategy, decision-making and other supporting tactics. 

Here are three of Concentrek's recommended research tactics:

1. Read Customer Reviews
   Part of conducting a competitive analysis during your market research means analyzing your competitors’ customers and how they interact with each brand. When you begin reading customer reviews on your competitors’ products, you’re getting valuable feedback in the voice of a customer. Identifying common pain points may open your eyes to your products’ differentiators within the space, enabling you to use that to your advantage in how you communicate with various audiences about your product. 
    
2. Host a User-Group Meeting
   Perhaps the greatest way to obtain information about a potential customer is to go right to the source. This may be a group of people who have already purchased your products, or even people who might be in the market for your products.
   
   For automotive companies, you may consider hosting multiple user-group meetings for different segments of your audience. There is just as much value in understanding the experiences from end users, like individual shop owners and automotive specialists, as there are from engineers and purchasing agents. The needs and pain points of each group will vary, enabling you to understand the breadth of the landscape and set you up for success when it comes time to bring your product to market.
    
3. Join Relevant Social Media Groups and Industry Forums
   Consider joining online groups and forums online that you think may resemble your potential audience. Not only will this enable you to monitor conversations and get to know your potential customers even better, but you can also use those spaces to help gather information to support your research. Becoming an active member of these online communities puts you in a position to ask and receive real-time answers by posing questions or developing a poll. 

Identify and Segment Target Audiences 

Whether you’re an established automotive OEM with a global footprint or a smaller-scale part supplier, defining and segmenting your audiences enables you to tailor your marketing efforts to the right individuals. Nowadays, both B2B and B2C audiences are looking for personalized digital experiences. In fact, according to a Segment’s State of Personalization report, 60% of consumers are likely to become repeat buyers following personalized experiences. Without defining and segmenting your audiences, you risk not only losing a sale, but potentially a returning customer. 

With information gathered from market research, you can begin building out your audience personas based on demographics, characteristics, pain points and more. Creating segmented audience personas will enable you to begin creating personalized content and digital experiences that matter to them specifically.

Here are 5 must-haves when building out audience personas:

1. General Demographics
   Where is this persona located? What is their age? What is their job title?
    
2. Media Habits + Preferences
   What channel(s) is this persona active on? What types of content/experiences are they looking for? 
    
3. Key Motivators
   What motivates this persona to make a purchase? 
    
4. Pain Points
   What pain points is this persona experiencing? What problem are they trying to solve by purchasing products/services from us or our competitors?
    
5. Potential Roadblocks
   What would prohibit/prevent this persona from purchasing products or services from us or our competitors? 

Craft Messaging 

Messaging is the powerhouse behind your brand. For automotive OEMs, while product offerings are often highly technical and complex, the way you talk about them doesn’t have to be. In fact, messaging is all about clarity. Buzz words and complex terminology can deter customers from interacting with your brand, and ultimately, purchasing your products. When your messaging is clear, concise and consistent, your audience will be more apt to not only recognize your brand but follow through on their purchase. 
 

Your brand messaging extends beyond just how you market your products. It communicates the story of who you are as a company – your values, mission and identity. When the essence of your brand is reflected holistically throughout your messaging, you become more credible, trusted and recognizable — which is essential, especially in the competitive automotive space. 

Personalize Your Content Marketing Efforts

Content marketing is where all the work comes together to deliver the right content to the right audience. Without having conducted market research, built audience personas or crafted messaging for your product offering, this step won’t be as effective. In this digital era, personalized digital experiences are more important than ever before. Now, there are endless opportunities for your company to enhance your customers experience with your brand. 
 

When your audience is delivered an experience that’s tailored specifically to them, they’re more prone to feel connected to the brand and your product. 

Here are Concentrek's top three personalized content marketing experiences:

1. Social Media Ads
   There are infinite ways to segment audiences within social media platforms. Through research, you can determine which channels your audiences are most active on and build out custom social media ads for their feeds. You can target based on email lists, demographics, interests and more. With 4.9 billion active daily social media users (Forbes), personalizing your ads can help you break through the clutter of the platforms and reach both existing and potential customers.  
    
2. Email Marketing Campaigns
   According to HubSpot, the most effective strategies for email marketing campaigns are subscriber segmentation (78%), message personalization (72%) and email automation campaigns (71%). Breaking your audience up into segments and delivering personalized messages to them through a strategic email marketing campaign has proven to be effective in generating revenue for many brands.
    
3. Targeted Display Ads
   Personalized display ads significantly increase the relevance and resonance of the message, as they are tailored to match the individual user’s interests, behaviors and preferences, leading to higher engagement rates and improved user experience. By delivering personalized content and product recommendations through display ads, brands can build stronger connections with their customers, as the tailored messages create a sense of understanding and appreciation, leading to enhanced brand loyalty and repeat business.
    

Wrapping It Up

While it’s important to adapt to emerging trends, the fundamentals help build a firm foundation for marketing your product effectively. Conducting research is a continual part of this process to ensure you’re up to date on the latest insight within your market. It will set you up for success in building out or modifying your audience personas, product messaging and content marketing experiences.

Taking the Next Step

Bringing complex product offerings to market can be challenging. But good news – you don’t have to do it alone. With over 20 years working with B2B and B2C organizations within the automotive space, Concentrek’s team of experts are prepared to help you market your products effectively and position you as the leader in your space. Contact us today!