Dealerships fuel engagement with social media

Henson Brand Dealerships is using its social media pages to earn customers' business — and attention — for the long haul.

Some of those customers are getting their vehicles for free as a result.

Henson Chevrolet-Buick-GMC, Henson Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram and Henson Ford in Madisonville, Texas, began monthly car giveaways in 2019. The stores heavily promote the giveaways on social media, requiring followers to share posts and tag the dealerships to be eligible to win a used vehicle.

The dealerships also run live infomercials on Facebook, encouraging customers to call a number on their screen if they are interested in a certain vehicle, and host live giveaways and games with cash and other nonautomotive products as prizes.

The stores have invested about $100,000 in production equipment and hired producers, marketing specialists and communication reps to enhance the social media strategy. The dealerships post about 160 times a week and create engagement with more than 140,000 customers and potential customers in that time frame, said Eric Barbosa, operating partner for the group. Social media drives about 200 leads to Henson's website each day.

"We're using the whole social media platform for people to share our content, hashtag our Henson brand, and that's how we're generating the leads," Barbosa said.

When inventory was easier to stock, the stores' social media conversion rate was 10 to 12 percent. With low vehicle supply and higher lead count, social media-driven leads produce sales about 5 percent of the time, Barbosa said.

"The shortage of inventory has hurt us, but we're turning our inventory, I think, at a better pace," he said. "And it's all stemmed from our marketing."

More than 35 percent of the dealerships' sales come from social media posts. Last year, in a town of fewer than 5,000 residents, the Henson dealerships made more than $6 million, five times their profit before Barbosa and a co-owner bought them in late 2018. The three stores, located between Houston and Dallas, sold a total of 250 to 275 new and used vehicles a month in 2021.

"We measure everything. That's something I learned. You've got to measure all your analytics," said Barbosa, who co-owns the stores with Foundation Automotive Corp., a Canadian dealership group that has expanded into the U.S. in recent years.

The Henson Brand stores track their return on investment, but "we really want to go after our return on engagement," Barbosa said. "The more people engage with our stuff, the better opportunity we have to sell them something at some point or connect with them."

Social media has also aided Henson Brand's recruitment efforts. About 25 employees hired over the past year were recruited via social media, and the average commute for all employees is about an hour. Some drive as much as two and a half hours to work.

Henson also is expanding its brand with a program through which it selects affiliates to share the dealerships' posts on social media. About 5,500 people have signed up to be affiliates since the program launched in February. If the affiliates generate a lead, Henson pays them $1. If a lead turns into a sale, they get $200.

"We sell a lot of these people cars, and we ship nationwide," Barbosa said. "We wanted to get them to get paid to share our content. They're engaged and a big proponent of our business."