When it comes to car shopping, it’s pretty safe to assume that consumers experience the most frustration, confusion and doubt during the research phase. Unlike those who are fully prepared to sign on the dotted line, consumers in the early shopping phases face a myriad of different questions and options: What type of car do I want? What brand of car do I want? What payments can I afford? Can I even afford to upgrade at this time? And the list goes on...

One thing I’ve noticed throughout my automotive career (as both a dealer and a marketer) is that many dealerships miss out on opportunities to help their consumers and provide useful resources that would help them answer some of their questions they have before they’re even asked. In this day and age, consumers aren’t necessarily asking the questions as soon as they come to mind — they’re turning to smartphones and laptops and visiting different websites with the hope of getting the info they need. When consumers turn on a device hoping to get more information, we call these “micro-moments.”

In case you’re unfamiliar, “micro-moments” are, according to Google, "when people reflexively turn to a device—increasingly a smartphone—to act on a need to learn something, do something, discover something, watch something, or buy something. They are intent-rich moments when decisions are made and preferences shaped.” In other words, they’re getting on their smartphones, going onto your website and looking for answers to the questions they’ve finally come up with. If your website doesn’t have the answers your consumers are looking for, they’re going to visit another dealership’s website. Period.

As technology continues to flourish and auto dealer software becomes even more advanced, and frankly amazing, your dealership can no longer make excuses about not being able to offer consumers a comprehensive experience on its website. Because consumers typically ask a number of the same types of questions and have many of the same concerns, you can use this to your advantage and win those “micro-moments,” those moments when consumers hop on their smartphone or laptop to get answers.

By being able to help consumers make important decisions, your dealership stands a far better chance of earning their business — especially during the ever-vulnerable research phase. So, what can dealerships do to help win those micro-moments?  Here are some of the common questions your dealership can help consumers answer!

What Body Style is Right For Me?

One of the first, and most common questions, consumers ask themselves during the research phase of their car shopping journey is “what body style is right for me?” This is an important question because the car needs to (or at least should) reflect a consumer’s lifestyle. The choice might seem obvious, but it really isn’t. While an SUV is seemingly more than sufficient for a family of 4, mom or dad might find themselves wanting to shuttle several kids to and from soccer games. Since that’s the case, a minivan would probably be the best option.

Again, the choice might SEEM obvious; but sometimes consumers aren’t thinking about the “what-ifs,” and the minor details that could ultimately have a larger impact on their lifestyle. Most consumers have an idea of what they want, but they need confidence to make the right decision.

Your dealership can help build this consumer confidence by providing resources that help them come to a conclusion — for when those micro-moments eventually occur. One suggestion would be to integrate an assessment onto your dealership’s website — one that obviously tells the consumer what body style is best for their lifestyle. Once a consumer has gone through the assessment on your website, you can then place a call-to-action on the results page that leads them further down the purchasing funnel (think “view inventory of this body style” or something similar). If they click on the call-to-action in that results page, or they progress to another part of your website, you’ll know that you’ve won that micro-moment.

Should I Buy New or Used?

“Should I buy new or used?” It’s another extremely common questions that consumers often ask themselves prior to visiting your dealership’s website. Most of the time, this obviously has a lot to do with cost. Consumers are trying to figure out “what gets me the better deal? Buying new or used” If you’re like most dealerships, you probably have content on your website that cites the pros and cons of buying new, and the pros and cons of buying used.

One way you can win this particular micro-moment is by making this undoubtedly useful content even more engaging. Turn those “pros and cons” pieces into a questionnaire that assesses a consumer’s lifestyle and provides a recommendation based on the answers provided. Again, providing consumers with a solid recommendation enhances their trust and allows them to move further down the purchasing funnel. Once they get their “purchase recommendation,” add a call-to-action that takes them to the most appropriate VDP’s — one for new or one for used.

Should I Lease or Finance?

Just like the previous scenario, you probably have a section on your website (or a blog post) that states the benefits of leasing, as well as the benefits of financing. The cool thing about this question is that there are a multitude of ways to go about winning this particular micro-moment. Aside from a questionnaire that assesses your lifestyle (which is a perfectly acceptable option), you can also integrate a calculator that provides a highly realistic suggestion based on information that consumers put in.

Factors like down payment, household income, desired monthly payment, and even credit history, can give consumers are more realistic assessment than even a lifestyle assessment could. And because the results would be realistic, it can give consumers the confidence they need to go about searching a for a vehicle that suits them perfectly.

Purchasing a car is a HUGE investment for most families. By providing consumers with the resources they need to make an informed decision, you give them reason to trust your dealership and move forward with an actual purchase. Car buyers will look high and low for all the information they can before making such a big investment — on every auto publication, on every dealership website, and on every type of forum. Choosing the right vehicle (and the right dealership) is a tough decision — so why wouldn’t you put in the extra effort and make it easier for them?

Your website is arguably the most important component of your dealership’s overall marketing and sales strategy. The reason I say this is because, outside of your physical dealership and showroom, your website is another place that car buyers visit in order to learn more about your inventory, pricing, financing, etc. If you think about it, the only real difference between your showroom and your website is that one is something you can physically go-to, and the other is online.

If your website isn’t able to provide its consumers with what their looking for — whether it’s a certain type of vehicle, financial information or something else — they’re going to view this as a negative experience and go to another dealership’s website. Another obstacle is that your online consumer likely has hundreds of dealerships within a reasonable driving distance. Unlike when someone takes the time to visit your dealership in person, there is very little investment to visiting you online. This makes it easier for consumers to quickly leave if it’s not EASY to find out what they want. In other words their attention span high and level of tolerance to have to search for what they want is extremely low.

