With car buyers spending 59% of their time researching their next purchase online, successful dealers are the ones making sure they are optimising the ability to drive, capture and manage all digital leads.

We breakdown some key aspects to ensuring your dealership is best equipped to convert digital browsers to buyers.

Create content that connects.

‘Content is king’ is a popular adage in marketing. And with good reason – content marketing has been shown to drive three times more lead conversions than other marketing channels while costing 62% less. But posting generic content is not good enough - customers are increasingly expecting specific information, tailored toward their buying journey.

Creating customer-centric content is essential to drive leads. A crucial element is creating content that emotionally connects with the reader. Tapping into common pain points elicits a positive reaction, so articles that break down finance options or the trade-in process will reap rewards.

In addition to addressing these stages on the buying journey, consider creating more content around the stock itself – generate articles around vehicle features that allow you to elaborate on the many benefits and concerns (e.g. family features) that a traditional sales pitch might not.

Lights, camera, action...!

In a previous article, we discussed the importance of using videos to create a ‘blended’ user experience –bringing the physical showroom into the virtual (i.e. online) environment. Not only do they connect the physical and digital dealership but creating product-centred videos is essential to drive leads.

According to a Google study, 60% of car buyers who viewed a video during their research stage went on to visit a dealership or the dealership website after viewing.

According to the same study, the three most popular videos viewed are:

● Test drives of makes and models
● Car feature breakdown
● Interior and exterior walkthroughs of vehicles

It doesn’t require cinema-quality production values. Basic recording equipment (at a push most modern smartphones can create clean, high-definition videos) can create some engaging content that will be invaluable in driving enquiries.

Of those buyers that use social media as a source, the highest-ranked (13%) was YouTube. Posting your videos on YouTube will aid discoverability, as well as making videos easier to share across social media.

Put mobile first

According to a recent study, over half (57%) of new car buyers use mobile devices when purchasing a vehicle, and in another – 58% of auto shoppers said that their smartphone would be the only device they’d use in the near future when browsing.

Put simply - if your site is not optimised for mobile use, the chances are that you’re missing out on crucial leads.

But, for dealerships with the resources– creating a separate, ‘mobile-first’ website for mobile users has been shown to drive more leads than desktop sites which have been made mobile-optimised. A mobile-first site focuses the buyer journey – it has fewer pages (Google Analytics can show you the most popular pages which are being viewed over mobile), and more navigation and calls to action to help drive that call, email or form submission.

It will also give better loading times, keeping your site fast and accessible if data strength is low.

Create a robust digital lead response strategy

The time and investment making a swift and responsive website to drive leads will be for naught without a swift and responsive lead management strategy!

Every lead requires a personalized response and a quick one at that - according to a Dealerweb study, 90% of car buyers said the speed of response would affect their purchasing decision.

Invariably, many digital leads will be coming-in out of hours (according to the same Dealerweb survey, 34% of motor buyers would enquire outside of standard dealership hours), so you should have in place a system that can confirm receipt of the web enquiry, preferably offering a personalised response (for tips on an out-of-ours response strategy, read our article here).

If your team are not replying until the next morning, then you need to make sure these leads are already in a lead system with full contact details registered and assigned to a salesperson.

A lead management system with a reporting suite will also be key in helping you tailor your digital lead generation strategies. Not only will it enable you analyze key metrics such as the times digital leads are coming in and from which channels, but you can directly monitor the pipeline from enquiry through to sale – crucial in seeing which campaigns and channels not just convert into leads, but convert into sales.

A lead response strategy needs to be just as optimized as the lead generation process. Find out how our systems can ensure every lead is captured, responded-to and nurtured – call us on +44 (0)1392 247477 or email info@8technology.com.