Digital Dealer - June 2019 - 27

FIRST APPEARANCES, FIRST IMPRESSIONS, EASE
OF NAVIGATION, AND INFORMATION ARE CRITICAL TO
A SUCCESSFUL SALES PATH."
sites in play right now:
 Fast load: This is
technical, but if your site
doesn't load super fast
you are done. People click
through sites quickly on
desktops and mobile. Your
site needs to load quickly.
 Basic information
that's easy to find: Believe
it or not, a whole bunch of
people searching your site
are just looking for a phone
number or directions. Don't
make them scroll and click
to find it.
 Mobile-specific site
design: Mobile sites are
not just smaller versions of
desktop. Folks are looking
at tiny screens. You need
quick up-front menu navigation with easy-to-read print,
a click-to-call feature so
customers can just touch a
button with their thumb, and
a GPS/direction/location
feature that guides them to
your door. All other menus
and graphics streamlined
for fast loading over sometimes slower cell networks.
 DAILY updates: Or at
least as often as you update things in the physical
showroom/lot. Keeping sites
fresh also keeps you in
higher relevancy.
 A master landing
home-page site that
showcases buttons for the
different vehicle makes you
offer, used inventory, and
service and parts. If you sell
multiple makes and used
coop, coop approval may

not let you mention those
other makes and services in
your co-oped ad, and they
may not approve coop if the
URL directs to an 'umbrella' page, but a 'master
landing page' showing
your complete vehicle and
service offerings may have
higher relevancy and come
up more often in searches. So, if you have an Al
Jones Hyundai or Al Jones
Ford, you definitely want
an Al Jones dealerships
or Al Jones Automotive or
whatever.
Why not have a bunch
of URL's that go to your
master landing page or to
specific pages? You can
have sites like AJgreatdeals.com, AJgetsyoudone.
com, AJkillerdeals.com,
etc. Virtually anything you
can come up with that isn't
already taken. And those
addresses can point to any
page on your website at a
tiny cost... around $15 to
$30 for each address. Try
and stay away from mixed
domains like dot com, dot
me, dot info, dot us, etc.,
which gets too confusing.
Use only one domain.
You can also use different
addresses to help you nail
down responses from specific media where you can
identify the initial clicked
page in your metrics.
Several dealers I know
change lead cars on home
pages several times a
week, coordinating the

change with radio ads, TV
ads or social media displays. An example: "Check
out the hottest new trades.
Click on AJfreshdeals.
com right now. Don't wait!
They sell fast at bargain
prices!" Or post pictures
(with permission) of happy
customers taking delivery
this week! Everyone loves
15 minutes of fame. Well,
not everyone, but you'll
be surprised at how many
folks would love to grace
the spotlight on your site
taking delivery of their new
ride. It also gives you an opportunity to spotlight all the
different towns and cities
customers are coming from
to buy from YOU.
Everyone loves to talk
about the 'sales funnel,'
but most people don't even
know what they are talking
about with this funnel
business. The one funnel
concept that everyone can
understand is 'hooking' the
interest of a customer out
there in 'I'm gonna buy this
week land' with a call to
action that gets them calling
and clicking on your website
(as opposed to googling
everyone else). But once
they click and/or call, your
site has to be as ready as
hopefully, your eager showroom staff is to make them
happy.
No matter how many
hours/days a week you are
physically open, your virtual
showroom, your website is
D I G I TA L D E A L E R . C O M

open 24/7. It's the perfect
place for people to stop by
after hours. Just make sure
it's ready to do business
and represent your dealership in the best way possible. Then incorporate an
invite to your site in every
advertisement you run!
Let me close with this
interesting thought. A fairly
comprehensive study was
just done on how people
are turned off by lack of personalization. How personal
and unique the follow-up is
to a customer's questions
and interest. It's huge.
When you answer a call
or an email and begin the
conversation, people want
to know there is personal
engagement and this isn't
a 'form letter.' Millennials
are the craziest about this
with almost 35% dumping
brands for not being 'personal.' But overall almost
25% of everyone doesn't
like it. So, when you engage
with a prospect via phone,
web chat or email, make
sure you take notes. Don't
repeat and re-ask for critical
info. If you'd like a free
media post paper on that
study, just email me.
JIM BOLDEBOOK is founder
of CBC Automotive Marketing,
an advertising/marketing agency
working with some of America's
most successful dealerships. He
has been in the broadcasting,
advertising and marketing fields
for almost 50 years. EMAIL:
jim@cbcads.com

JUNE 2019

27
http://www.ajgreat-deals.com http://www.ajgreat-deals.com http://ajgetsyoudone.com http://ajgetsyoudone.com http://www.AJkillerdeals.com http://www.DIGITALDEALER.COM
Digital Dealer - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Dealer - June 2019