Now, regardless of whether your website is impeccable or a complete mess, let’s call out a few of the most common pitfalls that MANY dealership websites succumb to in poor use of Calls-to-Action or CTAs.

• Overloading CTA’s
• Linking CTA’s to off the site or new tabs
• Using the same exact static form with multiple CTA’s
• Not optimizing for mobile and tablet

So what can dealerships do to improve their website’s Calls-to-Action? Use dealer website solutions and technology that is available and be SMART about your CTA’s. Did you know you can optimize your CTA’s to automatically determine the right call to action to display? That would solve loads of problems right? Instead of 12, you can display just few, relying on the consumer’s behavior and lead data to individually optimize their CTA’s.

Smart CTAs 

The key to the smart CTA’s strategy is trying to get the right message, in front of the right person at the right time. How do you figure that out you ask? This technology reads your website visitors onsite behavior and lead data to help determine the anwser automatically and then executes in real time. 

Onsite consumer behavior

• New or returning visitor
• How many pages have they visited?
• What pages are they on?
• Are they shopping new or used?
• How long have they been on the site?
• Are they a lead yet?

Lead data

• Where are they at in the shopping process
• What’s the next best step for them?
• Are they trading in? What vehicle? How much do they owe?
• What’s their credit score?
• What type of incentives are they most interested in?
• Have they bought from you before?
• How can you ensure you earn their business?

Sound familiar? It should. This list looks a lot like the same questions you would ask if the customer just walked into your showroom. You can enable your website to take the same strategy. Now that you know your CTA’s can change based on behavior and lead data, you and adjust that strategy as well. Leave the phone number on the back burner until you’ve captured some lead data that will help you provide a better experience.

Behavioral based CTAs are buttons or banners that generate based on consumer behavior and lead data captured on your dealership’s website. Depending on what experiences or actions a consumer completes on your website, certain buttons/banners will be displayed; linking them to pages that would logically be of the most interest to them. For example if you have a new visitor, non-lead customer. It might be smart to start with something less committing than a test drive or credit app strategy. Lets engage them with a trade-in calculator and shopping assessment. N

Like targeted and retargeted advertising, behavioral CTAs are becoming extremely popular with automotive dealers. With competition becoming fiercer and fiercer by the minute, dealers need to come up with even more intricate ways to keep consumers consistently engaged on their website, in order to keep them consistently interested. 

How would you use smart CTA's? Share your thoughts on what you could do with smart CTA's on your dealership website below. 

In my last blog post, I discussed how to generate car sales leads by encouraging their consumers to take action on their website through interactive experiences. There are 3 primary reasons why this is so important: 1) Your dealership wants to capture a lead. And there’s no shame in that. 2) You wanna be able to provide your consumers with something they want or need (say, a coupon, an appraisal or assessment). And the last reason -- 3) You want to learn more about what your consumers are interested in so that you’re able to better assist them in the showroom. 

Boosted consumer interactions will (hopefully) allow you to collect lots of useful information on prospective car buyers in order to build individual consumer profiles. Consumer profiles can provide your dealers with a general overview of specific car buyers. Not only will you generally learn about their shopping preferences (if you ask about them, naturally), but you’ll learn more about where they are in their shopping journey. These are generally what I refer to as “positive interactions” — interactions that lead to specific data being collected from an interested party. 

Unfortunately, not all of the data you collect will consist of “positive interactions.” Sometimes you’ll discover that you have quite a number of visitors on your dealership website (through programs like Google Analytics, etc.), but that they aren’t finishing experiences or they’re just leaving your website. Although you often can’t get specific individual consumer information out of those “negative interactions,” those actions taken on your website can still be incredibly useful to both your marketing and, in some cases, your follow-up efforts with other individuals or groups of prospective customers. 

Regardless of whether or not the interactions on your dealership’s website are positive or negative, there are ways you can collect that data and use it to your advantage for your marketing and follow-up efforts. Here’s how:

Leveraging Information from Positive Interactions

As I just mentioned, I often refer to “positive interactions” as completed actions on a dealership’s website — like when a consumer gets the results of their trade appraisal, or they filled out an assessment in order to receive a coupon. Ultimately, your goal as an internet manager (or even a general manager) is to get as many of these “positive interactions” as possible. The more consumers engage with your website, the more likely they are to relinquish their information.

Now, depending on the questions answered (or even the type of experience), the consumer profiles you receive might contain unique information that can be leveraged for any and all future online or even in-store interactions. In fact, even if those positive interactions are repeated, and a consumer is going through various experiences on your website (e-price, trade appraisal, assessment, etc.), you’ll likely receive even more information on them. Additionally, those completed experiences are also a good indicator that a consumer has shown considerable interest in your dealership. If you notice a lot of activity from specific consumers, and you continue to get useful information (purchase intent, vehicle interest, income level, etc.), don’t hesitate to follow-up as soon as you can. Once you know that a consumer is interested (and you have an idea of what they’re interested in), you can initiate a conversation that pushes them further down the purchasing funnel.  

