Over the last decade, the process of buying a car has significantly changed. Nowadays, buying online has become a massive part of purchasing cars, and many dealerships are actively embracing this innovation. As a result, consumers have quickly adapted to this new technology-driven trend and are now looking for a more digital experience when buying their new car.
So, if you ask somebody who loves anything related to cars how they envision their perfect car–buying experience, they would most certainly tell you that they want it to be as simple as possible. Things like going through the confusing process of negotiations and sitting through sales pitches are things no one wants to deal with anymore.
These days, people want the freedom to compare different vehicles off their desktops and go through a virtual test drive. In addition, they want to quickly view all available information about that specific vehicle, see what it costs in several popular currencies and even see if there is some sort of warranty involved at all. For that reason, now is the time for car dealerships to catch up and embrace modern digital retailing and marketing solutions.
Suppose you’re in the automotive industry and want to accelerate these processes. In that case, you’re at the right place because, in this brief article, we’ll review the best practices that can help you offer a better, technology-driven car-buying experience to your future car buyers.
Integrating Online Automotive Customer Experience
Forward-thinking automotive businesses, especially dealerships, need to adopt a universal digitally-driven approach that will perfectly reflect the retail consumer route that each prospective buyer goes through in the process of buying if they want to encourage their customers to spend their money in their car dealership store.
Therefore, mapping the prospective user’s identity across numerous digital channels and devices necessitates tools and tactics such as having reasonable digital marketing efforts and improved online customer service, even before the customer visits your physical store and becomes a customer. For example, pre-visits to physical locations can be empowered through online platforms offered by innovative companies like TAQ Auto to provide your prospective clients a more accessible and more intelligent way of buying and researching cars, and to you, a platform that offers the perfect balance of customization and simplicity to connect with your customers effectively, drive more leads, and have better customer engagement.
Keep Your Website Fresh And Updated
As a car dealer, it’s essential to keep your website up to date, as the first thing a customer does when they’re looking for a new car is visit the dealership’s website. For that reason, the goal of your site is to inform and engage customers, so that they feel comfortable contacting you for more information about the vehicle. A fresh, engaging website will help you attract more leads.
There are two key areas of your website you should focus on:
- Website Layout And Design: Keep in mind that your website design needs to be mobile-friendly, as many customers will be accessing your site from their tablets or smartphones. Make navigation easy and straightforward, with clear calls to action such as “Contact us” or “Schedule a test drive.”
- High-Quality Photos Of Your Cars: Upload a good number of high-quality photos of your cars and focus particularly on highlighting any features that make the vehicle stand out from the others on your lot. Additionally, make sure to include full-size images and zoom functionality so customers can view them in detail.
Make Sure That Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
It is not uncommon for someone to begin their research on their smartphone and then migrate to a tablet or PC to complete it. However, in 2022, automotive websites have to be undoubtedly created with mobile users in mind, as most people will perform their research on their smartphones or tablets.
In fact, a recent survey by AdColony found that 43% of car buyers use their mobile devices even when on-premises to access pricing information, research features, and visit the dealer’s official website. That being the case, your webpage must scale upwards and downwards to fit the device being used by the individual.
Regularly Create Quality Content To Drive Further Engagement
Content marketing is a proven strategy to gain more customers. If you have a car dealership website, your goal should be to create regular quality content for your site and then share that content across the social media channels that your target audience visits.
Your target audience should be the consumers likely to buy a vehicle from you. The key here is to make sure that the articles on your website are relevant to some aspect of automotive sales or service. The other key is making sure that those articles are interesting to read and valuable to your target audience by providing them helpful information they can use, resolving their pain points, second thoughts, and doubts while car-shopping.
Final Thoughts
All in all, there are plenty of opportunities for automakers and dealerships to begin offering a more unique digital retail experience. As the car-buying market continues to evolve, they’d be wise to capitalize on these opportunities to differentiate themselves from the competition.