Both CarMax and Carvana market that people should buy from them and skip the dealership because dealerships and car sales people are still sleazy. I'm not sure that's exactly inspiring trust or just keeping that "untrustworthy" car dealership/salesperson taste in the consumer's mouth. They just spend all of their marketing and advertising dollars bashing dealerships therefor making it harder for dealerships to shake the negative stigma.
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- Thread starter DrewAment
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- May 1, 2006
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No. Website leads have to move through a nurturing process before they are comfortable and trusting enough to drive in. Sooooooo many things can go wrong in that process.
If a website can provide the comfort and trust necessary for the drive in, then all the potential failings of non-physical human interactions are void. I'm not saying Internet leads can be shut down entirely, but I am saying we drive too hard to create too many of them. Or more simply put, we're concentrated on the wrong goals.
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
Some history...
The Internet grew up under the dealer's feet. They didn't know what to do with it, but, their customers told them they had to do it. One day, 2 decades ago, somebody put a form on their site. The savvy manager got the form lead and said to the sales person, if you sell this lead I will give you a commission. The sale was made, and that same savvy manager build a department dedicated to working those leads.
In the manager's mind....
"INTERNET = LEADS"
All walk-ins are due to my awesomeness
20 yrs later and we're still stuck in that rut.
If that manager wanted to look for more opportunities, he could easily survey his buyers at delivery. He'd see that over 60% of all of his sales were to INVISIBLE SHOPPERS that were on his site 3 times or more*. Then, he'd compare that against his leads that create 12% of his sales* and he'd say... OH SHIT. I've got an invisible road into my store that's 400% more profitable than leads.
In the manager's mind....
"I don't want more leads, I want more return shoppers!"
That simple business exercise changes everything.
Game. Set. Match.
HTH
-Joe
*this is a wide sample, your milage may vary
- May 1, 2006
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However they choose to advertise, and whatever the consumer's impression of car dealers is in general, their websites do a pretty good job of answering the consumers' questions. And then they point those consumers down a clear path of action.
When you answer somebody's questions, without hassle, you earn trust. They also have their data configured in a manner that highlights the best features of a vehicle along with upfront pricing and payments. They're very clear about the warranty coverage and that inspires trust too. They don't make you hunt for things; they answer it all up right away.....or at least better than most.
The sites don't have floating chat boxes, floating bars, text us hovers, pop-unders, and all the things that signal to a consumer they're going to be pounced on the moment they get out of their car. That helps too.
When you answer somebody's questions, without hassle, you earn trust. They also have their data configured in a manner that highlights the best features of a vehicle along with upfront pricing and payments. They're very clear about the warranty coverage and that inspires trust too. They don't make you hunt for things; they answer it all up right away.....or at least better than most.
The sites don't have floating chat boxes, floating bars, text us hovers, pop-unders, and all the things that signal to a consumer they're going to be pounced on the moment they get out of their car. That helps too.
- Oct 14, 2012
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It's absolutely a disruption that needs to happen in the minds of the decision makers.
I can understand the feeling that a dealer would want multiple lead gen points, but I still just don't see how three ActivEngage chat entry point, an "are you sure you want to leave" prompt, and two completely different phone numbers for sales (all on the homepage) are good for UX... All while, their paid search ad doesn't utilize call or location extensions (where lead gen entry points can happen even before page visits).
Why not utilize a better mobile experience or user flow w/ analytics data to create more efficient highly converting lead gen paths? This would cut the need for cluttered and confusing homepages, and create a trust & ease of use without a lot of effort. Use the website for consumers in the higher stages of the funnel (that research models), and use the actual ad for users in the lower stage of the funnel (people on the road shopping or looking for you directly). It seems like all stage of the funnel are being addressed right there on the home page.
I'm just chatting, here. I apologize if I'm not understanding the "game".
I can understand the feeling that a dealer would want multiple lead gen points, but I still just don't see how three ActivEngage chat entry point, an "are you sure you want to leave" prompt, and two completely different phone numbers for sales (all on the homepage) are good for UX... All while, their paid search ad doesn't utilize call or location extensions (where lead gen entry points can happen even before page visits).
Why not utilize a better mobile experience or user flow w/ analytics data to create more efficient highly converting lead gen paths? This would cut the need for cluttered and confusing homepages, and create a trust & ease of use without a lot of effort. Use the website for consumers in the higher stages of the funnel (that research models), and use the actual ad for users in the lower stage of the funnel (people on the road shopping or looking for you directly). It seems like all stage of the funnel are being addressed right there on the home page.
I'm just chatting, here. I apologize if I'm not understanding the "game".
- May 1, 2005
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Bumping this thread since I was able to bet most of it restored. Sorry if everyone on this thread received a flurry of emails. There still may be a few missing comments. I know I had a long one explaining to @DrewAment some feature that AutoHook offers that may not have been aware of.
I had also mentioned that I was in the middle of setting up Optinmonster for here on DealerRefresh. I currently have it on the blog to gather new subscribers for the newsletter. So far, it's been doing a good job at capturing new subscribers. I'll be testing out their Slide Box feature here in the forums soon.