Negative Interactions are Just As Advantageous 

Now you might be asking yourself “What about the negative interactions? What about the consumers that leave my site before completing an experience?” Believe it or not, negative interactions can be just as valuable as the positive interactions. Assuming your dealership’s website uses a web analytics service like Google Analytics, those negative interactions can still be tracked and analyzed. If you’re not getting very many positive interactions from a particular experience on your website, you can go into a program like Google Analytics and examine the activity on a particular page or section of the website. Metrics like bounce rate, page acquisition and behavior flow, can provide insight into what the majority of your consumers are interested in.

If you find, in the behavior flow section, that consumers are dropping off at a section that asks for their e-mail, you might consider adding something more interesting to the experience; or eliminating a section of the experience. It mainly depends on how the consumer got to that point in the first place. Once you have this information, you can work with your provider or website designer to alter the experience to better suit consumer needs.

Depending on how it’s constructed and what experiences you’ve provided to consumers, your dealership website can be the ultimate treasure trove of consumer lead information for your dealership. The more information you have to work with, the easier it’ll be to plan out future marketing strategies and follow-up plans. 

Have you taken the time to observe the positive and negative interactions on your dealership’s website? What was it like?

Getting your consumers to do something can be challenging. As humans, we need a specific reason to do just about anything. The same can be said for your consumers. Unless they see some sort of benefit or reason, what’s the point? This can be particularly challenging when you’re attempting to get your consumers to take action. I’d go as far as saying that there are few things more difficult than trying to convince a consumer to offer their contact information. Here’s how to encourage your consumers to take certain actions on your lead capture platform.

Allow Consumers to Evaluate & Assess Their Situation


Although many car buyers have a fairly solid idea of what they want, it’s very rare that they’ll casually waltz into a dealership and buy a car right on the spot. Car purchasing is a process that generally consists of several steps or stages that consumers typically have to complete before reaching a concrete purchasing decision. Here’s a great example scenario: Let’s say you have someone who’s interested in a car. First, they’ll sift through your dealership’s inventory to determine what kind of vehicle they’d like to purchase (a truck, a sedan, a convertible, etc.). The next thing they’ll do is narrow down their search to specific car type, and then maybe they’ll look at particular brands (or vice versa). Once a few vehicles have been chosen, the next thing the car buyer wants to do is learn more about financing options; or perhaps, inquire about their trade-in. You get the idea. 

Whether you want to believe it or not, your dealership possesses a lot of power. There are a number of different ways to persuade car buyers into making important decisions that move them further down the purchasing funnel (from discovery to the actual purchase phase). And no, this doesn’t necessarily mean doing a ton of schmoozing or sweet-talking (not for those brand new customers anyways). There are a plethora of tools and car dealer software out there that you can integrate onto your dealership’s website that can help consumers to evaluate their situation, or allow them to learn more about the resources that might have access to.

Trade appraisal tools, or even a quiz that provides vehicle suggestions based on their situation allow consumers to finalize one step, so that they can move onto the next. If, for example, a consumer knows how much their trade-in is worth, they can determine other things — like what type of vehicle they should purchase (based on price) or whether or not they should apply for financing. When consumers have a solid idea of what they can and cannot do (or what they can/cannot afford), it opens up more options to them. The aforementioned tools help speed up the process. If your consumers can get answers to their questions and come to conclusions, they’ll be more inclined to relinquish their contact information. 

Incentivize Consumers with Instant Gratification 

I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it once again — everyone loves free stuff. Whether it’s a coupon for a free service, a discount, or money to put towards a new vehicle, consumers will jump through a few hoops if it means saving a few extra bucks. Heck, some folks will jump through a few hoops if it means the chance to win something really awesome.

Now, folks aren’t going to fill out a million different forms and provide you with their blood type or social security number (that’s a little crazy, no?); but many would be willing to provide their email or phone number. So long as they don’t have to spend too much time on a form, consumers will happily provide you with their information — that is, if they’re able to get something immediately in return.

This is why I’ve often said that “lead forms are dead.” Consumers don’t want to submit their information to a unknown realm; only to be called by one of your guys trying to set up a test-drive. Sure, your consumers might want to set up a test drive at some point; but the conversation (at that point) is one-sided. Consumer contact information is extremely valuable, no? Well then, you need to provide them something of equal value. Saving money, getting free services, and being provided with necessary resources is all extremely valuable to consumers. 

Once again, you can leverage your dealership’s website to provide these incentives to your consumers. There are many providers that can integrate “spin-to-win” or “instant win” games onto your website that make the experience both fun and valuable. Additionally, trade appraisal and e-price experiences can provide just as much value — arguably more since they’re providing more relevant information. 

Pique their Curiosity

It’s generally safe to assume that most consumers are very aware of the majority of issues with their home, appliances and modes of transportation. However, there might be a few here issues here and there that you might actually NOT be aware of. It’s very possible that the things you view as normal can actually be alleviated somehow, someway. For instance: your 7 person household might fit pretty comfortably into your mini van — but all that extra weight might impact gas mileage and efficiency. You’re paying tons of hard earned money on filling up your gas tank, and you really don’t know why. It’s just normal for you, and you’ve accepted it as what it is.

For some folks, paying extra for gas isn’t the worst thing ever (especially if they have a vehicle that’s solving one major problem — lots of people), but those dollars can add up. I can guarantee that if that consumer realized just how much extra they were spending on gas, they’d think of switching vehicles pretty fast. One way you can make these big reveals to consumers is by providing them with experiences that pique their curiosity. Some providers have simple quizzes and evaluations that they can easily integrate onto your dealership’s website. Using the scenario I used before, a great example of this would be an evaluation experience entitled “Does your current vehicle suit your needs?” With this experience, the consumer I discussed before could easily figure out if their vehicle isn’t efficient. Once they’ve figured out they have an issue, they can then be provided with practical suggestions and take a look at inventory on your website. They supply you with valuable lead information, and they gain useful insights. It’s a win-win.

