Archive for the ‘Car Dealer Websites’ Category

Goals for Your Auto Dealership Website Sales Funnel

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

One of the things we hear from a lot of the auto dealers we talk to is that they are struggling to find the right auto dealership analytics to measure their success.  How does your auto dealership really know if you are doing as well as you could be?  Could you be converting more traffic, making more appointments, or selling more cars?  Here are some reachable goals for your lead to sales funnel, gathered from some of the results we’ve seen at DealerOn:

  • Website Conversion Ratio — 10%
  • Lead to Appointment Ratio — 70%
  • Appointment to Show Ratio — 50%
  • Show to Sale Ratio — 50%

These percentages can be a little hard to understand in this form, so let’s work with real numbers.  Say your dealership’s website brings in 1,000 visits a month.  According to the sales funnel numbers above, these 1,000 visits should yield 100 leads.  In turn, these 100 leads should lead to 70 appointments.

Of these 70 appointments, your dealership should see about 35 of them actually keep their appointment, and your dealership staff should make it their goal to sell cars to half of them.  So for every 1,000 visits your car dealership website receives, your dealership should be selling 17.5 cars.

If your car dealership isn’t reaching these numbers, keep working to improve your sales process.  A few tweaks here and there in your online marketing strategy and auto dealer website can make all the difference.  Contact DealerOn for tips and ideas on how to increase your web traffic, leads, and car sales.

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Videos on Auto Dealer Websites

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

A new study by eMarketer shows just how prevalent online video has become. In 2009, 144 million people will view videos online, and that number will increase to 188 million by 2013. More than half of the American population (59%) says they’ll watch videos online in 2013. This is a huge opportunity for your car dealership, and by starting now, you’ll be in prime position to provide the videos your customers are looking for.

A lot of websites place videos online using flash, which doesn’t help your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Search engines can’t read Flash as well as they can HTML, so avoid creating and uploading videos in that format as much as possible. If you have no other option, make sure the text on these pages are properly optimized for SEO and that you use anchor text. This means that if you hover a mouse over the video, there should be text that is keyword rich and descriptive of the video. This will help search engines determine what that Flash based video is about.

Your videos need to be on YouTube. It is the second biggest search engine (behind Google) even though it only contains videos. YouTube videos typically rank very well in search engine results, when they are properly optimized. Since search engines reward age when it comes to web pages and videos, the sooner your dealership puts quality videos on your web pages, the more likely Google and YouTube are to rank them highly.

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Auto Dealer Incentives and Cash for Clunkers

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

The Cash for Clunkers program seems to be wildly popular, regardless of its political and environmental implications. There are dealerships that have all but run out of the most popular new vehicles, and by some accounts, tens of thousands of customers have made their way into auto dealer showrooms.

Even though some consumers, politicians, and program critics are unhappy with the Cash for Clunkers incentive program, auto dealers are still reaping the benefits of this giant influx of dealership traffic. So why has it proven to be so successful at generating interest and showroom traffic?

Incentives. Consumers (more so now than ever) are always looking for a reason to buy. This could be a coupon, a discount, or an additional item thrown in for free. The success of Cash for Clunkers shows that even in an extremely challenging marketplace and economy, consumers respond to compelling offers when they feel that are getting something unique and timely. They are willing to trade something precious (their time to go visit a dealership) in exchange for something valuable and fleeting (the Cash for Clunkers offer).

How can you leverage this lesson? Use an incentive based lead generation tool on the home page of your dealer site. Increase the incentive when your customers submit their contact information if they schedule a test drive. Using incentives on your auto dealer website has continually been shown to increase leads, dealer showroom traffic, and car sales. Make sure your dealership heeds the lesson from the Cash for Clunkers program—great incentives sell cars.

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Auto Dealer Websites and Gender Segmentation

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

Segmenting your auto dealer market can be difficult, but done with the proper insights and research, it can be extremely beneficial to your car dealership.  It’s no secret that different types of car shoppers act differently, respond to different things, and buy differently.

Building your car dealership website so that it appeals to the types of people in your market area can help your auto dealership sell more cars.

According to an eMarketer study, one of the biggest differentiators in how people spend their time online is their gender.  It seems to determine how users act online more than race, ethnicity or even economic status.  While more women say that they use the Internet than men, men tend to spend longer per session online than women do.

