Engaging visitors already on your website tends to be a far more effective lead generation strategy than simply trying to drive new traffic
“I need more leads.” I hear prospective clients say this and if I worked for a dealership, I’d probably be saying the exact same thing. That is, if I didn’t have an understanding of where my leads were actually coming from and how they perform.
What many dealerships do is purchase leads from a third party provider or increase their advertising budget. But you need to ask yourself — is this working for you? More importantly, do you even know what is or isn’t working for you?
Until you begin tracking all of your lead source efficiencies, you will never know if you are spending your money in the right places.
Most purchased leads never convert at the rate they were originally anticipated. Dealers end up wasting thousands of dollars every month to have these leads convert at less than half a per cent.
So what’s going on? The problem is that many dealers simply don’t have the tools in place to capture leads from the existing traffic already on their websites.
There’s a perception that you need more traffic to your website to gain more leads and while this is partially true —more traffic is always a benefit — the real question is what are you doing to convert the existing traffic on your website?
EXISTING TRAFFIC
Part of your monthly marketing budget must include a strategy for converting the existing traffic on your website. There are many cost-effective ways to generate more leads from the existing traffic on your website such as:
- Lead Generating Pages
- Exit Intent Technology
- Gamification
These are tools and content designed to build relationships with consumers and they are often lacking on many dealership websites. These strategies position you as a trusted resource for all the consumer’s automotive needs, instead of a sales shark that is grinding for commission cheques.
Only today’s savvy marketers build strategies to capitalize on a mass audience of people who have already taken steps to get to your website. This is an incredibly important factor that simply can’t be understated — the consumer on your website performed an action in order to get to your website. Now that you have provided enough enticement to capture the consumer’s interest, you need to focus on the two most important things in a consumer’s eyes: how you can save them money and how you can save them time.
Let’s discuss what Market Qualified Leads are. These are pages that help your customers with a specific problem or a need. They differ from Sales Qualified Leads, which are individuals who fill out forms for general information such as “Contact us,” or “Get your e-price,” in which no information is actually provided to the consumer. Market Qualified Leads give an indication to your team of where the customer is within the buying cycle.
You need to draw in conversions with content that helps the customer, such as increasing the value of a trade-in, extended warranties, and tricks to improve his or her credit score.
MAKE THEM STAY
Next we’ll discuss Exit Intent technology. This technology tracks digital behaviour, when an individual is showing signs of leaving a website. Maybe the consumer couldn’t find what he or she was seeking, or didn’t see compelling enough offers to continue shopping.
As the individual begins to leave the website, Exit Intent technology serves a conversion opportunity with an attractive offer before losing that customer. Now you have leads for individuals that would otherwise be lost.
Compare this technology to paying for leads that don’t convert to sales. Exit Intent technology captures hot leads. These are shoppers who took the time before leaving the website to take advantage of an offer such as $500 down payment assistance. One of the popular companies using this tool is Bounce Exchange. There’s also Exit Gadget, which is cost-effective and focused strictly on automotive.
Exit Intent technology can be customized and segmented depending on the need. You can serve specific offers based on the pages an individual visits. Entire campaigns can be created around this technology. For example, design a page dedicated to an oil change offer.
If the individual visits the landing page and does not convert, serve an offer via Exit Intent technology before that person leaves the website for an even higher discounted oil change. By doing so you’ll gain a lead and a potential long-term customer.
Another strategy is ‘Gamification,’ which lets you get creative with your strategy. Creating trivia questions or animated GIFs for your conversion opportunities is a great way to get a potential customer engaged with your website. Have fun with it!
The important message is this: you need to have a strategy in place to capture individuals who are ready to leave your website. Don’t be like many dealerships and marketers, who focus on driving additional traffic to the website while ignoring the visitors they already have.
We spend thousands of dollars to send traffic to our website but don’t do anything to keep visitors there. It’s time to focus on your existing website traffic and generate more leads from within.