Look, I know it. You know it. Everyone knows it. There’s a tremendous amount of competition between dealerships. It’s something that I mention all the time in my articles. In fact, all of my articles throughout the past few months have been about the importance of personalizing aspects of your dealership’s interactive lead capture strategy in order to stand out. 

Now, while I’ll admit that website and tool personalization is extremely important, there are other things you need to do to ensure you’re making the most of your digital marketing efforts. In fact, how your consumers engage with your dealership’s website (tools and all) can make or break your reputation. 

Consumer engagement is important because it influences your consumer’s purchasing decisions. Before any of your consumers even talks to one of your sales reps, they’re likely on your website — looking at inventory, getting their trade-in value or learning more about a promotion. Your dealership website is typically the first thing a consumer sees. If they aren’t satisfied from the get-go, it’ll be the last you see or hear of them. Sad, but 100% true. And whether you choose to leverage a variety of automotive software solutions or get help from a vendor, working with a professional is never a bad idea.

Even if they haven’t stepped foot inside your dealership, your digital presence can have an immediate impact on how you’re perceived by consumers. As consumers engage with different parts of your website (filling out forms, browsing, etc.), they’re innately classifying each action (or interaction) as positive or negative. The more positive interactions consumers have, the more positively they view your dealership. The more negative interactions would mean the exact opposite — and that ultimately means you’ve lost that prospective customer. 

Your dealership’s website only has so many chances to strut its stuff. Whether it’s positive or negative, every aspect of your website can influence the way that consumer perceives your organization. Here are a few types of consumer interactions that might influence your consumers: 

Site Navigation

One of the first things I’m going to discuss is site navigation — or in simpler terms -- the way your consumers manage to search for inventory and information on your dealership’s website. The ability to navigate a website with ease is incredibly important, because most consumers want and expect to find what they’re looking for almost immediately. If a car buyer can’t find a specific make/model, or can’t find financing information within 2-3 minutes max (and I’m being generous here), then you’ve already lost that customer. Like everything that I’ve harped upon over the last few months: people like instant gratification. Period.

When consumers visit your website and aren’t able to find the information or inventory they’re looking for, it’s most often because the layout of your dealership’s website just isn’t working out. Your landing page might be too focused on inventory, and not enough on financing; causing your consumers to have to dig to find minor information. Or, it might be difficult for your consumers to find the area to schedule a test drive. Regardless of what they’re having difficulty finding, your website’s layout should allow your website visitors to find what they’re looking for within a few seconds. Links to the most popular sections of your website should be readily available for consumers; and all sections of your website should act as if they were folders on your computer. Each section of your website should go from “broad” to “specific.” For example: Let’s say you have a trucks section. Within that trucks section should be a link to different types of trucks, and then to manufacturers, and then to models, and so on. 

Now you might be thinking “Russ, that would require an entire site overhaul. Is there another way I can improve site navigation until I can actually do all that?” The answer to that question is a strong “yes.” If you don’t have the time or resources to layout your website differently, you might consider integrating behavioral CTAs onto your website that point consumers to exactly what they’re looking for. For those who are unfamiliar, behavioral CTAs are banners on your website that change based on your previous website activity. So, if you were looking for information on financing, a great CTA button would be “Appraise your vehicle” or “Lock in your price.” Since the website notices that you’re interested in getting financial assistance, it assumes you might be looking for other ways to get money for your new vehicle. 

Interactive Experiences 

Judging by how much I talk about interactive experiences, it's safe to assume that I’m a big, BIG fan of them. Now, if you haven’t read any of my previous works, the reason I love interactive experiences is because it allows your dealership to fully engage with buyers who are visiting your website — playing games and taking assessments in order to gain monetary and non-monetary incentives (special offers, additional information, etc.). Since interactive experiences almost always provide instant gratification, they’re a great and fairly easy way to provide buyers with a positive impression. 

As much as I’d like to assume that all (if not most) interactive experiences provide buyers with lasting positive impression, this isn’t always the case. The types of interactive experiences you place on your website might cause certain buyers to react differently. For example: An assessment titled “what vehicle is right for you?” might not be completely necessary for the person or groups of people you’re catering to. Instead, they might benefit from an financial calculator; or they might react more positively to a “spin-to-win” contest. So, when you’re thinking of what interactive experiences you want to integrate onto your website, think about your target market. Even though your experiences might be impressive, they might not be beneficial for some people — and that could cause a negative/disinterested response. 

One last thing to note with interactive experiences is overall functionality. Although you might think the experiences you’ve integrated onto your website are crazy impressive (and they probably are), some buyers might not be able to go through the experience at all. Your tool might not work on mobile platforms, or on certain browsers. If those consumers can’t leverage the interactive experiences on your website, that could very well lead to a lost customer. That being said, make sure that whoever is creating and integrating these experiences does lots of QA testing on their product; and tests the product on multiple platforms. You don’t want a prospective buyer to come onto your website and assume that you don’t know what you’re doing; or that you simply don’t care. 

Even the most minor details on your website can have a huge impact on how prospective customers perceive you. You’re obviously not going to please everyone — but if there’s one thing I learned throughout my career, it’s that folks like finding what they want and getting what they want as fast as possible. 

That being said, what is your dealership doing to keep its digital customers satisfied? 

