Aharon Horwitz
Most dealerships use some sort of lead capture form to engage visitors and capture valuable lead information. Many are also using chat boxes to get the conversation going with potential customers.
Nevertheless, according to a report by automotive research firm Dataium in 2015, fewer online shoppers are submitting their details to online lead generation forms. For dealerships seeking to get leads online, this poses a unique challenge. How can you optimize your offers for maximum success? What could you be doing differently to ensure that your offers appeal to the most amount of site visitors possible?
Gear your offer for success. Here’s how:
We recommend choosing a lead capture system that has the following capabilities.
1. Optimal timing settings: Perhaps one of most frustrating experiences for a web visitor is to be pounced upon the minute they come to your website. It’s the equivalent of a car salesman asking a customer if they are interested in making a purchase, before they have even made it through the front door of the dealership. A smart lead capture tool should enable you to control when your lead capture form appears, and on what page of your website. Even better, an intelligent system can analyze visitor behavior for you, automatically making the offer appear at a time when your customers tend to convert. Give your site visitors some time to look around and get to know your product before asking them to commit to anything. You can also set up an “exist-intent” offer which will automatically appear as a visitor is about to leave your website.
2. Sophisticated targeting: This is perhaps one of the coolest features out there. With AutoLeadStar’s intelligent targeting you can make the right offer to the right person rather than randomized engagement. Whether you target based on the visitor’s location, demographics, lead source or behavior (whether or not they are a returning visitor), strategy is key. If you use a message that may appeal to people in this category, they are more likely to convert.
3. Multi-step engagement: Perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects for a site visitor is to be shown the same offer twice, either during the one visit or on their return to your website at a later stage. If someone converted on one, then they aren’t interested in seeing it again. And if they didn’t, it just may not be relevant to them. A sophisticated lead form should enable you to map up a multi-step approach to each visitor type, showing them a variety of messages and offers each time they return to your page, and depending on whether or not they converted. A customer who lives close by may not have converted on a discount offer, but maybe the next time they come to your website you might want to offer them a good cup of coffee, together with a consultation. And of course, you can always A/B test all offers to see which ones are working better.
4. Intelligence gathering: A good lead automation system should be able to provide you with as much information as possible about your leads and traffic. Want to know which traffic types are converting and which you should be paying more attention to? Or perhaps you would like to know how long your leads are spending on each of your pages and what they are looking at. This intelligence helps you differentiate the warm leads from the cold ones, and can help you plan your future campaigns for success. This kind of intelligence is essential!
Your offers should be an extension of the visitor’s experience and not an unwanted disruption. Make sure to target the right people at the right time, and you will see your conversion rate increase significantly.
If you have any questions about how AutoLeadStar can drive sales on your auto site, feel free to reach out to us, support@autoleadstar.com, tweet @autoleadstar, or call us at 216-242-1320.