Most car sales occur in dealerships but before vehicle shoppers run to the nearest one, they would prefer getting valuable information with what they want in order to save time and figure out what they truly want and need.
A study from Kenshoo says that 70% of car consumers turn to search engines first since they would want to scan for vehicle listings to know more about its mileage, design, and price in detail before visiting an actual dealership.
Before the internet, car shoppers depended on the recommendations of family members, friends, and salespeople. Now, as technology is booming, shoppers rely heavily on search engines for convenience and to thoroughly know about the vehicle they wish to purchase.
Having an online presence for your company can also establish trust and strengthen your brand. You would have your own platform that you can customize and would have the freedom to showcase your products in any way you like that would provide ways for customers to connect with you.
Besides looking for a suitable car, vehicle consumers can also look for accessories, products, and services such as a windshield replacement from Sentry Glass, an oil filter, and brake work.
A Good Online Presence
Make Your Website Easy to Navigate
A dealership’s website is a very important factor to connect with buyers. If your website is easy to navigate with a fitting layout and high-quality imagery, you would be able to increase your company’s credibility, attract customers, and can communicate quality information to your consumers.
Building a vehicle consumer-friendly website is essential to grab their attention. It should be easy to load, have pictures and videos, and put the right keywords on your site. To achieve this, you would need to consider search engine optimization (SEO) to help your rank within the search engine results.
Be Optimized for Mobile
Your website should fit a mobile interface too since a lot of people spend more time on their smartphones compared to laptops, computers, and tablets. A lot of customers rely on mobile, and they would prefer if it’s user-friendly to phones too.
Car shoppers are open to reaching out online to directly ask for more information, concerns, or make an appointment for visits. Be sure to have your contact number or a messaging tool that can be accessed on phone. Put a button on your mobile site that will lead them conveniently to your contact number or email address.
Have unique offers for your customers
It is difficult to have a marketing strategy that will convince your prospect buyers to choose your business over others. You need to have something that your competition does not, and what better way than offering discounts, incentives, or freebies like a free inspection every 3 months or an oil change for the first year of purchase.
These kinds of offers and promotions can make your customers feel urgent about buying your item since they fear missing out on such incentives. You can put all of this information on your website and can even include it with your paid advertisements.
Build a good customer review
Building a good online review draws more sales than advertising or salespeople since feedback from customers is more genuine and honest with comments. You can ask your customers directly to leave you a review after their in-store visits and purchase.
You can have a feedback section on your website or social media page. Monitor this section so you can reply fast and take action with negative feedback. A happy customer will be good points despite their bad review since it will prove that you provided them with the effort to help their needs.
Use Paid Ads
Before making and purchasing advertisements for your website, you need to research your brand and customer persona. Knowing this would help you target the right people fit for your business.
The campaigns differ from the customer persona. If you are selling luxury cars like Porsche and Lamborghini, you would need to come up with a marketing strategy that would help a typical customer find you. Consumers who buy luxury cars Your ads would be entirely different if you are offering more affordable brands like Toyota and Suzuki, or if you’re selling secondhand cars.
Before you jump right into it, learn more about your customers — their preferences, needs, and what they’re interested to buy. Provide them with multiple tools to give them the convenience they need while browsing through your website and social media pages.
You can also sell car accessories and services for cars besides the vehicle itself which can make your business an all around-dealership. Building trust with your customers takes time and a well-thought strategy. Hire an expert or you can do it yourself. Knowing your brand personally can make it easier to create an online presence.