A few weeks ago, I discussed a new “breed” of tech provider that’s been, very quickly, becoming a major part of many dealership’s strategies: automotive partnerships. Although there are, arguably, far more pros than cons  when it comes to automotive partnerships, some people will leverage them; and some folks will choose to stick with their month-to-month arrangement — and that’s perfectly okay. 

Of course, if you’re one of the many dealerships who have chosen to commit to an semi-annual or annual automotive partnership, you likely want to know how you can go about making the most use of it. After all, with a partnership, you work closely with account reps who know these products/services like the back of their hand. Not only do you have plenty of time to explore & experiment all of your partner’s product/services, but your account rep can help with you any hiccups along the way. Here’s 3 great ways that you can make the most of your automotive partnership: 

Developing a Strategy with Your Account Rep

Although month-to-month arrangements can be quite useful (for some), their sole purpose is to supply dealerships with software that they can use as they please. Sure, internet managers (on a month-to-month arrangement) can troubleshoot some issues with a customer service representative; but chances are incredibly slim that they’ll be assigned an actual client success manager or account representative who can help them with, well…. pretty much everything! 

One of the first things you can (and should) do to get the most from your annual partnership is develop a strategy with your account representative. Whether your goal is acquire more leads at your dealership, or simply optimize your dealership website to boost engagement, your account rep will speak with you one-on-one to determine the best type of strategy to suit your specific goals. The reason for this is because your account rep understands the product and service's full capabilities, and has been trained to understand every single aspect of their product. Your account rep is, arguably, your most important resource going forward. The better the communication is between you and your account rep, the more solid your strategy will be.

Sharing Data Back & Fourth

As I mentioned a second ago, the better, and more open communication is between you and your account representative, the better your overall strategy will be. One of the best ways to enhance both your communication and your overall strategy is by sharing your data with one another. The past data your dealership pulls during the initial kick-off meeting can help your account rep think up ways that their product/service can overcome certain hurdles.

Additionally, the data (or results) that your account rep pulls as your campaigns progress will let you know if your efforts are even worth it; and give you ideas on how to change your strategy using the product. Sharing data back and fourth helps keep all parties in the loop, and helps all parties involved understand why certain changes are being made. Often times, certain parties will have their own reasons for making strategy alterations; and many folks might feel like they’re having their toes stepped on…. which won’t likely be the case with an annual partnership. 

Now I know some of you may be thinking this is a bad idea. Your dealerships data is valuable, private and must kept secure. But I’m not talking DMS exports. I’m talking general read-only access to Google analytics and share lead/sale reports. Customer data doesn’t have to be included and if you don’t trust your provider that much, then you may be working with the wrong folks anway.

Realizing Failures & Making Appropriate Changes

Face it: failure is a part of life, and there’s no getting around it. Period. However, failure isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’s a completely necessary aspect of developing viable marketing and sales strategies for your dealership. With annual partnerships, you have a great opportunity to take all of those past failures and turn them into big successes. 

As your dealership’s campaigns progress, you’ll very likely encounter some failures and fumbles. For example: people might not be completing a online trade-in experience all the way through. Or, you might discover that not enough buyers are visiting your dealership’s website. Regardless of what those failures are, you have an opportunity work closely with your account rep to come up with a solution. Your account rep might have some ideas that you hadn’t initially thought of — or, you might have some solutions that you don’t quite know how to implement. By working together, you can come up with ways to overcome certain hurdles and continue on the path to success. 

Again, month-to-month arrangements are a great way to kickstart some of your marketing efforts. I’m not saying that they’re bad, by any means. However, there’s little to no denying how significant the opportunities are for dealers who leverage annual partnerships. Providing internet managers and sales managers with the opportunity to work alongside software experts helps dealerships attain consistent results.

Are you currently in an annual partnership? What have your experiences been like?  

Lead forms are DEAD. Done. Finished. Gone. Expired. Deceased. 

I can probably come up with a few more synonyms for the word “dead,” but I think you get it already. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with static lead forms, they aren’t working nearly as well as they used to. So really, they’re not so much “dead” as they are dying. Still, it’s a slow, painful death that you & I just don’t wanna see. I’d rather watch cheap, store-brand paint dry for several hours than look at my analytics dashboard and wonder if I’ll get any friggin’ conversions from the static form on my dealership’s website. Think about it, unless you had finally reached the point that you HAD to talk to a dealer, how interested would you be in submitting your info into a static form black hole?

The point is that there are FAR better ways to engage with car buyers and obtain their information. If you’ve kept up with my posts on DrivingSales, you know that I've spoken quite extensively about what interactive lead capture is and how it can help drive conversions on and off your website to increase foot traffic in your dealership. That said, I’m not gonna go into great detail about interactive lead capture. Instead, I’m gonna explain why I think static lead forms are dead; and why you should honestly avoid them like the plague:

Static Lead Forms Don’t Provide Direct Value to Consumers

One of the biggest problems with static lead forms is that they don’t provide direct value to car shoppers. I mean, you can technically say that submitting a form will lead to a follow-up call for more information.. but is a follow-up call they requested really that valuable? Most consumers (or people, rather), like immediate satisfaction. If they’re requesting more information on a vehicle, an offer or a trade-in, they don’t want wait for answers. They want them right now. Static lead forms don’t do that. The sole purpose of static lead forms is to obtain information from consumers in order to collect a lead. They serve the dealership, and the dealership alone. Interactive experience platforms, on the other hand, provide on-the-spot calculations, offers, and discounts that enhance lead generation for car sales. The buyer is getting something that’ll ultimately help them move their purchase along. If it’s something they’ll still need to wait for a dealer rep to respond with, then that rep better have a high quality enough lead to start off where their website left off.

