Leads and Sales: Everything Else is Junk
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
There are a lot of numbers (and names for these numbers) being thrown at car dealers that they "should" monitor to understand the effectiveness of their websites. Conversion rates, indexed pages, bounce rates, stickiness, click thrus - all are being tossed around and used to highlight the prowess of websites and lead providers.
Are they important? Usually, yes. Are they the bottom-line indicator of the health and effectiveness of a website? Absolutely not.
In the end, the only questions that really matter are:
"Am I getting more leads?"
"Am I turning more leads into sales?"
Your dealership could have the greatest conversion rate in the world with 0% bounce and 15,000 indexed pages, but if it isn’t converting MORE leads that turn into MORE sales, it’s all just smoke and mirrors. Here is a breakdown of the subtle techniques used to promote websites and ways to get to the real meat:
One of the most perplexing aspects of working with special finance customers is that many are reluctant to give the information necessary to grant them a loan. Just about everyone understands that you need a job, a social security number, and a residence to get a car loan, yet they are often hesitant to reveal this information, especially when they’re visiting a dealer’s website.