You can use this information to better your auto dealer website.  Are there areas that appeal to men where they can spend a few minutes, such as a blog or detailed articles about the cars that you sell?  Do your auto inventory pages have important information in a quick and easy to read format for the women who are researching their next car purchase?  Make sure that you don’t lean too heavily in one direction or the other.  Having a balance of types and lengths of information typically results in the most effective auto dealer website design.

Segmenting your dealership market can be overdone. While conducting and using market segmentation can be helpful, it’s very easy to cross the line into stereotyping genders, races, and ethnicities.  Use market segmentation as a guideline, but remember that there are always exceptions to rules.



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Are Internet Banner Ads Worth the Cost?

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Marketing, both online and traditional, is only effective if the intended audience actually pays attention to your message.  It’s also important that your marketing be effective at persuading consumers to purchase from your dealership.  If your marketing efforts aren’t seen by consumers or don’t have an effect on them, you might as well be throwing that money away.

Internet banner advertising is ignored by 46% of the participants in a Harris Interactive study.  This means that almost half of web users that see your dealership’s Internet banner ads are blocking them out and not paying attention to your message.  That’s a pretty ineffective way to reach your customers.

Even more problematic was the finding that only 1% of participants believed Internet banner ads to be the most helpful advertising medium when making buying decisions.  Barely anyone turns to (or trusts) banner ads when looking for information related to purchasing.

Instead of throwing this part of your marketing budget away, it makes much mores sense to reallocate it to marketing techniques that actually earn your dealership sales.  Search engine optimization (SEO) for your car dealer website or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising are considered more trustworthy and are less likely to be ignored than banner ads.  Take a deeper look at the effectiveness and ROI of all of your marketing campaigns, and only fund those that are earning your auto dealership real sales.

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Using Online Marketing to Raise Dealer Website Conversion

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

On Tuesday, I wrote about how website design, content, navigation, and technical problems can affect your auto dealership website conversion rate.  Your online marketing efforts can also affect the rate at which traffic on your car dealer website converts into leads.  Here’s how:

  • Keyword Selection (SEO & PPC): People who use search engines expect to find websites that are related to the keywords they used.  If your car dealership websites show in the search engine results for un-related terms, this will almost always result in a lower conversion rate.  This is true for keywords in both search engine optimization and in your pay-per-click ad words.  Make sure your dealership is only bidding on keywords that are related to your industry and website to help lower your bounce rate.

    The more frequently your site shows up for longer tail search terms (like “Richmond Nissan Altima 2009,” as opposed to “Richmond Nissan dealer”), the higher your conversion rate should be. Having content that brings in more long tail search traffic can both raise your traffic volumes AND increase the rate at which it converts to a
    lead, since the incremental traffic will convert at a higher rate than your general website traffic.

  • Title Tags and Meta Descriptions: Your auto dealer website provider should be able to help you set these two SEO-related items.  If the description of your website that shows in the search engine results doesn’t truly reflect your website, the people that click through will quickly click off.  Also, you may be losing valuable traffic that would click on your website if the description were accurate.
  • Ad Copy: If your dealership is using pay-per-click marketing (PPC), the content of your ads is very important.  When you partner with a car dealer PPC management vendor, your ad content should be optimized to maximize your conversion rate.  If not, make sure the copy is relevant to the keywords being bid on, your dealership, and the auto industry.

Every piece of your website, including online marketing, can contribute to your site’s conversion rate.  Talk to your online marketing partner to make sure your SEO and PPC efforts are reducing, not adding to, your dealership website’s conversion rate.

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Up Your Dealership Website Conversion Rate

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

The conversion rate of a dealership’s website is the most commonly used metric to measure the success of a website’s success at generating leads.  Conversion rates are usually expressed as the percentage of traffic that submits a lead to your website.  Obviously, the higher the conversion rate, the better it is for your auto dealership.

Most analytics tools calculate conversion rate information, but they don’t tell you how to work on increasing your conversion rate.  Here are a few things you should do to increase your conversion rates:

  • The Look: This depends, mainly, on your website provider.  Sites that are too busy, too colorful, or just unappealing to viewer’s eyes will prompt a quick click off of the page.  Make sure that your website looks clean, nice, and un-offensive.
  • The Content: It’s important that your website contains valuable information.  For auto dealers, this typically means that your inventory descriptions are worthwhile and complete.  It could also mean that you have a blog that offers information that car buyers can actually use.  Don’t just stuff keywords into your dealership site; make sure the content is worth reading.
  • Ability to Navigate: This often goes hand in hand with website design.  If a visitor can’t easily determine how to find the information they are looking for, they’ll click to another dealer website.  Make sure your navigation bar is clear and that the most important sub-pages can be reached with just one click from your home page.
  • Technical Issues: Your website should be built so that the majority of web users can view all components.  If someone has to download a program to view something, chances are they’ll click off.  The same goes for pages that don’t load quickly enough, or not at all.