They’re Boring as Hell

It seems pretty obvious, but I feel like it’s worth mentioning. Static lead generation forms are typically pretty boring… even if there are some graphics and/or logos included. The majority of static forms include an area for consumers to put the following: Their name, phone number, e-mail and maaaaybe some kind of extra message. Outside of that, that’s basically it. I think the most exciting thing that static lead forms offer is that you might be taken to a “thank you for your submission” page. Unlike many forms of interactive lead capture, there are calculators, no independent data, no assessments, no incentives, and certainly responsiveness to how the consumer is engaging with your website. Not only do these forms not provide anything of value, but they’re not generating any excitement either. I wouldn’t be surprised if half the static forms on your dealership’s website (if you even have them), don’t get any sort of traction.

Your Dealership Receives Limited Information 

With interactive lead capture, your dealership has the opportunity capture valuable information from website visitors without even asking them. Simply observing the way a consumer engages with an interactive experience can build a robust profile of who they are and how you can help them. Further more you can collect customer-entered data in a lot more creative ways than free-from text fields and drop downs. The point is that dealerships (who leverage interactive lead capture) a TON of enhanced ability to collect the information they’d like to collect. Instead of collecting the standard contact information via static lead form, they can let customer naturally build a lead profile by simply letting them share their information in a way that serves them as well. Not only does this make car shoppers feel like they’re being listened to, but also it really does allow your dealership to LISTEN. You can easily learn more about your consumer base and provide a better, more personalized customer experience right from the get-go. You can’t do that with static lead capture forms. 

They Seem Like They’re Performing Better Than They Actually Are

Historically static lead form conversions have been slowly declining for a decade now. As content in general has evolved. Consumers expect much more personalized and enhanced online experiences. Calculators, assessments, multi-media and responsiveness are the new standard. If you don’t believe me just take a look at all of the best independent websites (Edmunds, KBB, CarGurus, ect.) and check out how much interactive content they offer visitors. Dealers are constantly battling to drive higher conversions and where static forms can still show value is with customers latest in the buying journey. If I were in a position where I HAVE to make contact with a dealership, of course I would still fill out a static form. If there was a better option they would take it and that’s why the best website products out right now are deeply interactive.

So great, you strong-armed the 3% of your traffic into the “mousetrap” of a static form. What about the other 97% of traffic? I’m guessing you put quite of bit of effort into generating that much traffic to let it all go with any meaningful engagment. Static forms only work with those in a position with no other alternative. There are tons of options for how you could be serving customers in the discovery and research phases of the process through interactive assessments, quizzes, calculators and more interactive experiences. Customers earlier in the buyer journey have other options, they can leave your website.

In an age where most car shoppers already have a concrete idea of what they want before setting foot into your dealership, it’s important for you to engage with them on a deeper level. Chances are, there are several very similar dealerships within a 5-10 mile radius of yours — and the eager, but cautious car shopper is going to go with dealership that makes the most sense to go to. If you wanna be the dealership that makes the most sense to reach out to — the one that’s most relatable, and has the best customer service, then you NEED to avoid static lead forms. There are WAY too many different ways to engage car shoppers at your dealership — and lead forms are NOT one of them. 

So, I’d like to know: what are your thoughts on static lead forms?

Update:

In effort to clear up any confusion in the difference among "interactive lead form" and "static lead form" I thought this image would be helpful. "Lead forms" will always be utilized, its the difference between being static and interacitve that make a dramatic difference. A classic example is when dealers collected trade-in information for appraisals with a "static form" that eventually turned interactive by evolving into a calculator that instantly presents an estimate value, among other interactive actions. I'm proposing that this same evolution has already began to take place with even the most basic of static forms like  check availability, eprice, test drive, promotion, special offer, ect. ect. 

As a dealer, you likely have a number of different tech providers (or vendors) that you work with to ensure operations run smoothly – all providing different types of technical services. There are automotive providers for marketing, finance, inventory, lead generation, print advertising, etc. The list goes on and on. You might not have digital tools for every aspect of your dealership, but you probably have vendors for some.

One thing that’s particularly common amongst dealerships is the use of month-to-month vendors. What this essentially means is that dealerships are signing up for tools and services that they can pay for on a monthly basis. If, for any reason, a dealership discovers that they don’t want to continue using a particular tool or service, they can cancel anytime. No questions asked. Many dealerships are given the opportunity to try out different vendors and experiment with different tools because of this. 

Nowadays though, dealerships are opting for a “new breed” of tech provider — one that allows them to work closely with account reps that can help them step-by-step with their new tools. Instead of opting for different vendors, dealerships are becoming more attracted to the concept of annual partnerships. Annual partnerships are simply where dealerships commit to a year or more of access to tools and services. However, instead of figuring it out on their own, dealers are assigned a knowledgeable account rep to help them every step of the way. Account reps will typically help you with setup and/or implementation, strategy and troubleshoot software issues — all things you wouldn’t normally get with a month-to-month contract. The ability to forge working relationships is what makes annual partnerships so unique.

