The good ol’ conversion on dealer websites has gotten complicated over the years. Traffic is up. Leads are down. What’s happening? Should we believe the gurus who say that today’s consumers are simply less likely to contact dealers before coming in? Perhaps, but there has to be more to it than that.
One possible explanation is that dealer websites aren’t giving visitors a reason to fill out forms. Buying is, of course, a cycle, and there’s a good chance that some time in the past your website visitors today had visited websites the last couple of times they were buying vehicles. Many of them learned the hard way that a “Quick Quote” form didn’t deliver a quick quote, that a “30-Second Credit Application” didn’t yield a result in less than 30 seconds, and that filling out one form on a third party site got them put onto some list that get them calls from several different dealerships and other companies hounding them over everything but the car they wanted to buy.
In many ways, our industry lost the trust of the consumer over the last decade. Today, they’re less likely to fill out forms without a reason.
Automark Solutions and their products give consumers reasons to fill out forms and contact the dealership before coming in. They do this through a focus on customer interaction and data integration that the majority of website providers miss. For example, the data is available for dealers and their website vendors to encourage people interested in leasing to be able to get information quickly, but Automark’s “Instant Lease Quote” feature is the only one we know of that takes advantage of this information and puts it front and center for website visitors to consider.
They also get innovative. That’s one of the keys to being a Top Tier Automotive Partner, and Automark delivers. With interesting and unique concepts such as an ever-updating “Daily Deals” feature to contests that can encourage people to fill out forms such as “Drive Payment Free for a Year”, they deliver more than fancy buttons or data integration. They give people the reason to fill out forms that most dealer websites are missing.
Fewer people are filling out lead forms. The reason isn’t important. What’s important is that collecting contact information empowers aggressive dealers to be able to get a leg-up on their competitors. A customer might find five vehicles from four different dealers that they intend to visit but they might not fill out a form on any of them. Through Automark, your dealership can be the only one they actually contact because you give them a reason to contact you. Then, given first shot, you have an opportunity that you probably wouldn’t have had before.
As a company, Automark is continuously working for more. Some of the things they have currently in development or on their product roadmap were intriguing to the point that I really wish we could post about it here. The technology behind their widgets is a strong base through which they’ll be able to continuously add more innovations.
Dealer Authority likes Automark Solutions.
* Disclaimer – These findings are based upon two criteria: research into the product sets during and after a presentation by the company and interviews with dealers using the service. We do not “pitch” these products or go into specifics because we encourage our clients to do as much of their own research as possible. It also allows us to make choices based upon current product sets without the need to be informed of changes. As of the date of this post, the product is something that we recommend without compensation or referral incentives, but as with everything on the internet, products change. Please be sure to contact the company and inquire about current services as the information in this post may be out of date.
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