Using Your Website to Nurture Leads Throughout Their Life-Cycle
It's pretty well known that the sales leads that come from your own website are less expensive, close at a much higher rate than any other type of Internet lead, and are typically further down in the purchase funnel. There are many ways to spend your marketing dollars to direct more traffic to your website, but how are you using your website to nurture to these leads throughout their buying life-cycle?
Utilizing website tools that are mutually-beneficial for your dealership and your leads is one way to increase your website conversion rate. When you begin your relationship in this context, your dealership will immediately be portrayed as having their best interest at heart. This puts you in a great position to start conducting a nurturing marketing campaign with these leads. Start thinking about your website as a way to help you nurture your customers throughout their life-cycle, as well as a resource for them as they need service and other things as time goes by.
What about your customers who have a teenager coming of driving age? How about the ones who may need a reliable car for their sons and daughters as they go off to college? Did you just start a free loaner program for your service customers? The ideas are endless and a website that lets you manage how you interact with your customers means you can evolve your relationships and easily extend their lifecycle experiences with your dealership.
Try using an incentive based lead generation system (web coupon) to capture lead information. These programs allow you to vary the incentives you offer to catch as many leads as you can. Try different offers and ideas and gauge response rates. Watch the economy for interest indicators and pay attention to what your competition is offering.
Once you have a lead's contact information, make sure your email or phone response is both timely and meaningful. It's not just about you selling a car; it's about beginning a nurturing relationship between your dealership and this lead. Being fast doesn't count for much if you don't deliver additional information they're interested in. Make sure your web coupon sends contextual automatic emails, or try using a system that instantly generates phone calls to incoming leads.
Nurturing leads is both science and art. Email surveys on specified days into the cycle, but choose which questions are included depending on the context of conversations you've had with each lead. Measure responses to your surveys, tweak the wording, think about what you don't know that could enable you to turn more leads into buyers and add that question into the mix. It can help you to look at the survey from the lead's perspective and consider what the questions you're asking tell your leads about your dealership.
It's hugely important to your website marketing that you're able to take control of the content that appears online. Find out from your website provider what you do and don't have control over. You need to have the capability to easily add and remove relevant content to your website. Promote your community involvement, provide a rotating article about consumer care for the types of cars you sell, or dedicate a page to each department so your leads can get to know you beyond just buying their car off your lot.