Although month-to-month contracts are still popular among dealers, annual partnerships are quickly gaining traction. Here’s why annual partnerships have become more popular over the last year:

Assistance with Planning & Troubleshooting

As I mentioned before, when you sign up for an annual partnership, you’re typically assigned an account rep to help you throughout each and every aspect of implementation, planning and troubleshooting. What makes this so special is that, for dealers relying on month-to-month services and tools, they’re pretty much all on their own. Dealers that sign up for an annual partnership, on the other hand, have someone watching over them. They don’t have to go about anything on their own.

Let’s say you’ve just signed up for lead capture and engagement tool to integrate onto your dealership’s website. It’s a tool that basically has the same capabilities as Black Book, KBB, and Auto Trader. The difference is that tool is associated an annual partnership; which means there’s an account rep available to help with whatever it is your dealership needs. If you find that your dealership isn’t converting as quickly as expected, an account rep can make copy, design and software recommendations. Additionally, your account rep can troubleshoot issues you’re having; and help you install additional software. 

Access to Advanced Tools & Services

The 2nd reason why dealerships have been signing up for annual partnerships is to gain exclusive access to advanced tools and services that they wouldn’t otherwise get in a month-to-month agreement. Now, you might be asking “Why can’t I simply get these tools in a month-to-month agreement?” Well, the reason why annual partners typically get access to these tools is because they’re in it “for the long haul.” Advanced tools, analytics dashboards and services need to be created by talented developers and engineers — all of which cost money. After all, there’s a lot that goes into analyzing and dissecting consumer car buying behavior. And in order to truly reap the benefits of these tools and services, they need to be utilized over a certain period of time. This allows for proper data collection, bug fixes, and so on. It wouldn’t make much sense for a dealer to sign up for a tool, leverage every aspect of that service (which took a tremendous amount of time and effort to develop), and then cancel it a month later. It doesn’t make much logical sense, and it certainly doesn’t make financial sense.

Now, when I say “advanced tools and services,” it’s exactly what it sounds like. These tools have been developed to help your dealership function and run at its absolute best. They provider dealers with the opportunity to further dissect future opportunities and help with troubleshooting. But the best part, of course, is that since you have your own individual account rep, you can reach out to them for guidance and assistance with all the advanced features you come across — and it’s completely customized to your dealership’s specific goals. 

Cost Effective.

One thing that you might find particularly surprising is that annual partnerships are quite cost effective. Not only are dealerships that sign up for such a partnership often provided with a significant discount (if you commit to a year, they’ll knock 25% to 30% off monthly price), but the additional time you spend with your account rep means a better developed strategy or better system of doing things.

Let’s use dealership website builders as an example, shall we? Your dealership signs up for a website building (and hosting) service; and you’re assigned an account rep that provides tips and tricks for how to make your site more maneuverable. They tell you what tools to use; what features to use; and to some extent, what copy to use. It’s because of this extra work that your site ends up generating a lot more leads, and scheduled appointments. More leads and scheduled appointments = more sales. That said, the extra time and effort spent with an annual partnership means a greater return on investment. 

And another reason why annual partnerships are cost effective? It basically eliminates the need to hop from service to service. When you start and stop using month-to-month tools and services, you often experience a lot of downtime on your campaigns and initiatives. You spend more time researching what tools and services to use, but not enough time developing strategies and implementing structure into something that can be made better with time. The more downtime you have between different tools and services (give or take a week or month), the less money your dealership will ultimately make.

It's not about trying to lock a dealership into a product they're not going to want in a couple of months or doesn't work. It's about looking at one can be accomplished between a tech provider and dealer client when they commit to working together for a longer period than just month by month. After all, both business's are working to generate revenue by selling vehicles. 

Just to be clear, I’m not saying you absolutely should go with an annual partnership. Honestly, annual partnerships aren’t for everyone. Some dealerships might actually thrive using month-to-month products; and that’s perfectly okay. However, there’s no denying that the majority of dealerships out there have at least dabbled with or thought about going with a annual partnership. Frankly, the ones that did experienced outrageously great results. The point here is that even if things are going well, you might actually discover that your results can be even better. Annual partnerships have proven value amongst dealerships; so, you might want to reconsider that "no contracts" policy. You might be suprised how much better your technology performs we your not starting over every month. 

Are you currently working with a tech provider? What has your experience been like so far? 

When it comes to successful lead generation on your dealership’s website, interactive experiences have a positive impact on the way those leads are captured. With more and more consumers becoming deterred by static forms (and the fear of getting bombarded with phone calls), dealerships need to leverage automotive website optimization, and come up with better, more engaging ways to reach those consumers, and obtain their information.

For Internet Managers, the biggest obstacle is simply coming up with better ways to engage with their consumers. Sure, the standard 3rd party lead capture tools do the job; but competition is fierce. Don’t you want to really “WOW” your consumers with an experience that can’t be beat? Here are a few types of engaging interactive experiences that you can integrate into your digital lead capture strategy: 

Evaluation Experiences

While this isn’t always the case, many consumers visit your website not knowing exactly what it is they want from your dealership. Many of them have an idea, but they haven’t made any concrete decisions. Setting up an evaluation experience on your website is a great way to help consumers figure out what it is they want. And the best part about evaluation experiences is that you can often customize the questions as much as you like. “What type of vehicle is best for your family?” or even “What financing option is best for you?” are great types of evaluations because they steer the customer closer to a purchasing decision.

Calculators are, arguably, one of the best types of evaluation tools that you can place on your website – the reason for that being that finances are almost always a major factor when it comes to vehicle purchases. If consumers can’t afford the down payment, the monthly payments or cost of mileage, it isn’t a wise decision to get the vehicle they’re looking at.

