If you’re like most dealerships, you work hard to achieve high conversion rates from your website. And rightfully so: a vast majority of car shoppers today use the internet to research their purchases and your dealership website is your best source of qualified leads. So you invest in creating high-quality, appealing offers, and use analytics to offer them to the right people at the right time.

But there’s no getting around it: no matter how appealing your offers are– no matter how personalized, clean, or relevant– some of your website visitors will not want to convert.  

Some of them won’t want to convert because they genuinely are not interested in your dealership– maybe they’re not shopping for cars at all and accidentally clicked onto your site. But many more are actually interested, but would prefer to browse at their own pace without giving you their information. Think of how many people like to walk into stores and look around without being approached by a salesperson. You might be this type of shopper yourself. People like that are not bad customers. After all, they’re checking out your website. They just need to be engaged in a different way.

So how do you appeal to these customers? How can you keep them engaged on your site, and encourage them to come back?

The answer is this: provide rich, high-quality content that asks for nothing in return.

The idea is that customers want to feel that you value them. This is why ice cream stores give free samples without requiring a sundae purchase, why optical shops often provide free repairs for glasses purchased from a competitor. They do this because a valued customer is, more often than not, a return customer.

Here are some examples of content you can provide to help commitment-wary customers feel valued and engage with your website:

• Comparisons of different models. Make it easy for customers to compare and contrast on their own time at their own pace. Anticipate their questions and answer them clearly and concisely. Help them decide what’s best for them without having to pick up the phone.

• Specific information about specific models. Explain and highlight the performance information, fuel economy, and features of the cars in your inventory. Allow website visitors to do extensive research before coming into your dealership. This is, after all, the way a lot of people like to shop these days.

• Customer reviews. More than ever, peer recommendations are important for today’s shoppers. They seek out testimonials, so make it easy for them to find them.

• Charts, photos, and videos. Present your information in accessible, appealing formats. People gravitate towards information that is presented visually, and who doesn’t love a video these days? 

The more quality content you provide, the more time visitors will spend on your site, the more pages they will visit each session, and the more they will turn to you when they have questions. Of course, shoppers can find a wealth of information on third-party sites or OEM pages. But if they can find it on your site, they won’t have to leave your site and forget all about you. And the truth is, they don’t want to have to go looking elsewhere because customers want simplicity. A site that can streamline the entire car shopping process for them is extremely valuable.

Your dealership will see several benefits from providing quality content on your website:

• Consideration. The longer shoppers stay on your site and engage with your content, the more they consider buying from you.

• Credibility boost. If your site provides an outstanding shopping experience, you can build your dealership’s credibility and establish trust with customers. This not only makes them more likely to buy from you– it also makes them more likely to recommend you to their friends. Remember how important recommendations are these days? You can get more of them with great content.

• Early lead capture. You want to engage customers when they are not ready to give you their information. But here’s a little secret: if you do engage them, they are more likely to hand over their details. If you can give early stage customers the value they want without asking for anything in return, chances are, you will earn their trust and they will convert faster than they would have without access to quality content.

Providing great content gives your dealership more ways to connect with a wider variety of shoppers. It lets people use your dealership website according to their shopping style and is likely to ultimately bring more people into your showroom.