ZMOT Auto
Targeted Marketing and SEO
How does a business get tons of immediate traffic to their website while building SEO the whole time? The answer to this question lies in a combination of targeted marketing and SEO-friendly landing pages.
While there are many ways to drive traffic to a dealership site, issues can arise when a dealer wants to show up in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) organically, but doesn't. Most experts in the field of SEO know that there is no precise way to predict how long SEO efforts will take before a satisfactory result is seen. Until a website shows up organically, targeted marketing in the form of pay-per-click advertising can help drive traffic to the dealer's site.
One common set up that seems to be fairly effective is to design a page on the dealership site that mirrors the keywords that a dealer hopes to increase visibility on, and then running a targeted marketing campaign via PPC to drive traffic to that page until the page begins to rank organically on its own. This way, visitors to that page are immediately increased while the SEO efforts take hold, after which a dealer can switch their PPC focus to other terms they'd like to appear in SERPs for.
All in all, SEO efforts can be made more effective when used hand-in-hand with some search engine marketing campaigns, with the ultimate result being a stream of traffic to a dealership website on a preferred keyword or set of keywords. What are some ways you all are combining different strategies to increase SEO for dealerships?
ZMOT Auto
VDP Optimization
Vehicle detail pages (VDPs) are a standard feature of any dealership website. There are many approaches when it comes to VDP optimization - a practice which tries to increase the rate of lead submittals, and ultimately, sales. Multiple schools of thought exist on this topic based on everything from detailed analytics to gut feelings.
Some dealers and marketers believe that a client should be able to do everything on a VDP that they could do in an actual store. This might include financing, payment, or customization of a car. However, while entire transactions may eventually take place on a dealer site, for now VDP optimization is best done with a "less is more" approach.
Generally, e-commerce does not occur on a dealership site. With a big ticket item such as a vehicle, most customers are interested in choosing the color and features on a vehicle within their price range, seeing what others think about the vehicle and dealership (i.e. reviews), and inquiring about the automobile with as little friction as possible. It is assumed that customers will come in person to check out the actual vehicles. Thus, current VDP optimization should lean towards making that path as clear and obvious as possible.
Tons of blinking buttons, social links and options are definite conversion killers on VDPs. Assuming customers are going to eventually come into the store, a site should do as good of a job as possible of making the vehicles look attractive in both pictures and descriptions, and putting all means of trackable communication (phone number, lead form, chat) at the potential client's fingertips. At most, the customer should have the option to fill out a credit application or finance form as a lead. VDP optimization mostly deals with taking a customer down a simple, easy to understand path that ultimately gets the dealership calls, form leads, chats and visits. This usually means de-cluttering the VDP so that those elements are the most prominent.
A VDP that operates smoothly can help bring buyers to a dealership more quickly than a VDP with tons of buttons and options. What are some other tips you guys have for giving zero moment of truth clients a clear-cut way to submit leads?
5 Comments
Remarkable Marketing
The good ol' CALL TO ACTION! This topic has been debated for years. 5 CTA's? 1 CTA? Buy now? Get more info? Click to call? There are lots of blogs and studies created on this topic, it's interesting. I'm personally a fan of simplicity. Attract the eyeballs with contrast in colour, look and feel. Make the verbiage compelling and test, test, test. A/B testing with VDP's is the best thing you can do in order to design the number one converting page for your client type (demographic). The tough part is that it can be hard to narrow down a demographic with certain brands. Vehicles are a commodity everyone buys cars so developing a VDP that fits your client perfectly can be difficult. Unless you are a high end/specialty brand. Toyota, Honda, Nissan... Just about everyone will buy these vehicles. The day we can dynamically change our VDP's according to sex or job title is the day we win! It's not far away considering the understanding of demographics and personal information our browsers carry these days....
ZMOT Auto
Great points Grant. You are right - there is a current challenge in developing a VDP that is tailored to all client types, but I don't think that we are far from that becoming a reality. Thanks for the feedback!
ZMOT Auto
Valid statements Grant! It's a constant struggle to get dealers to see the value in de-cluttering their VDP's!
Loganville Ford
For what it is worth, I've only seen a few sites and/or developers that even know what a "bad" VDP should look like! What I mean, is you are correct - each VDP we see is a micro-site version of the main pages: which is a "deal killer" for the visitor. They arrive expecting to really "learn more" only to learn MORE and I'll bet anyone really watching their true analytics will see massive bounce rates on their VDP. Which is sad. I've seen, not to plug here but I will anyway, good results using Showroom Logic. They have customer/proxy VDPs that just give enough or lead the customers back to another section without clutter or mystery. So far, after only 35+ days we are seeing better conversion, lower bounce rates, etc. Anyway... Good article - keep 'em coming!
Automotive Group
I'll be honest here and say i think Carvana has done it right when it comes to the VDP. With all the little things to play with under the Purchase Options tab I can only imagine their time on page for VDP's is pretty high. http://www.carvana.com/search/2000004860/2012-hyundai-genesis-4.6l-v8 I've been watching really closely what some of my favorite Web Based companies are doing like Warby Parker and am coming to realize that it isn't so much the "sales" page that is selling me on stuff. It's their follow up with me via email and impressive retargeting campaigns that are driving my purchase.
ZMOT Auto
Spanish Language PPC
Pay-per-click advertising, such as AdWords and Bing, is a popular way to bring qualified traffic to a website. Spanish speaking customers are one market segment that is widely ignored on these platforms. Spanish Language PPC is a concept that can bring great potential clients to an automotive dealer's website.
In America, most PPC defaults to English when Campaigns, Ad Groups and Keywords are set up. However, many fail to utilize the language targeting options to enable Spanish Language PPC. In most cases, a separate campaign can be formed that concentrates on creating advertising geared towards the ever-growing Spanish-speaking population in America.
One way to help ensure success with Spanish Language PPC is to have someone that speaks Español build out the Ads and Keywords, or help in doing so. Conversational (and successful) Spanish language marketing is a bit different from what sites like Google Translate and Babelfish can generate. Getting an authentic speaker of the language is a must for dealerships looking to tap into the under-served Spanish speaking market.
In conclusion, Spanish speakers represent a large market segment that buys vehicles and therefore should not be ignored. What are you all doing to help drive Spanish-speaking customers to your websites?
4 Comments
Autofusion Inc.
Wow, great point. We have been doing Spanish PPC and you're right on. One more important thing is the actual landing page and website. Don't just use Google Translate. At a minimum, augment the Google Translate with translations of your own. Google will always get certain words wrong like "partes" for Parts. Partes means a part of something. Parts should be translated to "piezas", which means mechanical parts. If you want to see what you're missing out on, set your browser to the Spanish language, go to Google and search for a car. Almost all the ads will be from third party lead gen sites so the clicks are cheaper since there's a lot less competition. Obviously, your results will vary depending on the area's demographics.
ZMOT Auto
Carl - you are spot on, Google Translate is not enough. The example you provided is 100% correct - by tailoring our efforts to the Spanish speaking consumers, we are appealing to an untapped market. Thank you for your feedback!
No Comments