Once the evaluation is complete, those consumer preferences and contact info will be sent to your consumer database; and that’ll give your dealers the opportunity to provide inventory and service suggestions that are best suited for them. 

Assessments

Assessments can offer a way to help educate customers about your brand, product and major shopping decisions. Many dealership sites are just focused on the transaction phase of the buying journey – when they’re ready to buy. This could be a major reason consumers don’t’ spend as much time on dealers sites, in the early stages of process.

When someone begins shopping for a vehicle, everything is about assessment. They assess their current situation by finding out the value of their car and learning more about their financial situation. When the value of their car has been determined, they begin researching to assess the current market conditions and available options according to their needs and wants. What model is right for me? What can I afford? Should I lease or finance? Should I buy new or used?

All of these are examples of major decisions made while shopping for a vehicle. They all have a massive impact on what they’ll eventually purchase. If you can help a website visitor work through these decisions and put them on the right path, you’ll be making an emotional connection with them. These types of positive emotional interactions are what ultimately drive their opinion of you, and how fit you are to purchase a vehicle from.

Quiz (Testing Knowledge)

Quizzes are another type of great interactive experience that you can incorporate into your dealership’s website. Consumers love a bit of healthy competition; and they love seeing their name at the top of the leaderboards. Consumers especially like the concept of being able to share their winning results with their friends on social media. Although you might be racking your brain about what sorts of trivia questions you could ask, you can basically come up with questions about — well… anything! When conceptualizing your quiz, think about what consumers typically like to compete over — is it car knowledge, brand specific knowledge, hometown community knowledge? Make it unique, relevant and more importantly, fun!

One suggestion for a quiz would be to ask trivia questions pertaining to the history of your dealership — or perhaps statistics from your dealership. Doing this gives consumers the opportunity to learn more about your dealership before talking to any sales rep. 

Does your dealership’s website have its own interactive experiences? Tell us about them in the comments!

About 2 weeks ago, I discussed the major shift that was happening within the automotive industry in regards to their digital presence. In a nutshell, dealerships are adding significant upgrades to their websites in order to provide better resources, and impress consumers who are currently have lots of options in front of them. In addition to website alterations, dealers are also leveraging other online resources (like social media) in order to reach new consumers and keep loyal customers in the loop.

In that post, I didn’t really divulge into everything that dealerships were doing to evolve their digital presence. Sure, I discussed the concept of upgrading one’s website (and even named an example), but there are so many things that dealerships are doing to make sure their websites kick some serious butt. In fact, with all the new software for auto dealers coming out, there’s no excuse to not at least experiment a little. The same goes for off-website stuff too. That being said, what are some of the changes that dealerships are making? Let’s take a quick look:

Overall Website Design Changes

Remember how I mentioned that many dealership websites worked off a 3rd-party template? Well, dealers are still using those templates — but they’re coming up with some awesome ways to make those websites entirely their own. That, or they’re simply scrapping the 3rd party vendor to hire a website designer. Either way, dealers are quickly putting extensive focus on the overall look of their website.

Dealerships want to stand out, so they’re cleaning up their HTML, adding unique fonts and creating an experience that consumers don’t feel overwhelmed by. Dealerships websites are no longer cluttered by pop-ups, inventory (on the front page) and various calls-to-action.

Interactive Lead Capture Tool Customization

Most dealerships nowadays use some sort of Interactive Lead Capture tool (Think your Blackbooks, Auto Traders, and KBBs). However, like the websites I mentioned previously, a lot of those tools are also pretty template heavy. Instead of leveraging a generic template with generic questions and standard logos, dealerships are now attempting to personalize their tools in order to provide consumers with a smoother experience on their website. For consumers, landing on a dealership’s lead capture tool and discovering entirely different logos and rich media mentally skews the experience for them. It often times leaves consumers feeling confused.

If your dealership uses the standard template, it’s as if the consumer has left the website. If I’ve learned anything over the last few years of working in automotive marketing, consumers are much happier when their shopping experiences are seamless. Dealers are beginning to realize this too, as they're altering the tool’s color scheme and images; as well as adding rich media. More importantly, they're customizing the questions being asked on the form itself. They’re questions these consumers have likely never seen before, so that adds to the overall “uniqueness” of your dealership. 

Web Analytics

You’d be very surprised to learn that, at one point, many dealerships didn’t really keep very close tabs on the analytics of their website — mainly because they didn’t know such an option was available to them. Over the past few years, dealerships have become extremely aware of the power that comes from looking at platforms like Google Analytics to figure out more about what consumers are actually doing on their website. And yes, I added extra emphasis on the word “actually” for a good reason. When consumers fill out a form on your website, they’re basically telling you the truth (and why wouldn’t they? It’s in their best interest to do so). The problem is that a lot of consumers will do certain things without really giving it a second thought. For example: a consumer might visit your website knowing they want a sedan, but they keep eyeballing the “Trucks” section of your website. Subconscious behaviors like this can be tracked and leveraged for future marketing efforts (Promotions, Facebook/Twitter posts, messaging, etc.); or even retargeting — which is typically occurs automatically once results are captured! Basically, web analytics tools provide a completely unobscured view of your consumers.

As you can tell from the examples above, dealerships are paying very close attention to the new types of technology coming out. Because competition is so fierce between dealerships, investing in upgrades is a wise decision that’ll prove to be quite fruitful as time progresses. 

What sorts of new technology do you think we’ll see in the next few years? Tell us in the comments.