I believe dealers could greatly benefit from utilizing a service like Optinmonster. Here are a few examples:
1. Campaign SALES Newsletter and Weekly Specials - Host the overlay/popup form on your homepage, variable op pages, blog, about us - really on every page if you plan to run only 1 campaign capturing first name and email for your Newsletter and Weekly Specials. These ARE NOT leads for your CRM and sales people to bounce on. The acquired customer data would be placed into a segmented list for lead nurturing ONLY.
2. Campaign SERVICE Newsletter with Monthly Service and Accessories Specials - Host the overlay/popup form on all your fixed-op pages capturing first name and email for your Service Newsletter and Monthly Specials. These ARE NOT leads for your service team to bounce on. The acquired customer data would be placed into a segmented list for lead nurturing ONLY. This would be an amazing opportunity to educate service prospects and current clients on the benefits of using their Dealers OEM service department.
3. Campaign Last Offer Discount - Host the overlay/popup form on all New, Used, Specials pages capturing first name and email for their limited time "Incentive". This is where a service like Optinmonster could potentially replace light version of a service like AutoHook from the functionality perspective. You could build the creative to promote a gift card incentive, or what not. However, you would need to house the incentive cards at the dealership and you would potentially lose out on some mobile targeting features and flexibility of one off campaigns.
If a dealer would get started today utilizing just the Campaign 1 strategy to capture and nurture potential customers leads with valuable and engaging weekly content and specials, you would eventually be sitting on treasure chest of incremental sales each month - while most likely retaining your own market share.
If a dealer would do the same utilizing my Campaign 2 strategy to capture and nurture service customers with valuable and engaging weekly content and specials, you would eventually be sitting on another treasure chest of increased service revenue each month.
All subscribes to either Campaign Sales and Campaign Service would be placed into their own segmented list for NURTURING each potential subscriber into a full legit form online lead, phone or walk-in conversion to sale.
The lists for each campaign would need to be acquired and grow as organically as possible. No exporting years of prospects out of your DMS and dumped into your lists unless you utilized a double opted-in feature inviting them to join the specific list.
To this day, I can't believe how FEW dealers across the states participate and utilize a strong email nurturing strategy.
I had also mentioned that I was in the middle of setting up Optinmonster for here on DealerRefresh. I currently have it on the blog to gather new subscribers for the newsletter. So far, it's been doing a good job at capturing new subscribers. I'll be testing out their Slide Box feature here in the forums soon.
I believe dealers could greatly benefit from utilizing a service like Optinmonster. Here are a few examples:
1. Campaign SALES Newsletter and Weekly Specials - Host the overlay/popup form on your homepage, variable op pages, blog, about us - really on every page if you plan to run only 1 campaign capturing first name and email for your Newsletter and Weekly Specials. These ARE NOT leads for your CRM and sales people to bounce on. The acquired customer data would be placed into a segmented list for lead nurturing ONLY.
2. Campaign SERVICE Newsletter with Monthly Service and Accessories Specials - Host the overlay/popup form on all your fixed-op pages capturing first name and email for your Service Newsletter and Monthly Specials. These ARE NOT leads for your service team to bounce on. The acquired customer data would be placed into a segmented list for lead nurturing ONLY. This would be an amazing opportunity to educate service prospects and current clients on the benefits of using their Dealers OEM service department.
3. Campaign Last Offer Discount - Host the overlay/popup form on all New, Used, Specials pages capturing first name and email for their limited time "Incentive". This is where a service like Optinmonster could potentially replace light version of a service like AutoHook from the functionality perspective. You could build the creative to promote a gift card incentive, or what not. However, you would need to house the incentive cards at the dealership and you would potentially lose out on some mobile targeting features and flexibility of one off campaigns.
If a dealer would get started today utilizing just the Campaign 1 strategy to capture and nurture potential customers leads with valuable and engaging weekly content and specials, you would eventually be sitting on treasure chest of incremental sales each month - while most likely retaining your own market share.
If a dealer would do the same utilizing my Campaign 2 strategy to capture and nurture service customers with valuable and engaging weekly content and specials, you would eventually be sitting on another treasure chest of increased service revenue each month.
All subscribes to either Campaign Sales and Campaign Service would be placed into their own segmented list for NURTURING each potential subscriber into a full legit form online lead, phone or walk-in conversion to sale.
The lists for each campaign would need to be acquired and grow as organically as possible. No exporting years of prospects out of your DMS and dumped into your lists unless you utilized a double opted-in feature inviting them to join the specific list.
To this day, I can't believe how FEW dealers across the states participate and utilize a strong email nurturing strategy.
- May 1, 2005
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Well speak of the devil. As I was typing the above entry, my developers installed the Optinmonster code for the slider form to start engaging
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Joe
- May 1, 2005
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- Jeff
Quit nitpicking Joe. It could be used as a lead-gen tool but that's not the purpose here.
- Dec 2, 2009
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Not necessarily. Out of my bailiwick, but from what I'm seeing, engaged customers lead to better quality "traffic." Sooooo many dealers concentrate on the "Lead" (which in itself can decrease engagement levels) and then completely blow it with poor processes after the customer finally completes the 'All Sacred' form.
Methinks the trick is to give the customer a reason to return to the site.... organically...
