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Here at Powersports Marketing, we’ve focused on the 4 Fundamental Components of Marketing for over a decade now:

1. Right Audience

2. Right Media (that will reach that audience)

3. Right Message (Direct Response instead of Branding)

4. Right Timing

Generating new riders falls into category #1, the Right Audience. To generate ‘new’ riders, it means you must focus your marketing efforts on getting folks who don’t ride to change their mind and start riding. I’ll bluntly state that this is a bad idea because marketing doesn’t create hobbyists and never will. The best analogy to prove my point here is golf. No one starts playing golf because of marketing or advertising no matter how good the ad(s) is. If you play golf you can think of the person who got you to play the first time. 

Likewise, no one starts riding because of marketing/advertising either. Just like golf (and more other hobbies), it’s always the influence of another person, usually a friend or family member. 

I suspect that the original question, while the subject of new riders is mentioned, is really looking for growth in their dealership and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if that growth comes from new riders or those who already ride.  For instance, let’s say you could grow by 30% in 2017 but the growth all came from existing riders – would you turn it down?  Of course not.

Who you’re marketing to (your audience/the list) controls whether you’ll get responses or not, and whether an ROI will be generated or not.  The right audience for a powersports/motorcycle dealer is people who ride motorcycles. Hands down, no question. Marketing may not create new hobbyists, but it will get hobbyists to buy more products, more quickly. Marketing can also get the riders in your area who aren’t customers to respond and begin buying from you.

We are in a niche industry where only 3% to 6% of people in America ride motorcycles. That means more than 94% of people in your area don’t ride and probably will never ride. If I were running your dealership, the way I’d grow is to uncover the people closest to the dealership who fit into one of the following 2 groups: 

1. Past customers – I say it all the time, the single most likely person to spend money with you is the person who already has. The fact is the majority of your sales this year will come from past customers, and you can sell them even more with good marketing.

2. Conquest prospects - These are people who live in your backyard, ride what you sell, buy what you sell, but they’ve never purchased anything from you.  Essentially, these are your competitor’s customers and other orphan owners in your market area. Consistent marketing to this group will generate a response and create ‘new’ customers. You have to be consistent though. 

We call these 2 groups of people your Buying Base and they represent where 99% of your business will come from in 2017.  Once this group is identified you need to go after them. Ideally, you’d reach out to your entire Buying Base every month and invite them into the dealership. However, if your budget will not allow for this we can utilize your specific budget to target the best, closest customers and prospects in your market area – and in doing so we always generate a positive ROI.

Powersports Marketing will increase the frequency of visits from past and present customers while acquiring new customers, driving leads and good traffic through the doors every single month.

Want to know what your Buying Base looks like for no cost?  Call 1-877-242-4472 and ask for a Free Data Analysis. 

-Tory