Car Dealership Lead Generation in 2020: Tips & Strategies that Actually Work

Whether big, small, working remotely or in a warehouse, getting closer to potential buyers is an excellent achievement for every business, particularly a car dealership. A car dealership is not like most brick and motor convenient stores and businesses where customers keep coming back for the same fast moving product. Most car buyers take long before they can think of buying another car. As such, you need strategies for auto dealers that will keep your business running. Here are the tips and strategies to generate more leads to your car dealership business.

Create Enticement-Based Referral Systems

Referrals remain to be the primary mode of advertising, even with the rise in modern marketing techniques. Despite being a traditional form, customer referral programs are still useful in generating leads for your car sales business. Entice your clients by offering them discounts. Ensure new clients benefit from your brand through promotions, bonuses, and discounts. All these incentives will help you reach a wider audience of potential clients as the customers themselves are highly likely to refer their circle of friends and acquaintances to you.

Contact Potential Buyers Directly

Most buyers already know the design, features, and style of the car they wish to buy. However, they love to check out different auto dealerships for deals, payment plans, and any other relevant information. In the window shopping process, some of these website visitors might fail to call your phone number to get in touch with you but sign up for newsletters and leave their email addresses. These actions show that they are interested in what you are offering and would not mind getting more information. Follow-up by sending them information based on their search history. Also, build an email list and create practical newsletters to attract them to buy from you.

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Create and Publish Content

Blog posts are an excellent way of providing information about your brand and marketing it. Creating and publishing new content regularly allows your potential customers to learn more about both your new cars and used cars. Besides, when you add posts to your website, prospective buyers searching for such information are likely to discover your site, increasing the chances of getting car sales leads. The more high-quality backlinks your website has, the more credible it is to Google crawlers. Just like you need quality backlinks from quality websites for credibility and visibility, you also need to have quality SEO content that gives your audience assurance. You’ve probably come across the old adage— “Content is the King. This is because great content attracts people and keep them scrolling across different pages of your site.

Re-Strategize Sales and Deals

Typically, you tend to drive more buyers to your car dealership business when you offer them great deals, promotions, and discounts. However, overusing identical sales offers can become too obvious and later shift your audience to competitors. The best way to go about this is to rethink your deals and discounts. If there are no leads generated from your sales offers, you can partner with a website dedicated to promoting deals and discounts. In return, you will have your business showcased to a broader audience.

Optimize Your Website

Buyers often search for the immediate keywords they are interested in. For instance, customers interested in cars are likely to type “car dealers in (city)” and expect the top results to be their solution. If you have optimized your website, it will likely be displayed among the top results hence prioritizing your brand. One way of optimizing your car dealership website is by using keywords that potential clients often search. Use SEO strategies to isolate words and phrases frequently searched by customers.

Use Third-Party Sites for Inventories

Third-party websites offer another essential platform to market and generate leads to your car dealership business. If you have been in the industry for quite some time, you must have used sites like Cars.com, Edmunds, and more to reach more audiences. However, one mistake that car dealers often make is listing their company on many websites, with some of them being unreliable. Research on third-parties’ sites that deliver top notch services and narrow down to the most preferred ones. After that, improve your marketing by providing the latest quality photographs that detail brand descriptions.

Get a Good Design For Your Website.

Your car dealership website is the first contact that potential customers have with your business, and it better gives a good impression. Design your website well such that everything is clearly laid out. No one wants to spend hours searching on a website. Your website should also be user friendly. Go for modern website designs that answer the who, what, why, and where. Good website design with outdated content will still drive clients away. Make sure you frequently update your content.

Most Automotive Businesses Struggle with Generating Sales Online...We Fix That!

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Utilize PPC Campaigns

As you strive to generate organic leads through social media marketing or Facebook Ads, regularly publishing keyword-rich content, and many other ways, incorporating PPC campaigns can be a great boost for your website. PPC campaigns are among the most popular forms of digital marketing. As the advertiser, you will need to bid for an ad placement in a search engine’s sponsored links. For example, if you bid the keyword  “best car dealers,” when a customer searches for such words, your ad is likely to show on top of the Google result page, giving you better chances of conversion.

Create White Papers and eBooks

When you have potential buyers in your email lists, sending them newsletters is one way of generating quality leads. Create one if you don’t have one. You can create an email list by offering free white papers that your target audience can download in exchange for their emails and other contact information. Also, use downloadable eBooks for detailed descriptions of the company’s products providing. The in-depth and comprehensive content in the downloadable eBooks will enable your car dealership to connect with target buyers based on individual specific stages in the buying journey.

Encourage clients to leave Reviews

Most online car buyers read reviews of car dealerships they have chosen to learn about what previous and current customers are saying before taking the final step. These reviews help them know the kind of experience your customers have had interacting with your business, the models you have, and so much more. Based on the reviews, they can decide on whether to purchase from you or your competitor. Encourage your customers to leave a comment regarding the experience they had with the business. Also, please encourage them to write reviews on platforms like Better Business Bureau and Yelp. These are among the top platforms where potential buyers go searching for reviews.

Include Live Chats on Your Website

A real-time chat function is another crucial lead generation strategy that provokes interested customers to initiate a conversation with your business. It is a vital feature that can promote repeat purchases. Live chats allow direct interactions between your car dealership and visitors on your site without the need for a phone call or an email. It helps customers to ask any question they want to be answered and even end up closing a deal.

Provide Answers to Queries

Once your website starts receiving good traffic, you are likely to receive many questions about your services. Make sure you reply to all these questions. A client whose question has not been answered is likely to give up on pursuing their interest further. Make sure you answer and reply to every question even if it comes up frequently—remember the clients asking the questions are different. You can come up with a list of the commonly asked questions, answer them, and post them on your website to make your work easier.

Call to Action Functions

CTA, short for Call to Action, is a function that prompts potential customers to take the next step. You can either have a sales or non-sales driven CTA as long as you are providing more information and answering whatever the customer is looking for. Make your CTA button attractive, clear, and direct because your main agenda is to capture their attention so that they can click to the next step. When creatively crafted and with valuable information, CTAs can generate leads and help convert prospective customers into buying ones.

Add Walk-Through Videos

Walk-through videos help you summarize to the client how they can navigate your website for whichever information they need. From what your car dealership does to the reviews and testimonials from clients, everything can be included in the walk-through video. Ensure your video is of good quality and not too long to become boring or overwhelming; the reason for having the walk-through video on your site is to summarize the steps. Ensure the video is professionally done so that you do not create any confusion.

Proven lead generation strategies and tips are vital for a car dealership business that wants to make it in the industry. Most car buyers visit online platforms for information before deciding to purchase. With all the stiff competition from other car dealerships, you need to go the extra mile in ensuring you stand out. Embracing all the above marketing strategies will take you a long way in generating leads that have the highest likelihood of converting.

Most Automotive Businesses Struggle with Generating Sales Online...We Fix That!

Since 2009, we have helped many Automotive businesses grow strategically. Let us do it for you!

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