Make sure that your dealership website has valuable content, looks appealing, loads properly and is easy to use.  Work with your auto dealer website provider to ensure that your site is properly set up to increase your conversion rates.

On Thursday, I’ll write about how to use your marketing efforts to increase your website conversion rate.

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Car Inventory Videos Help Target Your Market

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Knowing how different groups of people use the Internet can help your auto dealership effectively target your online marketing and earn more sales.  When you take the time to segment and understand your market, it becomes easier for your dealership to send the right message to the right people at the right time, resulting in more sales for your dealership.

It seems as though one of the factors that most determines how users browse the Internet is gender.  eMarketer recently conducted a study that found slightly more women say they use the Internet than men.  The study also found that men tend to browse the Internet longer per online session that women do.  One reason for this increase in online engagement for men could be that men are more interested in watching online videos than women are.

Your dealership can use this information to better target men who may be shopping your dealer site for their next car.  Try adding videos of your new and used inventory to increase the amount of time your web visitors spend viewing your inventory.  Online video will also help satisfy those car shoppers who spend their time online watching videos.

This is one example of how knowing what your market wants can help your dealership sell more cars.  Placing videos of your dealership inventory on your dealer website can help increase the time that web visitors spend on your site, as well as how engaged they are while viewing your videos.  If you dealership isn’t taking full advantage of car inventory videos, you are missing out on potential sales.

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Using Coupons on Your Dealership Website

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

During the past few years, coupons haven’t been used much outside of the grocery store.  But now that the economy has taken a downturn, coupons are appearing in more and more places and being used by more and more people.  A new study by Inmar shows just how prevalent coupon use is—during the fourth quarter of 2008 coupon use rose 10% from the same period in 2007.  2.6 billion coupons were redeemed in 2008.  Consumers are looking for the perceived value they find in coupons…is your dealership offering it to them?

To capitalize on this increase in coupon use, your dealership should have or at a minimum test a coupon on your dealership website.  How can you identify an effective coupon for your dealership’s website?

  • The coupon needs to serve as a lead generation form and should encourage your web visitors to provide their contact information.
  • Make sure the web coupon isn’t a popup—so it won’t get blocked and cause problems for your paid search campaigns.
  • Ideally the coupon would provide your web visitors more than one chance to convert into a lead.

Another way your dealership can use coupons and offers to increase revenue is through your Specials web page.  The Specials page is where most of your web visitors will look for coupons, so make sure it is updated and full of coupons for your service and parts departments.

Consumers need more help than ever to justify making large purchases.  Having a valuable coupon may just be the justification that they need.

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Make Your Dealership Inventory Appear Bigger Than Ever

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

With both OEM’s and dealerships trying to ensure their future in today’s troubled economy, it seems like no one wants to (or can) pay to keep a large stock of cars on your dealership lot.

But customers like to see a big selection. If they come to your website and don’t find the exact new vehicle they are looking for, they’ll go to your competitors’ websites. What’s worse is that a large percentage of these new car leads will end up purchasing a used
vehicle, so they’ll remove your dealership from their purchase process before they even decide on the eventual vehicle that they end up buying. How many sales do you think your dealership is losing out on because you are only merchandising your current on-site physical inventory?

Check with the website provider for your auto dealership to see if they have a virtual inventory option. This tool can showcase all of your potential new inventory, not what is actually on your lot.

This means that every possible combination of color, trim level, make and model you sell at your dealership will be represented on your website—you have the ability to sell them, you just can’t physically fit them all onto your lot!

Since many consumers don’t understand how easy it is for your dealership to trade for a vehicle they are interested in, this type of web tool can be essential in maximizing the number of cars your dealership is able to sell. Don’t lose leads and sales just because it appears you don’t have the specific car your leads are presently searching for.

Also, if your website provider does it right, each vehicle will have its own web page, optimized for search engines. This means your inventory should be able to dominate the results pages when someone in your area searches for one of those vehicles. This will allow
you to capture much more in-market buyers than you ever have before.

Ask your website provider if they provide a virtual inventory option. It will allow your dealership to finance less new inventory on your lot (and free up a lot of cash) while still receiving the benefits of having a complete selection of new inventory.

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