Lead Conversion

I don’t think I’ve ever talked to a dealer that didn’t want to increase the conversion rate on his/her dealership website, but many seem to leave most of the “how” to their website provider. Lead conversion, the act of turning a website visitor into a known contact, essentially boils down to psychology. Knowing how people think and what motivates them to interact with your dealership website can help you create a site design that will help facilitate more lead conversions.

To get you started, here are some of the basic website visitor biases. Keep these motivations in mind while looking at your website. What can you change to help lead website visitors into your dealership’s sales funnel?

All My Friends Are Doing It: The Bandwagon Effect is one we’ve all dealt with since childhood. The more people that do something, the more likely others are to follow along. One way to use this motivation on your dealership website is to add positive dealership reviews to your VDPs. Show potential buyers that others have had great experiences buying from you, and it can increase the chances that they will want to do so as well.

Highlight It: Things that stand out from the background are more likely to be remembered, according to the Von Restorff Effect. As long as you maintain an esthetically pleasing look to your website, go for contrasting colors on your Call to Action (CTA) buttons and any specific information you want to be remembered. Just be sure to use this technique sparingly – if everything “stands out”, nothing will. This is a great area to A/B test, if your dealership website provider allows you to do so.

Pictures Are Better: A picture is worth a thousand words – this old saying isn’t too far off. The Picture Superiority Effect means that images are more easily recognized, recalled, and powerful than text alone. Not only are your pictures giving information to potential customers before they read your content, they will stay with them long after they leave your site. This alone makes it worth a second look at your inventory photos, especially the first image you show. Does it present that car or truck the way you want it to be remembered?

These seemingly simple psychological biases, when applied to your dealership website, can have a huge impact on the lead conversion rate. Check with your dealer website provider – are they taking any of these into consideration when giving you best practices?

Many of the dealers I talk to are extremely concerned about the conversion rate of their dealership website, and rightfully so.  Converting website traffic into leads should be a priority of everyone involved with your site, from your vendor to your Internet Manager to your GM.  One way to affect your conversion rate is by optimizing the contact forms you use to collect leads.

Reduce the Size: Keep the number of form fields to a minimum; only ask for what you absolutely need to follow up. Many people get overwhelmed when faced with providing a lot of personal information just to get some info about a car.

Design the Mobile Version First: Not only will this help ensure you have mobile-friendly forms on your mobile dealership website, but it helps you focus on keeping the form simple.

Reduce Friction: This could be as simple as making it clear which fields are required (even if it’s all), using in-line validation to correct errors as they are made, or using ghost text to help users know what format they should use.

Make it as easy as possible for your dealership website visitors to submit a lead by simplifying lead forms.  If you have long, complicated contact forms, talk to your auto dealer website provider to see how you can simplify your forms and raise your conversion rate.

The Cash for Clunkers program seems to be a success, despite the criticism that the program continues to get.  Some would-be buyers complain that their older cars don’t qualify as “clunkers” and environmentalists have said that the program isn’t really lowering the United States’ dependence on oil or pollution.  Yet this doesn’t seem to be slowing the success of the program.

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.  The Transportation Department reports that over 80,000 vouchers have been processed under the Cash for Clunkers program, 47% of which were for domestic auto purchases.

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, despite all the negative reaction it has received, is it still so successful?

Incentives.  Consumers (more so now than ever) are looking for an extra 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 your auto dealership needs to be using incentives in order to help get website traffic into your showroom.

Use an incentive based lead generation tool on the home page of your dealer site.  Increase the incentive after they 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 doesn’t get left behind when the Cash for Clunkers incentive program ends.

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.