Community marketing ideas for car dealerships

A feed of nothing but prices feels like a flyer. A feed with your staff at the minor hockey fundraiser, a warm holiday greeting and your vehicles in front of places locals love feels like a neighbour. Community posts also tend to get more likes, comments and shares than sales posts, which helps your sales posts reach more people too.

Local pride

Put your vehicles in front of places everyone in town recognises: the lighthouse, the bridge, the main street, the lake. It says “we’re from here” without saying it. “Proudly locally owned” or “Serving [town] since 1987” is a great headline if it’s true.

• A vehicle at a well-known local landmark.
• “Best of [town]”: your staff’s favourite coffee shop, trail or lunch spot.
• A shout-out to a neighbouring business. They’ll often share it.

Holiday greetings

A few times a year, post a greeting with no sales pitch at all. It’s a simple way to show up in the feed with warmth.

• US: New Year’s, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.
• Canada: Canada Day, Thanksgiving (in October), Remembrance Day (respectfully, with no sale) and the winter holidays.
• Local: your town’s festival, a team’s big win or the first day of school.

Keep greetings separate from sales events, and post your holiday hours too. All the dates are in the car dealer marketing calendar.

Sponsorships and causes

• Minor sports: jerseys, tournaments and “player of the week”.
• Food and toy drives: “Fill the truck” is easy to promote and fun to photograph.
• School and charity events: a test-drive fundraiser where you donate for every drive.
• Cars & Coffee on a Saturday morning, open to every make.

Announce it before, share photos after, and thank the people involved by name (with permission).

People and stories

Your staff and customers are your community too. Meet-the-team posts, work anniversaries, delivery-day photos and customer reviews all build trust. See Sold! and delivery-day posts and how to turn reviews into posts.

Event and holiday designs are in the event and holiday templates.

How often

About a quarter of your posts can be community and personality, with the rest inventory, offers and service. That mix is laid out in 40 car dealership social media post ideas.